“Wingman”

Lucifer picks up on the stolen wings plot from last week as he aggressively tries to find his stolen property while Chloe looks into a personal case.

We are now in the second half of the first season and Lucifer is starting to take shape as a TV show. It is becoming far less procedural and relying much more on character based elements to carry the show. This works so much better for me as the stories are much more interesting when they come from the characters rather than a random situation they happen to find themselves in.

Lucifer had his wings stolen in the previous episode and it’s something that haunts him in this one. I use the word “haunts” because it most accurately describes his reaction. It’s all he can think about and his obsession with reclaiming his lost property grows as the episode continues. Tom Ellis is great at playing the exasperated Lucifer and his desperation can plainly be seen in his performance. It’s good to see layers added to a character that risked becoming 1 dimensional only a couple of episodes ago. Tom Ellis clearly has the talent to convey the depth so giving him the opportunity to do so can only be a good thing.

The mechanics of him tracking down his wings weren’t all that interesting on their own but seeing how Lucifer reacted to each subsequent development carried the episode. Having him go to Amenadiel for help shows some humility on his part as well. For all his arrogance he isn’t afraid to ask for help if he feels he needs it.

We get some insight into why Amenadiel is so interested in returning Lucifer to Hell when all the other Angels seem to be leaving him alone. As suspected he has been given Lucifer’s old job and really doesn’t like it so has a vested interest in getting away from that. There’s also the fact that the wings are a divine object that humans aren’t ready for. As Lucifer points out, someone jumped off a building because he had a quick look so there’s no telling how bad prolonged exposure could get.

Lucifer and Amenadiel working together was the strongest content in the episode. They have a brotherly chemistry that works really well on screen as evidenced by their knowing jokey banter about St Peter’s chains. Amenadiel’s jest about getting God to make it rain to create a moment between Lucifer and Chloe was really funny as well. Giving Amenadiel more personality is a really good move as D.B. Woodside is really charismatic so it’s good to see him play off other members of the cast like this.

Having him meet Chloe in this episode made him seem like much more of a part of the story rather than sitting on the sidelines of it. There seems to be a bit of an attraction between them at least from Chloe’s side. She was definitely impressed by him but I wonder if it was his Angelic charm causing a reaction in her in a similar way to Lucifer provoking honest and dark reactions from the people he meets. Either way the possibility to develop this attraction exists and I’m interested to see how this plays out particularly since Lucifer has no effect on her.

The whole wings plot resolves itself in this episode with Lucifer getting them back and finding out that Amenadiel was behind the whole thing. His hope was that Lucifer would yearn to return to Hell after being faced with the loss of something precious to him. The theft had the opposite effect and taught Lucifer that his wings were basically shackles that bound him to the old responsibilities that he was trying to run away from. In a symbolic sense by holding onto them he was refusing to let go on some level so his surprising decision to burn them at the end of the episode shows that he is ready to make his own choices and defy God. It’s a classic tale of defying a parent by refusing to live up to their idea of you and it’s a powerful story that this show is handling really well. It’s also good that Lucifer decides this on his own without having to resort to obvious life lessons learned through therapy. The fact that he can arrive at these conclusions by himself shows real strength as a character. Lucifer destroying his wings clearly isn’t the end of it as Maze has one of his feathers so that will undoubtedly play out in some way.

Amenadiel is facing a very different problem as he is being groomed as Lucifer’s replacement and that’s something he really doesn’t want to be. It could be that he will have to make a similar choice to get out of it and may end up understanding Lucifer as a result. At its core this is a story about brothers each living in the shadow of an overbearing father figure and dealing with it in different ways. I think Amenadiel saving the dying cop is a sign that he’s starting to “fall” in the Biblical sense.

Maze proves to be a very enjoyable character as she seems to be devoted to Lucifer but unsure how to handle this change in his personality. It’s almost like she wants to betray him but doesn’t quite know what it means to do that. She’s clearly conflicted so her choices should prove interesting. I also enjoy her sadistic smile when torturing people. She’s such a fun character and brings some much needed personality to the show.

Chloe’s story involves her investigating the story that discredited her with her colleagues. The case has been closed and written off but she thinks there was more to it. This narrative felt a bit like the case of the week but it was made stronger by the fact that Chloe is looking for validation by proving that her instincts aren’t incorrect. Interestingly it turns out that she is right but she doesn’t have enough information to prove it. She is redeemed among her colleagues by pretending to drop the whole thing but revealing that she is only pretending so that the “dirty cop” might get sloppy. It’s fairly standard stuff but it shows that Chloe is intelligent and willing to ease off an obsession to find a better way.

I like these sorts of stories so much better than the bog standard case of the week because it means something to Chloe and informs her character in the present by drawing on her past. This episode adds so much depth to her and makes her sympathetic as we see that she wasn’t wrong rather than taking her word for it. I wonder where this character development was in the first half of the season.

Chloe’s friendship with Lucifer is growing in interesting ways as well. This episode didn’t have them interact an awful lot so their scenes together were more meaningful. Chloe shows some human compassion when identifying his distress over losing his wings even though she can’t figure out why this would be a big deal. She even points out that they are friends and that she enjoys being around him so there is a softening of that relationship instead of it being built on a foundation of spite and irritation. There are massive improvements all over the place in this outing and it could be a sign that the show is going to become something of real quality in the near future.

Verdict

A really enjoyable episode that builds on almost everything in a really positive way. There’s a powerful brother story, Lucifer making choices that impact him as a character, Chloe being developed through exploration of an important event in her past and signs that Amenadiel may be heading down a similar path to Lucifer. Despite the mechanics of the stories being somewhat weak the powerful character beats more than made up for it and set up some intriguing developments for the coming episodes.