Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Lucifer, Season One, Episode Four: Manly Whatnots

Watching Lucifer this week, I found myself wishing that Netflix had made this instead of Fox, for the simple reason that Lucifer is so much fun to watch I could binge watch the hell out of it.  Damn it, I hate that I have to wait until next week for a new episode. The worst thing that I can say about this week's episode is that a few of the setups felt extremely forced. Dear writers, try and be a little bit more creative about how you get Lucifer and Chloe together, or simply give up on the idea of Lucifer as a crime fighter working hand in hand with a cop.

When Chloe got out of the shower, gun in hand to confront an intruder in nothing but a towel, was anyone surprised that she would find Lucifer waiting for her?  The towel drop was so blatantly obvious it was ridiculous.  Naturally, a towel clad Chloe has to get caught by Dan so that he can witness the awkward presence of Lucifer and his wife.  If that were not enough of forced coincidence, Dan drops a case into Chloe's lap which just happens to mean that she will have to work with Lucifer to find a missing young woman.  All of it is absolutely clumsy and belies just how smart Lucifer can be the majority of the time.

Lucifer is still baffled as to why Chloe has not fallen for his charms and actually questions if something is biologically wrong with her.  Linda suggests that the real issue is that Lucifer believes Chloe has power over him and assures Lucifer that what he needs to do is take his power back. Linda suggests that Lucifer has put Chloe on a pedestal and that Chloe must have some warts. To me, that's a jealous woman speaking and Linda is clearly acting in her own best interest. Lucifer however takes away that what he needs to do is have sex with Chloe and stiffs Linda on payment (read: he leaves without having sex with Linda)

Chloe is adamant that she will never sleep with Lucifer but he is determined to make it happen. When they head to seminar which claims to teach men how to catch women, Lucifer is not impressed with the advice. He literally stands up, claims that he has all of the requirements on the list and demands to know why Chloe won't sleep with him. In the process of his questioning, he actually reveals that Chloe is a cop, breaking her cover and getting them escorted out.

Though we had a case of a missing girl this week, it's fair to say that it was mainly a backdrop for Lucifer to try to get Chloe to sleep with him and for Chloe to think more deeply about exactly who and what Lucifer is. It also served to look at the ability to change.  The sludge with the list to score with women has his girlfriend kidnapped and immediately becomes a suspect.  We find out that while he makes his living being misogynistic human sludge, he actually loves his girlfriend and would do anything for her.  When it's time for the big exchange, we learn that the girlfriend in question faked her kidnapping because five years ago the misogynistic human sludge, took her virginity and never called her the next day.  Lucifer clearly comes down on the side of the human sludge because for him, the man has gone through a metamorphosis,  This is something Lucifer can identify with because while he doesn't quite understand what is happening to him, he knows that he is changing.


We learned a bit more about Lucifer this week.  When he decides to ambush Chloe naked, after having a moment of jaw dropping moment and turning to take a second peek, she hands Lucifer a towel to cover up.  I have take a moment to pause to say thank you to Fox for the shirtless Tom Ellis. I'll take a serving of that every week. Lucifer turns in a slow circle to give Chloe another look at his body and this is when Chloe notices the deep scars on this back.  Lucifer blames his father (which is God) and then admits that he had  Mazikeen cut off his wings.  Chloe is horrified by the scars and when she reaches out to touch them, Lucifer grabs her hands and says, "please don't". Clearly, Lucifer is bothered by his missing wings and there's absolutely a moment between them.

This week it was also revealed that Chloe doesn't believe in God or the Devil and simply believes in good or bad. This causes Lucifer to question if Chloe is afraid of him.  Lucifer uses the opportunity to remind Chloe that he is immortal though he doesn't have a tail or horns.  Chloe however is adamant that though she has seen things she cannot explain, she doesn't believe in the "fiery damnation thing."  When Lucifer decides to punish the falsely kidnapped woman, he begins to rage out and we see his true face. What Lucifer didn't count on is the arrival of Chloe.  For the first time, Chloe actively questions who and what Lucifer is and actually shoots him. Much to Lucifer's surprise, not only does he feel pain from the bullet, he's actually bleeding.

In other moments of awesome we had a great fight scene between Mazikeen and Amenadiel when the angel decides to request help to get Lucifer to return to hell.  Mazikeen is not ready to pair up and instead starts throwing around a weapon, only to be quickly overpowered. Not one to give up, Mazikeen licks Amenadiel's lips and the situation changes.  Amenadiel is still adamant that Lucifer belongs in hell but he is clearly affected by the exchange. It seems that there's some chemistry between the demon and the angel. Perhaps, Lucifer isn't the only one changing.

In another first, we were introduced to our first actively gay character.  When Lucifer and Chloe approach a security guard, Lucifer decides to use his powers for the sake of distraction. When the guard admits that what he wants most is Lucifer because he is gay, Lucifer turns the man down saying that he has his hands full with Chloe right now and instead suggests that the man mingle around the room and find another partner.  I am glad to finally see that Lucifer's skills do work on men but obviously it only works on gay men.  It seems that to be effected by Lucifer, one has to be sexually attracted to men.  What I want to know is if Lucifer is only attracted sexually to women? We have seen him interacting and having sex with women since the start but it doesn't make sense to me that Lucifer would be strictly heterosexual.

Lucifer is the ultimate smarmy guy that we shouldn't be rooting for that Tom Ellis makes us cheer for. To be clear, when Chloe rebuffs Lucifer time and time again and explicitly makes it clear that she has boundaries, Lucifer should respect that. The only reason as an audience that we can ignore Chloe's agency is because we expect Lucifer to be a cad and overly pushy.  To be clear, none of his aggressive behaviour towards Chloe is appropriate, even if she is clearly sexually attracted to him. In many ways Lucifer sends the message that no really means try harder and this is a problem.  I don't want to see Lucifer and Chloe together and am enjoying the will they or won't they aspect to this show but I am well aware of the dangerous message that it is sending.