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Lucifer: Love Handles

Review by An Honest Fangirl

I have a sinking feeling that I liked this episode a lot better the first time around. I had watched it when it first aired, but held off on a review because I knew that I would be doing a series binge soon. I just remember liking it a lot more than I did.

Well, okay, what did I like this time around? The case of the week, for one. It built on the promise sowed last episode in a truly creepy and horrifying way. It also went in a very different direction from what I was expecting. I was fully prepared for a mad scientist who wanted to use his biological agent to create chaos. What we got instead was one man's desperate attempt to prove that everyone would choose their profession over an innocent life.

Except that the Professor was wrong. The surgeon pushed her hand into a garbage disposal unit (gahh... I hate it when that happens), and she did it with very little hesitation. Chloe was fully prepared to go into that toxic room in order to save these two men, and would have too if Lucifer hadn't stepped in. Even Dan, who said that he didn't know what he would do, proved the Professor wrong. I don't care what Dan says, he's already proven that he'd sacrifice his career if an innocent life was on the line. It happened last season with Malcolm wanting to kill Lucifer.

The Professor gave a rather interesting speech right before he killed himself, essentially ranting about how there was no choice. For whatever reason, whether it's biology or God, free will and choice are an illusion. What makes that so interesting is when you apply that to Lucifer and Chloe's relationship. We know, or we've been told, that God placed Chloe in Lucifer's path for a reason. How much of their relationship is freely their choice, then? If God is manipulating everything from the shadows, then who is to say that Lucifer and Chloe had any option other than to start... whatever it is that they have?

Lucifer seems to think that they had no choice, and that this was an incredible betrayal. My heart just broke for Lucifer when he finally found out the truth about Chloe. He had spent the entire episode questioning whether or not what he and Chloe had was real, only to have the rug ripped out from under him as soon as he decided that they were real and that Chloe really was genuinely into him. Maze had a really good, human moment there when she tried and failed to get Lucifer to leave without finding out the truth. Whatever happens in the immediate aftermath of Chloe being infected, you can be sure that any romantic relationship was just stopped dead in its tracks.

(Damn.)

But are we supposed to be taking Lucifer's side in this? Are we supposed to assume that because their meeting was predestined, they had no choice but to go down this romantic path? I guess that depends on whether or not you believe the Professor's speech. Given the fact that so many people did decide to sacrifice themselves and their livelihood for an innocent life, it seems like we're supposed to disagree with him. Never mind the fact that this all feels like a repeat regarding the deal that Lucifer made with God regarding Charlotte. No one knows that God truly wants, and the assumptions that people have been making about what He wants tend to lead to disastrous results. I think that we're supposed to think that there is a choice, that there is free will. In that case, Lucifer is making a terrible mistake. Especially considering the fact that Chloe doesn't know that she's a legitimate miracle.

The Professor managed to infect Chloe with the poison in their scuffle before he killed himself. I wish that I could say that I was surprised by this. Whenever you deal with a biological agent, at least one member of the cast is going to be infected. That's just what happens. And while I'm certain that Chloe will make to to the end of the next episode alive (Again, Lucifer is not that ballsy), I am curious to see what Lucifer's reaction will be. His fury was stopped cold by the sight of Chloe with an unending nose bleed. And considering what happened to the only person who knows the antidote, I'm sure that the next episode will be a lot of fun.

But I said at the top that I didn't like this episode as much the second time around, and that's still true. This went to a far more violent place than where Lucifer usually goes. Between the garbage disposal, the graphic suicide, and the Saw like decision that the Professor put his victims through, this episode really didn't let up. While this isn't necessarily a negative, it felt a little out of character for Lucifer. I don't necessarily watch Lucifer in order to see that. That's why I watch far too many horror movies. I watch Lucifer for a fun twist on a crime procedural that also dabbles with supernatural, cosmic forces.

I'm also torn about how I feel regarding Chloe's behavior this episode. Don't get me wrong, there were some great moments between Chloe and Lucifer. Two of the most noteworthy were when Lucifer called her beautiful, and when he asked a bunch of drunk college girls for advice. But I'm not sure about her "cutting loose." I didn't hate it. Some of her antics were funny. But most of them felt cringey for me. Maybe they were supposed to be.

