Tag: Tom Ellis

Lucifer: Winter Finale – Vanishing Act (Recap/Review)

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This was, for all intents and purposes, an edge of your seat winter finale. Lucifer “A Good Day to Die” was a mixed bag of emotions, plot thread tie-ups and an ending that had Morningstar pulling a vanishing act. Lucifer also goes back to Hell in order to save Chloe but is almost trapped there.

Last week’s episode saw Decker poisoned by the professor. We learn that when she tackled the miscreant he injected her. The race is on to find an antidote before she dies.

This episode was all about guilt.  Lucifer’s guilt at killing Uriel;  whom he encounters in Hell. Charlotte’s guilt at using Uriel to mess about with Lucifer, and of course her guilt at manipulating her son. Amenadiel’s guilt at being a part of God’s plan to place Chloe in Lucifer’s path and of course Professor Carlisle’s guilt about letting his student die.

Carlisle’s punishment in Hell is to eternally relive the moment where he rescued his papers. Lucifer is trapped and must repeatedly kill Uriel and only Charlotte can rescue him.

The plan that Lucifer comes up with it quite clever. Staying in close proximity to Chloe makes him mortal. After tasking Amenadiel with keeping the dying detective in the room above him, Linda Martin agrees to kill Lucifer so he can return to heaven.

After he gets the formula for the antidote for Chloe Lucifer finds Uriel and is caught in his own personal Hell. Charlotte tells Linda, who volunteer’s to go after her client, that she will go instead. Without a moment of hesitation Maze stops Charlotte’s heart.

There are moments of hilarity. Ella telling Chloe and Lucifer that they are luck she remembered to put “pants on…eventually,” when they wake her to come to the station.

Dan getting beaten after blowing his approach to Carlisle’s henchman and Lucifer revealing that he could have gotten free at any time. Maze’s unflinchingly zapping Charlotte’s heart after she volunteers to go after her son.

The episode plays on the fear that Decker is going to die and then gives us a look at how Lucifer has become trapped by his own guilt in his former kingdom.  It ends with both Amenadiel and Charlotte, aka Mum, helping Morningstar to save Chloe and later Lucifer himself.

Decker survives and in keeping with her sudden conversion to being attracted unabashedly to Lucifer goes after her saviour when she is released from hospital. The detective finds the nightclub empty and Morningstar is missing.

This was always in the cards though. Lucifer was mad as hell (pun intended) that the whole Chloe Decker experience was orchestrated by “father.” Charlotte’s confession that she and Amenadiel also manipulated him infuriated him.

Looking at the teaser for the show’s return in May, it looks like the hunt is on for the missing Morningstar.

On a sidenote: Ella Lopez, already a personal favorite, is given more backstory in this episode. We learn that she used to boost cars and has a brother still in the business. She also sleeps sans pants…

There were some standout moments in this episode. Lucifer and his look of horror as he repeatedly stabs Uriel in Hell. Trixie hugging Amenadiel and his look of joy and later the angel fighting off security in order to keep his word to Lucifer. Ella and her brother meeting in the chop shop was also a standout moment.

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DB Woodside and Scarlett Estevez

The winter finale wrapped up some things and left other’s wide open. (All the better to keep the viewer coming back…) Kudos to Tom Ellis who proved once again that his acting chops are huge. Mad props to Lesley-Ann Brandt for making Mazikeen real and funny.

D.B. Woodside rocked it in this episode as well. This ensemble cast managed to pull out all the stops to make this an episode to remember.

Lucifer returns to FOX in May 2017.

Cast:

Guest starring  Tim DeKay as Professor Carlisle, Michael Imperioli as Uriel and Joe Williamson as Burt.

Lucifer: Love Handles – Moral Dilemma (Review)

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The women in Lucifer’s life are all out of sorts in this episode. “Love Handles” does not follow any presumed path as Chloe and Morningstar try to stop a killer who practices a “Saw” type of cause and effect experiment.

This episode does follow on from the final moments of last week’s segment where Andy Kleinburg died after spilling some of that special package on himself. The dead man’s body turns up as evidence this week that helps Ella move the current investigation along.

Professor Carlisle is killing people to prove a point. He chose to save his dissertation paperwork rather then a student. The innocent student died and as a result the academic was vilified and fired from the university where he taught.

While the police rush to save the latest potential victims of Carlisle, Charlotte, aka Lucifer’s mum, tries to find someone to deliver her “devastating” news.  She tries Linda, who flatly refuses and then asks Mazikeen.

Initially the demon agrees but on the night, she backs out. Lucifer learns the truth anyway. He finds out that his father put Chloe in his path. Amenadiel arranged for the girl to be born by blessing her mother.

Clearly Charlotte hopes that Lucifer’s rage at this father’s “betrayal” will work in her favor. When Morningstar confronts Chloe she is, like the college girl they saved earlier, bleeding from the nose and it will not stop.

The designer poisons, introduced last week, are still a plot point in this episode and now that Chloe’s life is threatened, Lucifer will, no doubt, re-think his annoyance that what he and the detective have is “not real.”

Lucifer is rapidly moving toward their mid-winter finale.  The next episode is slated to air February 6 and the series will then not return until 1 May. Clearly the next installment, titled “A Good Day to Die,” is meant to be even more of a cliffhanger than Monday’s episode.

Now that Lucifer now knows about Amenadiel’s “interference” and Charlotte’s knowledge, it seems pretty certain that he will be confronting his brother in the next episode. This, on top of the professor killing himself in this episode, will no doubt exacerbate relations with the angel and God’s “wife.” It will also make Chloe’s fate uncertain.

This was an odd episode. Chloe acts strangely out of character throughout the story line. So much so that Lucifer feels that someone is controlling her movements.  It made for some amusing moments as Lucifer reacts uncomfortably when Decker comes over all coquettish.

The entire Chloe falling in love with Lucifer feels rushed at this point. In a short three episode story arc, we learn that Morningstar’s father orchestrated Decker’s birth and appears to have orchestrated their meeting and Lucifer’s attraction to the miracle girl.

Lucifer “Love Handles” really was all about more than one moral dilemma.  The women in Morningstar’s life all have qualms about getting involved with the issue at hand. As do the people that Carlisle picks in his little experiment.

The series airs in a fortnight’s time with their “mid-winter” finale.

Cast:

Guest starring Jamie Kennedy as Andy Kleinburg, Mike Doyle as Johnny Kane, April Grace as Dr. Scott and Tim DeKay as Professor Carlisle

Lucifer: Stewardess Interruptus – A Moment and Maze (Review)

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Lucifer “Stewardess Interruptus” may well have been all about Lucifer and Chloe and their rocky path to getting Charlotte and Amenadiel back to heaven. However it was Maze, with her demands for a pat on the back, who made this episode stand out.

As Lucifer has his “moment” interrupted by the soon to be murdered Jana, he clearly believes that his prior love life has messed up the connection he just made with Chloe. The two main storylines has Charlotte working overtime to set her son up with Decker and has past lovers of Lucifer’s being murdered.

Mum’s reasoning behind pushing Chloe and Lucifer together stems from the realization that her husband, aka God, set Decker in her son’s path for a reason. She firmly believes that if these two get together, she and Amenadiel will get “the keys to the kingdom.”

Meanwhile two of a trio of former lovers, male and female, have been bumped off. The path of love for Decker becomes fraught with the realization that Lucifer has slept, apparently, with half of Los Angeles.

Lucifer learns, much to his dismay, that none of his lovers feel anything for him. They all admit to his being the best sexual partner ever but apart from that there was nothing there in the way of feelings.

The main suspect, for quite some time, is Lucifer. The episode follows Chloe and Lucifer following the clues to the final potential victim. They learn that the private flight, with all the dead flight crew on it, was transporting what everyone believed to be drugs.

They are not, as Andy Kleinburg finds out before dying, and they belong to a shadowy figure in a fedora.  The items in the case appear to be some sort of biological weapons, in the form of viruses and are clearly going to reappear later on.

Decker and Lucifer finally get their moment, they kiss on the beach, and from the previews at the end of the show, things look to be heating up quite nicely between the two. Charlotte will be pleased.

While all the police work, questioning of most of LA, in the form of Lucifer’s former sexual partners, and Chloe learning that Dan slept with Charlotte, goes on, Maze is eager to get credit for doing “a good deed.”

She “drops the paper” (like dropping the mic) for Chloe when the front page story is of her father’s killer being murdered by the Russian mob. Instead of Decker being happy with the result, she explains to her demon roomie that she wanted the man to rot in prison.

Later, when Maze goes to collect her bounty at the police station, she wants to celebrate with Dan, who was her ally in the Russian deal. He is not pleased and even panics when she talks about the murder in the police station.

Maze goes to see her friend Linda for some free psychiatric advice. Dr. Martin explains to Maze that she needs to appreciate her own self worth from within and not require her friends to recognize her “awesomeness.” Mazikeen takes this to heart and when she agrees to help Chloe and Lucifer she tells her roommate that “awesomeness comes from within b*tches.”

Between Maze’s quest for praise, and her near rage at not getting it, and her glee at beating up the suspect in the sting, “Can I keep him?” Mazikeen provided some quality levity to the proceeds and managed to show some character evolvement in the process.

It has always been just a matter of time before Decker and Lucifer “connected” and this takes the two one step closer to having the sexual congress that Morningstar has always yearned for.

A standout moment on the episode was Lucifer coming into contact with his stalker Suki. Funny and odd it was a comic highlight that did not rely upon Brandt’s frustrated demon for a laugh.

