New episode, new review! Lucifer 6×06 “A Lot Dirtier Than That” deals with the problem of racism prevailing in our society and the Black Lives Matter movement in a brilliant way while showing us father and daughter trying to find a middle ground. Time for review!
Here we go!
In Lucifer 6×06 “A Lot Dirtier Than That” Chloe and Rory start living together … or something like that. It is strange, difficult and complicated for Chloe to get used to the idea that an adult, her daughter of all people, is going to share space with her and that she knows absolutely everything about the house she lives in. Rory lived a life with her that Chloe doesn’t know, and still feels like a stranger to her.
Chloe knows this feeling, this familiar thing that she feels when she looks into Rory’s eyes and, at the same time, it’s strange that she is really there. But to all this a new feeling is added: shame. Chloe let Lucifer blame her daughter for the theft of the necklace. Here, Chloe takes a big step by so openly acknowledging the boundary she crossed and apologizing to Rory for losing control in such a way.
But Rory has nothing to forgive her for. She… is grateful for her mother. Chloe took care of her, loved her, was there when she needed her, now she screwed up and made a mistake but for her that is a tiny detail compared to everything Chloe did for her. She is not like him, she is not like Lucifer, he did not even have the opportunity to screw things up with her, to make mistakes, because he was not there.
For Chloe, this is the first impression, just the beginning of their relationship but for Rory it is not, she knows Chloe, she knows how she is and she knows that she never failed her … and that it’s enough.
I’m struck by the way in which Trixie has been removed, that is, very big things are happening and she is Chloe’s daughter, she should be in the middle of all this, she should know her sister, what’s more, Chloe and Lucifer should be more concerned about what will happen to her when he becomes God and Chloe is with him, they should discuss telling her everything, we should see that scene and her reaction but, on the contrary, they have decided to put the character aside and I’m sorry, but it doesn’t make sense.
Trixie could have a lot to do here but they are totally wasting her and it doesn’t make sense in the story that Trixie is not a character they think of and that they do not really deal with the fact that Chloe has another daughter besides Rory, with all that that implies.
Speaking of Rory, we couldn’t stop commenting on Lucifer’s attempt to go back in time in Lucifer 6×06 “A Lot Dirtier Than That.” He’s so chaotic and outlandish and wrong in so many different ways, he’s so… him. It’s pure Lucifer, full of good intentions… but failing miserably at what is truly important.
Lucifer keeps asking the wrong questions, keeps focusing on himself instead of Rory. Rather than speak to her directly and open up, he tries to show he’s sorry, tries to apologize in a way that could only have occurred to him.
And Rory really thought he was going to take this seriously, she really thought he was going to ask her how she feels, what she needs … Rory really thought Lucifer was going to ask the right questions. That’s why she puts on that hopeful face when it looks like Lucifer is going to do it. Rory never wanted to hope for her father but she yearns so much for his love, his embrace, his warmth… that hope slipped in unexpectedly, like an unwanted guest.
But that hope only makes Rory disappointed when she realizes that Lucifer is still more focused on himself and how to redeem himself in her eyes than in her and what she feels. Of course, Lucifer is taking this seriously … but in his own way as a hard headed little devil full of good intentions who tries to do what he thinks is best, always in the wrong way and drawing the wrong conclusions. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love her, on the contrary, he is trying because he loves her too much to let her go. It’s a mess, but that’s Lucifer.
This is just what Maze is trying to tell Rory – we cried too when we saw her defend Lucifer like this. Yes, Lucifer is not doing what he should be doing but at least he is trying. He is not like Lilith who despised all of her children, abandoned them to their fate and did not even bother to hide it or regret it. Lucifer is trying, he’s trying, in the wrong way but he’s there, doing it, and his trying means that she matters, isn’t that what Rory needed to feel? Isn’t that the important thing?
But years of abandonment, so much anger, so much pain, so much resentment, so many feeling of unworthiness, of abandonment, of self-contempt cannot disappear by one attempt. Our hearts were broken when Rory yelled at Lucifer, her voice cracking and tears in her eyes, “You can’t fix it, you weren’t there. Ask me how I feel.”
It’s just that, Rory felt abandoned, lost, unlovable by her father. She always felt a great emptiness in her heart in his absence, now he cannot simply pretend that everything is solved because he invented a Christmas to spend with her, or a birthday … he was not there, he cannot pretend now that he was. Rory ain’t gonna accept it.
Lucifer doesn’t even know how she feels because he didn’t ask her, and she feels it’s because he didn’t really take the time, because she isn’t important to him, and that hurts, it hurts like hell, even though she swore to herself that nothing he said or did could hurt her more.
At the end of Lucifer 6×06 “A Lot Dirtier Than That” they finally have an emotionally significant moment. Rory finds herself sheltered in music, her escape route, her way of expressing with songs what she cannot express with words and, suddenly, Lucifer enters that world but, for the first time, he does not intend to overwhelm her, he simply listens to her, listen to what she has to say, what her heart feels.
