Lucifer season 2, episode 5, “Weaponizer,” saw the introduction of another angelic brother to further complicate the Devil’s life.
We meet Lucifer and Amenadiel’s brother Uriel right at the top of the episode when he gingerly flips a skateboard right side up, which leads to the series of events that causes Chloe to get hit by the car we saw at the end of last week’s episode.
Chloe is fine, there’s just a cut on her head, but this was only a warning shot, after all. As the detective looks into the murder of the action star Wesley Cabot, Lucifer spots his brother through the window and tracks him down to the roof of another building.
We learn that Uriel is good at watching patterns. He can’t kill Chloe outright, but he can study a situation and, based on people’s normal reactions, all but guarantee his desired outcome. The angel tells Lucifer that it’s time to pay up — Luci has 24 hours to hand over their mother, or Chloe will meet her end.
Lucifer, sticking to his own usual pattern, doesn’t seem all too concerned. He thinks he’s got a secret weapon in Amenadiel, the scary older brother he and Uriel used to look up to. All Amenadiel has to do is intimidate Uriel enough to get him to leave, and both Chloe and their mother will be safe.
At first, it seems to work. Amenadiel can talk a good game, but that’s the problem. Unlike Lucifer, who has a silver tongue, Amenadiel typically uses force to get the job done. The pattern was off, and Uriel noticed. He beats Amenadiel until the former angel has to crawl home to be cleaned up by Maze.
But the meeting with Uriel has another consequence for the eldest brother since he now has to admit to Lucifer that he’s losing his powers. “Pick a sin,” Amenadiel says, defeated, and wonders if it’s simply because he’s no longer worthy. This doesn’t tell us the specific reason why this particular angel has now fallen, but it certainly hints that it’s because Amenadiel got a little too comfortable here on Earth.
Lucifer is furious, of course, but as always, he’s blaming other people, not himself. Where he should be apologizing to Amenadiel for putting him in this situation, he’s angry that Amenadiel has now made it so Lucifer needs to clean up another mess. Except this was Lucifer’s mess to begin with, which Amenadiel doesn’t quite have the energy to tell him at the time.
It isn’t until the end of the episode that we see the parallel between the actor’s murder and what’s going on in Lucifer’s life. Chloe says, “We can’t control what happens to us, only how it affects us and the choices we make.”
For Lucifer, this must be a difficult concept to come to terms with. As someone with so much power, feeling out of control has to be uncomfortable. But the idea that we still have a choice in the matter must sting a little bit. Who could Lucifer have been if he had realized that sooner?
But, in the end, it all goes back to God and what he wants. Or, more specifically, what people think he wants. As Lucifer says, wars have been waged while people have guessed at what God wants. When Lucifer saw that open door at the end of season 1, he didn’t know for sure that God wanted the goddess returned to her cage. Why is everyone so sure that leaving her on Earth isn’t the best course of action?
It turns out that Uriel is less concerned about what God wants and more worried about what He needs. The angel doesn’t want his mother to return to heaven just so dear old Dad can forgive her. No, Uriel wants to kill his mother instead, and he has his sister Azrael’s Blade of Death to put a permanent end to the deity. No heaven, no hell, just gone.
The upside here is that my request of seeing Mazikeen in another fight scene was approved, so thanks for that, Lucifer writers. Much appreciated. Watching Maze do hand-to-hand combat, with or without her blades, is a spiritual experience in and of itself. Amen.
Luckily, Maze didn’t meet her end tonight, but one of the brothers did. From off screen Lucifer comes charging in with the blade and skewers Uriel. The dying angel whispers something to Luci that he doesn’t understand before dying, permanently.
I, at least, was pretty surprised by this twist of fate. We didn’t know Uriel long enough to care that he’s dead, but the idea that one of Lucifer’s brothers has fallen, and at his hands no less, is shocking. Just because you’re immortal doesn’t mean you’re invincible.
We may not care that Uriel is dead, but Lucifer does, and it’s his guilt that nearly brought me to tears by the end of the episode. Lucifer always plays it cool. He doesn’t let emotion get in his way, and although he didn’t particularly like Uriel, he’s still shocked and appalled by what he’s done.
The question now is why he did it. Did Lucifer murder his brother in order to save Chloe? To save his mother? Perhaps it’s because he truly wanted to spare both of their lives. I’m not even sure the Devil himself knows.
Perhaps the biggest question now is whether or not his mother cares that her son is dead. She seemed upset by the end of the episode, but were they crocodile tears? I have a bad feeling everything is playing out exactly as the goddess wants it to.
The Devil is in the details
? Chloe makes a joke about having sex with Lucifer, and he seems pretty excited about the prospect. Was this a throwaway line, or will this topic be coming up again now that she and Dan are getting divorced?
? “Welcome to Devil Time.”
? Lucifer’s mother keeps playing the Mom Card — you know, when she says she’ll do anything for her boys, no matter her fate — but I’m beginning to believe her less and less.
? Luci is still suuuper pissed off at God. I doubt this will ever change.
? Lucifer said he didn’t understand what Uriel said as he was dying, not that he didn’t know what he said. Hopefully we find out next week what it was.
