Lucifer 303 + 304 "Mr. and Mrs. Mazikeen Smith" & "What Would Lucifer Do?"

So , Mr and Mr and Mrs Smith's is an episode that was originally supposed to be for season two . I think it was filmed during season two and then , for whatever reason I don't remember , like there was weirdness it got moved to season three .

So that is part of the reason why I think the next episode feels a little jarring , because episodes one and two see Lucifer having starting to have this crisis because he's changing . Then , mr and Mrs Mazikine Smith he's not the protagonist of that episode , but he seems he's doing fine .

And then the fourth episode , all of a sudden he's back to that and then we end with that stunning cruelty to his brother and it's just like wait , what ? What happened ? Why ? And I think that's because of where it was . Now , the other thing about this episode is Leslie and Brandt was pregnant .

But story construction wise , I want to talk about how well they work around the fact that she's pregnant , because it's set in Canada in the winter , when it's normally a Los Angeles show . Leslie and Brandt is a goddess and I wish I looked like how she looks at whatever , like four or five months pregnant , like showing . I wish I looked like that normally .

So some of it is that . But then there's also the way that they wrote the story within those constraints and we're still character driven . So within those constraints of you know , like she's in Canada , like we want her bounty hunting , we want this to be a maze centric episode . We want it to be about , you know , her chosen family , all of that .

We are going to need her to be able to fight , which is tough . The choreography is amazing . I don't know how they did that with when she was so pregnant and we want her to have backup from the main cast because she's not there .

And so , like my imagining is that the writer's room like they probably had the idea for the mistrum Mrs Nazakine Smith , and like it was going to be she was bounty hunting someone , so they probably had that idea , was my guess .

And then Leslie and Brandt is pregnant and they're like , oh okay , that's gonna make it tougher , and yet they still managed to make everything character driven , so like they had it , that's like the Ben Rivers as a character we're just introduced to .

But the fact that he's on the run , like if he's gonna be in this , you know , super like posh ski resort in Canada , that fits . Then they want someone from the main cast to be there and so they get Dan there , and that also fits because he uses points to go on his vacation .

Like they wrote it in in a way that it is like you can see the writer's hand at work .

And it kind of goes to show that , in some ways , creating tighter boundaries on your creativity gives you more freedom in some ways . So like they had to do so , like if you say , like just write a story , it's just like where we say I don't disagree that you can get better outcomes .

You know , like they lean into it , like the guy that she norm nails yeah , norm , they're a real B , but he feels like I mean , just you feel for him , he's free .

I also thought it was interesting the distinction between physical danger and emotional danger is made in Mr and Mrs Mazekine Smith . It is totally lost on Lucifer , which makes sense , but it's lost on him because he is so emotionally immature . I thought that was a , you know , an interesting distinction again , sort of thinking about dramatic irony in a different .

It's a , it's a like a twist a little bit , but in so far as , like those of us watching who you know , our adults moving through the world , and recognize that you know there's a lot more going on than just the physical versus . You know Lucifer , like it's maize , she can handle anything , she'd be fine , you know . And Chloe , like you don't get it .

You know he really didn't , he really didn't get it .

The first time was like you're only mildly handsome this time around . I don't know something . Something switched from like oh no , no , no , I see it , I can , I can see it , I can see it . That's why .

So it's interesting , also because Ben Rivers occupies a place similar to that of Lucifer in that he is a little bit like walking heroin to all these women he's conning . So I'm thinking like , specifically , the lawyer yeah . She knows better and she's a knockout .

So it's not like she's lacking for suitors like suitors , probably , and that that I think is also interesting that the person to break me is similar to Lucifer in some ways .

So that's an interesting parallel that I didn't think of until you just made that connection .

You know , anytime there's a giant suitcase and there's a child involved , child in the suitcase , but you know like well , no , she's , I can't let her go alone , she needs backup . And then like knuckles in the whole life , knuckles , whatever . And the fact that she sent Miss Alien with her .

Every time I've seen this like I appreciate that you like it got a little dirty , like is that blood Cool ? Like I appreciate the humor of that . And yet I'm still at the like do not let that child touch that , get that clean .

And like I never considered myself much of a germaphobe but I'm just like ew , you don't know where Ben Rivers has been , do not let her touch that . But I also really like I appreciate that he wakes up clutching Miss Alien . Yeah , we also have the return of someone eating dance pudding it was labeled and the like .

The other piece is like Chloe's competence as a detective , like her spidey sense that something was off about her era , which which I like . Just watching it , it all seems like a reasonable thing , like he's got so much plausible tonight . I ability in everything that he's he's asking , but she's like there's something not right about this . Yeah , yeah .

But that's a part that feels forced to me . Yeah , Even once it's revealed it feels forced . Yes , I agree . Well , it actually it felt more forced once it was revealed .

As you know , we're back on the you know Lucifer sort of falling apart , growing , evolving , not sure where he is and who he is , and he is back to being like just a complete dick in this episode and then he's like I feel like there was , there was some growth and I started to you started to sort of see like what Chloe sees in him .

That's like continued arc , continued arc .

Or get off that horse , and he goes what horse ?

Because it requires a supernatural explanation for that exchange to go down the way that it did . You know , I mean not , at least after a certain point , I feel like you know , when he had the golf club , and then he does the mojo and he's like I'm exhausted , like all of that I believed .

But then he was like when he was like well , here's what I'll do for you .

It maybe it was meant to sort of show us that there is like this supernatural ability to be liked or to kind of which I feel like we see later in other places , like the bonus episode , one of the most episodes that you're talking about we see where , like folks who shouldn't like him .

So I don't know , but anyway , at that moment kind of stood out for me .

Have you seen her body ? But you know , I want to nap and I want to play cards with Marsha and it's like what does Marsha want ? Yeah , why did ? Why did you get to decide to blow up your marriage ?

