For those unfamiliar with the supernatural crime television show “Lucifer”, it’s loosely based on the Neil Gaiman DC comic character featured in the Sandman. But here, Lucifer (played by the swoon-worthy Tom Ellis) is a consultant to an L.A. detective named Chloe Decker (Lauren German) in a murder of week formula.
In the episode entitled “High School Poppycock”, a famous YA author has been murdered and the manuscript of her final novel of her popular series is missing. As this is a murder mystery I will warn that there are SPOILERS AHEAD!
Lucifer and Decker discover that novels were based on people and experiences the author witnessed in high school set in a dystopian future. This is very clear in that the woman did not even change the names of her former peers in the books. They decide to attend her high school reunion and see who could have been bitter at being used as mass produced drama or who knew that the author was overcoming at block at the time of completing the final book in the series, an ending her publisher stated was going to be full of battles and epic action.
A humorous moment comes in Detective Decker reading the series for insight and being hooked. Her character is former child actress who never had her own high school experience and she is sucked in by the angst of love triangles and petty feuds. She can’t help but allow her love of the characters to effect how she views their real-life counterparts at the reunion. That’s right. Chloe discovers fandom. The episodes does a good job with this concept, stating how the inspiration for the characters feel about their place in the books and how the people who were left out felt. There is even a major plot point involving fan fiction. Oh fan fiction. How I miss thee. Wait, what? Who said that? Not me.
Meanwhile, Lucifer is obsessed with finding out how the deceased author overcame her writer’s block, believing that her technique will help him his issue of helping kill the Biblical Cain (long story). He’s told that the afterword of the manuscript included the tale of the author’s return to productivity and inspiration. Therefore, he has a little more interest in finding the missing series finale than finding the actual killer.
After witnessing the real life drama of the people the book was based upon at the high school reunion, Chloe decides that maybe she didn’t miss much in her adolescence. She and Lucifer also come to the realization that the people included in the novel found therapeutic outlets by seeing themselves through the author’s eyes and the eyes of the fandom. As it turns out, the agent from the publishing company had murdered the author when he discovered that her ending was not the action-packed Michael Bay finale he wanted. Instead, she wrote something heartfelt and character based. Therefore after he killed her, he destroyed the only copy of the manuscript with intentions of replacing it with something a fanfiction author created, then kill that author as well.
Beside the murder - HE DESTROYED THE BOOK! Lucifer is ready to kick his ass angry by the loss of what he thought would help him, but also angry that something this woman worked so hard on was burned up.
In retrospect, the episode discussing the passions of fans and the inspiration behind popular work can be seen as. . .
You know what. Nope. He destroyed the ONLY COPY OF HER BOOK. I’m done.
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