Emotions ran high in this episode of
Lucifer as the characters each had to confront various emotions of the heart. It was a fun episode, but the emotions ran high from the beginning to the end of the episode. What also made this episode a little extra fun is the fact that for the middle section of the episode it changed up the partnerships. While it’s always a pleasure to watch Lucifer and Chloe work together it’s also really nice to get to watch them go off on adventures with other characters. The Lucifer and Trixie partnership was a unique one that hasn’t really been done while the Chloe and Maze one has been done before, but is always a welcome addition to an episode. The antics each duo got into made for a really fun time.
While the case of the week was kind of mundane it did open the door for Trixie to be more involved in the story. At a glance, she’s easily the most put together character of everyone on the show. Except, her young innocent exterior is harboring secrets of her own and not unlike her older counterparts she’s keeping them to herself to try and protect the people she loves. It’s not surprising that Chloe’s near-death experience had a huge impact on young Trixie. After all, she was in Chloe’s arms when the seizures started and a group of frantic looking adults rushed in. That would be traumatic for anyone let alone a little kid. But, Trixie is wise beyond her years and chose to try and suppress that anxiety to prevent any extra strain on her parents. She’s so courageous for such a young kid and this was a great episode to really delve into what she’s been dealing with in silence.
All of her underlying fear came to light thanks to Lucifer essentially borrowing her without parental permission then negotiating a deal with her, which seems to have involved driving lessons. That led to a terrific team-up as Lucifer used Trixie to delve deeper into the underbelly of the school to get more insight on how to control his emotions. It was quite hilarious the way she handled Lucifer. She treated him, and even spoke to him, much the same way her mom does. It was adorable and hilarious when she took his hand and he tried to shake her loose. She must be seriously strong because not even Lucifer was able to shake her tight grip. He was resigned to just go with the flow and let her steer the dynamic.
This partnership works so well because, despite all the obvious differences, they are a lot alike. They both suppress their feelings to try and protect those around them. They are both super loyal. And they both have a lot of underlying parental issues. Though for Trixie, hers are a lot less apocalyptic, but nonetheless, they do exist to an extent. She almost lost her mom and her parents are going through a divorce, so there is a lot going on in her life. At least Dan and Chloe have taken great effort to ensure that the divorce has as little impact on her as possible. Still, that sort of change was bound to cause her some emotional strain as she tries to figure out how to navigate the new dynamic between her parents. It was a nice touch to show that Chloe and Dan constantly talk about her and seem genuinely devoted to trying to preserve the innocence of her childhood for as long as they possibly can. If chocolate cake is her weakness to bring out the innocent little girl in her then I hope Chloe makes sure to keep it stocked around the house.
At least her parents aren’t oblivious to what is going on. They might not have known all the details, but they knew something was going on. Chloe had mentioned it to Maze long before she overheard the truth at the school. Speaking of, that moment where Chloe walked in and heard Trixie talking about being worried for her mom because she has a dangerous job was just heartbreaking. For all Chloe has done to protect her daughter she was hit with the hard truth that she hadn’t been able to shield her daughter from everything. The moments shared between these two characters throughout the episode were heartwarming, but the scene where Chloe was tucking Trixie into bed was arguably the most emotional moment. After everything, Chloe just wanted to have a sincere and open conversation with her daughter. It was even more poignant that it happened surrounded by stuffed animals because it highlighted the childhood innocence that Chloe is fighting so hard to preserve for Trixie. Their conversation was touching and it was beautiful that in the end, they both agreed on everything. Lauren German delivered a truly heartwarming performance as her eyes filled with tears yet she showed Chloe trying to remain strong. After everything, it was a nice touch that in the end Chloe got to snuggle up against Trixie and they had that lovely mother-daughter cuddling moment to end a tense episode.
There was a lot of stuff going on for Trixie in this episode which gave Scarlett Estevez a lot of opportunities to shine and she did just that. Some child actors struggle to find a natural balance with their adult co-stars, but Estevez just charges right into every scene forcing those in the scene with her to have to keep up with her. Tom Ellis and Lauren German are seasoned veteran actors, but sometimes Estevez even manages to upstage them in scenes. This young actress joins a very elite club of child actors who are just as good, if not better than some performers triple their age. Estevez is on a show with a lot of extremely talented adult actors, but she’s just as good as them. Hopefully, as the show keeps running, and she gets older, they’ll be able to give her more character heavy episodes like this one.
While everything was going on with Trixie, Chloe also had her hands full with Maze. Let’s be honest, no one expected Maze to be the world’s best roommate, but she’s definitely the person you want at your side when going into a potentially hazardous situation. It was interesting how they showed the communication issues between the Chloe and Maze early on in the episode. Chloe wanted a friend to be a sounding board and Maze is only just starting to learn how to deal with human emotions so that moment was always bound to be less than productive for Chloe. Even though their first chat didn’t end well that didn’t keep Maze from still trying to be a good friend as she once again attempted to be there to listen to Chloe in a moment of need. While her advice wasn’t the best, at least this time she wasn’t wearing headphones and she did listen enough to know that Chloe was going off to get herself into a tricky situation. Despite their massive array of differences, Maze has developed a certain fondness towards Chloe as her friend and she wasn’t going to let any friend of hers go into a potentially hazardous situation alone.