Kudos to Lesley-Ann Brandt for making Mazikeen a joy to watch this season. The demon was a favorite in season one but Brandt, and the writers, have made Maze something special this time around.  Only Brandt can make those looks of absolute delight, insane rage and massive disappointment to shift effortlessly across her face. An MVP award, or an Emmy, is long overdue here.

The show is becoming, more or less, an ensemble piece. However, Tom Ellis, who proves time and again that he can do more than comedy alone, manages to do so much with his character.

The rest of the cast kill it each week as well and it says a lot about the show that the guest roles manage to impress as well.

Lucifer airs Mondays on FOX.

Cast:

Guest starring Jamie Kennedy as Andy Kleinburg, Joe Williamson as Burt, Diana Bang as Suki and Toby Levins as Tim Pickman. 

Lucifer: Trip to Stabby Town – Azrael’s Blade (Review)

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The blade of Azrael has risen from the grave, so to speak, and humans are being murdered left, right and center in this episode of Lucifer. “Trip to Stabby Town” has Morningstar working closely with Ella to learn who took the knife from his brother’s grave.

Chloe gets a tad jealous of the amount of time that Lucifer spends with Ella and Dan is upset that someone is eating his pudding. “It is clearly marked,” he says.   Charlotte, aka Mum, is desperate for attention from  her husband and she causes a murder spree as a means to get it.

It does not work. As mentioned in the last episode, the “big guy” is not responding to any of the family.  Charlotte is adapting to human life but she is not happy to stay on Earth. She wants them all to go home, i.e. Heaven but that is not happening.

The episode starts with a woman riding a bicycle and being chased down by a man in a hoodie sweatshirt. He stabs the young woman 19 times in an alley.  Clues lead back to a yoga guru and a bystander manages to get a picture of the murder weapon.
Lucifer begins his own investigation, enlisting the aid of his brother, Maze and Ella.  The lab tech agrees to help but she wants something in return. She asks the devil to go to church with her.

Before that happens, Lucifer must get the knife back and keep it out of human hands. The Azrael blade causes whoever holds it to use it. The weapon talks to them until they kill. Humans are affected by the knife the moment they come in contact with it.

Amenadiel and Mazikeen rush all over town to find the weapon before more people die.   Lucifer, Ella and Chloe find a lot of dead bodies at the yoga school and they finally find the knife.

The knife is in the chest of the yoga guru.  Before Lucifer can collect the thing someone takes it.  Morningstar finds out that Dan has the knife and Chloe’s soon to be ex is furious at Lucifer. He  blames him for  his marriage failing and accuses him of eating his “clearly marked” pudding.

Dan wounds Lucifer but he manages to fight the influence of the blade and Lucifer gets it back.  By the end of the episode Lucifer, Amenadiel and Charlotte talk about what they want.

Lucifer gets angry at both his brother and Charlotte and the knife’s blade starts flaming.  Amenadiel and Charlotte leave LUX and Mum believes that they have a chance of succeeding.

There was the continuing subplot  with Dr. Linda Martin coming to grips with Lucifer being the devil for real and not as a delusional affectation.  Chloe getting jealous of Ella is amusing as was Dan’s killing rage over the stolen pudding at work.

This episode also dealt with that connection between Chloe and Lucifer in My Little Monkey.  By the end of this episode Linda has gotten over her shock at Lucifer really being the devil and she begins treating him again.

In many ways this episode was quite grim. It was certainly the episode with the highest body count thus far. Ella and Lucifer worked very well together and the chemistry between Tom Ellis and Aimee Garcia is just magic.

The comic highlight of the episode was Lucifer listing Trump as a future denizen of Hell.

Lucifer ars Mondays on FOX.

Cast:

Lucifer: My Little Monkey – Dad (Recap/Review)

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Lucifer “My Little Monkey” is all about the love of a daughter for her dad and acceptance.  The start of the episode sees Chloe’s dad, Officer Decker in a flashback.  A goodnatured cop, Decker is shooting the breeze with a shop owner when he is shot to death as a prelude to a robbery.

The opening sequence sees the proud father waiting for the shopkeeper to finish making his Hawaiian bread. John Decker also gives the man two tickets to Chloe’s film, “Hot Tub High School.” The movie that his little monkey has spent so much time living down.

A man comes in and shoots the cop to death.

This could almost be seen as a late “Father’s Day” episode. Although with Lucifer’s aping of Dan, aka Detective Douche, it could also have been called “Monkey See, Monkey Do.”

Flash forward to the present and Chloe is upset that the man who killed her father is being released from prison on family leave. Lucifer comes in the precinct to complain about Linda cancelling his session and does not catch her pain.

