Lucifer binge recap: Hallelujah for season 4

Lucifer's back from the dead, thank Dad! Fox canceled the devilish procedural in 2018, but Netflix performed a miracle and resurrected it for 10 episodes. And EW's here for you with an episode-by-episode guide as you binge this heavenly new season. Follow along as you watch!

EPISODE 1: 'Everything's Okay'

Things that are okay: The fact that this show is back for a new season. Netflix's looser standards and practices that allow us an eyeful of Lucifer's assets. Tom Ellis's singing voice.

Things that are not okay: Chloe, despite her protests to the contrary.

We open in Lux, with Lucifer Morningstar at the piano performing an increasingly desperate version of Radiohead's "Creep." His outfits change, the crowd comes and goes, and his eyes get wilder, his hair more mussed, and his face more hopeless as the song progresses, until it ends with a hand holding a gun to his head.

It's Lee, the hapless criminal who's been left pants-less in two separate season premieres after run-ins with Lucifer. He wants his revenge, but Lucifer reveals his red eyes and supernatural strength, asking if Lee feels the same confusion, disgust, and terror that Chloe felt upon learning his true nature. He doesn't know, though; the police came in before he could respond.

Then he sends Lee on his way loaded with loot to atone for his past wrongs against the man. Heck, he even offers the pants off his body, making the time-to-Ellis-butt exactly 5 minutes and 42 seconds, all while staying organic to the story. Well played, Netflix!

In the month since Chloe (Lauren German) skipped town for an extended European vacation with Trixie, Lucifer's shown up at every new crime scene, hoping to find her back at work. And whaddya know, today is that day. She slides her eyes past him at the murder scene and jumps into questioning witnesses.

When he forces her to talk with him, she swears she's fine, just frustrated it took her so long to realize how truthful he'd always been with her. Now, she wants things to go back to normal.

Lucifer diagnoses her as in denial and talks it out with Dr. Linda (Rachael Harris), who first suggests that Lucifer actually wanted Chloe to reject him since he self-actualized his devil face as a manifestation of his guilt over killing Pierce last season. He rejects any fault with himself, of course, and wants to know how to fix Chloe.

Linda theorizes that the truth scared her so much that she's projecting her issues onto whatever she's dealing with in her daily life. So with his usual lack of self-awareness, Lucifer throws himself into Chloe's investigation into who murdered Bob the beekeeper, seller of artisanal honey, and who, as it turns out, is in the witness protection program.

As they chase down leads (rival honey vendors, angry mobsters, a not-at-all suspicious U.S. marshal played by tall drink of water Sasha Roiz), Chloe tries to convince Lucifer (and herself) that she likes being in on the joke when unsuspecting humans twist themselves into pretzels to turn "I'm the devil" into a metaphor.

But friends, I don't think Chloe's as cool cool cool as she says she is, given the way she gasps and twists away when he sets a hand on her shoulder.

"What does it mean when a woman recoils at your touch?" Lucifer asks Dan (Kevin Alejandro), who's still icing him out following Charlotte's (Tricia Helfer) death. Dan takes delight in telling him that this reaction comes from disgust.

The murderer turns out to be the U.S. marshal, fed up that scumbag criminals are given such cushy second chances. This enrages Lucifer, who defends Bob for making a few mistakes while trying to make a better life for himself.

The marshal fires his gun, and the bullet pierces Lucifer's hand because Chloe's vulnerability's still in effect. He then exerts his superhuman strength to keep the marshal from fleeing in his car. The effort causes his eyes to glow red, which rattles Chloe but doesn't stop her from making an arrest.

Before we hit the end of the episode, let's check in with the rest of our friends. Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt) is drowning in guilt over hurting Trixie's feelings last season, and Linda suggests they work through her issues in a language she understands: violence.

They spar and talk it out, and yes, Maze is careful not to accidentally kill her best friend. When Amenadiel shows up, he briefly assumes they're fighting over him. Then he takes a seat on Linda's couch to tell her that he's at loose ends since returning to Heaven, which felt different to him. "Because this is your home," Maze says. Yeah, but does he know about the price of real estate?

Amenadiel (D. B. Woodside) then takes a moment to assure Dan that Charlotte's in heaven and Dan hugs him through his tears. Maze also gets a hug from Trixie, who says, "I couldn't stay mad at you." Good. This is all very good.

Okay, back to our central couple. Lucifer, with his hand bleeding through a bandage, is playing the piano when Chloe arrives. He swears to her that he's more than his monstrous side, or at least he wants to be, and she takes his injured hand (jerk move!) and tells him that they're still partners. This lifts Lucifer's burden. "If you can accept me, then that really is all that matters," he says.

Happy ending, right? Yeah, not so fast. Cut to Chloe crying in a church pew. A priest sits next to her and says, "What you're doing is the best thing for everyone on Earth, including Lucifer." Then he asks if she's ready for the next step.

BETRAYAL, Y'ALL. BETRAYAL IS THE NEXT STEP.

Stray feathers

• Look, we all knew Chloe wasn't handling things as well as she claimed, but to work with the church against Lucifer? It's a hard pill to swallow—and what a revelation to move us into the second hour!
• Quote of the episode: "Avocado honey? Come on. I'm from L.A., and even I think that's going too far."
• BRB, watching Tom Ellis sing "Creep" twenty more times while placing an order for Ella's Purrrsist t-shirt and trying to scrub the image of Lucifer and Linda's clown mask bedroom hijinks from my brain.

Grade: A-

EPISODE 2: 'Somebody's Been Reading Dante's Inferno'

So what drove Chloe Decker to work with the Catholic Church to send Lucifer Morningstar back to Hell? A persuasive priest, of course.

Chloe was researching historical accounts of the devil when she met Father Kinley (Graham McTavish), who works for the International Association of Exorcists and has been tracking Lucifer for years. He convinces Chloe—a good person who's just had a huge shock about the man she…loves? cares about?—that Lucifer is a danger to every person on Earth. He tells her she's the only one who can stop him and hands her a vial.

Lucifer, blissfully unaware, gets advice from new L.A. resident Amenadiel to open himself up to humanity by asking Chloe out. Then she beats him to the punch by asking him if he has plans that night. He drops the d-word (date, you pervs!), and she briefly hesitates before saying yes. This happens as they're investigating the murder of a reality show contestant.

As they interview the suspects, Chloe also interviews Lucifer, who assures her that he doesn't bite the heads off of babies or kill humans for fun, quipping, "Someone's been reading Dante's Inferno."

He organizes a Pretty Woman outing, buying her a gown and hiring a helicopter to take them to the opera, but Chloe suggests postponing their date—and following through on her plans—until the case is solved. Kinley accuses her of falling for the prince of lies' good-guy act.

