Lucifer: Super Bad Boyfriend
May 12, 2019 8:47 AM - Season 4, Episode 8 - Subscribe

Lucifer and Chloe investigate a teacher's murder. Meanwhile, Lucifer goes to extremes to convince Eve to dump him, and Amenadiel mentors a teen.

AV Club - After trying to be the “Super Bad Boyfriend,” Lucifer has a major breakthrough: It took eight episodes for Lucifer to finally blame God for his problems. That’s got to be some kind of record. But then he takes it all back because as we all already know, angels are just as responsible for their own fates as humans. (And for him to take it back in an episode written by Jason Ning, writer of “God Johnson,” is even more impressive.) Even more so, actually, as they self-actualize and manifest their projections. This season has hit that point hard, but it hasn’t quite looked at Lucifer himself as it had. Until now. He knows both his Devil face and wings are a reflection of his current mental state. Remember in the premiere when I said that while Linda was technically right about Lucifer’s denial, she was focusing too much on that instead of Lucifer actually being right about Chloe? Well, this episode finally pulls that focus back to Lucifer’s denial issues, first comedically and then quite seriously, in yet another heart-wrenching scene from Tom Ellis."

*At the penthouse, Amenadiel interrupts Lucifer's consultation with a favor-owing-doctor on the problem of his devil-wings, to ask Lucifer to be godfather to the angel-baby. Lucifer declines, and tells him if he wants advice on being a father he should ask humans.

*At the crime scene, Ella and Dan give Chloe and Lucifer the info on the victim (teacher, Miss Baez, killed by blunt force trauma in the school locker room) with maximum post-hookup-regret-awkwardness. Chloe takes Lucifer aside to tell him about Kinley's prophecy. Lucifer decides the solution to averting the 'evil shall be released' part of it is ending the relationship, but when he tells Eve she takes his belief in the prophecy as proof of his love for her and declares her love in return, dismissing the idea of a break-up entirely.

*Chloe and Lucifer interview students, gaining potential suspects, but mostly doing the usual schtick of Lucifer making every conversation about his own issues. After learning from one student (Nate) that couples counseling was the nail in the coffin of his parents' relationship, he takes Eve to a session with Dr. Linda hoping for sabotage, but, Linda and Eve bond instantly over agreeing on Lucifer's tendencies towards denial and deflection. Another win for the insta-charm effect.

*Amenadiel does his angel-dork-thing asking random Lux patrons about their relationships with their fathers, then student Caleb shows up looking for Lucifer to ask a favor from. Amenadiel offers to be his brother's stand-in, and Caleb reveals that he got himself mixed up in dealing drugs for someone in his neighborhood (Tamir), and needs help selling the current supply/getting out of the dealing entirely.

*Ella tells Chloe that the murder weapon was a golf club, then gets a call from someone about the Tiernan case.

*Amenadiel accompanies Caleb to Tahir & crew, and tells him that Caleb is out. Tahir insists that Caleb needs to pay off what he owes him first. Amenadiel promises to do so in his stead, and Tahir demands Amenadiel's necklace in surety.

*Lucifer and Chloe interview the current prime suspect, Nate's father, but he alibi's out, having secretly reconciled with his ex-wife. He tells Lucifer that the original split was his fault for being a bad husband, so Lucifer tries to get Eve to break up with him via a Bad Boyfriend Montage consisting of fantasy football, video gaming, Dukes of Hazard marathon, and making out with another woman at Lux. But Eve powers through and joins in on each activity with more enthusiasm than Lucifer.

*Amenadiel takes Caleb for an ice cream cone after having solved his Tahir problem, but a pair of aggressive cops arrest Caleb for murder and are about ready to shoot Amenadiel for nothing, until Dan arrives and intervenes. The murder weapon has turned up showing Caleb's fingerprints. Dan tells Amenadiel that he will file a complaint against the two cops for their racist display of excessive force against Caleb and him, but admits that it probably won't result in anything.

*In the evidence room, Ella tells Dan about the Tiernan case call, which was that due diligence interviews revealed that a cop told Tiernan that Lucifer broke Julian's back. She assumes that the accusation against Lucifer is a lie, but worries if she should tell Chloe since maybe it means there's a cop out there with a grudge against Lucifer. Dan panics and kisses her as a distraction, which works, in that she drops the investigation question, and reiterates that their hookup was a one-time probably-not-a-good-idea thing.

*Amenadiel visits Caleb in his cell. Caleb is despondent, knowing that as a black man the system is rigged against him, but Amenadiel asks him to have faith in him instead, and he agrees to try.

*Maze goes on a series of bad first dates, trying to find her connection like Linda advised. After the 21st, Eve helps her do a practice first-date conversation. It goes so well that she doesn't bother with date #22 when she sees him arrive. Dan sees them, and when Maze comes to the bar he drunkenly tries to provoke her into a fight, but she realizes he wants her to punish him, and has the bouncer toss him out instead.

*Amenadiel brings Chloe and Lucifer Caleb's list of students he sold drugs to, and when they cross-reference it with the list of Baez' YEA club members, Lexy and Nate are the only matches. In interrogation, Lexy puts all the blame on Nate, but Nate says the drugs (Adderall) and cheating on the SATs was her idea because she was obsessed with them getting into Harvard. Baez was going to turn them in after she discovered the SAT test cheating, so Lexy demanded that Nate steal Caleb's golf club, but she did the murdering on her own. Though Nate helped with the cover up, he kept her bloody clothes instead of destroying the evidence.

*Lucifer and Eve have an honest break-up conversation, that Eve deserves to be treated well, and that Lucifer doesn't like who he is when he's with her. He gets interrupted by a call looking for Amenadiel.

*At a new crime scene, Amenadiel arrives to see Caleb has been murdered. Chloe assures him that they'll find whoever did this, but Amenadiel tells Lucifer he knows already, and Lucifer volunteers to drive him. They arrive at Tamir's courtyard, and Amenadiel administers a beatdown. As they leave, Amenadiel tells Lucifer that he's changed his mind, that Earth is no place to raise his son. Later, he visits Caleb's body in the morgue, and puts his necklace on him.

*At Lux, Lucifer tells Chloe that he and Eve are through, and that though he didn't want to be the devil Eve saw him as, he doesn't like the way Chloe sees him either. At a session with Dr. Linda, Lucifer admits that he was wrong about everything being God's fault, but that everything is his own fault, but doesn't know the answer to the question of why he hates himself so much.
posted by oh yeah! (3 comments total)
 
Nothing like a good comedy montage (check out the AV Club recap for the freeze framed jokes).

The Eve+Linda meeting was perfect. (I guess the only combo we haven't had yet is Dan+Eve; though they've met peripherally they haven't had a direct and sustained interaction. Dan has dug himself a pretty deep into the pit of self-loathing, I wonder if her universal charm would bounce off the edges too.
posted by oh yeah! at 9:07 AM on May 12, 2019


They spent three seasons earning those shots of Lucifer in sweats on the sofa playing video games and eating Cheetos. This is when we understand how far he's fallen.

I'm a little bit in awe of this show, and a lot in awe of Tom Ellis.
posted by mneekadon at 4:33 AM on May 13, 2019 [3 favorites]


I mean, it's way sadder than Thor getting fat.
posted by mneekadon at 4:35 AM on May 13, 2019


« Older Lucifer: Devil Is as Devil Doe...   |  Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas: L... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster