NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “Lucifer” are present in this review
Lucifer, like Gotham, is only sticking around for a few weeks in January, before going on an extended Winter/Spring hiatus that will see it off the air until the very start of May. Fortunately, Lucifer’s midseason premiere, “Stewardess Interruptus”, at least kicked off the show’s brief January stint on a reliably entertaining note, as Lucifer is once again forced to examine his own morality and growing connection to humanity.
The front portion of Season Two ended with Lucifer and Chloe about to share a kiss for the first time, though as this midseason premiere picks up, the two are interrupted by a sexy stewardess that’s come for a booty call with Lucifer. This scares Chloe away, and reminds her of who Lucifer actually is, though Lucifer sends the stewardess away shortly afterward, clearly disturbed by the experience. This leads into another strange twist however, when said stewardess shows up dead in the LAPD’s latest crime scene, and Lucifer wonders if he’s inadvertently to blame for it.
There’s a lot of smart moral and emotional dynamics at play with Lucifer’s character in this episode, as he’s forced to confront his love of philandering and what it now means with the opportunity to pursue a more serious romantic relationship with a human. Chloe trying to be dismissive and maintain the professional status quo made sense, but it was also effectively heartbreaking for Lucifer, whose honesty now seems to make him the voice of reason in the supposed, “Moment” that the two had back at Lucifer’s place.
Further benefiting the episode is how well the case-of-the-week tied in with Lucifer’s character, which is often when this show’s procedural element is at its best. After a man turns up dead later, and Lucifer has to admit to Chloe that the man was also one of his former lovers, officially confirming at last that Lucifer is bisexual (this was implied early in the first season, but it’s only now been officially confirmed), and making Lucifer the sole link between the victims. This puts Chloe in the unenviable position of having to interview a huge litany of Lucifer’s past lovers over the past eight weeks, as Lucifer listens in on the other side of a two-way mirror with Dan. This was pretty funny, especially as Lucifer’s claims of being an amazing lover are verified by all involved, though he’s also forced to hear the line of women (and at least one man) claim that Lucifer meant nothing to them, and they had no emotional connection. This hurts Lucifer’s feelings, though honestly, this was the one part of the episode that was a bit difficult to swallow. Is it really that much of a shock to Lucifer that his one-night stands that he doesn’t care about don’t care about him either?
Fortunately, Lucifer’s lack of emotional connection with his former lovers also helps make the case-of-the-week more interesting in the sense that Lucifer can’t tell Chloe a single thing about either victim, forcing Chloe to hunt down the facts by herself. This leads to Chloe having to reluctantly enlist Maze’s help to hunt down the final suspect, a drug pusher that was linked to the two victims’ working history as flight attendants, with Lucifer having hooked up with both attendants being merely coincidence in the end. Nonetheless, the man believes that Lucifer has stolen a mysterious package of drugs from him that he’s desperate to get back, which is why the other two victims were murdered, and that’s where the climax comes into play, even though Lucifer quickly resolves it by showing his true face to the murderer, and paralyzing him with fear so he can be easily arrested.
Oh, by the way, there is something of a subplot with Maze, but it does somewhat get buried in the more prevalent case-of-the-week with Lucifer and Chloe. After Maze is surprised to see Dan not wanting to celebrate signing off on the Russian mob killing the perpetrator behind Chloe’s father’s murder, referencing events from the midseason finale from this past November, Maze starts getting her feelings hurt, and thinking that her friends don’t appreciate her. This leads to her undertaking a quick session with Linda, who gives Maze the easy advice of finding her self-worth within. It’s mostly a throwaway subplot that serves as little more than comic relief, but at least Maze injected a welcome bit of humour into this episode, considering that Lucifer was significantly more serious than usual this week.
Mama Morningstar and Amenadiel are also still scheming in the background, this time actively plotting to bring Lucifer and Chloe together for their own ends. Mama Morningstar tells both Lucifer and Chloe that they deserve to be together, while Amenadiel even forces out a compliment regarding Lucifer’s honesty and personal self-worth, helping him to see that he’s right to believe in his prospects with Chloe. The efforts of the two seem to pay off at the end of the episode as well, with Chloe finally kissing Lucifer on the beach during the final seconds of the episode! This should be an exciting and happy moment, though it’s also implied that the mysterious ‘package’ that the drug smuggler was looking for is actually not drugs, but another divine relic that a shady figure is after. Does this mystery package have anything to do with Lucifer and Chloe paving the way for Amenadiel and Mama Morningstar to return to Heaven? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Lucifer started its 2017 run on a great note with, “Stewardess Interruptus”, even if some of Lucifer’s more vulnerable side didn’t totally add up. Still, Lucifer and Chloe finally hooking up is something that should prove pretty satisfying to longtime fans of this series, even if it might spell trouble for them later on. It was also fortunate that the Maze subplot, while largely overshadowed by the rest of events, helped to keep the show light-hearted, and avoid Lucifer’s drama from overriding the rest of the fun. We only have a couple more episodes in January to start seeing where this all goes, but hopefully, we start learning the implications of Lucifer’s and Chloe’s new relationship early, since we’ll otherwise have to wait until later this Spring to start getting answers.