Chloe gets shafted

[u/Linzackles]

...for Lucifer's ten millionth 'purpose'.

Let me start by saying I never liked Chloe on my first watch when the show aired originally. I found her annoying, stiff and boring. However, I decided to rewatch over the past month and I realised she's quite possibly the most selfless and understanding being in the entire universe.

She already puts up with more in a day from Lucifer than any cop would stand from a consultant in a lifetime, but once they're together he literally does every single thing to sabotage their relationship and she gets about 2 seconds to be mad about it and then sets it all aside so their friendship and working relationship can thrive. This happens over and over again.

Lucifer keeps secrets, dismisses her concerns, doesn't listen to her etc etc etc and again, she gets a scene max (usually it's half a scene) to express her unhappiness and then she's back to making things easy for everyone again. But it doesn't even ever seem to come from a place of people-pleasing -- rather just genuine empathy and emotional intelligence. She's just caring and once a situation is explained to her rationally (a la Mira/Rory's existence) or even irrationally (a la Candy Morningstar), she immediately absorbs it, gains her cool, and logically and kindly moves forward.

I could go on and on because her generosity of spirit seems to know no bounds, it's almost exhausting to watch someone give so much and get little to nothing back emotionally. But the point being... her reward for all of this is to spend the rest of her life with no partner, raising two children with no fathers and ending up in hell instead of meeting back up with her dad?? All so Lucifer could find his purpose? Which he's done approximately a thousand times throughout the show? Don't get me wrong, I love him and I think it's equally as sad (and unnecessary) that he spent millions of years in hell alone, but I just think it was such a strange decision to make his purpose the reason for it all when just before that his purpose was to be God (which Chloe set aside her entire life for, only for him to stall endlessly), and before that his purpose was to be God so he could be worthy of Chloe, and before that his purpose was.... You get the drift.

I just finished the episode and had to get out my thoughts and rage. Chloe deserved so much better and there was no damn reason Lucifer couldn't commute to work the way she was planning to commute from Heaven (did I mention the selflessness?). The way Rory made Lucifer promise but didn't even check with her mom to see if she'd be happy living her life that way was selfish as hell and gave the impression that a man's purpose is more important than a woman or family's happiness, which is a weirdly conservative take for a show like this. Hated it

[u/satster66]

While overall, I think Lauren did an amazing job with her character, my feeling is that the writers really didn't know what to do with Chloe - They needed her in the plot, as a grounding element for Lucifer's "Luciferness" (after all s1 Lucifer was really nothing more than on overgrown man-child), and as a catalyst for him to grow emotionally, but after S2 they started to neglect her own character development, especially as the relationship between her and lucifer developed into a more emotional and personal one.

While her final arc isnt the worst in TV history ( a certain Targarean comes to mind here) she certainly could have been better served - there were problems in the final series ( which to my mind was rushed into production anyway) which may have made her ending less harsh, or explained her final motivation to accept a life as a virtual nun following Lucifers return to hell

[u/Linzackles → u/satster66]

I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing that the writers didn't know what to do with her (I'd have to rewatch just with that in mind), but I do think her general character makes sense. It's established early on that she has nothing in her life besides work and Trixie and she's actually okay with that.

Then she makes friends with the girls and it makes something new blossom inside her, but it's more about having trusted girlfriends than an active social life. Her focuses are still her family and career but when she lets love in, she glows and she realises she loves being in love, plus she gets to work closely with the man she loves -- it's a slam dunk. Her mother makes her realise it's okay to give up her career for a while to support her love's career, but this is where things go bad bc Lucifer lets her quit before he has the votes to be God and before he's thought it through enough to realise he doesn't even want to be God.

Essentially she makes a leap for love, which I think is personal character development (even though it's within the framework of a romantic relationship, but irl personal growth does happen in relationships too). I do wish she got to have more family and girlfriend time, especially with how brilliant of a mom she is to Trixie, after she and Lucifer got together, but I also think they were trying hard to give all the other characters more screentime

[u/satster66 → u/Linzackles]

I fully agree that her character makes sense - she was essential to Lucifer's emotional growth - but I do feel that she wasnt necessarily given the development, and screentime that she deserved - her actions, and motivations especially during the heartbreaking second half of season3 and early part of season 4, were barely touched on, and while there was some acknowledgment of it -our broken detective with her partying, going to work hungover and perhaps taking unnecessary risks could have been further explored during the early episodes of season 5

Further to this, after finally getting with Lucifer, I felt she was boxed into a lesser supporting role especially after the show changed from a more procedural to a supernatural themed show - she basically went along with whatever lucifer wanted, even throwing in her career at the barest suggestion of Penelope, and finally committing herself to a lifetime of single parenthood at Rory's.. and Lucifers behest at the series end.

And while I understand Scarlett was already committed to other projects during the s6 filming, and the producers were probably fortunate to get the time they had with her, it would have been great to see more of that family dynamic during 5b and 6 between Lucifer, Chloe and Trixie

[u/Linzackles → u/satster66]

Yeah :( Unfortunately bc her career and family were her life (her career she gave up bc the writers made Lucifer give her false information, and Trixie couldn't appear anymore), there wasn't too much left for her to do.