Lightbringers: Illuminating the Deeper Meaning of the Crime-solving Devil TV Show

Send us Fan Mail

“Detective Amenadiel” and “Blue Ballz” are the only two episodes in this whole experiment that the sisters watched while in the same room, and they contain some of their most beloved and most reviled of the whole series. 

In their meanderings, the Guy girls think about the metaphor of reflection as used both visually and rhetorically in “Detective Amenadiel.” They ruminate on the badassery of Maze bounty hunting the object of Linda’s angst and thereby come up with the premise for a new book series featuring Emily’s best friend Erika as a bounty-hunting priest. Tracie is also deeply bothered by the reverse engineering of the storytelling required to get Lucifer’s phone into Michael’s hands.

The sisters try to find universe-complilant justificaiton for how some people see proof of divinity and are driven to distraction by it while the villain in one of these episodes is repulsed. At the same time, Emily loses her ability to word when thinking about the sexiness of the final five minutes of “Bule Ballz” and also the inadequacy of Jed’s nose (it’s simply too small). 

Originally published as a YouTube show with different theme music. 

Our theme song is "Feral Angel Waltz" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To learn more about Tracie and Emily and our other projects, to support us, and join the Guy Girls' family, visit us on Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

The layers of meta-commentary in the episode about a TV show where the actual devil is a consultant with the LAPD is lots of fun, and has the sisters wondering if Lucifer would have been more offended on Chloe’s behalf by turning her character into a stripper-turned-detective who doesn’t seem to be particularly bright. 

And the return of Lilith in a 1946 black-and-white mystery episode invites some exploration of the mythology of Lilith, the first human woman who became a monster. The Egyptomania and Orientalism in the same episode lead to a long tangent about the ways in which humans tend to ascribe literal magic to anything they don’t fully understand (e.g. Ancient Egyptian mummies in the early 20th century, computers in the 1990s, or bitcoin in the last 10 years). 

As always there’s some breathless appreciation of the beauty of this cast (Tracie admits Tom Ellis is her sexual orientation) and the evidence of their skill when the same actor plays different characters.

Originally published as a YouTube show with different theme music. 

Our theme song is "Feral Angel Waltz" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To learn more about Tracie and Emily and our other projects, to support us, and join the Guy Girls' family, visit us on Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

In our conversation about “Really Sad Devil Guy” & “Lucifer! Lucifer! Lucifer!” we think a lot about the tropes and short cuts that come from soap opera storytelling. And we don’t hate it. 

Both sisters are impressed with Tom Ellis’s ability to make us believe he is, in fact, his own twin (even down to his butt cheeks!). Tracie picks apart a key plot point in the case of the week, and Emily uses some very graphic metaphors to describe her reaction to Ellis’ American accent as Michael.

It is exceedingly clear that this episode was recorded more than a year ago, because though the angel-is-not-good and devil-is-not-bad twinning comparison to Good Omens is clear and obvious, we do not make it, raising Satanic Verses instead.

We also spend some time appreciating Lee, aka Mr. Said-Out-Bitch (Jeremiah Birkett), and his charm and emotional intelligence, even if he never fully lived up to his potential in life.

Originally published as a YouTube show with different theme music. 

Our theme song is "Feral Angel Waltz" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To learn more about Tracie and Emily and our other projects, to support us, and join the Guy Girls' family, visit us on Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

“Save Lucifer” and “Who’s da New King of Hell?” allow the Guy Girls to overthink everything from acting vs. directorial choices, to the nature of sin and guilt, to the possibility of a “happy ending” for an immortal being in love with an all-too-human one. 

Tracie couldn’t wait to start the episode with her frustrations with Lauren German’s delivery of the emotional range required for Chloe’s (good, not great) dialogue, and we also spend significant time pondering the in-universe veracity of souls going to Hell immediately post-confession. We wonder over the seeming paucity of therapists in Los Angeles (is Linda really the only one?), and Emily is really into Kevin Alejandro’s beatboxing. 

