Lucifer recap: 'High School Poppycock' 

The Olympics are over, so it’s back to our regularly scheduled lineup, including this week’s busy episode of

. “High School Poppycock” almost feels like a Stefon sketch because this episode has

: wigs, improv, mopping, a bad blind date, a breakup, a dead author, a hot YA series, youthful regrets, a high school reunion, a neon party, a two-person prom, and nitrogen-cooled ice cream.

Honestly, any three of those in combination would’ve made for an outstanding episode, but this week, we get them all in portions almost too small to truly savor.

We open on Lucifer filling in Dr. Linda on a dream where the sight of his out-of-control wings sends Chloe hurtling off his balcony to her death. He’s worried about what else God might take from him and explains his “help Pierce die to spite my Father” plan. He then asks Linda to hypnotize him the way you would someone wanting to quit smoking so he can get over his mental block about how to help Pierce. But she tells him that’s not how hypnotism works, so he storms out.

He’s still brooding on the way to the newest crime scene, creeping Chloe out with his silence, and he asks Dan of all people for advice. Dan suggests Lucifer embrace the “yes and” improv approach.

This leads to Lucifer clumsily “yes and”-ing through the murder scene of Kathleen Pike, best-selling YA author of the

Kathleen’s body is surrounded by a white fluid, prompting Ella to make a truly excellent joke about Synthetics from the

series, although the heathens she works with don’t appreciate it. The substance is actually melted ice cream, and I’m struck anew by the tragedy of a death — specifically death that occurs before you finish dessert.

Kathleen’s editor Vincent Green found her body when he stopped to pick up the finished manuscript that morning. She’d been battling writer’s block for five years and was thrilled to have finally broken through. In fact, Green had already tweeted the good news to her fans, hinting at a huge action-packed robot rebellion, and he worries that a zealous fan showed up for a sneak peek. Then he worries even more because Kathleen’s lone typewritten copy of the final book is missing. (Seriously, I 

with those “my muse only responds to the clacking of typewriter keys” writer types. Get a laptop, ya weirdo!)

When Vincent mentions that Kathleen’s afterword explained how she overcame her writer’s block, Lucifer reasons that if she can solve her writer’s block, it might help him get rid of his, so he’s eager to locate the manuscript and, incidentally, Kathleen’s killer, too.

To better understand Kathleen’s work, Lucifer struggles through the first

book despite the lack of sex and drugs. Chloe can’t relate to the high school dramas it described because her life as a child actor was mostly auditioning and being tutored on set. She missed out on all the teenage angst as well as the teenage fun. In fact, she didn’t even go to her prom.

An online spat that Kathleen had with a poster on a

 fan forum sends Chloe and Lucifer to a futuristic ice cream shop, where Ashely the angry commenter works. He created a flavor of ice cream just for Kathleen and delivered it to her home the night of her death but says he didn’t kill her. He’s a 

fanfic writer, and Kathleen asked for his help in finishing the series. Although she didn’t embrace his suggestions, it inspired her to return to her original inspiration, he says.

That inspiration? Her L.A. high school. Kathleen based her characters on real-life classmates, simply changing their last names and adding sci-fi twists. Her high school reunion’s the next night, and the police speculate that one of the reunion-goers might have killed her before she could expose any real-life secrets.

Charlotte declares this insufficient for probable cause, so Ella proposes sending Lucifer to the reunion undercover as the class mega-dork with no social media presence, with Chloe as his plus one. Unfortunately, said mega-dork, Todd Cornwell, actually RSVP’ed. Charlotte mutters something about distracting Todd with a bounty hunter, then exits the room before she overhears any lawbreaking.

Okay, let’s check in on said bounty hunter. Happy couple Linda and Amenadiel have been happily kissing and and guiltily avoiding Maze, who, unbeknownst to them, is fully aware of what’s going down. When Trixie (correctly) suggests that the pair might be scared to tell Maze the truth, Maze muses that helping people tell the truth

Plan in place, Maze strolls into Linda’s office and asks about her dating life. The good doctor stammers that she’s “so,

single,” so Maze bullies her into a blind date the following night. Naturally, Linda shows up at the restaurant and finds Amenadiel waiting there. But twist! Maze arrives with high school loser Todd in tow for Linda, crowing about what a fun double date this will be: Linda with Todd, and her with a visibly uncomfortable Amenadiel.

See, this is what makes Maze so good at her job: She’s helping the police with an undercover operation

torturing her bestie and her exie, all in one neat maneuver. Truly, she’s an inspiration. 

(Next page: Lucifer becomes the responsible one)

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