avacadojer

[avacadojer]

4x04 - Lucifer Keeping Secrets

The bar fight. Lucifer is kicking ass, barely breaking a sweat. Then Chloe calls his name, he finds out she’s there and can see him, and he gets stabbed with the pool cue.

Lucifer (frustrated and a little annoyed): Hello, Detective.

She goes up to him. At this point, they’re still on the outs, but we know that he still cares about her and what she thinks because he is vulnerable again.

Chloe (eyeing the pool cue sticking out of him): Care to tell me why you're here?

Lucifer: Not particularly. I doubt you'd be able to accept it.

But why? He was there to find the necklace, which he needed to keep his end of the new arrangement with Bashir Al-Fassad, which he had to make because she called in his favor.

Why wouldn't she be able to accept that? Because he thinks that she thinks that he is the "embodiment of evil" (4x03) and therefore cannot accept that he might do a favor for a friend without expecting to get anything back in return. But he doesn't even try. He never tells her the good things he does -- except in St. Lucifer (1x11), which didn't go very well.

By the way, he never calls her out about calling in his favor, and he didn't hang her out to dry with Al-Fassad. In fact, he seemed to appreciate her resourcefulness: "Clever Detective." So when Eve tells Chloe in 4x05 that Lucifer called her the most resourceful person he's ever met, it's earned. But of course he would never tell her that to her face.

All of which begs the question Chloe asked in 3x21: Why doesn't he just tell her how he feels? Because he's afraid she won't love him back.

[avacadojer]

The Paralyzing Realization of Mortality

John Keats wrote the following in 1818, just three years before he died:

When I have fears that I may cease to be  Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain, Before high-piled books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain; When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, And think that I may never live to trace Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance; And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, That I shall never look upon thee more, Never have relish in the faery power Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

Whenever I have lately had the opportunity to contemplate my own mortality, I've realized that I will never be able to do everything I want to do.  Instead, I will spend most of the next half-century (or more) trying to pay the bills.

[avacadojer]

Thoughts about Lucifer 3x21

This episode is painful, but not as painful as the Angel of San Bernardino. I never want to watch that one again, but here are three scenes from 3x21 that I could watch over and over and over again:

The interview at the love nest. When the suspect says "you can't help who you love," Chloe gives Lucifer a sideways glance that has about 17 meanings. Then, Lucifer makes a comment about how it can be intimidating when the person you love doesn't appreciate your gifts. Chloe's response to that only has a couple meanings. But the whole exchange is worth watching half a dozen times.

The dinner scene with Lucifer and Chloe at Lux. Lauren German kills it -- her face screams "maybe it will be different this time" without saying any words. It takes us back to the morning after their kiss on the beach and the prom scene. Then, her pain when Lucifer says his line about "isn't this better than Pierce." Chloe's "why are you doing this to me," "who does deserve me," and "you can't have it both ways" tear me in two every time. We know how deeply he loves her. Now, we see how deeply she loves him. She wants him to open up to her -- she wants him to choose her -- but he just can't take that step. She doesn't know why, and it crushes her.

The arrest scene, particularly when Chloe asks the murderer why he didn't just tell Amber how he feels and the look she gives Lucifer when he says "because you were afraid she wouldn't love you back."

I also want to say something about the Cain storyline. Lucifer wants Chloe to choose him, but he believes that she can't -- both because he's the devil (and therefore not worthy of being chosen) and because God engineered her to love him. The Cain / Pierce storyline shows that she has had a choice the whole time. Chloe + Cain wasn't just for drama's sake; it was also to force Lucifer to realize that she could choose someone else. Now, we know that if / when she chooses him, it will be a meaningful choice.

[avacadojer]

Memento mori.