“Homewrecker”

Lucifer tackles the theme of home and belonging just as Lucifer faces eviction from his own nightclub after the owner is killed.

Last week Lucifer made a firm declaration of his feelings about returning to Heaven or Hell. In summary he really doesn’t want to go back to either place and feels a connection to Los Angeles. He identifies LA as his home and is happy with his life on Earth so doesn’t want that to end with a return to a situation he was never happy with.

He says to Linda that he never felt comfortable in either of those places, especially Hell since being sent there was punishment so a fresh start was what he needed and that’s exactly what he got on Earth. He seems to be willing to do anything to make sure he stays there and the whole episode is built around that.

The opening scene showing him on a city tour with Amenadiel being lead by someone who clearly doesn’t love Los Angeles was a really amusing start to the episode while also being quite poignant. For the tour guide everything he sees and has to talk about is completely routine but for Lucifer this is everything he gets excited about. He gets so excited that he takes over the tour and tells the others on the bus what he loves about Los Angeles.

Amenadiel is exactly the opposite. He made it clear that he wants to return to “the Silver City” as he and Charlotte call it and his reaction to the city tour shows how frustrated he is with being on Earth. For him it represents everything that has gone wrong for him. Since coming to Earth he has committed a multitude of sins and lost his Angel powers so it’s not such a great time to be Amenadiel. The contrast in how Lucifer and Amenadiel see Earth is really well handled in such a small scene that tells us so much while setting up the emotional cornerstones for the episode.

Now that Lucifer feels a sense of belonging it only makes sense for an attempt to be made to rip his home from him. The owner of Lux dies which means that Lucifer stands to be evicted since his lease wasn’t drawn up in a legally binding way -to put it mildly- so he has to fight for the home he has built and prove how passionate he is about staying on Earth. It’s a dramatically convenient story for sure but it’s developed so well that it makes thematic sense at this point in the season.

The case surrounding the murder of the owner is pretty much what you might expect with some easily predicted twists and turns and Lucifer’s particular brand of humourous quips helping to sustain the overall pace. It’s not terrible but it isn’t that interesting.

It does tie into the overall themes of home and belonging while sprinkling some loyalty into the mix. The guilty parties had a sense of loyalty to one another because they were willing to go to jail for each other. It isn’t hugely well developed but it is in there.

Lucifer has every intention of making sure that he gets to keep his club by arranging a sit-in which doubles as an excuse to throw a party. Basically the club can’t be demolished as long as people are still in it so Lucifer throws an all night rager that leaves him and Chloe as the last people standing. It’s a very Lucifer thing to do but it also shows the attachment he has to his club and by extension the life he has built on Earth. The speech he gives about everything Lux represents both to him and the city is really well performed by Tom Ellis and it pays-off by giving Chloe enough information to make sure it’s a protected building. It’s clever and layered which really impressed me.

Loyalty comes in through the party when Chloe gets rid of the police and looks the other way so that Lucifer can continue with his mission to save his club. There’s a certain poetry to a police officer breaking the law so that she can do what she considers the right thing and it shows how far the relationship between Chloe and Lucifer has progressed since the first season.

The whole revelation that LA might be home because Lucifer loves Chloe is an interesting one but I don’t see their connection as a romantic one. Lucifer has had various connections with women; most of them being sexual but his connection with Chloe is unique. He makes jokes about sleeping with her and there is a lot of chemistry there but I think it’s more of a platonic love than a romantic one. This would make so much more sense for their characters at this point but I could be reading this wrong and romance is where the show is headed with them.

Lucifer’s connection to Chloe is something that Charlotte sees and starts to plan a way to take advantage of it. The way the episode builds to this is really well done as she turns up to the sit-in as a mother supporting her son which could easily have been the end of her mission to tear down everything Lucifer has built and achieved to further her own agenda. Seeing how happy her son is could have made her realise that her family doesn’t have to be what she imagines. It’s far too early in the season for that sort of revelation to stick and act as a resolution so it does get more complicated but as a starting point it comes across as a genuine mother/son moment that resonates very clearly.

Charlotte’s mind is changed when she meets Linda who impresses her with her insistence to keep the details of Lucifer’s sessions between them. She is visibly taken aback by this which ties into her constant underestimating of humans up to this point. Unfortunately Linda gives enough of a hint that Lucifer feels a strong connection to Chloe that Charlotte can start scheming. She goes from understanding mother to villain in the space of a few seconds and the transition feels completely natural for her. It does result in her standing near Chloe’s car ready to blow it up which most likely won’t happen but the sadistic glint in Tricia Helfer’s eye as she stands ready to pull the trigger is a really great moment.

This was a loaded episode for Charlotte in other ways as her role within the show becomes better defined. The way she uses her vessel’s occupation as a Lawyer to further her own plans is nothing short of diabolical and she generally conducts herself in a morally ambiguous way. Her morality is very different to anyone else because she doesn’t see humans as being worthwhile beings. That may change after a conversation or two with Linda but for now she thinks herself above them so has no problem using or hurting people to get what she wants. Charlotte is a very complex antagonistic force for Lucifer because her maternal instincts are clearly very strong but don’t get in the way of her plans to get back to Heaven. I imagine this will come to a head sooner rather than later.

Her sleeping with Dan is another way for her to get what she wants. I’m not sure if she really knows of the connection between Lucifer, Dan and Chloe but I’m sure she will see that as something of a bonus when she does find out. Her interest in him was purely connected to the case and she used her feminine wiles to seduce him which definitely feels tragic as Dan has been working really hard to set himself straight and now he has been seduced by the mother of the Devil himself. I’m not sure if this will come to anything beyond this episode but Amenadiel and Maze’s reactions were worth the price of admission by itself.

There was nowhere to organically put this but I couldn’t help myself from mentioning that I really like that Ella speaks Klingon. I would honestly watch a spin-off titled “Ella, nerdy CSI” though the title would be better. I want to see more of her really off the wall personality that makes Chloe uncomfortable.

Verdict

Another great episode that explores the themes of home and belonging in interesting ways. Lucifer feeling like Earth is his home is an important step in his development and the suggestion that he loves Chloe in some way is interesting. To me the love feels more platonic which makes for a more interesting relationship for these particular characters. I may have read it wrong but it does seem like a strong non romantic connection. Charlotte’s transition from understanding mother to scheming villain feels so natural that it adds to her complexity as a character. Her lack of regard for humanity means that she doesn’t care who she hurts to reach her goals and that makes her dangerous but her clear compassion for her family makes her motives really complex. It will all come to a head sooner or later and it’ll be interesting when it does.