‘Lucifer’ Recap: Things Get Meta in Season 5, Episode 3 “¡Diablo!”

Megan
17 Min Read
John P. Fleenor/Netflix

It’s a meta, meta world in the third episode of Lucifer‘s fifth season. The real Lucifer is back and a new case involving the death of a showrunner at Warner Bros. Studios finds him and Chloe on the set of a show that is eerily similar to their lives, with a few changes. A family reunion could also spell trouble. Keep reading to find out what happens in “¡Diablo!”

Lauren German and Tom Ellis in Lucifer. Image courtesy of Netflix.

There will be spoilers below!

Lucifer is finally topside again, leaving Amenadiel to watch over Hell, and is back at the precinct. He spots Chloe and immediately walks over to her. Chloe, however, is less than thrilled, thinking he’s Michael. Lucifer tries to tell her that he is Lucifer, pointing out his hair and the perfectly arranged pocket square that Michael couldn’t pull off but Chloe isn’t falling for it. He pulls over Cacuzza, asking her what she desires. Lucifer knows his brother can’t do that. “It’s really you.” He begins to tell Chloe his funny story of how he’s back and she hugs him, both feeling relief.

They go into a room to talk more privately and Lucifer tells Chloe he can’t stay for long, he just needed to make sure that she’s okay. They talk about Michael and Lucifer says that everything he says is a lie. Chloe’s relieved, because something he said was so insane, she obviously knew it had to be a lie. Michael told Chloe that she was a gift from God and Chloe starts laughing but then sees Lucifer’s straight face. Lucifer admits she is. His mom told him over a year ago, she only told him because she was trying to keep them apart. She thought if he knew the truth it would mean the feelings he had for Chloe weren’t real, that he’d feel she was just some tool to manipulate him. Lucifer doesn’t feel that way because he realized whether she was made for him or not, it doesn’t matter. Chloe says it matters to her.

Dan opens the door, telling them they’ve got a body at WB Studios. Perfect timing, such a gift. Chloe tells Lucifer she doesn’t have time for this, she has work to do. She’s the only reason he’s there but apparently he’s the only reason she’s there. So Chloe is going to do the job that she chose.

Tom Ellis in Lucifer. Image courtesy of John P. Fleenor/Netflix

Ella is already at Warner Bros. Studios, taking pictures of the dead body. Chloe meets up with her and Ella tells her to meet Matt Owens, a TV writer and showrunner stabbed to death. Lucifer pulls up and he tells Chloe he isn’t going anywhere until he knows she’s okay. If God made Chloe for Lucifer, He probably would want her to feel that way. She tells him she needs a little time to absorb all of it. Lucifer might as well help solve this murder for Chloe whilst he’s up there fixing things. Chloe says this isn’t one of those cases where he just waltzes in and figure it out as he goes. Upon noticing who was murdered, Lucifer realizes he knows the man. He did Matt a favor a couple of years ago to help get his career started as a TV writer. Lucifer was wondering what he’d been up to and Chloe says she might have an answer to that, pointing to a billboard for Lieutenant ¡Diablo!, the main character looking similar to Lucifer, with Devil’s horns. Now that Lucifer thinks of it, they did mostly talk about him.

After watching a scene being filmed that is eerily familiar in more ways than one, Lucifer and Chloe tell Diablo and Dancer that it seems a little odd they’re all shooting, since their showrunner was killed earlier that morning. Matt would have wanted them to keep going, they’re the biggest hit of the fall and he was really proud of that. Dancer, however, thinks it’s gross that they’re still working but she’s not surprised someone stabbed Matt. She says he was a control freak, a megalomaniac. Neither of them had a problem with Matt, but Diablo says he’s been doing this job for seven episodes now and if there’s one thing he’s learned, it’s why people kill. “It’s ’cause they yearn for something. You want to find the killer, figure out their yearning.” Dancer says they should talk to Keri Belwood, Matt’s number two. Everyone knows she did all the work on the scripts and he took all the credit. Her yearning was for his job. Chloe says there could be other motives to kill him and Diablo says they have a Dancer answer. Diablo comes up with the wild theories and crazy hijinks and Dancer is the fun police. “Did they seem familiar to you?”

Chloe comes out of the evidence lab after checking out the motel room that Matt stayed at, telling Lucifer and Dan they have a new suspect in Matt’s murder. She holds up a small bag of a hot cinnamon vape cartridge. It doesn’t make Diablo their killer but he did say that he hadn’t been to that room before. Ella found it buried in two days of Matt’s trash. Back on the Warner Bros. lot, Lucifer doesn’t get why an actor would kill a man who gave him the role of a lifetime. Chloe suggests he didn’t like being someone else’s puppet. They get to Diablo’s trailer and a PA is knocking on the door, telling him his scene was supposed to start 40 minutes ago. Lucifer gets the door open and the three of them go in, greeted by a horrific sight. Diablo on his couch, bloodied and dead.

Dizzie Harris, Lauren German and Tom Ellis in Lucifer. Image courtesy of Netflix.

Ella comes out of Diablo’s trailer, saying she found the murder weapon. A prop from the show that is supposed to be the only blade that can kill the Devil. She stabs Lucifer with the rubber blade, saying it seemed funnier in her head. Chloe points out that it can’t be the murder weapon but Ella says it’s the stunt murder weapon, used for action sequences. The one used for close-ups is sharp and metal so they find that one, they find their murderer.