Rory lets him into her refuge, into her music, into her world. It is the first step she takes towards her father. She is acknowledging Maze’s words here: that he tries means something, so she decides to try with him, too. Thus, both communicate without words, only through music in one of the simplest, purest, most delicate and precious scenes of the show.
In Lucifer 6×06 “A Lot Dirtier Than That” Amenadiel has his first day patrolling the streets of LA and the end of this story is so real, so raw, so vivid that it breaks our hearts into a thousand pieces. I did not expect Lucifer to address racism and discrimination towards the Black community and even less did I expect them to do it so brilliantly. It’s … God, it’s one of the best episodes I’ve seen on this subject.
All the sides are shown here, all the problems are on the table. We see how a racist police officer is not only not fired, but promoted, also how that same policeman tries to pretend that he has changed but remains the same racist asshole as always. When someone has no desire or intention to improve, to learn, to educate himself … it is impossible for them, and this disgusting guy thinks that he is not doing anything wrong … when he killed an innocent man for being Black. And now, he has been about to do the same thing again. Piece of filthy garbage.
We also see the story from the other side, the story of Amenadiel, a Black man who joined the police to protect and improve the lives of his neighbors, who really wants to help them and realizes that, unfortunately, his companions provide a different “help” depending on the color of your skin. The way he is disappointed in them, the way he becomes ashamed of that uniform that he wanted so much to wear… I think that says it all.
Amenadiel’s instructor is also a key point in this story. She is like Amenadiel, she wants to help her neighbors and she is fighting every day to achieve it, so that the uniform she wears is no longer synonymous with death and suffering for her community, she fights every day to be there, at the foot of the canyon and avoid giving cops like that racist a chance to act.
She fights to be where she knows she is needed, they tried to push her aside and she held on to her place more tightly, literally fighting for the lives of innocent people even if it meant hurting her career. Stand up in applause for this brave woman.
She does it in a calmer and more cunning way than Amenadiel because she’s realized that going head-on against those guys doesn’t work and it always makes things worse, so she hangs her head when she sees some unfair or out-of-line actions, and I get it, I really get it. It is horrible, it is unfair and the fucking system is corrupt if the police who are fair are retaliated against and the racists promoted, but they are the rules of the game and to save lives they must sometimes play by those rules.
But Amenadiel also has a point here: she can’t be everywhere. She is saving lives but at the same time others may be in danger. Lowering your head and waiting is not an option, not anymore. You have to fight back. You have to kill the system and rebuild it. And we could not agree more.
In the middle of all this we see Chloe. And she … doesn’t understand. Not at the beginning, at least. She grew up in that police station, she has known these men and women since she was a child, she lived with them, they are her family… and we are usually blind to the wrongdoings of family. Besides being the daughter of a police officer, she is white, she did not have to live with discrimination, with racism, with suspicions … she cannot understand it.
Yes, she recognizes that there may be problems but she also thinks that if that disgusting racist came back it was because he was already rehabilitated because … well, because the police force is her family and her family has no faults …
Well yes, it has flaws and many. More than failures, they are systematic behaviors that oppress and discriminate against an entire community, the people they swore to serve and protect. And no, a “sensibility course” is no solution for a racist who carries a badge and a gun and, therefore, considers himself the type of authority that can get away with everything.
That they promote a racist, with sensibility course or not, is wrong, it is unfair and outrageous. They should have fired that guy, there must be no ambiguity in this, not for Chloe or for anyone.
In addition, we are struck by a phrase that Chloe says “they do the right thing … in the end.” Sorry? What do you mean with “in the end?” A policeman must be fair at all times. I’m sorry Chloe, but you have a low standard here. We must demand that they do the right thing at all times. If they don’t, it’s a damn problem that should be fixed since yesterday. And you must fight to change what is wrong. This is exactly what Chloe realizes in the end … and she joins the fight as one more ally.
That said, of course, Chloe’s reaction is normal because she talks about from her own experience and the feeling of family she feels for them. Here, Chloe represents a different side of history, the the police officers who really believe in the uniform, in justice and who want to do everything better but must listen and learn what is wrong and stop minimizing certain behaviors.
As a last note, the conversation between Ella and Amenadiel that we see in Lucifer 6×06 “A Lot Dirtier Than That” seems important to me. She expected him to tell her the truth, she was excited about it because they were finally going to tell her, they were finally going to trust her with their most precious secret. She is angry and disappointed that they hadn’t done it sooner but the time has come. It’s time … it’s just not. Amenadiel says nothing to her and she is disappointed again.
As much as it may cost Ella, she has to accept that they are not going to confess it to her and, therefore, they don’t trust her, they never have. They were never her friends … because her friends trust each other and don’t lie to each other and they have been lying to her, for YEARS. She is really mad but most of all, she is disappointed and sad because she really loves them and thought of them as her family. And, until that moment, she believed they felt the same about her.
Of course, we know that all this is not true, the celestial family trusts Ella with their lives, but that they want to protect her from this life and prefer that she continue to be herself, without the truth about the celestial world affecting her or changing her. But for Ella it doesn’t feel like that. Will she be able to forgive them?
And here ends our Lucifer 6×06 “A Lot Dirtier Than That” review. We will be back tomorrow with a new one!