Lucifer, though, thinks the only thing holding up their date is the resolution of the case, so he throws himself into solving it. As their investigation continues, one of the contestants tampers with a gas line and tosses a lighter inside a cabin, not knowing Lucifer's in there. Chloe watches in horror as the place explodes, then is boggled when he emerges without a mark on him. "How is he doing that?" she whispers. Hey, girl, he's the devil, 'member?

They make an arrest (and really strong eye contact), and Chloe says she'll meet Lucifer at his place that night. When she arrives, she discovers he made her favorite, grilled cheese, and as he pours the wine, he offers to answer any more questions she has.

When he leaves to fire up her favorite bad '90s jams, she makes a move to slip the contents of the vial into his wine glass. But Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison" booms through the loft so loudly that she jumps and breaks the wine glass.

He returns and helps her clean up, slicing his hand on a shard of glass. That's when she realizes he was able to walk through the fire, but a bit of glass makes him bleed. What's the difference? "I'm only vulnerable when I'm close to you," he says.

Before she can parse that, Ella (Aimee Garcia) calls to say that they arrested the wrong person for the murder. Chloe orders Lucifer to stay behind and returns to the filming location and accuses the cameraman of killing the victim when she nixed their plan to split the prize money.

The cameraman grabs an ax and tosses it at Chloe, and there's Lucifer, throwing his body between her and danger. Chloe shoots the cameraman in the leg and turns to find Lucifer pinned by his shirt to a wooden post.

She removes the ax and holds it to his chest, wondering if it would kill him. It would, he says, but he'd risk his life again and again to save her. "Don't you know that, detective?" She pulls the ax away to find she left a small cut on his, and I cannot emphasize this enough, perfect chest, and it gives her something to think about.

Her thinking carries her back to the church, where she tells Kinley she's not going to dose Lucifer with a sedative so they can perform the exorcism, as they'd planned. She insists that he's not the evil being he used to be, and she won't be used as a tool to make him vulnerable. "Maybe one day you'll see what I see," she tells Kinley.

At his piano, Lucifer gets a text from Chloe, asking about a make-up date. But when his elevator dings open, it's not her. It's Father Kinley.

Stray feathers

• Are you as relieved as I am that the Chloe-plots-against-Lucifer storyline was so short-lived? She spent exactly the right amount of time around Lucifer to be reminded of why she cared about him in the first place. Here, I think, we can thank the condensed Netflix schedule; with a network-length run of episodes, that conflict could've frustrated us by dragging out for far longer, no?
• Big Linda news! Following a fainting spell, she heads to the doctor and gets some life-changing news: She and Amenadiel are expecting a bouncing baby Nephilim. Good thing, because Amenadiel hasn't quite found his purpose on Earth yet, and no, asking writers at the coffee shop what they're working on doesn't count.
• Love the callback to Lucifer stealing Dan's pudding. Any guesses about how long Detective Douche is going to hold a grudge?
• Now that Ella's had a falling out with the big man upstairs, she's searching for new hobbies. But… a bathtub chicken, Ella? That sounds messy.
• Not to be too thirsty, but if we don't get a shirtless Lucifer piano scene, I swear to Dad…

Grade: B+

EPISODE 3: 'O, Ye of Little Faith, Father'

Has the Deckerstar relationship ever been more powered by angst and longing and hope and regret? Not in my book, and I'm llllllliving for it. Another highlight of this episode: Lucifer's extreme over-identification with each case coming back to bite him, hard.

Episode 3 shoves us into the devious mind of Father Kinley, who warns Lucifer that Chloe Decker came to him after seeing something that shook her to her core, and now she's out to send Lucifer back to Hell by drugging him with a vial she carries. "The detective would never do that," Lucifer scoffs.

When we next see her, she is defending Lucifer to Dan, arguing that he's trying to be good. (To be fair, Lucifer advertised Dan's number as the place to call for the Chewbacca voice contest. RIP, Peter Mayhew!)

She's puzzled that Lucifer hasn't rescheduled their date yet, but she's also on him at their crime scene to stop drinking and roughing up suspects, hoping he can show people he's capable of change. But Lucifer doesn't care what anyone thinks. He also asks if Chloe's talked to anyone about him, but she swears she hasn't told a soul.

Lucifer heads straight to Dr. Linda for advice on how to punish someone who betrays you. Brimstone, maybe? Or public humiliation via YouTube? Linda instead suggests that he ask if Chloe has a reasonable explanation because once you accuse someone of betrayal, you can't un-ring that bell.

Maze, sporting A+ cotton-candy-pink hair, then arrives to stoke Linda's pregnancy fears with, "Is it true that human spawn erupt from their mother's body in a ceremony of blood and pain?"

Amenadiel at least tries to be more helpful, happily presenting Linda with baby books. But she tells him she's used to doing things on her own and sends him on his way. Still, she looks nervous as she sits alone waiting for her OB appointment until Amenadiel shows up, kneels, brandishes a ring box, and bellows, "Will you marry me?"

She whispers no and closes the box, but he just thumbs it open again. Comic-relief Amenadiel is the best Amenadiel! She tells him he's proposing for the wrong reasons, and what she really needs is someone to hold her hand and tell her everything will be okay. He can, and he does.

Now, to this episode's murders. Two people who escaped from gangs are found with large knives protruding from their backs. Both Lucifer and Dan take personally the deaths of people who were working to turn their lives around.

As they wait for warrants against the victims' former gang to come through, an edgy Dan finds Maze quizzing Trixie about what toy animal-topped knives would be best for Linda's baby. "At what age do your parents teach you to hunt?" she asks. But instead of fighting with her, he fights with her, and they battle their way through the gang members until they get to the leader. Death-wish Dan and machete-wielding Maze give a good fight scene, for sure.

Chloe and Lucifer have a calmer night…at first. Although Lucifer's dropping school-bus-sized openings for Chloe to confess her plot against him, she doesn't take the bait, instead asking him on a makeup date.

When she takes him to a rough part of town, warning him that her plans might be painful but will ultimately be a good thing, he looks a little alarmed. But she actually hoped they could volunteer for a soup kitchen and do some good for a change. But Lucifer wants nothing to do with hairnets and asks what, exactly, she wants him to change.

Then he insists on going through her purse, where he finds a vial, holding it to his lips as if to drink until she screams at him not to. The camera circles them as he says he knows about Kinley and she swears it's not what he thinks. Then Dan calls with information about the killer: It's Oscar, the drug counselor who helped the victims escape the gang life.

The drive to apprehend him is quiet as Lucifer comes to terms with what he's learned. When they arrive, he goes charging in and bends the bars on the door to keep Chloe out.

