Lucifer 217 + 218 "Sympathy for the Goddess" & "The Good, the Bad and the Crispy

For those of you who don't know this about , my sister , tracy , has a bachelor's degree in religion , well and English , because she she double majored like a mofo boss and then she has a master's degree in modern Jewish history from University of Chicago Divinity School , the Divinity School of the University of Chicago .

Wow , that's cool . I don't like book crap but no , you know , you can't get better source material than the Torah and the Bible . Yeah , but seeing what happens when people are exposed to the goddess's light Very much reminded me of that .

Now , in Exodus , when there's the description of what will happen to the priests who come to not just the holy but the holy of holies , which is where Hashem resides on earth or comes to visit on earth , it's unclear . It's unclear .

That is like there's some very specific things that you need to do to protect yourself and that is specifically Hashem in this incarnation of what we're talking about in Lucifer . That would be God , right , the masculine , but you know , yeah yeah , yeah . But , as your daughter once pointed out , you don't know , god's product Pronouns . Yeah .

And for instance , it says specifically like when God allows Moses to see God's self , god says you hide yourself in these rocks and I'll pass by and you'll see my backside , basically because no one can see my face and live . That is the phrase which this show we'll see later just doesn't bother .

Doesn't bother , I know , but the notion that the power , which is light , is dangerous and deadly is certainly resonant with the ancient understanding of divinity and the idea that , like , the container of the human body is insufficient to hold .

It is also really resonant with a lot of , not just not just from Torah , but like from the years and years of commentary , like the Kabbalistic idea of the breaking of the vessels , which is where we get the phrase to Kuno Lam .

So this Midrash , this idea that in the beginning , when God started to create , god poured God's self into , or , you know , emanations of God's self into these vessels that couldn't contain and they shattered and now those shards are sort of scattered throughout our existence and it is our job to try and like retrieve them and put them back together , tikkun alarm ,

repair them . Sorry , this is like far afield , but no , this is fantastic .

But just yeah , this , the idea that a container could sort of hold the essence , but not indefinitely , definitely feels resonant with the mythos , and this is bigger than just Torah , like this is also includes like much later commentary and thinking , but that idea definitely feels very resonant and interesting and actually to even the like the rabbi I study with who

talks about God as radioactive , even sort of the disregard that the goddess has for sort of who is harmed , like there's a story of Nandav and Abih , who two sons of Aaron , who were priests , who brought alien fire to the altar , which nobody knows for sure what that means , and there are lots of different commentaries on what it might mean , but they get zapped

like just dead , like no trial , no pleasing , thank you , just alien fire . And they are , they're out , they're done , yeah , and so that sort of like you break the rules and there are like serious consequences also sort of feels . I mean in our show like the rule that gets broken is that the container gets actually like pierced , which is totally not the same .

But the fact that she's sort of indifferent actually feels relatively aligned to me with the at least the surface level of the way that the characters of the divine are shaped . There's sort of a this is how it is Like there's- .

So we talked a little bit before about how she's the goddess of creation , but that also means she's the goddess of destruction , because they're two sides of the same coin and the sense of like mother nature , in that mother nature is a creative force but also an extremely destructive force and does not care who is in her path .

So when there's , you know , just thinking about things like you know , we're having climate change and it's like these huge storms that once a century are happening every year .

That is coming from the same earth that created so much life and created the place , the room for us to be able to have such abundant life and diversity of life , and , similarly , the vessel that worked like as human beings and this is not a completely thought out thought but that as human beings were getting out of balance .

And so it's like nature is reclaiming balance with a lot of the ways that climate changes is .

I don't know that the character of the goddess as shown in Lucifer bears that out , because there's very little incremental about the goddess in Lucifer , right Like she's all Caprice , she's all you know , like in the episode God Johnson that we talked about in our last episode , when she's talking to whatever version of God you know and sort of talks about how she

was always sending plagues and destruction , like it's always like the big dramatic things with her . It's not . There isn't sort of the incremental like growth and rebirth of mother nature in the way that you're describing .

I'm not saying that's not like out there in the universe or even potentially in Jewish tradition , but this emanation in this piece of pop culture I don't think is tapping into that creative . I mean , there's a fierce love for her children , but there is not sort of that like ongoing , incremental , cyclical nature .

20th every year and things like that , it seems capricious .

There is something to that , like the way early humans would try to appease a goddess yeah , yeah , I try for fertility for crops , for you know all of those things , and so I just feel like this show has done a really good job of like channeling a lot of those kind of collective , like narratives that we kind of just all have access to and share in one way

or another . Like you could see , you know Shirley Jackson's the Lottery yeah , you could see the people in that short story . It's a town , stone stiff . One member of the town every year to guarantee a good prop . You could see the goddess being the one that they're like yep , we're doing this for you .

