When we last left Lucifer, a drunk Chloe had shown up at Lux and had sexually propositioned Lucifer. In a move quite out of character, Lucifer actually turned Chloe down. This episode begins the morning after with a horrified Chloe waking up naked in Lucifer's bed afraid that they had slept together. Lucifer let's her believe this for a short period of time, enjoying Chloe's discomfort with the possibility of sex between them, before informing her that they didn't actually have sex.
It's off to the case of the week. This time it involves a closeted former pro ball player and philanthropist. Lucifer, being the least introspective person in any room decides that he is exactly like Tim Dunlear (the murder victim) because he was generous enough not to
Dan, who is not dead, awakes to find himself held captive by Malcolm, who reveals that he is determined to murder Lucifer to avoid going back to hell. Malcolm explains that there's a room for each person and inside is the absence of whatever the guilty party loved the most. Since Malcolm loves life, he was starved and isolated. Though he was only technically dead for seconds, to him it felt like years. Dan declares Malcolm insane and in need of help. Malcolm however will not be dissuaded from his plan to kill Lucifer and blame it all on Dan.
Mazikeen is really starting to hurt from Lucifer's rejection. For the first time, she realises just how alone she is without him. Mazikeen seeks out Amenadiel, who is having dinner. There's a little bit of back and forth with Mazikeen taunting Amenadiel about how straight laced he is in comparison to her. Rising to the challenge, Amenadiel confesses that he is responsible for the goat association with Lucifer and Mazikeen starts to laugh. This apparently is an explanation for why though there are no descriptions of Lucifer in biblical texts, he is often depicted with goat legs. As practical jokes go, I have to admit that this is a good one. Mazikeen and Amenadiel end up having sex in the backseat of a car like a bunch of horny teenagers.
Lucifer is all dressed for a gala to honour Tim Dunlear when Malcolm shows up. Lucifer shows his devil face figuring that this ought to be enough to scare off Malcolm, only to see Malcolm hold his ground because he's already been to hell. Malcolm explains that he was promised that if he killed Lucifer, he would get to live out his entire life and not go to hell. Malcolm is clearly not the brightest bulb because he failed to realise that being allowed to live out his life didn't for one minute mean that he wouldn't die one day and end up right back in hell. Lucifer pulls out a coin which he was planning to use to enter hell again and offers it to Malcolm explaining that the coin can also be used to enter heaven. Malcolm sees this as a better deal and leaves with the coin in hand.
Lucifer meets with Vanessa, the wife of the murder victim and when she lets slip about moving to Argentina, Lucifer realises that she is the killer because Argentina is a non extradition company. After having done so much to get Tim's money, Vanessa is not about to let Lucifer live with the knowledge of her guilt. Vanessa pulls out a gun and shoots Lucifer multiple times in the chest. Oh Oh!!
Dan arrives and pushes through the crowd at Lux to get to Lucifer, who he finds on his back appearing very much to be dead. Lucifer sits up much to his own surprise. It seems that Lucifer's immortality is back. Lucifer heads downstairs and in the process surprises Vanessa. Before Lucifer can announce that she murdered her husband, Chloe steps forward to say that she has found wire transfers for the money Vanessa stole from Tim, which will serve as probable cause to arrest her for murder. Lucifer puts the icing on the cake and does his mojo thing which causes Vanessa to confess before the crowd.
The party now shut down, Lucifer is having a drink when Mazikeen arrives. He strikes up a conversation about her freshly fucked hair and offers her weak forgiveness for her sins. Mazikeen having learned that hiding things from Lucifer is not a good idea, admits to sleeping with Amendial and promises that she will be Lucifer's "inside man". Yeah, since Mazikeen as a woman, they really should have changed that to inside woman. Lucifer reveals that he was shot and didn't die. He then runs a knife across his hand and does not bleed. This is enough for Lucifer to decide that he needs to run a little experiment.
Lucifer shows up at Chloe's and when they both start to speak, Lucifer let's Chloe go first and hides the knife behind his back. Chloe admits that there is something special between them and that Lucifer is the only person who she feels safe to let her guard down around Lucifer. Lucifer runs his hand along the knife and he begins to bleed. Lucifer then admits that he is vulnerable around Chloe as well.
So, the big reveal is that Lucifer still retains his powers, he just doesn't have access to invulnerability around Chloe. It very much suggests that Chloe brings out Lucifer's humanity and empathy. I'm not really down with this because it's just more of casting Chloe as the super special special one. Don't we already have enough of that in this genre?
I really have to bring up the case of the week. There have been very few LGBT characters on Lucifer to date and all have showed up as one offs who are not important to the weekly narrative, let alone the overall meta. This time, Tim was a closeted gay man who was murdered. Thanks for that Lucifer. They cannot bother to give us any decent LGBT portrayals whatsoever. This is not inclusion and instead reads as cooking seeking by making LGBT people disposable characters who are to be quickly forgotten. I'm not in the least bit impressed.
Though I mentioned this at the beginning of this recap, Lucifer patting himself for not raping Chloe isn't charming or sweet. I could not help but wonder given rape culture how many people didn't realise that had Lucifer taken up Chloe on her offer, they wouldn't actually have had sex because Chloe was really to drunk to consent. The fact that this is very much cast as progress because Lucifer has repeatedly exposed himself to Chloe (yes, that happened this episode), stalked her, and repeatedly propositioned her, despite her repeated requests for him to stop is telling. Even before Lucifer decided not to rape Chloe, he was already a sexual predator.