Oscar's calmly reading a Bible and says the victims deserved death because they couldn't change their wicked ways. "Show us who you really are," Oscar says, glancing quickly at the large mirror in front of them.

Thankfully, Lucifer catches the "us" and refuses to dispense his punishment. Oscar then asks God to forgive his failure and impales himself mouth-first on a jagged broken chair leg. It's awful, and I wonder what the Fox standards and practices people would have thought of it.

When he learns the Catholic church owns the house, Lucifer tosses a vase through the mirror and reveals it's a two-way, with chairs set up behind it. "Your friend Father Kinley must've been watching," he tells Chloe.

The L.A-based bishop who'd been working with Kinley to trap Lucifer is horrified to hear that Kinley staged two murders and a suicide just to catch Lucifer, and Kinley brags that he precisely engineered every single detail to compel Lucifer to reveal his true nature, as Chloe told him that Lucifer likes to make every case about himself.

Chloe arrests Kinley for conspiracy to commit murder, and the bishop offers to testify against him. Afterward, she finds Lucifer, drinking and brooding in his penthouse. He doesn't care that Kinley was trying to hurt him; he cares that she was.

This is when she finally comes clean and tells him that Kinley found her in Rome as she tried to process what she'd seen. Then she confesses that she's terrified. Lucifer represents everything she'd been taught was evil in the world, so how's she supposed to deal with that?

Naturally, this crushes him, even when she says she believes he can change. But he's not so sure and puts on his devil face, asking if she can accept him like that.

She tries. She wants to. But she struggles to even meet his eyes, finally admitting, "I don't know."

And with that, Lucifer has his answer. It's just not the one he wanted.

Then we cut to Kinley in jail. The bishop arrives to ex-communicate him, despite his warning about a prophecy stating that when the devil walks the earth and finds his true love, evil will be released into the world. But hey, at least he tore Lucifer and Chloe apart.

Enter a big-eyed, wild-haired woman in a white dress, ordering an appletini at Lux and looking in delight at the hedonistic mass around her.

Stray feathers

• Thank goodness for this episode. It came along at just the right moment to show us the deep cracks in Chloe's composure and remind us that, no matter how much we all love Lucifer, her world's been upended and she's doing her best to cope.
• A moment of silence for Ella, who's swapped margaritas for communion wine on Sundays and had taken the official step of removing the gold cross from around her neck.
• Between this and his unstoppable-killer role on AMC's Preacher, I'm really starting to distrust Graham McTavish, who's probably perfectly nice in real life.
• Honestly, I'd watch a minimum of three episodes of Vatican Investigator if it premiered next season on CBS.

Grade: B

EPISODE 4: 'All About Eve'

Chloe and Lucifer have new partners. I hate it and I love it and I can't wait to talk about it with you.

Let's start with Lucifer, who's shuffling around Lux in a robe and skivvies, hair mussed, in search of more liquor—until he catches sight of a primal, sweating woman on the dance floor. He's pulled to her, moth to flame, and she greets him with a bright, "Heya, Luce. Long time, no see."

It's Eve (Inbar Lavi). Yes, the Eve, who's found a way out of Heaven. ("I've always been a bit of a rule breaker.") He hustles her up to his loft, where she ogles his abs and tells him she wanted to get back to the only man in her life who accepted her for who she truly is.

Now she and her big brown eyes are on Earth looking for excitement, but Lucifer's in no condition to shepherd around a baby-voiced ingenue with a penchant for thrills. He calls a ride-share to take her to a hotel where he's made her a reservation, but when the car arrives, the driver pulls a gun, demands the necklace, and shoots Lucifer in the face. He's fine, which tells us everything we need to know about his feelings for Eve, but she's got some 'splaining to do.

The driver's in search of the $3 million Desert Mirage necklace, which is at the center of Chloe and Dan's murder investigation. Chloe claims to be pleased she's working with someone who doesn't smuggle flasks or swipe drugs at the scene, but Ella's sister-senses tingle, and she gets Chloe to admit that she and Lucifer are on the outs because of unreconcilable differences.

The murder of the necklace's designer sends the police to Bashir Al-Fassad, a wealthy criminal who owes Lucifer a favor and has heard all about Chloe. She calls in his marker, asking for the truth about Pablo's death. It's the usual up-to-his-neck-in-debt situation, and Pablo offered the necklace to make good, even sending a video of himself with the Desert Mirage on his private jet. And guess who's one of the women partying with him…

Yep, Eve hitched a ride to the U.S. on Pablo's plane. When she and Lucifer arrive at Bashir's to find out what he wants with Eve, he pulls them into hiding as Chloe and Dan walk past. Eve takes note of his jumpy reaction. Lucifer gets the same scoop from Bashir and agrees to bring him the necklace in exchange for Eve's safety, after which they can all go their separate ways, including Eve.

Now everyone's after the other woman on the plane, a con artist named Odessa. Chloe and Dan have to work down a list of her known whereabouts, but Eve knew she was headed to a Western-themed bar, which is where she and Lucifer find her.

Odessa calls over a bouncer, and Eve's thrilled to be in her first bar fight. Even though she's really looking forward to bashing somebody in the balls, Lucifer tells her he'll handle it. And let me tell you, friends, he handles it, treating Eve to a most excellent fight where he mixes it up with basically everybody in the place as she bites her lip in ecstasy. SAME, SISTER.

Then a man drives a broken pool cue deep into Lucifer's shoulder. Without even turning his head, he bellows, "Hello, detective. Didn't know you were here" and immediately lands this scene on my list of Top 5 moments on Lucifer. (No. 1 is Lucifer stopping Chloe from touching his wing scars if you're curious.) Lucifer refuses to tell Chloe why he's there, snapping, "I doubt you'd be able to accept it." Like I said, I loooove this and I haaaate this. Gimme all that angst.

Chloe then heads home to find Maze moving out; she doesn't want to be roommates with a backstabber who's plotting against Lucifer. Chloe begs Maze to consider what it's like to be the only human who knows that Heaven and Hell really exist, and oh, buddy, Maze wastes no time in telling her, "Linda handled it much better than you." Ha!

Off to Linda she goes. She and Chloe agree that Lucifer's true face is alarming, but Linda focuses on the benefits she's gotten from their acquaintance, including a fascinating patient, a best friend, and a baby. "Who saw that coming?" she whispers. Then she asks Chloe to consider whether she wants Lucifer in her life, or not.

Speaking of Linda, she endures an awkward sonogram appointment with a stone-faced Amenadiel and a violently overprotective Maze. She's having a boy! It's unclear whether he'll have wings, though.

