Lucifer, Chloe, and Dan brought season 1 to life, but in season 2 Ella made us realize what we had been missing all along.
Lucifer, Chloe, and Dan aren’t exactly a well-oiled machine, but they make it work. Chloe and Dan are exes, Lucifer is the Devil, the boys don’t really get along, and the Lord of Hell and Detective Decker may have deeply buried feelings for each other. It’s a complicated triangle, but they still solve crimes and enact justice, so it works.
Enter Aimee Garcia as Ella Lopez. She’s a forensic scientist for the LAPD, delivered to our screens in season 2, episode 1, “Everything’s Coming Up Lucifer.” Through no fault of her own, she felt like a side note in the premiere. She was there to help them solve a murder, provide some comic relief, and be a person of faith engaging in conversations about God and religion with Lucifer.
Since the premiere, however, Ella has subtly stepped up to the plate more and more often. Her main introduction into the episode is still her work with the LAPD, but thanks to her awkward and endearing habit of rambling on and on, we’ve learned much more about her as a person.
I’ve always said Lucifer doesn’t need to rely on the procedural aspect for the series to be successful, but it’s still an important element of the show. It will never go away, and nor would I want it to, especially since it’s given us the gift of Ella Lopez. If the case-of-the-week format for the show is what keeps placing Ella in the middle of Lucifer and Chloe’s lives, then I’m all for it.
Thankfully, Ella is so much more than her job. She’s brilliant at it, but it’s her other quirks that make you fall truly and madly in love with this character. In the previous episode alone we learned she can speak Klingon and likes to do jigsaw puzzles face side down. She isn’t a one-dimensional product of the story, but a fully fleshed out character who brings a surprising amount of humor to the show.
Humor has always come easily to Lucifer. Chloe has a dry wit that can go toe to toe with Lucifer’s many sexual innuendos, whereas Dan and Amenadiel often find themselves on the receiving end of a punchline, much to their chagrin. Detective Douche and the elder angel bring a naive and even childlike humor to the series that plays well off Lucifer’s sharp tongue.
Ella, on the other hand, is so genuine and earnest. She can come off as a little bit oblivious, but it’s never assumed she’s stupid. She’s a good person, through and through, and her awkward tendencies have a way of making you want to protect her. It’s a good thing she’s a hugger.
But even these qualities, being good at her job and providing comedic relief, aren’t enough to make Ella feel like a fully fleshed out person. It’s the final aspect of her character, her faith, that truly does that for us.
Lucifer believes in God because, for obvious reasons, he knows He exists. Chloe’s faith isn’t discussed at length, but her somewhat apathetic stance means she doesn’t believe Lucifer is really the Prince of Darkness. We also don’t know much about Dan’s faith, which means no one ever questions Lucifer’s perception of God’s actions. Up until recently, Linda was speaking in metaphors and didn’t believe she was trying to convince Lucifer to look at his father’s decisions in a new light.
Then Ella came along. Her faith is strong. It’s a huge aspect of her character, and she likes talking about it with other people. She’s passionate, but not a zealot, which makes her points of view easier to absorb and sift through.
Everyone else in Lucifer’s life either knows God exists or doesn’t care if He does. Amenadiel and Maze, for example, are biased; Amenadiel has respect for his father, even if it’s somewhat diminished as of late, and Maze has disdain for Him. She is a demon after all. Chloe and Dan don’t sit down in every episode and talk about whether or not God exists, and Linda, now that she’s in the fold, will interpret actions and words based on her newfound knowledge of the truth.
Ella only has faith, and that gives her a unique opinion on this show. She cares enough to read into the meaning behind God’s actions, but she doesn’t have all the answers. Where Lucifer is a bit of a cynic and Amenadiel is a bit of a realist, Ella is an optimist. She wants to believe the best in people — even Lucifer.
I hope that as the show goes on, Ella and Lucifer will have more conversations about God. She did drag him to a church, after all, so she’s making small strides. Lucifer has valid reasons for his disappointment in his father, but Ella is exactly the kind of person who can open his eyes to a whole different thought process. Perhaps God wasn’t being cruel or vindictive at all. Perhaps He was just trying to be a good father.
Either way, I hope Ella is here to stay. Aimee Garcia brings a vibrancy to the show that is all her own. Her presence doesn’t take away from any of the other characters we’ve fallen in love with over the past 20-some episodes; rather, it simply adds to what was already there, making it a little brighter and a little more meaningful for everyone.