And now you get to say you know what , I'm going to come back , yeah , and like , not that , that , like it's such a throwaway moment and and you know , you know nothing about their past , their relationship , you know nothing . She might have been like , hey , go sell her . I don't think we got married at 22 .

I don't care , like I'm exactly , I don't want to have sex anymore anyway . So go do that . I'll be here if you want to come back . Like , who knows , that might have been how it went down . But I just I remember thinking like the very first time , and particularly because you come back and meet her , I just remember thinking like why is she okay with this ?

And this is icky and eww . So that's another reason why this , this episode doesn't really resonate with me . Now I want to talk about story construction in terms of this episode , and I'm going to have to talk about spoilers . Okay , I mean , we've spoiled before , we've spoiled before , but this is going to be big spoilers .

So now the thing that I think is interesting about this episode is they wrote it so that it does not make sense on first viewing and makes perfect sense Once you know Pierce the cinnamon , because you have to put it together .

But Pierce is at the top of the that that grow distribution and he went with Chloe and he was , you know , manipulating so that he could be in a position to get shot while standing next to Chloe in the hopes that it would kill him . And so that means he's on the phone when he and Chloe are walking . I think he's texting .

I can't remember if he's texting or if he's just getting off the call when they're walking up to the ranch to apprehend the head of the camp . And after you've seen the whole season and you come back and watch that you realize he's saying like we're here for you and he's doing that to spur him into shooting him .

And it only makes sense that Pierce is doing this for his own ends , which is like the opposite of what you think . It would be Just to try to try to get himself killed and then like the conversations he has with Chloe , which are partially setting up the love triangle that comes later . But there's something special about you .

When it's done really well , it doesn't look weird on first watching , it makes total sense on first watching and then like and then it's like oh , whoa there's there's turtles all the way down .

Once you watch it again and I have wondered , you know what , what the constraints were that led to this , this episode being so imperfect for the first watch , and like I'm not expecting perfection or anything like that , and I think the , the , the shuffling with , uh , with the four episodes from season two didn't help .

You know , having Mr Mrs Mazekine Smith right before this didn't help . Tom Welling didn't really help . I'm sorry , tom , you're , you're , I'm sure you're really sweet , and there there's some moments that are pretty cool and in this that he , he does , I just , I , I just don't think he's at the caliber of Ellis .

This reminds me a little bit of the show how I Met your Mother . Did you ever watch that ?

And if it weren't television as a medium , I think that could have been really cool , because if they had control over how many seasons they had , the problem was they got nine seasons and they don't actually introduce .

I mean , like you did , they have the actress playing the mother throughout the ninth season and she's the only thing , only thing , worth watching in that ninth season . But they , um , they got nine seasons . They don't introduce the mother until like five minutes before the end .

Like you , don't find out her name until five minutes before the end and you don't see them meet until five minutes before the end . And they end it with the same image they started with , with the him with the blue french horn over his head asking me to let into the apartment . And I see what they were trying to do .

They had a vision from the beginning and they fulfilled it . I respect that , but I think that they sacrificed good television for this vision , because by the time they got nine seasons . That ending didn't make sense anymore , in part because we have nine years worth of evidence . Then he and Robin should not be together .

That makes me think about the way that , like other , like the way brits will make tv and they like , say , like it's this many shows like , and maybe that's a thing that you know , when it's something like how I met your mother , it's that's the way we should go , like here's , here's the arc , that's it , you know , and then we don't make anymore because the

story's over or like like flea bag , you know , like it was two seasons . She told the story she wanted to tell and then she stopped making it . Not that I wouldn't have watched more episodes of flea bag I totally would , phoebe please . But I respect the fact that she said like no , this is the story that I want to tell .

That story's over and Americans and driven by the almighty dollar . We don't do that . As long as we can sell another episode , we will make another episode , you know , which is well , just is what it is , I guess well it's .

But he I can't remember the name of it , but it's like it's got a name , it's they call it like the window , it's like the window of plausibility , like as you move into the window , then the actual edges shift .

He talked about how in the office they were constantly talking about making sure they didn't make Michael too much of a buffoon , because , like that's what happened to Homer Simpson , where in the beginning of the Simpsons he was like not bright but not like a complete doofus , but they just kept pushing and pushing and pushing , yeah , until you know , 20 years later

, and , as you say , it was just a caricature of the original character , which it's literally a character , I mean is a cartoon character , and so for Homer Simpson , like , but if you're making television , that's character driven , that's that's meant to have some actual ethos and pathos . You have to really watch that . Michael sure wrote about that .

I I'd never thought about it that way , but it makes total sense once it was sort of , yeah , drawn out and articulated and that's , that's one of the reasons why I so appreciate the good place and the fact that he said four seasons done .

Yeah , like everybody has slept with everybody slept with everybody else , because they need to constantly go for the like what about this shipping pair ? What about this shipping pair ? So , to bring it back to Lucifer , I feel like what happened with what would Lucifer do was they're letting the tail wag the dog .

I think that it's cool that they did it , just because you don't know what you get when it comes to TV . You don't know how many seasons you're gonna get , you don't know if you're gonna be canceled mid-season . You don't know what this is , and so they're trying to Like . The creative challenges are unreal .

Okay , all right , so I just have fluff that we've had before , which is Alice's eyeliner Eyeliner yeah , like somebody wasn't paying attention , because I think it's Mr and Mrs Mazikine Smith Like one eye is like kind of like smudged underneath , like on the lid , it just wasn't as it wasn't as heavy as in season two , but it also wasn't as like clean .

So that's my fluffy thing .

I don't remember . I don't remember the song , but it just the mood and the lyrics really fit . That was really really well done and I appreciate it again when they do like good music matched with what we're watching .

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