She starts to spin out over the thought of incubating the first human/angel baby in all of human history, and trying to be helpful, Amenadiel adds, "All of angel history, too. Isn't this exciting!" She starts frantically baby-proofing ceiling fans and light fixtures around her drool-worthy, Spanish mission-style home and is delighted when Maze moves in to lend a hand.

Back on the case, Eve shows up at the precinct to tell Chloe what she knows about the necklace from the plane ride, slathering on the compliments about Chloe's kindness and intelligence. Meanwhile, Lucifer sweet-talks Ella into telling him what Odessa told the police: the necklace will be sold at a black-market jewelry auction. In Ella's defense, he brought her a caramel triple frap with extra whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles. If Lucifer appeared holding that drink for me, I'd tell him anything he wanted to know.

That night, Lucifer and Eve, dressed to the nines, bump into Chloe posing as a server at the auction. At first, Lucifer's indifferent to her desire to catch Pablo's killer, but in the end, he agrees to help, charming the necklace off the model's neck and sending Eve down the runway with it while he bids. (His paddle number's 69, natch.)

They discover that Pablo's killer is his business partner, who was tired of always being the reasonable one stuck cleaning up his irresponsible partner's mess. He holds Eve at gunpoint, and Lucifer instructs her to do that thing she's been wanting to do. One ball bash later, the cops make an arrest.

Chloe disappoints Lucifer by refusing to give him the necklace to hand over to Bashir. But privately, she tells Ella that she misses Lucifer and wants him in her life. She heads to his loft as Ella dances in joy over her decision.

But Lucifer's already there with Eve, who stole the necklace and didn't tell him about it so he wouldn't make her leave. He asks what she's really up to, and the minute shift in her whole demeanor is something to behold. Her voice lowers fractionally as she admits she's really there to be with him, the first man to accept her for who she is.

Lucifer warns her that she doesn't really know him and reveals his demon face, braced for another rejection. Instead, she puts her hands on his cheeks and kisses him. When she pulls back, he's returned to his human form.

And that's when Chloe lets herself into the loft with a smile on her face, only to find Lucifer in the arms of another woman.

Stray feathers

• Welcome to the show, Inbar Lavi! I fell in love with this charismatic chameleon in the canceled-too-soon Imposters, and she brings the full force of her magnetism to the screen here. She and Lucifer make one hell of a couple, no?
• The exchange of the episode happens at the auction when Lucifer approaches the Desert Mirage necklace model. "Yes," she says. "To what?" Lucifer asks. "Anything," she replies.
• Curious minds want to know: Will insurance cover an angel C-section?

Grade: A-

EPISODE 5: 'Expire Erect'

This episode is brought to you by eye candy. For some of us, it's shirtless Lucifer at the piano (Yes! Finally!), for others it's the gorgeous classic cars, and for a lucky part of the Venn diagram, it's both.

We open in media res, with Lucifer's gut shot and bleeding out, Eve and Ella kissing, and Chloe studying a sandwich like it holds the answers to all of her problems. Which, it turns out, it does.

Cut to 36 hours earlier. We get the aforementioned shot of Lucifer playing the piano shirtless and smoking a joint. Eve wanders out in a "me costume" (nothing but strategically placed leaves) and calls him her boyfriend, her boo, her bae, whatever the kids are saying these days. She's also using his toothbrush and annexing shelf space in his bathroom.

This starts to affect Lucifer's, erm, performance, and Dr. Linda suggests he needs closure with Chloe before moving on. And just his luck, Chloe shows up at his loft, asking if she can use his fancy car as part of her murder investigation. Of course, she walks in just as he's dropped his pants to join Eve in the shower. And no matter how much she tries to convince Ella (and herself) that this Eve fling is just a phase, Lucifer makes it very clear that this is his final case with her.

Nevertheless, Chloe and Lucifer both make excuses not to wrap up the case quite yet until Ella shows up with a metaphorical wheelbarrow of air-tight evidence linking the two murder victims to a recently paroled bank robber. When it's clear they've got the guy, they wistfully shake hands to celebrate the end of their partnership.

That night at Lux, a celebrating Ella bumps into Eve, and they immediately become BFFs in the most adorable way. To know Eve is to love her, and maybe to pop some Molly with her. As Eve told Amenadiel earlier, if she's not allowed back into Heaven, she's cool continuing the party with Lucifer in Hell. Of course, Amenadiel is aware that Lucifer isn't the destruction-for-his-own-amusement Devil she used to know, and even Lucifer himself isn't so sure who he wants to be these days.

When their murder suspect, Marco, eludes capture, Chloe shows up at Lux to fetch Lucifer and learns that his new squeeze is the "of Adam and" woman who knows all about his true nature. Then Marco storms in with a gun and a bomb detonator, holding everyone at Lux hostage until Chloe finds his wife, who changed her name after he was sent to prison. He shoots Lucifer in the abdomen, and since Lucifer's with Chloe, this is no bueno.

So Lucifer's out of commission, Ella's super high, and Eve has no superpowers. But she does give Chloe an amazing pep talk about all the wonderful things Lucifer's said about her smarts and her resourcefulness.

Confidence restored, Chloe's back in the game. Lucifer shakily offers Ella cocaine to counteract the Molly so she can defuse the bomb, while Eve frets that she can't lose Lucifer after they just found each other again. Chloe asks if his devil face scares her, but Eve replies simply, "Why would it?" Take notes, Chloe!

Outside of Lux, Dan, still a powder keg post-Charlotte, argues with Maze about going by the books versus thinking like a criminal and kicking down doors. In the end, they work together to scare a purveyor of fake IDs into giving up Marco's wife's new identity. Amy, as she's called now, says she's tried to build a new life for herself but reluctantly agrees to talk to Marco after Dan tells her that he can't bear to lose anyone else he cares about, some of whom are inside Lux.

Inside, Marco rages that the police didn't bring him the food order he asked for, but Chloe realizes Dan used it to send a message to her: the green onion/ranch dressing southwest sandwich means the police will come in through the southwest wall.

Then we're back to where we started. Ella starts to panic, so Eve kisses her, causing Lucifer to quip that he's going to "expire erect" while coughing blood into his martini glass. Chloe discerns that Marco planted the bomb upstairs, so when Amy arrives, she sends Ella and Eve to defuse it.

A coked-up Ella studies the bomb wires and starts to pray. I'm thrilled that she might be returning to the earnest faith of the character we meet years ago, but at that moment, she realizes God isn't going to send a heavenly sign, so her crisis of belief continues.

Downstairs, things have gotten worse. Amy was actually the robbery mastermind, and she's there to clean up Marco's mess. She stabs him, grabs the detonator, and turns his gun on Chloe, who herds Amy toward the southwest wall. The police burst through, and when Amy scrabbles for the detonator and presses the button, Chloe throws herself on top of a near-death Lucifer. Thankfully, Ella defused it in time, but Lucifer's aware enough to know that Chloe was willing to sacrifice herself for him.

