Oh, that does look fun and enticing! I need to get me some NetFlix!
It’s here! IT’S HERE!
SQUEE!!!
Season 4 is now on Netflix (at least in the US). Watched the first two episodes already and no, I’m not going to open spoiler things.
The “recap teaser” is actually the opening bit of the first episode of season 4, a nice recap for us long-term fans and a good background for anyone new to the show.
I will say that despite Lucifer having been “out of the closet” for all this time he has been holding back in regards to his angelic/demonic abilities. No more, at least not around Chloe anymore. It’s the difference between telling the parents “I’m gay” and showing them you’re gay by tongue-probing your significant other’s tonsils at the dinner table.
Oh, and we now know the full title of the final episode - the one that was “XXXXXXXXXXXXX the King of Hell”
There were rumors that with the move to Netflix it might get more risque than what broadcast TV allowed. They even alluded to that in one of the promos. So, from what you have seen did it get more adult than before?
I am now starting to watch episode 10 - normally I don’t binge a whole series in a day, but what the hell, I’m on vacation.
We almost get an actual F-bomb. Otherwise, the swearing is about the same.
Lucifer is less hesitant to get violent in front of the Detective.
More devil face.
More bare skin on Tom Ellis.
More devil face.
The episode title “Orgy Pants to Work”? Yeah. Seriously. The only thing we haven’t seen of Tom Ellis is
his actual cock and balls. LOTS of strategically placed stuff at the nudist colony (which is a teeny bit of a spoiler but I don’t think it’s much of one and it was fun). Lucifer did not go in there with Chloe (she’s too professional to disrobe) and I won’t tell you who went in there with him, she’s a surprise (no, not Eve, either). The part I liked best? The nudity actually fit within the storyline, arguably, it was not gratuitous, it makes sense in context.
Devil face? Pfffft! So last season!
Devil body.
And for those of you who aren’t admiring how many hours Mr. Ellis put in the at the gym and/or like girl-on-girl action - more of that, too.
A spoiler:
At one point soon-to-be babby-daddy Amenadiel asks Lucifer to be his child’s godfather. Think about that - asking the Devil to be a godparent. Yes, Lucifer tells him that’s a Bad Idea.
But, with all that - no, it’s not gone to porn, or non-stop gore, or constant swearing. It’s just a bit edgier and a bit further than previous, past what is allowed on broadcast TV and short of needing a greater-than-R-rating. And, like I said in one of the spoilers (if you don’t want to see them) all of it actually fits into the storyline and is part of the plot, not just thrown in there for yucks.
Now I’m off to see how this all wraps up.
Please tell me one of your spoilers includes Maze.
No… but would you like a Maze spoiler? Is that what you… truly desire? 
How about
Maze as Dr. Linda’s Lamaze partner.
And, of course, Maze does get involved with some of the girl-on-girl action. Also
She and Dan do some bonding over beating the shit out of an LA gang
Oh, wait, one difference I definitely noticed:
Broadcast TV never shows anyone smoking any more. Might show a lit cigarette or two, but no one actually drawing on one. Lucifer season 4 definitely has actual smoking going on, actual ashtrays. Tobacco smoking AND pot smoking (I know the tobacco cigarettes are real - whether or not the joints are I guess depends on the jurisdiction in which it is filmed and if they want to to that route rather than a sloppily rolled cigarette to simulate one).
Does that qualify as edgy?
Struggling to resist… yes… yes it is.
Well, I finished the entire 10 episodes.
It’s… ah… in some ways the finale is as much a WHAM! as the end of the prior season. It’s a very different end. I find it interesting that if there’s not another season it would make a satisfactory end to the whole series although I would very much like a season 5.
With only 10 episodes there are basically no extraneous arcs, it’s a more condensed story than the prior seasons.