These two episodes were meant to be the final of the series when they were produced. Have a listen to the Guy Girls’ overthinking of whether or not they stuck the landing. 

Originally published as a YouTube show with different theme music. 

Our theme song is "Feral Angel Waltz" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To learn more about Tracie and Emily and our other projects, to support us, and join the Guy Girls' family, visit us on Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

“Devil is as Devil Does” and “Super Bad Boyfriend” give some hints that the writers were wrestling with their copagandistic vehicle. However, there were also moments in these two episodes, especially in Chloe’s voice, that oversimplify the “rightness” of human justice. That they made these explorations around the death of a Black teenager is all the more topical (and will be returned to in season 6).

These two episodes also tackle the experience of self-hatred that both sisters find heart-breakingly relatable. From Lucifer’s bat-like wings, to Dan’s attempts to externalize his self-loathing in a beating from Maze, to Maze reacting to a would-be date who is remarkably like she is, our writers invite us to think about self-perception again and again. 

As always, the sisters investigate the story structure and writing, lingering over the ways the dialogue and the acting communicate the story, and teasing out the meaning of specific glances and blocking. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Helen Rosen “ How Apples Go Bad” https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/how-apples-go-bad

Originally published as a YouTube show with different theme music. 

Our theme song is "Feral Angel Waltz" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To learn more about Tracie and Emily and our other projects, to support us, and join the Guy Girls' family, visit us on Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

“Expire Erect” (Die Hard, get it?) and “Orgy Pants to Work” turn out to be fantastic fodder for the Guy Girls’ particular brand of overthinking, and we did not hold back.

Tracie had some THINGS to say about the mythology of Lilith (Maze’s mom), which led to some questions about who (and how) Lilith even is, and whether or not Lucifer could have been Eve’s “first time.” To answer those questions, we actually got a copy of the Bible off the shelf to check the chronology of what happened in and after the garden of Eden.

Also in this episode, we dig into what’s going on with the writers’ manipulation of our feelings by making the bad guy super reprehensible. We unpack the use of female archetypes of maiden, mother, crone, whore, and witch (and why Eve can’t be maternal because Chloe’s got the lock on that one), which leads to Emily reassuring her sister, “oh honey, you can still be a whore if you want to. 

There’s also some speculation as to whether or not “punchable face” is an acting choice and the stamina-inducing powers of acai. 

If you only ever listen to one episode of LIghtbringers, this should be the one. 

Originally published as a YouTube show with different theme music. 

Our theme song is "Feral Angel Waltz" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To learn more about Tracie and Emily and our other projects, to support us, and join the Guy Girls' family, visit us on Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

“O, Ye of Little Faith, Father” and “All About Eve” bring some of Emily’s favorite moments of the whole series. The first provides deeply satisfying dramatic irony through Father Kinley’s (Graham McTavish) web of deception, the whole of which, only we the viewers see. The second gives delicious comfort to a devastated Lucifer (Tom Ellis) who fears he is unlovable but is embraced–in his devil face–by the biblical Eve (Inbar Lavi). 

There are also significant opportunities for overthinking, from Eve’s name (with a correction and apology from Tracie at the beginning of the episode) to just how much the murderer knew of the whole plot to reveal Lucifer’s face, to how and when Linda acquired her house. As always the storytelling, including visual storytelling, gets the sisters’ attention. 

In what might be called a theme, Tracie spends a little time complaining that Lauren German’s delivery as Chloe somehow doesn’t sell the dialogue, and both sisters get a chuckle over Maze’s condolences over the sex of the baby. 

Originally published as a YouTube show with different theme music. 

Our theme song is "Feral Angel Waltz" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To learn more about Tracie and Emily and our other projects, to support us, and join the Guy Girls' family, visit us on Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

“Everything’s Okay” and “Somebody’s Been Reading Dante’s Inferno” contain one of the sexiest scenes in the whole series, some really comprehensible character behavior, and some mediocre delivery of that behavior.

The sisters spend a disproportionate amount of time gushing over the first several minutes of “Everything’s Okay,” only to ease into an almost grudging appreciation for the task the writers set themselves by requiring the details of the cases in the procedural to map to the drama of the central characters. 

