lucifer season four

Finished Lucifer Season Four and just--no words.



Just a number list here:
1.) They must have searched the entire goddamn globe for the most doe-eyed woman alive to get this actress. I want to see the call sheet: Must have large, limpid eyes and project innocence like it's their job. I cannot get over how Eve exudes artless, genuine sweet innocence while hosting bdsm orgies, it's ridiculous and awesome. She's a strikingly beautiful, sophisticated woman that manages to give the impression of being the pretty, naive girl next door and both are true at the same time.

And the thing is, that's how I imagine Eve, actually.

2.) Adam pining over Lilith is both hysterical and also makes me doubt his sanity, not gonna lie.

3.) Maze's very brief, very guarded, obviously very bitter memories of her mother are fascinating (see: Adam is insane or something). Her heartwarming stories of her newborn self murdering her siblings however, were deeply awesome.

4.) Chloe's reaction to the revelation about Lucifer went pretty much exactly how I wanted in my secret heart. Lucifer's reaction to her almost-betrayal was perfectly justified; it was actually fairly calm for what happened. I was impressed, actually.

That said, I'm not sure he entirely understood than in addition to dealing with a few millennia of history of good and evil all at once and how goddamn relevant it is all of a sudden (and by the way, she was an agnostic so seriously, Jesus), Chloe doesn't trust 'feelings' like at all, especially her own, and looking at her history of serious relationships you can't really blame her (one corrupt-lite cop, then a sort-of immortal serial killer-ish).

Chloe is a thinker; if feelings hadn't been involved, she probably would have been a lot more suspicious of the priest who showed up surreptitiously, listened, and trusted her own judgement, which on its own is really, really good. But throw in 'in love with Lucifer', she had no bedrock to work from to build an opinion and no star to steer by. In other words, there was no possible way this was going to happen in any other way.

Seriously, she just narrowly escaped marrying the Sinnerman (who was also Cain who was both immortal and kinda sort of evil I mean, really); she probably didn't trust her judgement of the color of the goddamn sky at that point, much less how to reconcile ALL THE LITERATURE AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND GODDAMN DANTE into something workable about the character of the guy she's fallen in love with. Like, I get Lucifer thought her knowing him for three-four years would be enough to make her dismiss the entirety of human history's many and varied views of Lucifer....

...yeah, he really thought that. Because finding out your potential boyfriend is Lucifer as in Lucifer on top of your ex-fiancee was both the Sinnerman, the murderer of a friend, and oh, Cain, that was definitely going to happen.

Again, I don't argue his reaction at all, but a very real part of me keeps thinking how much could have been avoided if Lucifer had done something not unlike a.) sitting her down and b.) having a conversation about his terrible reputation. Perhaps--just perhaps--before she fled to Europe (EUROPE JESUS I WONDER WHAT IS IN EUROPE SHE'D REALLY BE INTERESTED IN AFTER REVELATIONS LIKE THIS??????), over dinner? Introduce her to Linda and Amenadiel maybe (definitely, why didnt you do that?)? LITERALLY ANYTHING BUT "WELP IT'LL WORK OUT WHEE".

5.) BABY ANGEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6.) I am still not over how Amenadiel and Linda made the most adorable baby ever.

7.) Maze falling for Eve was Biblical. Maze wanting to bang her mother's first husband's second wife/Eve wanting her husband's first wife's daughter...that's just the most wonderful sentence fragment ever written. A whole book in the Bible wouldn't be enough to cover this.

8.) More seriously, I feel like I should have been surprised, but it just felt like yeah, of course. Eve would be attractive to Maze for some of the same reasons that Lucifer probably was, but the emotional connection would come from Eve's taking people as they are.

I'm willing to take arguments against this, but Eve is also unique in all of humankind that she doesn't seem to possess--or even understand--spite or malice. Anger, betrayal, fear, self-absorption, yeah, but those two don't seem to register for her.

9.) Having said that, Eve's increasingly terrible decisions that culminated in demons on earth in an effort to keep Lucifer was--like Chloe's reaction to Lucifer being Lucifer--completely unsurprising considering what we know of her character, which can be summarized as "defines herself by who she's with". Her very creation was defined by Adam; her return to earth was for Lucifer (she says?); her entire time there was defined by him. And again, this comes back to Lucifer's general strategy of doing something and ignoring the consequences (which is all the goddamn time).