Lucifer continues his character development and actually makes a major epiphany about himself. Chloe’s arc involves coping with Lucifer actually really truly being the Devil. Eve’s role was not what I originally expected it to be. Ella takes a turn I did not expect. Dan is still in angry mourning for Charlotte. Linda - well, that might be a spoiler. Ditto for Amenadiel. About the only person who doesn’t undergo much change is Maze, although we do see how much she has changed in comparison to demons who hadn’t left hell and lived in Los Angeles for several years.
But very, very much - if anything it’s made more clear that Lucifer IS the Devil than in prior seasons. He’s not human.
I do wish, if there is a season 5, more people will learn that Lucifer really is the Devil. What would happen if Dan really knew, or Ella, would be quite interesting.
So ya’ll watch a few episodes so we can discuss them.
I’m on the sixth episode. Do we have a rule about spoilers?
I’ve made it to the 7th already. It is hard not to burn through this season.
I think we’re waiting at least a week before we go to non-spoilers.
Not bingeing. I waited so long for this, I want to prolong the pleasure, not burn through it right away. I am watching one episode per night. Even stretching it out, I’ll use them up too fast.
Dan should know about Lucifer. He did know, at the end of the first season. He saw Lucifer die and come back.
Hmm… given the reported rate of watching, we can probably start discussing the first episode with spoilers. A week in general is a good idea, but like Tapiotar said, anyone with an interest is going to burn through the season pretty quick.
I’m going to assume going ahead with season 4 episode one is OK at this point. So…
WARNING! WHAT FOLLOWS IS AN INCREDIBLY LONG SPOILER-FILLED POST ON AN EPISODE!
Just from the title “Everything is OK” you know everything is not OK because one continuing feature of this series is that every title gets name-dropped in its episode and every title is meaningful, if not always how you originally think it will be. When we left our heros they had just survived a shoot-out thanks to Chloe wearing a bullet-resistant vest and Lucifer…well, being Lucifer. Actually, Lucifer being a fully manifested angel/devil who is completely pissed off. So pissed off he’s killed Cain - a human, even though killing humans is a no-no that apparently even the Devil hasn’t committed until now. Chloe gets a great, full-on view of the returned Devil Face and … here we are a month later. Lucifer is giving another concert to a rapt audience and he is clearly missing Chloe, and the concert ends with someone putting a gun to Lucifer’s head. This is the first of several somewhat surrealistic scene changes because in fact there is not a rapt audience, this is a hold up.
In fact, it’s a hold up with Mr. Said Out Bitch which is a marvelous call-out to two prior season openers and I really, really like it. From Lucifer’s low key reaction to being threatened with a point-blank shooting ('cause he knows it will be no more than an annoyance) to referring back to the “relationship” these two have where Mr. Said Out Bitch always gets the short end of the stick, to the banter “I almost died because of you” “You were driving a stolen Brink’s truck full of cash, because of me you’re not in jail forever” to evidence of the rampant denial everyone around Lucifer has (Mr. Said Out Bitch revised his memory of Lucifer having wings to a hallucination) to Lucifer not making any effort to hide his abilities to Mr. Said Out Bitch’s confession of feeling “mostly terror” when asked to choose from a menu of possibilities. It’s a scene full of both darkness and humor, with a dissonance that Lucifer and Mr. Said Out Bitch are often not having the same conversation at the same time. Lucifer clearly makes quite a few references to Chloe and he’s obviously deeply concerned that he’s scared her off for good. We also learn, during a curb-stomp fight, that Chloe and Lucifer had no opportunity to deal with Chloe’s Truly Learning the Truth because the police came in and took her away, what with her having been shot (even if she had the vest) and there being a shoot out and all. Apparently, they had not had even a chance to speak before Chloe took off out of town.
(Which makes me wonder, if any sort of forensics were done, what the forensic techs would have made of all those giant, bloody feathers laying around the scene. Feathers that, presumably, do not match those of any bird. But, maybe, it was too obvious what had gone on and that wasn’t done).
