NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “Lucifer” are present in this review
After going off the air back at the end of January, Lucifer finally returns with its long-awaited midseason premiere this week! “Candy Morningstar” presented quite the interesting fallout to the midseason finale’s events, as Lucifer goes missing for two weeks, with Lux also being seemingly shut down in the process. Obviously though, Lucifer can’t stay away from the LAPD for long, even if his apparent rashness leads to him making a big decision, one that Chloe naturally takes considerable issue with!
This was a pretty strong midseason premiere, particularly in how it focused on Lucifer’s and Chloe’s efforts to balance professional duties with personal feelings. The show effectively didn’t play to expectation here, since, rather than portray a bunch of poe-faced seriousness regarding Lucifer’s apparent breakdown, the show instead finds a comedic solution that allows the two to repair their relationship, while also upholding this show’s strong sense of humour. Turns out, Lucifer ended up marrying a stripper in Las Vegas, who serves as the titular Candy Morningstar!
Obviously, Chloe immediately despises Candy, who initially comes off as an airhead, despite being surprisingly skilled at pointing out evidence in the LAPD’s latest murder case. Chloe even tells Lucifer that they can no longer work together, despite Lucifer coming back because he couldn’t stay away from catching criminals. This might seem unprofessional at first blush, but it nicely highlights just how much Lucifer’s and Chloe’s work and personal ties have started to meld together.
Another standout moment in the episode comes when Lucifer is forced to confront his family regarding his actions as well. Despite not wanting to associate with his mother at first, Lucifer tells Amenadiel that the real reason why he ran off and married a stripper was because he wanted to restore Chloe’s freedom, since God essentially put her on the path to falling for Lucifer, against her will. It’s twisted, but also legitimately noble in its own way, adding an effective layer of big thinking to go along with the outward selfishness of Lucifer marrying Candy.
It was also satisfying in the end to see that Lucifer’s marriage to Candy was never real, and that she was merely an actress hired by Lucifer to try and learn his mother’s agenda, while also deflecting Chloe and allowing her to move on from him. Apparently, Lucifer, “Saved Candy’s life” by some unspecified means back in Las Vegas, and she helped him with his family issues because she owed him a favour. Maybe Lucifer was an opportunist, but we’ll never quite be sure, since these events all happened off-screen. Maybe it’s better that way though, since it allows us to assume the best of Lucifer, who really does look like he’s trying to fix a complicated situation, with the best results possible.
Even if the episode was mostly about the strained relationships between Lucifer and Chloe, and Lucifer and his family, there was still a case-of-the-week in this midseason premiere, though sadly, it did somewhat feel like an afterthought. The latest murder case largely served as an excuse to force Lucifer and Chloe to work out their issues, as an amateur musician is murdered, and Chloe is forced to rely on Lucifer’s ingenuity to proceed with the investigation. The killer’s final motive is pretty lame, since the drummer merely murdered the victim because he wanted to split from the band and go solo, but Chloe saving Lucifer allowed Candy to blurt out the true depths of Lucifer’s anguish in separating from her, which allows Chloe to forgive him, and decide to work with him again.
Obviously, Lucifer and Chloe weren’t going to be apart for long, even as Mama Morningstar tells Lucifer that he already has the means to return to Heaven, via Azrael’s Blade. This feels a bit contrived, since it’s inexplicable that Mama Morningstar is only now outing Azrael’s Blade as a divine weapon that can open the gates of Heaven, but at least this should hopefully keep the show’s divine storytelling element going strong in the back half of Season Two, especially since God seems to be poised to come down to Earth to intervene with Lucifer’s own intervention in His plans at some point soon.
“Candy Morningstar” offered a reliably fun way to resume Season Two of Lucifer, presenting some surprisingly enjoyable fallout for Lucifer and Chloe in the wake of Chloe’s near-death experience, even if our latest case-of-the-week had to take a backseat to the rest of the storytelling. Similarly, Mama Morningstar suddenly declaring a straightforward path back to Heaven comes out of nowhere, but as long as the new function of Azrael’s Blade lends itself well to the rest of the season’s story arcs, I suppose that’s a minor quibble. All in all though, it’s just great to have Lucifer back, after a long three months’ hiatus. The show continues to be as entertaining as ever, and now that things seem to be mostly back to normal for the leads, here’s hoping that the back half of Season Two is just as strong as the front half!