Lucifer - S2E15 - Deceptive Little Parasite

Previously on Lucifer, ““Candy Morningstar”

Control

Lucifer is on a quest to control his emotions. Because he’s the only one who can ignite the Flaming Sword and open the gates of heaven, he needs to be able to use his emotions to master the sword. Since he has the emotional intelligence of a seven-year-old, it’s a good thing this week’s murder victim is an administrator at a private, alternative elementary school that focuses on teaching kids to master their emotions. And because Lucifer doesn’t have access to any other children, he passes Trixie off as his daughter to sit in on one of the classes.

Trixie is always the MVP of any episode, so of course, she steals the show, but she’s particularly endearing when she opens up about Chloe being shot and how she hides how scared she is from her mother. Trixie’s confession also endears her to the school’s staff and allows Chloe access to help solve the case. Although Chloe’s motherhood has always been an important aspect of her character, this is the first time we’ve seen her struggle with what it means to be a cop and a mother. She feels out of her element surrounded by the other rich, stay-at-home moms. It was also lovely to see that Chloe was willing to push through her insecurity if that school was where Trixie wanted to be.

It’s (Not) Lit

Similarly, Lucifer is trying to push through his own issues with emotion. His mother is adamant that he figure out a way to ignite the sword and Amenadiel is upset that he can’t do it himself. It’s a bit sad to watch Amenadiel constantly play second fiddle, especially when Lucifer doesn’t want anything to do with his mother or their plan to go back to heaven. But Lucifer does want to kick his mom back into heaven and let her and God work out their issues. Ironically, the only way for Lucifer to ignite the sword is to actually let himself feel all the pain he tries to ignore with quips and sex. But even tapping into that emotion isn’t enough to keep the flame up for long, and unbeknownst to Lucifer and Amenadiel, time is running out for their mother on earth.

Despite this long hiatus, Lucifer is still moving full steam ahead even though it’s a bit hard as a viewer to jump back into the rhythm. This episode was smart to focus on Chloe and Trixie as well as Lucifer and his mother, rather than beating the Chloe/Lucifer ship into the ground. The show continues to vary their character pairings and the development of Chloe and Maze’s friendship was a highlight. The episode also had a special guest star, Elvin from The Cosby Show (Geoffrey Owens) who brought some levity as an embezzling administrator at the school. I had to mention it because I got so excited.