‘Lucifer’ Season 5 Premiere: Welcome to Hell (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Season 5 premiere of Lucifer, “Really Sad Devil Guy.”]
What, you thought Lucifer (Tom Ellis) reclaiming the throne in hell would keep him and Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) from working a case together?
The Season 5 premiere features a bit of the old and new for the devil, as he once again has demons under his control (they’re delivering messages topside for him!) and uses what he learned from Chloe to help a man solve his own murder in hell … while the detective, with demon and bounty hunter Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt) offering her expertise as a consultant, tackles the same crime in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, forensics specialist Ella (Aimee Garcia) insists she’s swearing off bad guys, only to end up in bed with one, and angel Amenadiel (DB Woodside) and therapist Dr. Linda Martin (Rachael Harris) both deal with being new parents (to a half-human, half-angel baby).
For him, it’s by trying to clean up the streets with citizen’s arrests and gaining the trust of drug dealers at Lucifer’s club Lux before turning them over to Detective Dan Espinoza (Kevin Alejandro). For her, it’s by trying to make sure baby Charlie can reach his full potential with Japanese and science lessons, yoga, and the like, even when he’s only two months old. But both end up more than happy to make silly faces to get him to laugh again after he does so for Chloe and Dan’s daughter Trixie (Scarlett Estevez).
(Netflix)
“What the hell?”
Lucifer interrupts a guy’s fun at his yacht party to confirm something bad is about to happen: he’s about to be killed. And after precisely that, the devil explains it had happened 200 times already. “What the hell?” the victim asks. “Precisely,” Lucifer says.
In Los Angeles, Chloe, Maze, and Ella are at the crime scene, on the yacht (named Fishizzle). Lee Gardner was a career criminal, and not only was he shot in the chest, but his hand was cut off (and is missing). Though Maze thinks she slept with him, Chloe informs her, “Just because you happened to have slept with that one murder victim a few weeks ago doesn’t mean you slept with them all.”
But Chloe’s not the only one missing Lucifer; Ella points out that at least she got a goodbye whereas she was ghosted. (The cover story is he moved to Florida to help with his family’s business.) Therefore, “as far as I’m concerned, he can go to hell,” Ella declares. While she may worry about bringing him up in front of Chloe, the detective insists she’s been too busy working (and partying at Lux with Maze, we see) to really think about him.
Meanwhile, Lucifer welcomes Lee to hell and explains he’s in his own “hell loop.” As such, he’s his own jailer and the reason he’s stuck there, in eternal torture, is “between you and your own guilt,” the devil explains. Though Lee wants to know who killed him, that’s not Lucifer’s job anymore … until he learns Lee’s from L.A.
“There’s a good chance I know who’s on your case,” he says. “We were quite a team, once upon a time.” (The few months up on Earth are “much, much longer” down in hell.) Since Lee never saw his killer’s face under the ski mask, they have to use “good old-fashioned detective work,” and fortunately, Lucifer “learned from the best.”
Both investigations lead to the same man: Dirty Doug, who runs a poker game and whom Lee owed a lot of money. Chloe and Maze speak with Lee’s sister and another guy who was in debt before the demon scores them an invite to a game—ignore the blood on the card—while Lucifer recreates the scene in hell (but can’t get any background information on Doug because this isn’t the same as working with Chloe). Lee is “useless,” Lucifer eventually declares. “You’re not her.”
(John P. Fleenor/Netflix)
Chloe makes sure to lose big to attract Doug’s attention, and Maze jumps the gun after he references people ending up with a bullet in the head if they don’t pay him back. But Lee was shot in the chest. Maze then spots a guy running, and she and Chloe take chase. But the guy runs into the street and is hit by a car.
A Helping Hand
Ella finds a gun on him that likely matches the one used to kill Lee. After she steps away from the body, he suddenly (and briefly) sits up, possessed by a demon with a message for Chloe from Lucifer: “It’s safe where you stored it.”
With that taken care of, Lucifer’s ready to return Lee to his torture, but the murder victim tries to gain the devil’s sympathy by asking about the detective he’s always talking about. (He seems like “a really sad, devil guy,” Lee claims.) Lucifer then takes him to the root of his hell loop: his parents’ house, the day of his sister’s baby shower, the last day everyone was together. (His mother got sick, and his father died shortly after she did.) He never went inside.
Back on Earth, Ella identifies the runner: Vernon Gill, a known hitman. And yes, the gun on him was used to kill Lee. But who hired him? (Doug is ruled out.) Chloe passes along Lucifer’s message to Ella and Maze (under the guise of coming from a criminal informant until she and the demon are alone), and the forensics specialist figures it out: Lee’s credit card statement shows he had a storage unit at a You Stored It.
There, Chloe and Maze run into Lee’s sister, Meg, who points out the biometric safe. That’s why his hand was taken. There must have been money inside. Meg has no idea who else knew about the unit but suggests his old crew could be involved. After Meg admits that she’s realized she has to accept Lee’s not coming back, Chloe realizes she’s been avoiding dealing with the same thing about Lucifer.
But Maze is convinced that they don’t need him (or anyone) and kisses her. Chloe stops her, suggesting that the demon’s avoiding dealing with what happened with Eve, but Maze insists it doesn’t. Still, they can’t keep using the partnership to fill the void someone else left behind, so the detective determines they need to stop working together.
(Netflix)
Chloe brings Meg home, and waiting on the counter is Lee’s hand. Then his old crew enters, demanding to know where the money is. (Lee owed them their cut from the last job.) Chloe shoots one of them before she and Meg take cover.
Back in hell, Lucifer speculates Lee stayed away from his family because he knew he’d eventually mess up again and disappoint them, and while Lee may agree, he also knows that the devil’s dealing with his own stuff. In fact, he thinks Lucifer is there torturing himself. He knows that he missed his chance by not attending that baby shower, but what about Lucifer? The devil insists that he’s in hell out of responsibility, to protect humanity and her with the demons in full revolt. Then a demon joins them, with the member of Lee’s crew Chloe killed.
And so as Chloe prepares to draw the others’ fire, she hears whistling. “Hello, bad guys,” Lucifer greets them. “I hope I’m not late to the party.” Meg runs as Lucifer and Chloe take out the rest of Lee’s crew. “Thought you could use a hand, but looks like someone beat me to it,” he quips, referencing the hand on the counter.
Chloe kisses him but then pulls back, noting he seems different. Time passed differently in hell, he explains. It was thousands of years for him, but, “the only thing that kept me going was thinking of you.”
(John P. Fleenor/Netflix)
Meanwhile, Maze goes to Lucifer’s apartment and absolutely destroys his piano. So, if you’ve ever wondered what the inside of a piano looks like, thank her for giving you that answer.
But back in hell … Lee is surprised Lucifer’s not going up there to help his friend. Lucifer has every faith in the detective. She’s quite capable of taking care of herself, he explains, while he’s where he belongs. “She’ll be just fine without me.”
And so that means Chloe’s with…
Lucifer, Season 5, Part 1, Streaming Now, Netflix
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