All because he doesn’t want to be manipulated by his father. Because it’s not like Lucifer is against saving people. However, to possibly do so in such a bold, angelic fashion—but unable to make a choice in the matter—is definitely not Lucifer’s jam. Which is exactly the point of this.

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As if Lucifer’s week-long exercise in staying awake isn’t trippy enough, it’s actually the moment where he lands on—and becomes obsessed with—Bones that the episode cranks up the surrealism. (The most honest moment of the episode is Lucifer calling himself the Bones to Chloe’s Booth... then pretending to know a thing about forensics.) There’s something absolutely inspired about the fact that Lucifer actually hires Scott Rinker, the actor who played the killer in the Bones episode “Intern In The Incinerator,” to technically play himself here. It’s just a fascinating choice and storytelling gamble that pays off tremendously.

The rest of the episode post-montage features Lucifer in a frazzled, nearly broken state, to the point where he looks like he’s going to have a psychotic breakdown if he hasn’t already. At first, it seems like things will come to a head in the interrogation room scene with Chloe (aka the scene where Lucifer’s stubbornness re: his wings really comes back to bite him in the ass). There, Lucifer finally takes Dr. Linda’s advice and confronts something that’s been bothering him, head-on—he even tells Chloe that Pierce is “Cain. From the Bible.”—but it’s too late and too “crazy” sounding (and looking) for her. Then we get the moment where Lucifer learns Maze and Pierce are working together, with the subsequent Miami Vice homage, and Lucifer finally going after Pierce. From the montage on, Tom Ellis spends the rest of the episode looking absolutely terrible (as much as he can), even in what should be his triumphant moment in finding Pierce to deal with him. But even as he confronts Pierce, even as he overpowers him, Lucifer still looks defeated. It’s quite frankly, pretty hard to watch.

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Looking at the actual “Angel of San Bernardino” concept, at first, this episode’s premise looks like Lucifer’s version of Angel (another David Boreanaz joint) season one’s (the show at its most procedural) “Somnambulist.” In that episode, Angel finds himself possibly sleep-killing—similar to the way Lucifer thinks he might be sleep-flying (and sleep-saving lives). In both of these episodes, neither man actually ends up responsible for these things, but Lucifer makes a very bold choice in having its issue be a matter of Maze gaslighting Lucifer.

After all her acting out in the Amenadiel/Linda situation (and with Lucifer’s refusal to take her back to Hell), Maze’s behavior in this episode is finally rather indefensible. “She’s a fricken demon.” doesn’t count as defense. She actively betrays Lucifer—which is a big no-no for her—and takes a sick amount of pleasure in both that and potentially causing Chloe emotional pain. She even wears fake wings just to pull all this off. And for what? For Lucifer to send her back to Hell? He’s not going to give her what she wants, not like this. And what about when she pretends to want to reconcile with Chloe? Maze doesn’t appear to be coming from a place of hurt or even anger anymore: It all seems just like pure, unadulterated hatred.

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To be clear, I acknowledge that Pierce has warped her mind and convinced her that all the doubt she had when it came to these people was real. Maze is filling a role she believes everyone truly sees her as. But she’s got to take responsibility for these actions eventually.

And as hard as it is to watch, Lesley-Ann Brandt’s performance as she reveals her (and Pierce’s) evil plan to Lucifer is amazingly chilling. Maze is of course written as a character who can kick ass, but she’s so rarely—arguably never—written as a character whose joy in the darker things is actually disturbing. There’s usually a lot of “oh, Maze” from characters when it comes to her behavior; but there is no “oh, Maze” in her scene with Lucifer, at least not in the standard lovable rogue way. It’s always been a pretty agreed upon position that Lucifer is mostly a crappy friend to Maze. But this is many steps too far, especially when you take into account that Chloe (and especially Trixie, as a result) did nothing wrong for Maze to take so much pleasure (that’s the demon, I guess) in her potential suffering.

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To wrap this up: This episode would’ve been an A if not for the general confusion stemming from the Chloe/Pierce relationship. As good as this episode is about making these characters’ feelings work, there’s the question of how much time has passed between “Orange Is The New Maze” and now, to even put “I love you” on the table. (The very concept of time is only even addressed when Chloe informs Lucifer he’s been MIA for a week.) As Chloe says, this is her first relationship post-divorce. Arguably, it’s her rebound. And she’s just now getting around to telling Trixie about him. After a month? Maybe? There’s also the matter of filling in the blanks better about why Pierce thinks getting Chloe to say she loves him is the key. “Let Pinhead Sing!” gave Pierce the light bulb moment to pursue Chloe for this purpose, but his specific reasoning—and how he got Maze to think he was onto something—is disappointingly unclear here.

Even without those answers, it is kind of darkly funny to realize that the true key to losing the mark of Cain was (presumably) to finally feel some guilt, to show some remorse of any kind. After all this time. To finally come from a selfless place, something I’ve regularly mentioned Pierce just don’t do. Until now.*

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* Despite being good at it, Pierce’s cop status is shown to be mostly about climbing the ladder, gaining access, having the ability to transfer at the drop of a hat, and even just having a challenge in his eternal life. A selfless desire to save people or even rid the world of evil has never once come up when it comes to his profession. The time he took a bullet for Chloe... was a suicide attempt.

Stray observations