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Lucifer: Candy Morningstar

Review by An Honest Fangirl

I know that it might not seem like it, but Lucifer has been gone from our screens for four, long months. When we last left the show, Lucifer had disappeared to parts unknown. But now he's back. And he's married?

I went into this episode fully expecting to hate Candy Morningstar. A stripper — sorry, exotic dancer — from Las Vegas? Everything that I heard about her in the press leading up to this episode made me very worried about how they were going to use her.

It turns out that I shouldn't have worried at all. She was awesome. I loved the reveal that all of this was a plan, and that she was actually a lot smarter than she let on. She completely had me fooled. Although, looking back there were a few hints. Candy could recognize the mediator in both pictures, and she gave Lucifer some pretty decent advice about working his way back into Chloe's good graces. She even gave Chloe the little nudge needed to accept Lucifer as her partner again. And it takes skill to fool Charlotte so throughly. Lindsey Gort did a phenomenal job with the role. I want her to come back! As either Candy or her real self. Please?

Amenadiel hit the nail right on the head when he confronted Lucifer about Candy. Lucifer was acting a lot like Charlotte in his manipulation of Chloe for "her own good." You could definitely see the family resemblance. Lucifer is so convinced that Chloe's feelings for him could not be real that he went to drastic measures in order to free her from what Lucifer perceived to be God's influence. Lucifer has always been all about choice. One of his biggest pet peeves is the term "The Devil made me do it." He's always been a champion of humanity's free will and ability to choose, so it makes sense why he would see his actions as trying to give Chloe back the free will that she had been denied. I've already talked elsewhere about why Lucifer is very, very wrong, so I won't repeat myself here. I just want to knock some sense into him!

Chloe was absolutely furious when Lucifer showed back up, and rightfully so. She was hurt, lost, and betrayed, and worried. She had no idea what happened to Lucifer, only for him to waltz back in with a new wife and pretend that nothing had ever happened. Lucifer for his part wasn't helping matters. He just couldn't seem able to grasp why Chloe wouldn't want him around, or maybe he was willfully ignoring the reason.

It was interesting to see what sides everyone took in that rift. Everyone supported Lucifer and Chloe getting back together. Even Dan! Can I just take a moment to say that I'm really happy with what Chloe and Dan's post-divorce relationship is like. They're still friends. They still care about each other. Dan may still have romantic feelings for Chloe, but he recognized that Lucifer makes her happy and tried his best to push them back together. It was very sweet. Dan had a very good episode.

Maze and Linda both had very short scenes, but they were both very, very good. First, Maze got distracted by Candy's... physical charms, and then sat down to have a girl talk session with Chloe. Remember when Maze wanted to kill her? It's hard to when she gossips with her roommate and gives her advice regarding Lucifer. Between Maze and Dan, it's insane when you think about just how far these relationships have come.

Poor Linda. I feel like I say that almost every episode. Watching her try to navigate Lucifer's recent situation with Candy sitting there was a delight to watch. There was an undercurrent of sarcasm that laced almost everything that Linda said. Wait, Lucifer said that he kept no secrets from his wife. Does that mean that Candy knew the truth about who Lucifer was? Or at least an idea that he wasn't normal? She would have had to if she knew enough to pull a convincing con on Charlotte. Right?

Everything came to a head at the scene with the divorce mediator. There was a lot of truth flying around in that room. One of Lucifer's main points of pride is that he never lies. But he does bend the truth a lot. He was genuinely hurt when Chloe admitted that she didn't know whether or not Lucifer has ever lied to her. That was the moment when he realized just how much he had hurt her by disappearing. She had gone from admitting on the stand that she relies on Lucifer more than anything to not knowing if she could trust him. That's a big change to happen in a short amount of time.

I don't think that Lucifer's admission about Chloe dying being his worst fear really sunk in for her until after the case was over. It took a combination of Lucifer saying that the drummer might as well kill him and Candy's nudge that Lucifer is all about his work for Chloe to finally accept that Lucifer went through a traumatizing experience as well. Even though you knew that it was going to happen, it was a relief when Chloe extended the olive branch to Lucifer. I don't like it when those two are fighting.

Charlotte's reaction to Lucifer's disappearance reminded me a lot of Lucifer's reaction to Charlotte's appearance in the season premie. Both of them were absolutely convinced that the other was out there plotting some elaborate revenge on them. Both of them were half right: their revenge is on God. And apparently Azrael's blade is the way to do it. We have to see the Angel of Death herself sometime soon, right? She's been mentioned so many times that she's beginning to feel like God in the conspicuousness of their absences.

Does anyone else think that a war on Heaven is going to be a very bad idea? Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see it. It'll be good to finally see God and hear his side of the story. But I'm also a little worried that it might fundamentally change the fabric of the show, and not necessarily for the better. Still, we don't know what's going to happen. I can fret about things going wrong once they actually start going wrong.

The case this week was pretty par for the course for Lucifer: not awful but not all that great either. There's making the villain not be glaringly obvious, and then there's having the villain come completely out of left field. No one mentioned that the victim wanted to go solo. That was a completely random motivation. Still, the case didn't have to be all that good. It just had to reestablish the relationships back to their status quo.

Random Thoughts

It's been two weeks since the last episode in show time.

I loved the pink in Candy's (and Chloe's) hair.

That was some undercover outfit Chloe had.

"He cheated on you within five days of marriage?" The poor mediator was had no idea what was happening.

Also! Jonathan Togo! Always a pleasure to see you again. You played my favorite character on CSI: Miami.

Chloe's reactions during Lucifer's serenade were adorable.

Also loved the song that Lucifer made up. "Devil cop. It just works. Don't overthink it." Truer words have not been spoken.

How is Lucifer going to explanation Candy's disappearance?

Perhaps more pressingly, what was in the silver case? I give it what, two episodes until we find out?

Sadly, Lucifer is only back for four more episodes after this one. Then we have to wait for Season 3 to start up in the fall.


This was a great reintroduction into this crazy, crazy world.

9.6 out of 10

~An Honest Fangirl

4 comments:

  1. Candy was indeed surprisingly awesome, much fun.

    For me, the two best scenes in this episode were Chloe masquerading as Candy right down to the pink hair, and Mom commenting on Amenadiel's media-related slang.

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  2. Candy was totally great. And it's something which becomes hilarious in hindsight... well, hilariouser. At first, when Charlotte says that Candy is a truly formidable enemy, because she managed not to give her a single piece of information, we assume Charlotte is comically missing the point; but in fact she was totally right, and Candy IS a formidable enemy.

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  3. I used to live in Hollywood, and I often got gas at the gas station where the body was found. It was very, very pricey, so it was only during an "OMG, traffic is so bad I can't make it home without a stop at the very expensive gas station on the Sunset Strip."

    Yes, that's my exciting story of living that close to some of the most iconic clubs in the entire world. A story about a commute. And gas prices.

    More relevant: I loved, loved, loved Candy, especially the way she was actually quite smart even before the big reveal that she was faking it. I sorta thought she'd be a recurring character, and I'm a bit sad they didn't go that route.

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  4. Candy initially reminded me of Crystal from Orphan Black. Who was certainly not stupid (same genetic material as Cosima after all), but whose mind worked a little differently. And yeah, Josie she would have been fun as a semi-regular.

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