Like I could see the goddess from Lucifer and her being like I don't really know why you're doing this , whatever . I mean , like you have a flush boat , Sure , go ahead . You know , a little blood doesn't hurt the crops , and that's just kind of what I'm reacting to is there's something very human and collective about the understanding of birth and destruction .

You know creation and death , like of either side , at the same point that you see , with the goddess , which makes her very alien to us , like you know , even as like they make her sympathetic throughout the season , but the way that this story ends , when Menadilat says to her you will have to kill me , there is no humanity in her there that we can like , go

like . Okay , yeah , I can see where she's coming from . And that speaks to the writing , Like I think they did a really good job of writing . Speaks to Trisha Helfer like , again , I'm not entirely sure she's human , but that's not quite human way of dealing with things and the indifference to other lives and all of that .

But yeah , some sort of anyway , that's an overthinking special , that's definitely an overthinking moment , but that like switch , you know , from sort of feeling like resentful and whatever to like you know , and then everything changes about Amenadil's comportment , I think , is really it resonates it , just you know , and actually too .

Then Chloe's reaction Did your father actually say that to you ?

Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , that was intense too and real , like that felt really real and I think that actually it was that realization that gave him the strength back to do what he needed to do , to slow time , so slow time to save Linda , because he well , I mean , he says it , he says it out loud .

I was , I thought I had failed , but it turns out , you know , I was the favorite that that like shifted enough in his mindset to give him that power back , at least temporarily .

He's like yeah , but I'm dad's favorite . Yeah , and like , again , that shows like , as Linda says , it's the most dysfunctional family in the universe . Uh-huh , cause , like wow , that's messed up , Like the whole thing , the whole thing is messed up .

And then further messed up that you know thinking like when there are dynamics like that in a family , when there is someone who is known to be the favorite , and like the golden child , that's as unfair and difficult for them as it is for the black sheep or the outcast .

It's never gonna be a complete picture , because the way that you fill in the blanks and because you can't see things from the parent's point of view , from the other sibling's point of view , all of that , and then again the scene where he's trying improv Dan , yeah , yeah .

I Appreciate that , but the maze storyline where she and Lucifer get into that , that big fight . Mm-hmm is so heartbreaking . And it's not just that he's done it this time , it's that he does it over and , over and over again and it doesn't even occur to him that she has feeling . Yeah , yeah .

And like it makes you , makes it harder to like Lucifer , you're like , this is your most Like , your closest companion , your best friend , the person that you have known the longest in the world . Who ? Who has left back ? Yeah , who left her home for you ? Yeah , and you don't even think about how things are gonna affect you think of her as a person ?

Yeah , and that's . That's really gross . It's really gross of him . You know , chloe doesn't understand maze , but she sees her . Linda understands maze better because she knows what she is and Sees her . A men , a deal like kind of flickers in and out , but he's he can see her Like .

He saw her anguish at Linda's , you know , dying and it was more about mazes anguish . Not that he didn't care about Linda , but you know yeah .

You know , like , when you really think about things from her point of view and how much she has gone through and put up with and how emotionally immature she is , you know she's , she's like a newborn in some ways , like emotionally , and she's trying , she's trying really hard and screws up and then like , and there are times when her Like she's so upset that

she , she does something because she knows it's gonna hurt him and like seeing this , like , yeah , that's fair . I feel for her very much .

And at no point is he like you know , obey me , yeah , yeah , like he fights with her Closer to equals . Then , like what , in the very first few episodes , in particular , yeah , of the first season , where we see him like you watch your tongue , you know , yeah , yeah .

And and actually what does make him fight back is when she says you're just like your parents , yeah , like when she gets at him emotionally but the sort of like you're my servant , kind of Domination , yeah , actually come out in that whole like in this whole episode , which is , I think , makes sense , because it would be hard , it would be hard to be sympathetic

to him if he continued that kind of dominant domineering .

The writing , the dialogue , points back to the long , the length of the longevity of their relationship and what it was for Millennia until the past , you know whatever , two years or whatever it is , yeah , yeah , so which is ?

That does it like her timing on that . And then also her like you know what ? Since I'm not a therapist , I'm just gonna tell you . Yeah , I wonder how often therapists feel like you know what . I wish I could just just tell you instead of guiding you through it , because , damn it , it's so obvious .

I was thinking about what trouble Charlotte Richards should be in , because Because someone inhabiting her body did kill someone , right though they try to explain that away in that last scene when she says that's what I'm thinking , maybe I think maybe Hector did both , and here's my problem with that .

