In this episode of Lucifer, we find ourselves bearing witness to the narcissism of Lucifer – rather, how much he loves himself. Of course he does, he’s the devil, and attractive as ever. We start the episode with a man who’s lost control of his life, a top investigative reporter who wants desperately to expose Lucifer for who he truly is, awful, as he found the devil sleeping with his wife. Ahem, estranged-but-also-ex-wife. But awful, Lucifer is not. Throughout this episode, we see glimpses of how full of himself Lucifer is; perhaps it’s a front to hide how he really feels in regards to who he is? The reporter hones into many aspects of Lucifer’s life, desperate to make anything into a story but he gets nothing. Eventually, the man gives up and then the episode uses the traditional “one year later” narrative to show us what happened. The reporter is worse than before, still hellbent on finding anything wrong with Lucifer. By the end of the episode, we find that Lucifer is the sleazy scumbag who broke up the reporter’s marriage, except the reporter doesn’t realize that Lucifer didn’t do anything but act on his sexual desires. The reporter ruined it all himself. By the end, the true killer of this episode’s mess of crime poisons the reporter, who unfortunately dies after exposing Lucifer to be the actual devil, without having proof to say so. Lucifer reveals that what traps someone in hell is their own guilt and that they can leave at any time but, most unfortunately, nobody can ever conquer their own guilt. It ends with a hell loop of the reporter after he passes, and he realizes he should have done better in life.
This episode doesn’t feature a lot of Lucifer at all, more so the downward spiral of the desperate reporter wishing to fix his unfixable marriage. But it does showcase the inherent narcissism Lucifer exudes. Past episodes show that he hates himself deep down and considers himself worse than evil, even though he isn’t the devil we all grew up believing in. He’s a good immortal man and what defines him is his humanistic way of still finding issue with his perfect character. Why does he both romanticize and loathe himself, all at the same time? Why can’t he be happy with the man he is? Why does he continue to define himself by his sexual escapades? Will he ever be happy and at one with himself? I guess we’ll have to tune in next time to find out.
Shared by: Gavi VanBoxtel
Image Credit: https://lucifer.fandom.com/wiki/Off_the_Record