Anyhow - it was a great opening scene tying the Netflix series back into the Fox series, setting the current scene, had a fight scene, and enough humor in it to prevent it getting all grimdark. I felt good with this start. Although you do wonder why Mr. Said Out bitch came back for encounter #3 with Lucifer (other than the obvious that he wants money and Lucifer has lots) given how badly things ended for him the first two times. Then again, you don’t have to be a genius to be a thief.
And then we cut immediately to Lucifer piling “gold” bars and money into the arms of Mr. Said Out Bitch, who gets to keep his clothes this time, and talking about how he’s not just a thief, because obviously Lucifer is trying to convince himself that he’s not just the Devil because he wants Chloe to come back. Lucifer is clearly very concerned that being who he is has hurt Chloe (and we all know he loves Chloe and would do anything to protect her - hell, he’s died twice for her). The scene ends with Lucifer being the one without pants. With little details like the back of Lucifer’s shirt being full of bullet holes and Mr. Said Out Bitch’s arms being so full of loot that bits of it are falling off onto the floor, Mazikeen being completely nonplussed at some random guy walking out of the penthouse with his arms full of loot while Lucifer is pulling up his trousers, and their conversation where it’s apparent that Mazikeen plotting to kill and betray Lucifer is, to Lucifer, a perfectly normal thing that he has no hard feelings about because, of course, Lucifer isn’t human. This is something that will be more apparent throughout this entire season, not the least because he no longer has anything to hide in front of Chloe.
**But do note the two points here: first, none of us are defined by just one part of who we are. Second, the question of whether or not people can or will change given an opportunity. ** Mr. Said Out Bitch is now a wealthy man who doesn’t have to steal. Is he going to take this opportunity for a different path or not? (We may have to wait for the first episode of season 5 to find out). These two questions come up every episode in this season, they are the on-going memes here.
But the conversation with Maze makes it clear, to me at least, that the often-completely-clueless Lucifer of season one has learned much more about how humans think and react. While the month of silence is clearly distressing to Lucifer he’s savvy enough to know that he has to give Chloe space to process her revelation even if the demon/angel approach would be to force the issue.
No, I’m not going to turn this into a total recap of the episode, I just think that those opening 7 minutes are important not just to the episode but the entire season.
We get a brief bit where it’s established that Dan is still messed up and angry about Charlotte’s death and any warm feelings between him and Lucifer, if they ever existed, are gone. Ella is having issues with God. Then Chloe shows up! Yay! Except she is so not reacting. She’s acting like nothing ever happened. Lucifer, of course, is over the top in his reaction, staring at Chloe like a total creeper, until they go off for a private chat. Lucifer has been waiting a month to find out if the woman he loves is going to reject him for good because of who and what he is and she’s… acting like it’s just another Tuesday. She’s not in denial (she’s not excusing it as a hallucination) but she is so… non-reactive. So non-reactive that even Lucifer picks up that this isn’t normal. Although, to this human’s eyes there is definitely some body-language at odds with her voice and words. Chloe is in denial and despite her saying “everything is OK” no, it’s not. Hence, Lucifer’s response of “What the f–” [Title drop]
Oh, yeah - so glad they kept the theme music and title from prior seasons. This isn’t a reboot or a re-imaging of Lucifer, it really is the show being continued seamlessly.
And, of course Lucifer goes running to Dr. Linda where we get more evidence of his character development as he talks to her. Also, we get some evidence of her coming to understand Lucifer a little better, too - he’s not, after all, a human being even if he has some of the same issues as one. He also has a lot of issues no human ever would.
Then we get Lucifer demonstrating the protective denial all humans in this world have regarding him, and apparently other celestial beings. He flat out tells Ella the truth and she just does not take him seriously. Chloe, who used to be on the other side, is standing behind Ella, very concerned, as Lucifer goes on and on. There’s a TVTropes trope for this which I can’t recall for the moment but it’s been in place from day one here. Chloe is just getting it rubbed in her face that it exists. Lucifer doesn’t have to hide who he is at all, and never has. I’d say it’s another “mojo” he has, except it seems to apply to all Celestials and not just him.