I"m not saying he shouldn't have broken up with her, and in a normal human-human relationship, we'd use regular human relationship rules.

This is not a normal human-human relationship; this is an immortal angel/King of Hell and the first woman ever born who a.) you had a super sketchy relationship with back in the garden of Eden and some serious fallout from that shit, and b.) who left Heaven to have sex with you and with whom you willingly entered into a relationship (again). Like, the way you handle the post-break-up is basically any way other than 'welp, it'll all work out'.

No. No, that has never ever worked in your entire history, let me introduce you to your most recent history of Chloe and oh, YOUR MOTHER WHO YOU HAD TO SEND THROUGH A RIFT IN REALITY TO MAKE HER OWN UNIVERSE BECAUSE OF YOUR MULTIPLE "WELP IT'LL ALL WORK OUT" HEY DIDN'T WORK OUT WELP NEVER WORKS. DO NOT WELP ANYMORE.

10.) On a different note, it does strike me as odd how very little fucks Eve had to give about her sons, or at least Cain, who are now both in Hell. It really glares at you considering literally every other parent/child relationship (Chloe and Trixie; Dan and Trixie; Chloe and her own mother; the Goddess and Lucifer, Amenadiel, and Uriel; Charlotte and her obvious pain about her own kids after she comes back from Hell; Linda and Charlie; others I'm missing) show love no matter how complicated it might be. Heck, the non-parent/child of Maze/Trixie I'll throw in as well.

Leaving aside the relationship between God and pretty much everyone, the only actual bad relationship was the Goddess and Charlotte's kids, which we all remember as funny and also lead to her returning to earth to find out she was divorced and denied visitation.

(And an aside: that really makes me wonder what the hell the Goddess did to those kids because a mother not even getting visitation....)

So yeah, Eve's 'whatevs' was kind of jarring. I have no idea if the writers just didn't want to deal with the death of Cain by Lucifer's hand or actually, that was supposed to tell us something about her. I literally don't know; this show has tricked me too many times into ignoring it and then abruptly discovering hey that was actually significant after all.

11.) Lucifer telling all the demons to kneel? Yes, please.

12.) Linda's moment of Solomon and the baby was perfect; of course she'd send him to Heaven and break her own heart if it meant he'd be safe, if she thought she couldn't protect im. And yeah, that's exactly the reason Amenadiel knows their son is safe on earth no matter what; no one could protect him better than the mother who could make that kind of horrific decision and not care about the devastating cost to herself.

13.) I also deeply and truly love Linda and Amenadiel and how their relationship is still changing and developing. It's not about being in love--they're there--but navigating the mundane aspects of being in a relationship that are going to be complicated whether or not your baby is literally the first angel-human baby ever born ever and one of you is an angel with some unresolved issues dating back to circa beginning of time and who has very poor (read: terrifying, surreal, disturbing, wtf) context on how families work, so poor that 'dysfunctional' would be a huge step up.

Like, credit where credit is due, Linda's ability to roll with shit is epic. I mean, Linda, look at your life: your best friend is a demon, you're dating/living with an angel, you're having the first human-angel baby ever with said angel, his brother is your ex-lover and also the King of Hell and who for some period of recent time was banging your great (insert so many great) grandmother, and their mother--a goddess who was sort of divorced and sent to Hell by God--kind of tortured and/or tried to kill you. And you are or have been the therapist for all of these people at some point (excluding the baby).

14.) God that ending.



That has been my feelings. There were so many. Season five now, plz.

Comments

[out_there]

This. All of this. The way that Lucifer seems like such an easyno-demands show to watch, and yet when things go completely cray-cray it's always in a way that makes complete character sense and is the only way they would have reacted in that situation.

It's ridiculous how well it all comes together by the end of s4 and how much I genuinely love all of these characters. Maize and Linda and Amenadiel and Chloe are my favourites, but as annoying and terribly thought out as Lucifer can be, I even like him and his utter inability to deal well with things.