Outside, Eve pours booze into his IV bag, and Lucifer tells Chloe that he got the closure he needed. Also, he wants to continue their police partnership.

Chloe then checks with Amenadiel to make sure Eve isn't secretly evil or a threat to the world. He says no (although Father Kinley might disagree) and commends her for prioritizing Lucifer's happiness, telling her that her capital-f Father is proud of her.

At the penthouse, Lucifer officially refers to himself as Eve's boyfriend, and she's thrilled until a knife bounces right off his finger as he's cutting an apple. He explains that he's only vulnerable around Chloe, and Eve, who's no dummy, doesn't like that at all.

Stray feathers

• Major props to the show for making Eve a character who's impossible to hate. It's so easy for the newest prong in a love triangle to be loathed or dismissed, but she's written with goals, flaws, quirks, and kindness of her own, and I'm loving it.
• The line of the episode is a reluctant Ella to an overly friendly Eve: "How dare you use hugs against me?"
• Hey, remember back in season 1 when Dan was a dirty cop? So do the writers. Not saying he's going to break bad this season, but it's nice to be reminded that he's got a dark side.
• Heaven has ESPN. For the record.
• Speaking of Dan, I'm glad nobody's forgetting about Charlotte this season. In this episode, it's Eve telling Amenadiel how lovely Charlotte was when they met in Heaven. Also interesting? Eve holds no ill will toward Lucifer for killing Cain because she's "pretty sure he had what was coming to him."
• Woof, Lucifer's devil face is extra intense in Netflix's glorious Ultra HD, no?

Grade: A-

EPISODE 6: 'Orgy Pants to Work'

Let s/he who hasn't accidentally shown up to work in buttless dress pants because you forgot to change after your months-long sex party throw the first stone, amirite?

Months have passed since the previous episode, and Lucifer and Eve are living in blissful hedonism. He's also resumed his police work with Chloe. But, as Dr. Linda points out, veering from bad with one woman and good with the other is tearing him apart. As evidence: He's been canceling his therapy sessions, and she had to track him down in his sex den. Classic Lucifer, though, he insists that he's achieved the perfect balance.

So there he is, bringing in donuts (he accidentally grabbed the drug-laced ones, but who's counting?) to a newbie cop he's fond of and telling Ella stories about his girlfriend (and the entire cast of Cirque de Soleil) while Chloe listens jealously.

Eve, meanwhile, is feeling neglected by Lucifer's long hours on his cases, while Maze, returning to L.A. after an extended absence, is mad that Lucifer threw his first decent orgy in years while she was out of town. She's also miffed that Linda is less-than-eager to open the baby gift she got for her. (To be fair, it's contained in a battered metal case and Dad only knows what's in there.)

At first, Maze bristles at Eve's enthusiasm over meeting her—"I'm not new, and you couldn't handle this"—but Eve charms Maze as easily as she does everyone else and they hit the town to take their minds off of their troubles.

At the newest murder scene, Chloe's displeased by Lucifer's unprofessionalism: constant phone interruptions, orgy pant holes covered with evidence tape, hitting up a witness for nude couples sketches. You know, the usual.

When he falls asleep during a stakeout, Chloe quietly confesses that she's happy he's happy, but she hates the way he's found happiness. She wakes him, and he comes to with, "Fetch me the goat!" then sends her home to get some sleep while he researches their case into the night. Also, he arranged for apology gifts for both of the women in his life, but things go awry when Eve receives the copy machine that spits out an apology to Chloe and Chloe receives a sex doll at the precinct.

It worsens Lucifer's domestic tension. Eve's carrying baggage over the fact that she could never live up to Adam's first wife, Lilith, while Maze is carrying baggage over the fact that Lilith was her mother, and a terrible one, at that.

Meanwhile, at work, Chloe's carrying a natural disinclination to strip naked to pursue an investigation inside a nudist colony. Not Lucifer and Ella, though. They strip and wander the place asking questions, happily naked, while creative set decorations obscure all their interesting bits.

Speaking of interesting? Amenadiel spots a familiar figure on the street: His spear-wielding little sister Remiel (Vinessa Vidotto), who idolizes big brother Amenadiel and enlists him in her hunt for the forbidden half-human/half-angel offspring that she assumes is the product of Lucifer's slutty ways. (Her words, not mine!)

She plans to whisk the child to heaven and is disgusted to be surrounded by so much humanity. At first, Amenadiel plays along, but he eventually offers a passionate defense of humanity, and maybe one human in particular, for teaching him things about himself and the universe. He speaks so tenderly that Remiel figures out he's the daddy, and she's not pleased.

The mommy is also not pleased, having been ditched by Maze at Lamaze class. (Our fave demon really enjoyed the graphic birthing video, though.) Back home, Linda finally opens Maze's gift and finds a fuzzy gray baby blanket. Maze then walks in to explain that it's what she would've wanted as a child. Linda assures "Auntie Maze" that she'll always be a member of their family. I LOVE THIS FRIENDSHIP SO MUCH.

Back home, Lucifer greets a subdued Eve, who reminds him that he's the only one who treated her as something other than a subset of Adam, thanks to that borrowed rib and all. She thinks he's already perfect and asks him to stop trying to be something he's not.

Then he finds a note in his pocket, left by someone at the nudist colony, directing him to a ship connected to Julian, the owner of the nudist colony. He leaves a displeased Eve for a second stakeout, where he asks Chloe if he's different on the job and, if so, which is the real him.

She asks if he likes work, and he meets her gaze to say, "I like work very much. It makes me want to be a better man." She tells him that's probably real, then, and y'all, I don't think they're just talking about work here.

All hell suddenly breaks loose at the docks when they realize Julian's running a human smuggling ring. As the women and their captors scatter, Lucifer's the one who catches Julian. The man brags that at least he's not pretending to be something he's not. Lucifer decides to leave the punishment to the police, but Julian drops a pile of barrels on Lucifer's head and escapes, shooting and killing Lucifer's favorite rookie cop in the process.

Ohhhh nooooo, it's the classic Batman/Spider-man conundrum: By failing to capture or kill the bad guy, you allow that person to live and kill another day. And Lucifer immediately regrets it, especially when Dan gets in his face, calling him a bad guy who hurts more than he helps.

Back home, Eve points out that the officer's death is the murderer's fault, not Lucifer's, and suggests that Julian needs to be punished. Lucifer's not sure he has it in him anymore, but Eve assures him he does.

So Lucifer tracks down an unrepentant Julian, shows him his true face, and kicks him through a window to where Eve's waiting outside. He finally knows who is: The devil. "Yes, this feels just right," he says, delivering a (presumably) lethal kick to Julian.