Speaking of “mojo” - it’s interesting that Chloe is not only completely in the know about his “what do you desire” shtick, but is also so familiar with it that she can correct Lucifer’s technique in using it when they’re talking to the honey stand owner. It’s a nice, subtle way of showing how well they know each other and how well they work together.
The “Pure Honey” stand is where we start to get more of a third meme for this season - that people are not only complex, they aren’t what they first appear to be. Nice, sweet Bob is actually a former mob enforcer. The mob guys - who are, indeed, criminals - aren’t pure evil. They have standards and actually they’re happy Bob turned state’s witness and put Uncle Vin away for 50 years, bear him no ill will, and actually contacted him to warn him of danger to protect him. The bad guy here is the Federal Marshall who is supposed to protect the criminals in witness protection and is actually either engineering their deaths by outing them or actively doing the deed himself.
Definitely, we’re getting more open use of Lucifer’s inhuman abilities. He has no hesitation in using his strength in front of Chloe anymore. You would think that, say, a US Marshall who encounters someone who can effortlessly lift him overhead with just one hand is going to say something about that, because that’s not normal for anyone, much less someone with the sort of lean physique Lucifer has, but there’s that Denial Shield going up again.
We get some more of the “everything is OK” words out of Chloe when she talks to Maze in her home, along with “everything is NOT OK” body language.
Amenadiel shows up at Lucifer’s penthouse and the two brothers have a friendly chat. During it, it becomes clear that, for all his increased knowledge of humans Lucifer did NOT pick up on the subtle body language cues that things are NOT alright with Chloe. (I suspect some people in the audience might not, either - Lauren German is actually a pretty good actor, and I’m impressed by her juggling of saying one thing and expressing another, but some humans aren’t good with body-language cues, either).
Lucifer digging into a big jar of avocado honey with his fingers is just the sort of ill-mannered thing we’d expect from him, but also his expression while doing do is pretty funny - normally it would have to be some cocaine or other drug for him to look like that. Wow, that must be amazing honey!
But the smiles and happiness is interrupted by Chloe flinching at Lucifer’s touch. She has NEVER done that before. This is a woman who has stepped in front of a gun to protect someone else, who regularly goes up against really bad guys, who deals with all sorts of horrors as part of her job. She never flinches. But she did. And that’s when Lucifer really starts to grasp that no, everything is NOT OK.
Oh, by the way - we still have a murder investigation going on in between all this relationship stuff. This, by the way, is one of my favorite such on the show - no one is exactly what they seem, everyone is lying, what you assume are peoples’ motivations aren’t actually what’s driving them.
Having Maze speak her native tongue, Lilim, was pretty funny, actually. It was so stereotypically demon-sounding. The sweet smile as she does so really sells it. Not to mention Dr. Linda being hyperactive and pacing to the point Maze asks if she needs to pee or something. This is the first hint we have that Something Is Up With Linda. Tiny Dr. Linda wanting to spar with Maze is hilarious, as is Maze’s look of amazed joy when Dr. Linda actually takes a swing and connects but it’s nice to see they really have become best friends and any lingering issues with jealousy and such are gone.
Lucifer sitting in the precinct still eating the honey with a look of rapture on his face - funny! Usually its the illegal evidence he consumes.
Then there’s the whole pool scene with the Marshall - pointing a gun at an innocent woman’s head, a woman who is tied to a chair and is in danger of death from drowning if she’s shoved into the pool never mind a bullet to the head - and saying “I’m not the bad guy!”. Yes, yes you ARE the bad guy if you’re doing that. Lucifer gleefully mentioning there are so many ways to kill a person - as he should know, being acquainted with so many bad people in hell. Lenore’s big crime from the Marshall’s viewpoint: she forgave a monster. Hey, could that have a parallel with some other people we know…?
Then there’s the memes of whether or not people can change, and of a person’s opportunity to change being “stolen” by their murder - which goes all the way back to the very first episode of season one, when Delilah resolved to change and was shortly gunned down, leading to Lucifier’s association with the LAPD and Chloe.