[seperis]

Lucifer is such a gift. He gets on my nerves constantly and breaks my heart at the weirdest times. He's so much better than he thinks he is. Honestly, I'm not sure his biggest fear is becoming a monster at all, but that avoiding being a monster is pretty much the best he he can be.

Like yeah, he does a lot of good things for selfish reasons, but I don't think he ever notices all the good things he does because they should be done or because he could. Like--and I can see this with him--if he's not as happy to do the good thing just because it's good as he is happy doing 'bad' things (for value of) it doesn't count.

Like, dude, being good is grueling, miserable work sometimes, come on. Half the time, you do the thing because it's the right thing, whether you want to or not. Most of the time you don't even get a small thrill of self-sacrifice but a "God, I hate everything" out of it.

I'm honestly not sure he's really got that yet.

[out_there]

I don't think he has. I mean, it's great that he genuinely wants to be a good/better person, but he's spent years around Chloe and surely...

No, I was going to say surely he'd realise doing the right thing isn't always fun or feels great, but at the end of s4 that's exactly what we saw him do. Instead of doing the fun thing, the thing he personally wanted to do,he did the right thing, the thing that only he could do,the thing that made a difference to everyone else's lives. So, yeah, part of the heartbreaking personal growth there has been Lucifer realising that he's perfectly capable of doing the right thing and there's more to his life than just doing what feels good now.

[seperis]

Exactly. In a lot of ways, Lucifer has a surprisingly Calvinist/Protestant view of how 'good' works (and for that matter, evil. Let's say I was kind of surprised it was a priest and not some flavor of southern evangelist the show used to try to get to Chloe).

Then again, to me, even having a selfish agenda for the good act isn't a dealbreaker; I've stacked the deck against my own less than stellar impulses to make sure I do what's right by finding a selfish motivation to back up the 'do the right thing' agenda. It works. This is probably why I am not an evangelist or a minister to people; I'd do a terrible job with promoting good ("Let me tell you how this very good act can benefit you personally and no, I don't mean spiritually but that too, sure, why not.")

[kernezelda]

Yes! Remember when I said Lucifer was popcorn, or something similar? It is, it is, but it's also--when did my feelings get so caught up in these people?

I'm re-watching the series, and am about halfway through S3 (before getting delightfully distracted by Good Omens), but with th introduction of Eve as a sweet young thing--versus Cain in his late thirties/early forties-mature--at what point did she die, or did she get to heaven by other means?

[seperis]

I'm re-watching the series, and am about halfway through S3 (before getting delightfully distracted by Good Omens), but with th introduction of Eve as a sweet young thing--versus Cain in his late thirties/early forties-mature--at what point did she die, or did she get to heaven by other means?

...handwave? I'm honeslty not sure, as she looks under twenty-five and acts a range of fifteen to thirty. Having said that--I'll hold off until you see her and see if your impression matches mine. But talk about doing the unexpected with her....

[issenllo]

WELP NEVER WORKS. DO NOT WELP ANYMORE.

I concur.


I seriously think Linda is the hero of the show. Any time something happens, I look to see how she reacts.

[seperis]

WELP NEVER WORKS. DO NOT WELP ANYMORE.

One of the things that the show really addressed explicitly this season was actions--and lack of action, for that matter--both have consequences in regard to Lucifer. I mean, Lucifer's blind spot when it comes to consequences has moved from frustrating to worrying. Up to now, I put it all up to his truly epic self-absorption, but season four really highlighted how much deliberate work he's put into trying to be better.

(I've ever seen anyone work that hard at hedonism, God. I'm not saying he didn't enjoy it, but it took way more effort than anyone should have to make to have fun, come on. When Lucifer looks tired and like he desperately needs netflix night in pajamas....)

As I was saying, Lucifer's sins are very rarely actually based on his actions themselves; they're primarily the lack of action until literally there's no other option.

I wasn't exactly surprised by Lucifer's choice to go back to Hell, I kind of felt that coming the second Maze talked about demons possessing human bodies before Lucifer forbade it. It didn't surprise me in the least that it took a demon army forming on earth and kidnapping a baby angel for him to finally deal with the consequences of leaving Hell unsupervised.

