For our third Lucifer character spotlight, we will be focusing on one of our leading ladies: Chloe! After covering Lucifer and Maze in our first two articles, it was only natural for Chloe to be next. Once again, these character spotlights will consist of a short background on who the character is. And then we will go through three of their best moments and three of their funniest moments. And still to come are spotlights on Amenadiel, Daniel, Ella, Linda, and Trixie.
Who is Chloe?: Chloe is an LAPD homicide detective who stumbled upon on a case that had the Devil written all over it. And despite her protests, the two became partners when Lucifer become a consultant for the squad. When we first meet her, she is just coming off a distressing case which we eventually see the outcome of. She was married to fellow detective Daniel Espinoza (the two have since divorced) with whom she shares an adorable daughter Trixie.
We will get right into some of Chloe’s best moments:
Consolation: I am going to kick this off with a scene that may seem a little unusual. Season 1, episode 9 titled “A Priest Walks into a Bar” has one of my absolute favorite scenes from this show.
We saw Lucifer become oddly attached to a priest named Frank, who dove in front of a bullet to save the life of a young man he felt responsible for. Lucifer held Father Frank as he took his final breaths and was clearly quite distressed about his death.
In the scenes following, we see Lucifer in his penthouse playing a slow rendition of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Guns N’ Roses on the piano, which we had previously heard the Father play. The elevator doors open, and Chloe steps out, offering a quiet hello to our somber devil. The two begin to converse as Chloe sits next to him at the piano. He asks if she plays, and she reveals she had taken three years of lessons but only remembers one thing: “Heart and Soul.” (You may not recognize the song title but I can almost guarantee you have heard the familiar tune.) Lucifer joins her, playing a beautiful accompaniment, and the two are smiling at one another as the music plays out.
Why do I love this so much? Simple: I love it because it is a genuine moment in a friendship. It in no way feels forced. Chloe recognized that Lucifer was hurting after the death of Father Frank, and she put her own plans on hold for the night to simply be with him. She did not try to force him to talk about anything — she simply offered her presence. She said “I am here,” without ever uttering the words. She let Lucifer control the conversation, and it just happened to take them to a place they both enjoyed, and it strengthened their bond. It is definitely one of my top moments from the first season.
“He is not a liar”: In episode 10 of season 2, titled “Quid Pro Ho,” Chloe takes the stand in court during a case related to the murder of her late father. Charlotte Richards (who, at this point in time, is still Lucifer’s mother) had previously pulled Chloe aside and promised the case would end in her (Chloe’s) favor, only if she testified that Lucifer had lied during his own testimony.
When Chloe takes a very deep breath before answering Charlotte’s first question, it almost seems as if she might do just that, but then she speaks. She says, “Lucifer Morningstar is many things, but he is not a liar.”
This scene is one of the big reasons we love Chloe so much. First, she enunciates this sentence very clearly and very carefully. In doing so, she is making sure that not only is her message to the jury clear, but her message to Charlotte Richards is clear.
One thing we have never seen Chloe do, no matter the circumstances, is belittle or degrade Lucifer. She may not have believed his many far-fetched truths, but she never made him feel like he was less than for what he said and did. It was almost as if she was saying, “You know what Lucifer? Whatever you need to do to cope with your past is perfectly fine with me.” That right there is a beautiful thing. The writers may or may not have intended it to be this way, but it comes across to us, the viewers, as a step forward in the fight to destigmatize mental health.
Simply Chloe: This is another moment in which Chloe teaches the audience a valuable lesson: there is no one better to be than yourself. Season 3, episode 8 “Chloe Does Lucifer” brought us an undercover investigation done by Chloe, in which she is forced to attend a mass datenight of sorts. Just before she enters the venue, Lucifer hands her an ear piece and begins giving her instructions on how to act… how to be the female Lucifer, if you will. When it becomes obvious the plan is failing miserably, Chloe makes the best decision she possibly can, and one she should have made from the start: she decides to just be herself. This new course of action proves to be the best when she quickly finds the man suspected in this episode’s crime.