Lucifer chose his side.

Stray feathers

• Raise your hand if you're up for some Bake and Drake.
• Raise your hand if it made you melt a little to hear that Hot Tub High School is still one of Lucifer's favorite films.
• Raise your hand if you're dying to know how Maze ended up with a bloody nose and a Miss Rodeo Queen sash.

Grade: A-

EPISODE 7: 'Devil Is as Devil Does'

Pity poor Lucifer. He's got a pair of dueling angels on his shoulders and a pair of problematic wings on his back.

Okay, they're not real angels; it's Eve stoking Lucifer's worst impulses and Chloe desperately appealing to his best ones. But the wings are very real.

When we left them, Lucifer and Eve had just broken cop-killer Julian's back, paralyzing him from the waist down. Eve got a taste for punishment and now wants to go after the worst of the worst with her boyfriend. After all, why else would he spend so much time working with the police? GEE, I WONDER.

So Lucifer brings a plus-one to the next crime scene, in which a man named Sam was tossed from a bridge. This does not please Chloe, who's worried that Eve is a bad influence on her partner, but she reluctantly allows it.

Gold flecks on Sam's face lead them to Ponyboy, a hitman with a golden pistol. The trio finds him at his gym, and Eve's in ecstasy at the thought of Lucifer brawling with the biggest, baddest dudes in the place. To her disappointment, Ponyboy denies committing the murder and comes in peacefully.

They quickly discover that Ponyboy works for Julian's dad, Jacob Tiernan, a wealthy man used to cleaning up his son's messes. So maybe Sam broke Julian's back, and Tiernan borrowed Ponyboy's golden gun to get his own revenge on Sam.

Of course, Lucifer's well aware that Sam didn't injure Julian, so he's completely on board with punishing Tiernan for killing an innocent man.

Chloe and the lovebirds have a sit-down with Tiernan (played by Jere "best eyebrows in the business" Burns), and the situation escalates so quickly that Lucifer damages a chair in his efforts to hold himself back from attacking Tiernan. He asks Chloe to leave the room so he can get to punishing, which Eve wants, but Chloe talks him down. Boy howdy, these two women fighting over Lucifer's soul make an outstanding visual, an outstanding conflict, and an overall outstanding arc to the whole season.

Chloe and Lucifer's argument about the best way to enforce justice ends with him announcing that he broke Julian's back, which leaves Chloe in tears.

Unaware of this confession, a suspicious Dan searches for evidence that it was Lucifer who injured Julian. When he finds one of Lucifer's cigarettes in the trash from the scene, he contacts Tiernan with the news.

Chloe, meanwhile, asks Ella for her input on celestial, Heaven-and-Hell justice. But Ella's no longer a believer, citing the Bible's clear contradiction that the Devil could be both an angel and pure evil.

Even Trixie gets in on the debate, pointing out that if Lucifer's struggling, that's when he needs his friends the most. When Chloe says she's not the friend he needs (but she is! she is!), Trixie pays a solo visit to Luci's loft, where Eve's frustrated that he's stalling on punishing Tiernan, likely due to Chloe's bad influence.

Trixie runs all over the loft, putting her little kid hands on all the expensive items. (Good thing they've cleaned up from their run of orgies.) She proves she's the daughter of cops by grilling Eve about her hometown, favorite color, and whether she's the kind of friend Lucifer needs, at one point barking, "I'm asking the questions."

Then Ponyboy and a buddy show up, and to her credit, Eve immediately places herself between Trixie and the big, armed men. They run to safety as Lucifer incapacitates the men. Chloe and Dan, having realized their daughter is with Lucifer and in danger from Tiernan because of it, show up to make arrests.

Once everything is calm again, Chloe reminds Lucifer about his dual devil/angel nature. He's not so sure about that, having avoided checking to see if his wings are back following him killing Pierce. "I think you should look," she says, hugging Eve and leaving.

Just as the police are finding the last bit of evidence that links Tiernan to Sam's murder, Lucifer arrives with the man himself in cuffs, having been in the neighborhood to make a citizen's arrest. He tells Chloe he's gone too far recently and his wings are fine and dandy, after all, but he's clearly lying about that last part.

Let's zip quickly to Linda, who's increasingly exasperated with Maze acting all overprotective and following her around town to keep her and the angel-baby safe from, you know, cartels and stray gunfire and child kidnappers.

She finally asks Maze outright, "Are you in love with me?" Maze laughs it off and says they're just friends, prompting Linda to gently suggest that Maze is clearly hungry for her own connection with a partner.

Then Linda's phone buzzes, and she arrives at the loft to find Lucifer almost catatonic in his distress. He tells her he's been too scared to check on his wings, but today he did. And it's bad. Really, really bad.

Cut to Chloe visiting Father Kinley in jail after screening his collect calls for too long. She defends Lucifer as good, an angel, but Kinley mentions the prophecy that Lucifer finding his first love will release evil on Earth. At Chloe's shocked expression, Kinley realizes that it's not her, but she knows who is. "Is she here?" he asks.

Then we're back at Lucifer's loft, where he stands and unfurls his wings for Linda.

His red leathery devil wings.

Stray feathers

• Have we seen the last of Remiel? Amenadiel failed to convince her about the worthiness of humanity, but thankfully, he was able to best her in combat, even without his time-stopping powers. Will she actually leave him and his son in peace?
• Ella. Dan. Lab. Sex. Who saw that coming? Then again, these are two people who've lost their direction, so maybe it's not that surprising.
• If Chloe and Lucifer ever get together, I'm worried about Dan making a fuss about the parenting arrangements. Then again, I'm also a little worried about Chloe and Lucifer ever actually getting together.
• A partner for Maze? What would that even… look like? I was quite partial to the wrongly accused man she tracked down last season, but I'm open to whatever this amazing, wonderful, entertaining gem of a show wants to throw at us.

Grade: A-

EPISODE 8: 'Super Bad Boyfriend'

Trust Tom Ellis to make being a bad boyfriend look good.

But first, let's start with post-hookup Ella and Dan being incredibly awkward on the scene of a high school teacher's murder. Yet Chloe's too distracted by Kinley's prophecy to notice. When she fills Lucifer in, he immediately agrees to break up with Eve. (One might even get the sense that he was looking for an excuse, no?)

During their breakup talk, all Eve focuses on is the "Lucifer loves me" part, and in the tradition of countless dumpees before her, she refuses to accept the breakup.

The police interview some of Miss Baez's students, and when Lucifer hears that one, Nate, is dealing with separated parents, he asks what finally put the nail in their relationship coffin. Nate says it was couples counseling, so Lucifer drags Eve to a sit-down on Dr. Linda's couch. This backfires badly when Eve complains that Lucifer always takes the exact wrong message from every conversation, and oh my Dad, I am SO HAPPY that Linda finally has someone to commiserate with! They agree that Lucifer needs to face his issues head-on.

