Hello, everyone, and welcome to part two of Fangirlish’s four part episodic review of Lucifer Season 5!
This two episode review comes with the same disclaimer as its predecessor:
I am writing these reviews in real time. This means that, at the time of writing this review, I do not know what will happen in the episodes that follow.
I do not know if my complaints will be addressed in literally the very next episode.
I do not know if certain aspects of the plot are going to shift.
I do not know if my speculations are accurate or way off base.
Now, let’s pick up where we left off with Lucifer Season 5: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.
The Good
Remember when I said that there was a lack of a specific look that Lucifer saves just for Chloe that gave away that it was, in fact, Michael and not Lucifer who came to Chloe’s rescue in Really Sad Devil Guy?
Y’all, that look made a cameo this episode with Lucifer’s actual, legitimate return to Los Angeles!
The moment Lucifer sees Chloe for the first time, he melts. After all this time, he’s still totally enamored by her – in awe of her. While we may not have gotten the passionate reunion kiss that I was so hoping for, we have confirmation that the way Lucifer feels about Chloe, the way he reacts to her touch and her presence, hasn’t changed.
That being said, this reunion was bittersweet.
Yes, the real Lucifer is back.
But it wasn’t the reunion I wanted – and I think that was intentional, because Lucifer’s disappointment with their reunion mirrors our own.
Lucifer speaks for all of us when he says that their reunion did not go the way he kept imagining it would (which is, of course, entirely Michael’s fault, because he is a troll).
Chloe’s struggle to come to terms with her own existence (and her perceived lack of free will) is completely understandable. She has just come to terms with her feelings toward Lucifer, and learning that celestial beings exist at all, and now she has to figure out how to be okay with the fact that she was created for them.
That she is a pawn in their eternal familial chess match.
That’s heavy stuff, so, it’s easy to understand why she isn’t feeling so lovey-dovey at the moment…
I can be patient. I swear I can.
(Partially because the internet is a minefield of spoilers, so, I know my steamy, passionate moment between them is coming soon…)
On another, lighthearted note:
Kevin Alejandro is an absolute freaking delight in It Never Ends Well For The Chicken.
I mean, all of the cameos in that episode were adorable and fun in their own way, but he really stole the episode.
Plus, Tricia Helfer came back!
(Charlotte, bby, I miss you.)
For all my complaints about It Never Ends Well For The Chicken (we’ll get to it later), I actually really enjoyed aspects of it, as long as I looked at the episode as a separate entity – a stand alone, if you will.
I liked the queerness of it. The genderbending, the romance between Chloe (Jack) and Charlotte (Shirley). I liked that, as gimmicky as the episode was as a whole, the joke was never that Chloe and Charlotte’s “characters” were in love with each other.
At the end of the day, the best way I can describe these episodes would be to say that, on the whole, they were fun.
The Bad
Is it weird that I missed Michael during the course of these two episodes?
Because I did – I missed Michael.
The “bad” for these two episodes is, more or less, that I was just underwhelmed by them in comparison to the plot-heavy first two episodes of the season.
And, look, I get it – not every episode is going to hit as hard as a season opener, or a finale, but the first two were a tough act to follow because I was so thoroughly impressed by them and I just found myself…watching these two episodes.
No frantic scribbling of notes, no real speculation.
I was just along for the ride, and that’s the difference right there:
These episodes just exist.
Are they bad? No, not necessarily.
They just pale in comparison to Really Sad Devil Guy and Lucifer!, Lucifer!, Lucifer!.
The Ugly
My biggest issue is that we’re only four episodes into the season and, right after Chloe and Lucifer reunite, with all these questions and conflicts coming to light (even during Diablo!), we’re already jumping into a gimmicky episode that deviates entirely from the main plot…?
By the end of the episode, I understood that It Never Ends Well For The Chicken existed to take us on a journey with Maze, to get to the root of her issues with abandonment and who she is, as a demon, but…
We just got going. We were just starting to build up momentum for the season and this felt like coming to a screeching, jarring halt to cruise down a back road and check out the scenery (which was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but it was a really big detour).
Why are we stepping away from all of the main conflict already?
I’m truly hoping that something about Lillith’s ring will tie in with the plot beyond just explaining why she abandoned Maze in the most convoluted way possible (dare I say fillery…), because otherwise It Never Ends Well For The Chicken just felt a bit like a fun, silly throwaway episode.
I guess I’m just not a huge fan of filler episodes, no matter how cute they are (and this one was very cute – and visually stunning).
Final Thoughts
After how strong the first two episodes were, ¡Diablo! and It Never Ends Well For The Chicken were a little lackluster, for me.
I’m ready to get back into the main story-line and see what’s going to happen with Lucifer and Michael, and what Michael intends to do, moving forward.
And what Chloe being made for Lucifer means for her moving forward – how is she going to come to terms with feeling like she has no control over her own existence?
These are the answers I need!
And I didn’t love being taken out of that story for this little Definitely, Maybe moment so early on in the season.
But I have faith in this show and, even at its most, “Meh,” Lucifer still delivers quality episodes that are, at the very least, fun to watch.
I’m ready for more (I hope you know how hard it is for me to keep stopping after two episodes to write these reviews when all I want to do is binge).
On to the next!
Lucifer season 5 is available to stream on Netflix.