After Chloe finishes talking to a cop, Lucifer wants her to know he understands. He knows how powerless he felt when his mom told him the truth about her. That’s right. His mother told him the truth. “Unlike my partner, who kept a huge secret about my life from me.” Lucifer wants to fix things but Chloe won’t let him. Dan comes up to them, saying a PA was supposed to be sitting at the door to Diablo’s trailer but she got called away right around the time he was murdered. Whoever called her away could be the murderer. The second AD called her away but he got it from the first AD, who was passing on the message that the AD needs to be on set in the first place. Dan says it’s Keri Belwood, the second on the show.

Kevin Alejandro, Tom Ellis and Lauren German in Lucifer. Image courtesy of John P. Fleenor/Netflix

Lucifer and Chloe meet with Keri, and Chloe asks why she took the PA off Diablo’s trailer. Keri says she didn’t, she’s been on notes calls all day, they can ask her assistant. The same assistant that provided her alibi for Matt’s brutal stabbing? “Everyone knows you need to pay your dues in Hollywood, but what kind of promotion do you get for helping your boss beat murder charges?” Keri knew exactly how to manipulate the AD chain to get Diablo alone. Keri wants to know why she would want to kill the star of what’s suddenly her show and Lucifer notices blood on a cabinet. Keri tells him there’s research files for cases on the show but when Lucifer opens it, he spots more blood and finds the murder weapon. “Well, it appears that someone’s been taking their research a little too seriously.” Keri says that isn’t hers, she didn’t put that there, and Chloe arrests her.

At the precinct, Lucifer and Dan are reading a script for ¡Diablo!, Lucifer as Dancer and Dan as Diablo. Ella comes in, upset they were acting out ¡Diablo! episodes without her, well, trying to. “Don’t tell him the Devil made you do it!” Ella notices all of the notes Diablo made on the pages and Lucifer tells her that previously it had all been notes on the character but the new ones are just gibberish. After reading a few of the notes, Lucifer says he knew the man was a genius, that these are Diablo’s notes on the case. He was investigating Matt Owen’s murder as well and he wrote, “Killer equals number two.” And Keri was the show’s number two, Lucifer can’t believe that Diablo actually solved it. Dan brings up that Keri killed Matt to get his job, he doesn’t think freedom was the yearning. Ella doesn’t think Keri killed him at all. Based on the stab wounds, she was able to confirm that the victims were killed by someone right-handed and Keri has repetitive stress injuries in her wrists. It’d be highly unlikely, especially with her non-dominant hand. Lucifer tells them it says there in black and white that Diablo was certain the killer was number two. Unless he meant someone else.

Chloe talks to Dancer in Diablo’s club and Dancer talks about the fact that now that she’s finally free she can do a part in a tiny indie. Chloe notes that Dancer said this was an amazing gig and she was grateful to have it. Dancer says that’s true but when a gig ends, sometimes it’s easier to focus on the bad. Chloe gets it and now she can showcase her talent on a show that lets her. For example, the impression of Keri that Dancer did was really dead-on. In fact, Chloe says it would be nearly impossible to tell the two of them apart over the phone. She aims her gun at Dancer, but Dancer knocks it away. Dancer breaks a glass and tries to fight Chloe. Chloe tells her she understands killing her showrunner for holding her back and she gets her hiding the vape cartridge to frame her co-star, but why would she kill him when she wanted them to think he was the murderer? Dancer says it’s because Diablo figured out what she did. She wasn’t going to let him take away the freedom she almost got herself. Chloe knocks down Dancer and arrests her.

Brianne Davis and Alex Quijano in Lucifer. Image courtesy of Netflix.

Lucifer gets to his bar and pours himself a drink, but he’s not alone for long. Spreading his white wings, he comes face-to-face with Michael, spreading his black wings. Michael asks Lucifer how he likes the mess he made, he hoped turning his life upside down would get under his skin but if all it takes is a name, maybe Michael overestimated Lucifer. Lucifer tells his brother it’s funny how turning his life upside down actually involved pretending to be him. It’s the only trick Michael ever pulled. It’s only ever been about Lucifer, about trying to be him. Michael wonders how Lucifer got that idea in his head in the first place. If Michael wants to take credit for Lucifer’s failed rebellion, by all means, it’s his. All Michael did was plant the idea. Lucifer was the one who chose to do it, he still gets to keep all the blame himself. Michael is not lying and he thinks deep down Lucifer is realizing that. Once Lucifer realizes that, he’s going to wonder maybe it wasn’t just the rebellion that was Michael’s suggestion, like Lucifer’s vacation to Earth. Michael says all it took was a little whisper here, a carefully orchestrated coincidence there, and Lucifer’s pathological self-absorption. Michael calls Lucifer unworthy and the twins start fighting each other, the fight ending with Lucifer doing something to Michael.

Maze comes home, expecting to find Chloe, but she finds Lucifer instead. However, it’s not Lucifer, it’s Michael, with a mark on his head thanks to his brother. Now she gets to cut out his lying tongue. Maze takes down Michael and he tells her she was right. He’s a liar and Lucifer always tells the truth. Except for when he leaves things out, like the secret that he kept from Chloe and the one he’s keeping from her. Michael can’t tell Maze because she won’t believe him, because he’s a liar. But he can tell her how to find it out herself.

Tom Ellis in Lucifer. Image courtesy of Netflix.

Keep checking back for more recaps from season 5A of Lucifer! You can watch all eight episodes of the new season now on Netflix.

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By Megan
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Megan has been passionate about writing since she was little and has been passionate about all things pop culture and nerdy since almost as long. Joining Nerds and Beyond in 2019, she also graduated from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Journalism. Megan is constantly binge-watching shows and finding new things to obsess over. 9-1-1 and Marvel currently reign as the top obsessions. You can find her on Twitter @marvels911s if you ever want to discuss some certain firefighters.
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