Lucifer then gets break-up advice from Nate's dad during his interrogation: Be selfish, neglectful, and unfaithful, leaving her no other options. Aaaaand we cut to maybe the greatest montage in Lucifer history, as he makes himself the bad boyfriend of the episode title, hosting elaborate fantasy football nights in a team jersey, making out with other women, slobbing around in a filthy T-shirt to nom cheese puffs and watch The Dukes of Hazzard, even adopting a hardcore video gamer lifestyle.

And what does Eve do? She adapts. She makes out with the same woman, she becomes the queen of the fantasy football group, she snacks, and cheers on Bo and Luke, she gives Lucifer a run for his money in the video game department.

She loves him. She's trying. And he's stuck.

Amenadiel's having a personal crisis, too, and starting to panic about fatherhood. He's hanging around at Lux, asking strangers about their relationships with their fathers (hint: don't ask the half-naked dancers) when one of Miss Baez's troubled kids, Caleb, shows up to ask Lucifer for a favor. Amenadiel takes the kid under his proverbial wing and agrees to help him get out from under the thumb of the drug dealer who has him peddling Adderall to the kids at school.

Amenadiel tells Tahir the dealer that he'll pay Caleb's debts, even leaving his God-gifted necklace as collateral, and takes the kid for ice cream. As they walk down the street, Caleb explains how hard it is to fit in with the rich white kids at his school, yet the people he found who looked like him ended up pushing him into selling drugs.

Then two police officers screech up to arrest Caleb for Baez's murder, throwing him roughly to the ground and drawing their guns on Amenadiel when he objects. Having grown up in this country, Caleb understands the danger he and Amenadiel are facing, but the angel gets more and more upset as the officers refuse to listen to his objections. Thankfully, Dan arrives to flash his badge and de-escalate the situation for his friend.

Dan files an excessive force complaint, but Amenadiel's skeptical that'll bring about change for people who look like him and Caleb. You know, I didn't expect Lucifer to take on this topic, but how smart to frame it through the eyes of a heavenly being interacting with the world as a Black man. Well done, understated, and important.

In his holding cell, Caleb tells Amenadiel to forget about him. He's a black drug dealer, and the murder weapon has his fingerprints on it. "My life is over." But Amenadiel tells him to have a little faith and enlists Chloe's help. They eventually prove that Nate's Harvard-bound girlfriend did it and framed Caleb. Caleb goes free, Amenadiel pays his debts and gets his necklace back, and they agree to meet soon for one-on-one and ice cream. As far as Amenadiel as a dad? "You're gonna crush it," Caleb says.

You know who's not crushing it? Maze. After Linda told her to find a partner, she threw herself into dating. But she's rejected her first 21 dates, including the nebbishy guy who calls her "m'lady." (That's a mistake, dude. The only person who can get away with that is Gendry.)

Waiting for her 22nd date to show up, she bumps into Eve, who's looking for Lucifer. Eve suggests they do a trial date, and before long, they're laughing, chatting, and clicking beautifully. Eve is warm and accepting of all of Maze's sharp edges, and when she mentions that Lucifer's been pulling away, Maze assures her that Eve's too awesome for him not to come around.

Dan's at Lux, too, drunk and mean because Ella confided in him that she's looking into which police officer told Tiernan that Lucifer hurt his son. He catches up with Maze, brags about playing Ella by kissing her into confusion, and taunts Maze for making the moves on Lucifer's girl. She realizes he's trying to provoke a fight and has him tossed out.

That same night, Lucifer finally breaks up with Eve, tired of being something he's not. He tries to be gentle, but the only way to make it stick is by shouting, "I don't like who I am with you." Then they're interrupted with a terrible phone call.

It's about Caleb, who's dead from the bullets in his chest. (Quick question: When's the last time the crime storyline on Lucifer moved you to tears? For me, it was this moment in this episode.) Chloe promises a wrecked Amenadiel that she'll find the killer, but he already knows who did it. Lucifer offers to drive. After Amenadiel beats Tamir, he comes to a conclusion: Earth is no place to raise his son. He finds Caleb in the morgue and places his necklace around the boy's neck.

Lucifer, meanwhile, tells Chloe that he broke up with Eve, but he's still not happy with how Chloe sees him, either. Then he visits Linda for perhaps his first real therapy session ever. Under her gentle urging, he admits he's been in deep denial over why he manifested his devil face and wings. "There is something rotten inside of me," he admits, asking, "Why do I hate myself so much?"

Talk. Therapy. Works. But will it be in time for him to set everything right with Chloe and the prophecy?

Stray feathers

• How is it possible for me to love Eve as much as I do while still rooting for Lucifer and Chloe to work it out? Someone please explain it, and show your work.
• Does it give you a little thrill to know that there's a mirror Maze out there, running around being a hot, emotionally unavailable female prison guard? I hope she finds her perfect partner, too.
• How incredibly sweet of Amenadiel to ask Lucifer to be the godfather. I mean, Lucifer would be terrible. But great. But terrible. I hope he reconsiders!

Grade: A-

EPISODE 9: 'Save Lucifer'

Did Lucifer's honest-to-Devil epiphany in the previous episode help the situation? Well, that depends. Do you like your Lucifer in human or lobster form?

Following their breakup, Eve is a sobbing mess, prompting Maze to start gathering the weapons she's hidden all over Linda's house to punish Lucifer. She says that in the old days, a demon could travel from hell to possess a newly dead body, but since Lucifer banned that ages ago, they'll have to do it the old-fashioned way and rub Eve's fabulousness in his face.

That's how Eve becomes an apprentice bounty hunter, and the two women roll up on Maze's motorcycle at the newest crime scene, looking hot as hell. Despite her putting on a show about being totally over Lucifer, she watches sadly as he rushes away with Chloe.

So she and Maze work the case and track down the suspect's accountant. There, Eve tortures Maze by practicing sexy poses for Lucifer. Poor Maze has caught feelings for Eve, and when she suggests they date, Eve assumes it's for Lucifer-jealousy purposes. They kiss as Lucifer and Chloe arrive, but it's only real for one of them.

Regardless, Lucifer's busy with his own problems, namely that his body is slowly reverting to its devil self. First, it's a red, clawed hand, then the color creeps up his neck and his eyes start glowing uncontrollably. Before long, he's walking around in sunglasses, gloves, and an ascot, like some kind of dapper Invisible Man.