To be honest, my main complaint about this episode has to do with Charlotte. Did I miss the scene where Charlotte suddenly decides that Chloe being a miracle is a bad thing that she has to warn Lucifer about? Last episode, she was actively pushing them together! Now she's trying to tear them apart?

Although, now that I'm sitting here typing this review and thinking about it more, maybe Charlotte isn't necessarily trying to tear them apart. She told Linda that this was the news that might drive Lucifer to finally be fully against God, and presumably fully on Charlotte's side. Chloe is inconsequential to that, although if Lucifer reacts badly enough to the news of her miracle status, then maybe he would be more willing to return to Heaven. Okay, that makes more sense. It still bugged me while I watched the episode, though.

Random Thoughts

Normally the episode title relates to the episode or case in some way. Besides the dream at the very beginning, what did "Love Handles" have to do with anything?

So, can Maze see people's dreams, or is Chloe just very mobile when she's asleep? I'm honestly not sure which is worse.

Linda is the most under appreciated therapist in all of Los Angeles. No, in all the world.

No Amenadiel this week? Unless I just missed him. If that's the case, then he really didn't leave an impression. And definitely no Trixie.

Loved the exchange of names between Lucifer, Charlotte, and Dan.

We got another reminder that Chloe makes Lucifer physically vulnerable.


I don't know about the rating on this one. I'm torn. I'll guess that I'll err high, considering that I managed to reason myself out of my biggest complaint.

9.0 out of 10

~An Honest Fangirl

4 comments:

  1. While Lucifer is a protagonist, he's often wrong. Consistently. Throughout the series. So, no, I don't think we were supposed to take his side.

    And I think Maze superpower is ass-kicking, not dream-watching.

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  2. I think Charlotte was pushing Lucifer towards Chloe so that when he learned that the Detective was a gift from God, his fall would be greater.

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  3. I guess whether or not you take Lucifer's side here depends on how you think the universe works. If the universe is deterministic, an omniscient God is omniscient in the sense of knowing everything that will ever happen, then free will is an illusion and their love is just part of God's plan.

    On the other hand, I believe in a probabilistic universe so that even an omniscient God (if there is one) can only know the probability of particular outcomes and the complex interactions of all those probabilities leads to infinite variety of possible outcomes. So from my perspective, maybe God's plan was that she would make Lucifer vulnerable so he'd get killed and sent back to hell and their falling in love was an accident. In the deterministic universe whatever happens is God's plan and the mystery is what he wants, but the probabilistic one leaves room for undesirable outcomes from God's perspective.

    I liked the episode, though I'm not exactly sure what Charlotte's up to, either. I'm inclined to accept Maze's view--it's all about getting revenge on her ex. And yes, Decker was very awkward, but there was so much more going on in the episode it didn't bother me.

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  4. My crazed binge continues; I'm watching these episodes so quickly that I haven't had time to keep up with commenting on each review. :-)

    I'm really, really enjoying this season, though! Less attention on the case of the week, but still enough that each episode has a distinct focus. Less time spent in Lux (probably for the budget?), which means Lucifer's gentler side is on display more often.

    And the family drama is absolutely my jam.

    For this episode: seriously, dude, this is why you back up your dissertation!

    Truthfully, the so-called "Professor" drove me crazy with his talk of choices. Sure, he wound up making a bad one in the heat of the moment. Frankly, I find it hard to judge him for that, since he was thinking in a state of emergency, and he'd likely spent thousands of hours on that document. It was the wrong choice, but it was an understandable error.

    But he then made a series of new choices, to injure/kill other people through coercion or commission, and he somehow still doesn't think the concept of "choice" exists? Take some responsibility for once.

    For me that was the most resonant part of the Chloe situation: sure, God put her in Lucifer's path. But as Maze pointed out, God made *every* human. So Lucifer still has a choice to love Chloe or not. That choice hasn't been taken from him. That the choice exists is a literal miracle.

    Fangirl, I agree that Chloe's antics here were weird. Slapping someone on the butt in public is...obnoxious, at best.

    It has been years since I binged a show with this many episodes this quickly. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed doing it.

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