So I feel like they did that For the watchers to be like wait Khan , should Charlotte be arrested , something , and I appreciate that , but it looks like corruption because Presumably Hector is now dead , like we don't see him again . But he got shot , but he got shot . I got shot , yeah , and we see , we see her taking his pulse .

Charlotte Richards is still alive and clearly something has happened . She's , she doesn't know what's going on , and so it feels like , instead of following it to Like the answer , khloé is like it's a little easier Just blame it on the brown guy who's dead , can't defend himself , less paperwork . Wee .

Now I know part of my going there is the fact that we are thinking about this show . As Kapaganda , we are taking a very critical eye about something that's entertainment , but also knowing some of the really awful stuff that has come to light about policing in America , and the LAPD in particular .

That throwaway line , which I feel like they did just to make the story work so that they could keep Trisha Hull for the past , puts Khloé as a detective in a really ugly light . I didn't notice the first time I watched , or even the second or third time I watched , but looking at it this time I was like it's awfully convenient .

I agree that Hector killed the other girl , I agree . Well , hector did kill the other girl yeah , exactly , but it's convenient that he did , because that means that they can just like OK , you must have done it all .

It's a 44-minute show . They're snappy , snappy . They don't know if they're going to get a third season , because every season is up in the air . I get all of that , but I do think that we need to be thinking critically about what messages these send , these sorts of things send , because pop culture is culture and it does create our expectations of the world .

I mean like , yeah , and that again , like some of this you just go with because it's a TV show .

But these are the sorts of things that I want to see , and I think that it's important that we see show creators , writers , artists grappling with , rather than just hand waving , stuff that we've hand waved for always , like actually taking the time to engage with it in a way , even when it's just a popcorn TV show .

Now I just don't wanna believe it of Lucifer , although like he really did not have much of a choice , Like he found seeing none of the above as an option .

I mean , I think it was as much his will as it was the actual sword , because I'm sorry , like wee . There has to be a little something else . Okay , we have really gone in deep . No , I wanna fluff it up a little bit . Oh yeah let's do some fluff .

I wanna actually come back to one of the fluff that we , in the very beginning that we talked about the scene where he's in the corvette talking to a menadio , like desperate , like she has Chloe , it's like three quarter view and he has this , like like a tough this frizzy lock like right over his forehead , and it's one of those moments where I'm like , oh ,

he has curly hair , Ellis has curly hair , lucifer does not . It's like one of those moments . It's just like I mean and he's like , I tried to take a , I watched it on my phone , I tried to take a screenshot and Netflix must have a thing that you can't do it . It just turned out black .

But you know , he's got a bunch of makeup on cause he's got like the bruise on his cheek and stuff . But that one like sort of like lock , frizzy , like brush , like when I brush out my curls , they turn into that , like that's what it looks like , that poof . Yeah , he must , they must .

That must have been a humid day or a day back at the beach or something for earlier . Cause it . Yeah , it is not Lucifer's curl pattern In some else's curl pattern , in that , in that moment that was my little fluffy over thinking .

I love Chloe being competent at her job and so like , for one thing , when Ruiz , the mama Ruiz I can't remember her name , yonka , I think Yonka , yeah , when she was like who are you ? I know everyone at this party , and she , like having heard the song once , is able to like pair it back some lyrics yeah , yeah , once .

Like not to take a party , party and and like when she's like she's a tired looking blonde wearing what looks like she plucked off the floor and then Chloe .

And then when she's like , let's get this pajama party started , and it's just like she showed up dressed to the nines , her way still you know she's still herself , which is that's kind of cool . And then I didn't notice the first time around , like I just , you know , I like . I was like , oh , I like the dress and the boot combination .

And then , like , had to think about , like , why do I like the dress and the boot combination ? Because my taste was forged in the fires of the 90s . If it were up to me , I would still be wearing the darker lip liner with the lip gloss on the thin Cause . I love that look and it looks ridiculous , but that's how I was taught to do lipstick .

When will that come back , friends ? When ? So that's one of my fluffy moments . Another fluffy moment , well , two others . So Amenadiel , when he's doing that very earnest moment in In the improv , in the improv , like a light behind him .

Light behind him , like , for one thing , he is lit beautifully , oh , beautifully , like , oh , you look delicious , but it looks like an angel yeah . But eyeliner on that Cause his eyes just pop and it's just like you can tell me anything I'm gonna do .

Even though I was running behind and I was gonna make my poor sister wait , I was like she will understand . This is important work .

All right , I would love to know if this gets your therapist to watch Lucifer . I haven't asked .

I would love to hear a therapist respond to how Lucifer handles mental illness and like its metaphors for mental illness and things like that . Maybe if I can get a friend who's a therapist I know one or two like can you watch this and then like comment on it ? You know somewhere .

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