Although I have to wonder if Chloe’s month long absence lead Lucifer to get careless about potential injury - he apparently tries to pull the bend-the-gun-barrel trick on the marshal and gets a gruesome hand injury for the effort. Chloe seems remarkably unfazed by her partner getting shot, or maybe she’s just not aware of it given that Lucifer isn’t immobilized by the pain. She does tell him to pursue the marshal while she rescues Lenore, who was knocked into the pool. That’s when we get that very nice demonstration of just how freakin’ strong Lucifer is. Even with a severely damaged hand he’s able to halt an SUV and he enjoys doing it. Chloe’s expression clearly shows that even though she knows he’s unnaturally strong she didn’t know how strong, or how much he hid from her/held back in the past.
Apparently, no one is at all surprised that Maze can throw a bad guy down on the floor like a sack of garbage, indeed, one gets the impression this is now a routine thing in the precinct. Maze also finds out Trixie is not still mad at her, in fact, was missing her a great deal… which is the first crack in the wall of lies Chloe built. Amenadiel reconnects with Dan. But it’s bittersweet in that the very angel who took Charlotte to heaven is telling Dan she is in heaven and he can’t believe Amenadiel because of the Denial Shield around the supernatural in this world. As much as protects humans, it hurts them, too.
Lucifer trying to play the piano with a hole in his hand is actually rather sad. It segues into Lucifer and Chloe having one of the frankest conversations of the whole series. Oddly enough, it’s mostly Lucifer who talks about fear, rejection, and acceptance and Chloe reassures him that despite seeing that he really is THE Devil she still sees him as her partner. What a warm and fuzzy ending…
Oh, wait, there’s more. An inverted shot of a church, Chloe crying, a priest - something is really really wrong here… Like everyone else, Chloe is not what she seems, she’s lying and hiding.
Remember this phrase, though: remember what you’re doing is the best thing for everyone on Earth. Because that’s where everything ends up in the very end.
I binged it over two days, and was surprised/pleased about how much story and character development took place. If there is a fifth season(and I hope there is), I’m betting it will be a season-long arc involving the group finding a way to rectify what happened in the last episode.
I’ve started watching. The one thing that’s weird is that I’m not used to a Netflix series having commercial breaks. I figure the scripts were written with the assumption the show would be on broadcast, and they didn’t try to change it.
I think it is set up that way for later syndication.
It’s also consistent with the way the first three seasons were done - if it’s the same team of writers it may simply be that’s they way they’re used to doing things. They really changed very, very little going from broadcast to Netflix.
The Eve plot was disappointing. It seemed like she’s there to avenge her sons, when he sees her, Amenadiel’s first instinct is to think she is there to take revenge for Cain.
Several times in the season, they hinted that was her true purpose, yet at the end, nothing.
It was not my assumption that Eve was there to avenge anyone. Cain has certainly been punished for being a murderer, which means Abel is avenged, and given the shenanigans Cain no doubt got up to during an outrageously long life… well, mama might be sad her boy is dead and in hell but probably knows he deserves it. The thought occurred to me Eve might be out for revenge but it was pretty clear from when she first showed up she really was on Earth to party.
Her arc concerns the question of free will vs. predestination, hence her multiple references to being created to be someone’s wife and that was her appointed role regardless of what she might want. The reason she likes Lucifer is because he offered her a choice. They get on well because they both rejected their predestined roles in the scheme of things.
Unless you want to follow the idea that God let Eve leave heaven for Earth as part of a long game to get Lucifer back to hell. Obviously, trying to force the most rebellious angel in the universe to go back isn’t going to work out well, but if you can get Lucifer to go back to rule hell of his own free will… Well, that would work. It’s an idea I had after the final episode and I’d love to kick it around, but it’s too spoilery to do that in the open right now I think. I mean, surely God is at least as good a setting in motion a chain of events as Uriel was, right?