Dan, however, does. Lucifer decides to hang around Dan and learn how to be more like him.  The episode is amusing when it follows Lucifer around. His idea of learning how to be more like Dan includes dressing like the detective and aping his mannerisms.

It gets on Dan’s nerves.

Meanwhile, Chloe confronts Deputy Warden Smith over his decision to let Fields out and follows the prison transport van. She finds the vehicle stationary and its occupants all dead, including the man who killed her father Joe Fields.

Dan offers to investigate the crime and Lucifer offers to help, Dan is not keen but Chloe encourages it. Ella comes in with information on the new case. Fingerprints found on the scene belong to Rodney Lam. Amusingly, Ella still thinks Lucifer is a method actor.

Chloe, Maze and Trixie are still adjusting to their living arrangements.  Joe Fields’ daughter, Tina shows up with a gun and the belief that Chloe killed her dad.

The upset woman shows Decker a video she got from her dad’s attorney. On the recording, shot on the day of John Decker’s murder,  Joe Fields tells his daughter he is innocent.  Based on the exterior seen through the window, Chloe realizes that Fields did not kill her dad.

Meanwhile Dan and “Dan 2” arrest Rodney. Lam confesses to the murder but gets all the facts wrong.  Dan does not believe him and finally Lucifer does his “trick” and gets the man to tell the truth. He was paid to take the fall for the murder.

Maze goes to Linda for a character reference and the terrified woman pretends to be out. Mazikeen then enters her office via the window and Linda admits that she is frightened of the demon.  Linda asks her to go and a hurt Mazikeen leaves.

Dan, Chloe and Lucifer compare notes and they find out that both men were paid to admit to murders they did not commit. Decker has a flashback to her early days on the force and meeting Dan for the first time.

“Luci-Dan” bring Chloe up to date with the news that Lam’s deal was brokered by a Russian mobster named Boris. The two men then go to meet  Boris in a steam room to get information.

Deputy Warden Smith drops off the murdered man’s effects so Chloe can look through them. Touchingly, Ella takes time out to help Decker on the case. Chloe discovers fingerprints that are not in the database and Ella offers to dig deeper and see if she can find a match.

Back at the steam room, Lucifer, who tells the mobster that he is Dan, asks Boris to kill Lucifer Morningstar as he hurts people. It is a revealing moment as Lucifer has never acknowledged that his actions can be hurtful before. Clearly hanging around Dan has rubbed off.

Boris commits to killing Morningstar, convinced after the real Dan agrees that Morningstar is not very nice. The mobster is then arrested and Chloe questions Boris. He admits nothing but confesses that he knows the name  John Decker.

Dan congratulates Lucifer on a job well done. As the two men talk Chloe arrives and tells them the death of her dad was a “hit.” Maze is frustrated about her lack of success on the job front and Linda’s defection.

Lucifer follows Dan to a improv club and catches Chloe’s ex parodying him. Dan does a spot on impression, vocally, but his definition of Lucifer infuriates Morningstar who stops his improvisational session.

They then argue and as the two talk Lucifer reveals that he is upset at hurting Linda as well as his “family members.” Dan then explains that he is not as “good” as Lucifer thinks. The detective reveals that the improv is a type of therapy session.

Dan asks his temporary partner not to tell Chloe.

Lucifer is summoned to Chloe’s house and Maze angrily accosts her former boss. Morningstar then helps Chloe solve the case. The culprit is Deputy Warden Perry Smith.

They go to question the man and Dan tells them that he gave them the slip.  Mazikeen catches Smith for Chloe and she questions the man who murdered her father. She comes very close to shooting him.

Maze goes to see Linda and excitedly shows off her first “paycheck” as a bounty hunter. The doctor finally opens the door after the demon tells her that she wanted to celebrate with her friend.

By the end of the episode, Linda and Maze reunite  and Lucifer makes Chloe cry when he tells her that her father would be proud of her. She then hugs him.

There was no sign of Charlotte or Amenadiel in this episode which allowed for more focus on Lucifer, Dan, Chloe and Maze, as well as Linda. The message seems to be that demons and the devil can change their ways.

“My Little Monkey” (the line spoken by John Decker moments before being murdered) was a touching episode. It gave the viewer a deeper look at Dan and Maze.  It also revealed that Lucifer was upset that he had hurt his therapist.

The bottom line, from Maze and Lucifer’s point of view is that they both want acceptance from their friends. Each one is working to be a better person because of this.

Lucifer is still one of the best shows on FOX at the moment.  The series airs   Mondays after Gotham.  Make sure to tune in for the next episode, based on the preview it should be a corker.

Cast:

Guest starring Alex Fernandez as Deputy Warden Perry Smith, Ronnie Gene Blevins as Rodney Lam, Chris Payne Gilbert as John Decker, Caitlin Stryker as Tina Fields and  Charles Halford – as Boris Sokolov.

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