When Chloe first goes undercover, she is not comfortable with who she is in this setting. She almost feels as though she would stick out like a sore thumb, so she changes. She has help from Lucifer and becomes him; he tells her what to say and do in each situation, when and how to laugh, how to stand, and so forth. But she quickly realizes how horribly things are going. She may have initially been uncomfortable being herself, but she came to be more uncomfortable being someone else. She recognized these feelings in the moment and acted to change them. Sure, she made the wrong decision initially, but she changed that, too. In this one simple moment, she taught us that no matter the situation, it’s best to just be yourself. No one can successfully be someone else in the blink of an eye. That’s just is not how things work.
Chloe has given us some incredible teaching moments, but she has also given us some laugh out loud moments to go with them. So let’s dive into those next.
“You said you wanted danger”: In season 1, episode 5 “Sweet Kicks,” Lucifer is exploring his new found love for danger. After wrapping up a murder case on the wrong side of town, he is once again hitting on Chloe. She lets him believe his advances are working as she slides into the driver’s seat of the police cruiser. But as he tries to open the passenger door, believing himself to be heading home with the detective, he finds the door is locked. Despite Lucifer’s pleas to gain to entry into the car, Chloe turns the engine over and drives away.
Honestly, this scene is as funny as it is because of how clever Chloe is with her rejection of Lucifer. She makes him think he will get what he wants, only to lock him out of the car. As she drives away, Lucifer yells out, “I don’t even have a phone!”
Well Luci, I guess you should have thought of that before hitting on Chloe.
Is that a flirtation?: In this comedic moment from episode 12 of season 2 called “Love Handles,” Chloe decides to “throw caution to the wind” in regards to her progressing relationship with Lucifer. Things had gone further than they ever had before between Chloe and Lucifer on the previous night, before Chloe decided to pump the brakes.
As the two stand in the middle of a courtyard, Lucifer suspects, because things had changed between them, he might be able to do his desire trick on her now, to no avail. As he turns to walk away (and thanks to some advice she had received from Maze), Chloe decides it would be the perfect moment to slap Lucifer’s backside.
*Cue Joe Jonas impression* Oh how the tables have turned! Usually it is Lucifer that is flirting his way through interactions, but this time it was Chloe. This moment was funny for two reasons: 1) The slap was very quick and very shy, which also made it super cute, and 2) Lucifer’s reaction was priceless! He obviously never expected the straight-laced detective to make this kind of move, especially not out in public.
Poppycock: In season 3, episode 15 “High School Poppycock” Chloe begins to read books by a recently deceased author, and she becomes fully invested in the teenage drama. Through their investigation, the team learns that these stories are not fictional; in fact, the stories are based upon the author’s experiences in high school. But because the only original copy of the next book in the series was stolen by the murderer who was an old classmate, Lucifer and Chloe are forced to go undercover to find the killer at a reunion.
When the two first enter the high school gymnasium, Chloe is unable to contain her excitement, and her new obsession for the not-so-fictional fiction series becomes very apparent. She is quick to defend the series as a whole saying, “… the books are much deeper than you’d imagine.”
What makes this funny? The fact that it is a bit of a wink-wink-nudge-nudge to the audience. Chloe, in this case, represents the collective Lucifer fandom; she is defending the book series to Lucifer like a fan would defend the show to someone that does not watch it. It is always slightly funny when we get an unexpected outside view of ourselves and have to step back and ask, “Is that how I sound?!” (This is a good thing, I promise! It is not at all a bad thing.)
Lauren German plays Detective Chloe Decker incredibly well. She finds ways to make her words speak volumes and tell unexpected stories that leave you thinking. She can make you laugh, she can make you cry, she can make you ride a roller coaster of emotions through a simple gesture. We love Lauren German just as much as we love Chloe Decker.
Let us know what your favorite Chloe moments are, and be on the lookout for our next Lucifer character spotlight!