Which is why I am rethinking Lucifer's lack of understanding of how cause and effect work. Either he was the most hands-off King ever for the last few millennia--which having met those demons I seriously doubt he was or he'd be some version of dead, celestial or not--or in Hell, his actions never had negative consequences for him, not just because he was king, but because he dealt with everything from vague annoyance to outright threat with wholesale destruction.

I like this for a.) Lucifer's bloody reign in Hell, God, yes, please, but also, b.) it makes sense why on earth, he doesn't follow up on literally anything even when it's obvious this is going to go wrong. A possibility c that really attracts me, though, ties into how much he didn't like himself as he was in Hell and his dithering is a (possibly genuine) subconscious safety to avoid becoming on earth what he was in Hell, which here would be an honestly terrifying mass murderer.

AND YES ON LINDA. I do that too! Linda's reaction generally tells me if this is baseline or 'holy shit this is getting super crazy'.

[issenllo]

because he dealt with everything from vague annoyance to outright threat with wholesale destruction.

His approach to therapy is certainly emblematic of that. It's a running gag that every time it looks like he has something to figure out about himself, e.g. picking through "I don't have daddy issues, daddy was mean to me", or "I hate myself", he comes to one (sideways) realisation, then proclaims the problem solved, or that he's cured. I sympathise so much with Linda at such moments.

I don't exactly want to say that he's looking for an easy fix, as much as he assumes that because he's Lucifer, whatever ails him will be an easy fix. Because it'd worked so well in hell, too. Except that he didn't realise that in hell he was fixing other people/souls/demons: getting the system to run smoothly. And yet he must have some awareness that he can't deal with things the way he did in hell, eg. he's got to investigate to see who is actually guilty.

[seperis]

His approach to therapy is certainly emblematic of that. It's a running gag that every time it looks like he has something to figure out about himself, e.g. picking through "I don't have daddy issues, daddy was mean to me", or "I hate myself", he comes to one (sideways) realisation, then proclaims the problem solved, or that he's cured. I sympathise so much with Linda at such moments.

At this point in her life, Linda may literally be the best therapist ever to exist on planet earth. After three years of dealing with two angels and a demon (both socially and patient-wise) with actual success on issues that have existed since the beginning of time, there is no one you can't put on the road to emotional health.

Not gonna lie, I spend some amount of time longing to sit on that couch and let her guide me toward emotional health. Sure, fantasizing about Lucifer and Amenadiel is fun and they're hot, but imagine my progress after a month of sessions with Linda.

And yet he must have some awareness that he can't deal with things the way he did in hell, eg. he's got to investigate to see who is actually guilty.

A theory: most of his human-behavior learning is case by case instead of general rules of behavior. He really dramatically fails at foreseeing potential consequences that aren't immediate.

Example: I bet his chess game is incredibly aggressive and interesting for eight-ten moves, and then goes to hell because he views each move individually, not a part of a long-term goal (to win). His dealings with his mother are a very good example of that; he welps out after each time he finally deals with a problem thinking 'done' while never quite realizing a.) he created this problem from his last attempt at problem-solving and b.) where it was going even when it was blindingly obvious from probably her second or third ep.

Come to think--that's exactly how he approaches therapy as well.

[neonhummingbird]

I feel like Eve is, in many ways, very much a cat. Holding a grudge is boring, stuff that's over is over, and she doesn't look back. (Except at the really good sex with Lucifer way back when, but that's because she needed someplace to escape.) Abel's been dead for millennia, and she's had that same amount of time to come to terms with the fact that Cain killed him. It's over and done, and has been for thousands of years, and she has other things to think about now.

Totally agree about everything Eve -- solid writing for an amazing actress. And yes, Lucifer needs to stop WELPing!

(The ending killed me. I don't want to talk about it. )

[seperis]

I feel like Eve is, in many ways, very much a cat. Holding a grudge is boring, stuff that's over is over, and she doesn't look back.

Ohh, that's a good comparison. She's very in the moment, isn't she?

Totally agree about everything Eve -- solid writing for an amazing actress. And yes, Lucifer needs to stop WELPing!

Yeah, that was impressive with Eve. They could have done the so very tired femme fatale bullshit or made her too simple, but this--her motivations were fairly transparent and so were her actions, but she was incredibly complex and it really showed the longer she was on earth and learned and developed. The actress did an amazing job with her.