Because of Chloe’s (Lauren German) instance to Father Kinley (Graham Mctavish) that “you just don’t know him like I do,” Tracie has the painful realization that Lucifer (Tom Ellis) has been (arguably?) emotionally abusive to Chloe. 

In a series of duck-related tangents, the sisters reference the Marx Brothers (Why a duck?), a song about a duck who wants a grape, Duck Tales, and Darkwing Duck (the latter of which may show up on a future episode of Deep Thoughts about Stupid Sh*t).

CW: Abstract discussion of abusive, co-dependent relationships.

Originally published as a YouTube show with different theme music. 

Our theme song is "Feral Angel Waltz" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To learn more about Tracie and Emily and our other projects, to support us, and join the Guy Girls' family, visit us on Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

“Boo Normal” & “Once Upon a Time” interrupt the flow of the Deckerstar storyline. These two episodes, though both boasting solid storytelling, tend to get skipped, fast-forwarded, or otherwise maligned by fans who cannot wait to find out what happens after Chloe unequivocally learns the truth in “A Devil of My Word.” 

Tracie and Emily take some time to investigate and overthink these two “bonus” episodes. The sisters spend time overthinking in what proto-Semitic language the Angel Azrael might have first coined the phrase “Smell you later” and unpacking the need for both Death of the Endless (who removes the soul from the body) and the angel of death (who escorts the soul to its final destination). They lament the adolescent behavior of a Lucifer who uses the forensics camera to take dick pics, but appreciate the hero worship that Ella displays toward Chloe. 

In Once Upon a Time, both sisters swoon over Neil Gaiman as the voice of God, laugh at the idea of Amenadiel circling Los Angeles waiting for Lucifer’s prayer, and blush about the scene in which Lucifer is overheard with a witness, “pumping her for information.” In a deep overthinking of celestial biology and physics, the sisters decide that bullets must crumple against Lucifer’s skin and then fall into the waistband of his trousers. 

Heads-up, Emily had the wrong mic selected when we recorded, so her voice is a bit under water. The content remains insightful and hilarious.  

Originally published as a YouTube show with different theme music. 

Our theme song is "Feral Angel Waltz" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To learn more about Tracie and Emily and our other projects, to support us, and join the Guy Girls' family, visit us on Patreon.

Send us Fan Mail

“Quintessential Deckerstar” & “Devil of My Word” are so packed full of goodness to unpack we had to make notes for our conversation to make sure we didn’t miss anything. 

When it comes to storytelling, these episodes provide some deeply satisfying (and tear-jerking) character development, especially for Dan (Kevin Alejandro), Charlotte (Tricia Helfer), and Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt). When it comes to performance, they absolutely convince us that Tom Ellis actually has wings which can stop bullets, but only with great pain to their owner. And when it comes to female characters’ badassery, these two episodes deliver over and over again with Charlotte, Chloe (Lauren German), Maze, and Ella (Aimee Garcia). 

In keeping with our own fascinations, we spend some time talking about mental health and cosmological implications of the storytelling. For the former, we note the comfort these episodes can provide when Lucifer’s devilishness is seen as an allegory for mental illness, truama, or other circumstances one might want to hide or be ashamed of. For the cosmology, we question the veracity of even hardened criminals opening fire on a literal angel and double down on our own shared head cannon that there are ways for Hell to hold on to souls that caused harm and acted badly even when those individuals do not feel guilt about their actions. 

Tracie was recovering from a chest cold, and never did remember the final thought she mentioned.

CW: discussion of gendered violence (compliant with that depicted in the show), including a serial abuser holding a knife to his girlfriend’s throat. 

Mentioned in this episode
Mr. Snuffalupagus (who everyone can see now)

Originally published as a YouTube show with different theme music. 

Our theme song is "Feral Angel Waltz" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To learn more about Tracie and Emily and our other projects, to support us, and join the Guy Girls' family, visit us on Patreon.