Though, it’s unlikely that Chloe or the audience could have predicted how Maze would go about being there for her friend. At the school, without a second thought, she strode up to Chloe and claimed her as her wife. Yes, it was an unusual tactic, but one can’t argue with the results because it got them both into the event. The kiss wasn’t really necessary to sell the lie, but it was hilarious to watch. One can’t help but wonder if Maze has just been looking for an excuse to try and sneak in a kiss to see what about Chloe so infatuates Lucifer. Chloe was clearly uncomfortable kissing Maze in front of a room full of people watching them, but she didn’t pull away. It was about as forced a kiss as possible, but it still counts as a kiss. While their storyline is just about them being friends, it would be hilarious to see them go deep undercover at some point as lovers. The amount of hilarity that could come out of that is off the charts. In the case of this episode, Maze helped preserve Chloe’s dignity by not having to attend the event alone and gave her someone to have her back as she searched for the killer.
Once inside the party, it was still clearly evident that Chloe was not comfortable in this environment. She’s not the type to ever socialize with these kinds of high-society people for any reason. Through Chloe’s awkwardness, it was made evident that Maze’s place at her side was necessary. Maze was able to get Chloe’s mind back into the game and got her thinking like a detective again. Also, as their team-up evolved, Chloe clearly became more comfortable with Maze playing her wife. She just needed a minute for the shock of Maze suddenly showing up to wear off. Throughout the scene where they surveyed the room, she held onto Maze’s hand for almost the entirety of it. Chloe seemed to be genuinely happy to have someone there to work with and who has her back. Granted, she didn’t seem to like Maze actually taking aim at her backside as the demon-delivered some hilarious playful butt slaps. One can’t really blame Maze for taking advantage of the situation. Despite all the awkward things, she proved to be an invaluable partner for Chloe. This whole team-up also allowed Lauren German and Lesley-Ann Brandt to share more screen time than they usually do. Seriously, they are so hilarious together that it’s almost a crime that the show doesn’t find more ways to pair them up. Hopefully, next season will see them get to have more than just a couple fun adventures together.
While everything else was going on, Charlotte was desperately trying to figure out how to help Lucifer spark up the blade so they could get home. There was a clear urgency to her actions, but the writers did a very good job of holding the truth behind the urgency a secret. The biggest question at hand is when this issue came to light (literally) and just how long she’s been keeping it a secret. Another question is just what the light seeping from her wrist means? Is her human body no longer able to contain her celestial energy? Couldn’t she just inhabit another human body (though, for the record, no one wants that because Tricia Helfer is amazing as Charlotte)? With any luck, the show won’t waste too much time explaining that in the next episode. Hopefully, she also won’t keep her boys in the dark about her problem for too long. After all, secrets are the bane of her family. It’d also be interesting to see if knowing the truth would encourage Lucifer to abandon his original plan to toss his mom into Heaven and let her battle it out with his dad. The weird thing is they all very clearly love each other but have some very screwed up ways of showing it.
The more that Lucifer goes to Dr. Linda the more it’s becoming clear that he needs to bring the rest of his family in for one great big family session. She has done a lot to help him, so surely she could do the same for the rest of them. Though, it’s possible that by the end of that sort of session Dr. Linda’s office might be a little worse for the wear. If nothing else, it’s time for the brothers to pay her a visit for a joint session. Charlotte’s favoring of Lucifer clearly brought up some jealousy issues for Amenadiel that he should deal with before things get as screwed up between them as they were in the first season. A future episode is supposed to deal with something to do with Dr. Linda’s practice, so it should be fun to see how everyone rallies around to help her. God knows, they all owe her for all the advice she has dished out that has kept Lucifer, Amenadiel, and Maze from doing truly stupid stuff. Perhaps they need to bring Dr. Linda on as an official department consultant so that the show can incorporate her more deeply into the stories. It’d also be awesome if Ella’s shrink is revealed to be Dr. Linda. While it’s hilarious to watch her interact with all the celestial characters it’d be interesting to see her council a human patient.
Speaking of Ella, the show has spent all season hinting at the darkness in Ella, but never really showing it. Sure, she’s apparently stolen cars, and her brother is a bit of a criminal, but outside of that nothing has really been directly addressed. She’s one character that the show really needs to flesh out more next season. Ella is an important part of the team, but one that no one really knows a ton about. She just sort of showed up with her big smile and vague hints at a dark past with no additional elaboration. There is a ton of potential in her as a character and Aimee Garcia is brilliant at portraying her, so the writers need to really exploit the potential of Ella next season.
This was a highly emotional episode, but the case of the week was just sort of a means to get the characters to branch off into fun pairings. While some cases of the week are important to the overall story of the series, this one really wasn’t. It was fun, but beyond that had no massive significance to the overall story. Yes, it got Trixie to open up to her mom, but that was the only significant part it played in the bigger scheme of things. With Charlotte’s issue poised to progress the celestial side of the story, hopefully, some of the upcoming cases will play a bit more significant part in restoring the balance between the procedural and celestial aspects of the series. The show is definitely leaning pretty heavy towards the procedural side right now and needs something to bring it back to a center balance.
Overall, this was a terrific episode that went deep into the emotional side of the characters. The acting from all was spot on and despite all the heavier material, the episode managed to maintain the usual charm that is expected from an episode of
Lucifer. It was lovely to see young Trixie get to be a prominent part of an episode and she proved herself to be an invaluable resource. Then there was that cryptic and ominous ending that suddenly put a timer on the rest of the season. Charlotte is clearly up against some sort of proverbial ticking clock that could make these next few episodes truly interesting as the mother of angels tries to desperately find a way back home or some way to heal whatever has happened to her. A lot of great stuff happened in this episode that seems to be setting up some big things to come in these last three episodes of the season. Buckle up, because things seem like they are about to get intense.
Don’t miss the next episode of
Lucifer on
Monday, May 15th at 9/8C when God may or may not make an appearance.
Hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode. What were your favorite parts? Did you enjoy the change in partnerships? What do you think is happening with Charlotte? What do you think is going to happen in these last three episodes?