Eve, who I've said all along is a smart cookie, realizes what Lucifer's really into and shows up at the precinct dressed like Chloe in a blazer and bun, and the two of them work together to brainstorm a plan to catch the killer by setting up a sting during a party at Lux. Eve is thrilled to earn a "well done" from Lucifer for her police work.

That night, a gussied-up Chloe arrives to tell Lucifer that she's transferring Kinley to an LAPD holding cell so he can help with the prophecy, which still has him worried. Also, she made the party a masquerade and brought Lucifer a full devil's mask to hide his glowing eyes. She's covered all the bases!

Eve still hasn't given up on her man, though. Despite all his poor treatment, she says she still loves him, prompting him to hiss, "Well, you shouldn't." So that's Eve's state of mind when she heads to the party.

There, Maze takes the microphone and, acting on Dan's advice not to waste any time going after the woman she wants to be with (there's the specter of Charlotte Richards again!), she nervously sings a gorgeous cover of "Wonderwall." Yes, that's really Lesley-Ann Brandt singing, and yes, it's incredible. Then we watch as Eve breaks Maze's heart in real-time by thanking her for suggesting she make a big gesture to win back Lucifer.

Things start going haywire at the party when Lucifer's devil face fully manifests and everyone in the crowd rushes him to confess their desires: I wish I hadn't cheated, I regret that tattoo, why didn't I tell him how I feel? It's how they capture this episode's murderer (I wish I had those incriminating financial records), but that's less important than the call Chloe gets: Father Kinley has escaped from his wrecked police escort vehicle.

Actually, he didn't escape. At Eve's behest, Maze kidnaps him, but Eve's obsession with Lucifer causes Maze to snap and shout that you have to accept when someone doesn't feel the same way about you. Poor Maze.

Ahh, here's more angst in a different corner: Ella discovered it was Dan who tipped off Tiernan about Lucifer, and she scrubbed all the evidence of his involvement. Dan's angry that everyone's letting him get away with all of his bad deeds, but Ella says he's in pain and needs help. Seriously, is Dan in therapy? Because Dan should be in therapy.

Good thing they have L.A.'s best therapist on speed dial and Dan ends up on Linda's couch as she urges him to accept that he's not to blame for Charlotte's death. Then she cuts their session short because the angel-baby's comin'!

Maze the demon and Amenadiel the angel flank Linda as she delivers her baby, who shows no sign of wings yet. Amenadiel suggests naming him Charlie, after Charlotte, which makes two episodes in a row where Amenadiel made me cry. Did I say earlier that comic relief Amenadiel was the best Amenadiel? I might need to rethink that. Then, as Linda slumbers behind him, Amenadiel holds little Charlie and promises to take him to the Silver City forever. Ruh-roh.

Eve's also plotting. At first, she considers an out-of-town trip with Lucifer, but Kinley sells her on the idea of Lucifer returning to hell with her as his queen. Eve knows Lucifer doesn't want that, but if she can do what Maze suggested and call up one of the demons to inhabit a recently deceased body, the demon could tell Lucifer how much they miss him.

She unties Kinley, who attacks her immediately; by his way of thinking, the easiest way to end the prophecy is to remove Lucifer's first love. As she struggles, she finds one of Maze's hidden knives and stabs him in the neck, ordering him to deliver a message to Hell: Come get your king.

At the loft, Lucifer has turned into his full devil self and mourns the fact that he's poison to everyone he cares about. But Chloe points out that she's still there with him and begs him to stop taking responsibility for things he can't control.

He says he doesn't even know how to start forgiving himself, but that simple step seems to be enough. When he turns to face her, his devil form recedes and his human self emerges. Crisis averted, prophecy crushed—or so he thinks.

But across town, dead Father Kinley's eyes spring open.

Stray feathers

• Normally a hammer murder isn't a good thing, but it did allow Ella to uncork the "Hammer Time" joke she's been sitting on forever. Silver linings and all that.
• Love you, Amenadiel, but if you try to take Linda's baby, I will fight you in the streets.
• Outstanding work on weaving storylines together so Eve's actions make sense for her character. It would be so easy to make her a one-dimensional bad guy at this point, but in fact, it's a lot more nuanced than that.
• Regarding this episode title: The good people of Twitter see what you did there.

Grade: A

EPISODE 10: 'Who's da New King of Hell'

Can we all agree that this season of Lucifer has been darn near perfect up to this point? And can we further agree that the only thing missing, the cherry we needed for the top of the sundae, was a dance number?

I think we can. And friends, they did that.

Lucifer's elated to have conquered his, er, demons, and his good mood manifests into a wildly entertaining choreographed routine set to Kenny Loggins' "I'm Alright." It moves through Lux and into the police precinct and finds Lucifer twirling with Ella and hoisting Dan in a lift right out of Dirty Dancing.

This buoyant mood is the opposite of where we found him at the premiere, and he cheekily tells Chloe, "You're welcome" for forgiving himself and saving the world. But Chloe says they have no current cases and sends him home.

This frees him up to visit the hospital. PEOPLE. LUCIFER IS HOLDING A BABY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Amenadiel mentions facing a painful decision regarding Charlie, but Lucifer assumes it's circumcision. (He knows all the stats, naturally). He gives Linda a personal journal of Freud's as a parting gift to celebrate the end of his therapy, although she warns him that self-forgiveness isn't that easy. Gotta say Dr. Linda looks amazing for a woman who's just delivered the world's cutest angel baby.

Then Lucifer turns up at Chloe's newest murder scene, offended that she didn't call him. She admits to being worried that his devil features will come back, but he promises she'll never see anything monstrous again.

He spoke too soon. She's investigating the live-streamed murder of rapper Holla Bae but finds no body and copious blood. That's why she's so confused when a fan posts a video of him walking around in the company of someone who looks a bit like Kinley.

Maze is looking for Kinley, too, after Eve shows her the bruises on her neck following his attack. Things may be frosty between them, but Maze isn't going to let that stand. She bumps into Chloe at the church, and hearing the story about the dead/not-dead Holla, Maze explains about demon possession of bodies.

Lucifer gets clued in, too, when he runs into the demon Dromos, who's dressed the body of Father Kinley in leather and chains. The demon kneels and says he and Squee (in Holla's body) are there to bring him home.

Lucifer recognizes Kinley's trap to get him to return to Hell voluntarily and makes it clear that he has no interest in that. He tries to promote Dromos to the king, but Hell-law requires it to be an angel, so he orders them to head back home.

That's why Lucifer's blasé when Maze and Chloe wake him with news of demons walking the Earth, but they're interrupted by a call summoning them to Linda's.

You guessed it: Charlie's missing. DAMMIT, AMENADIEL. Earlier, we saw him trying to convince Linda to take a bath and leave Charlie with him, but Linda wants to keep holding him, thrilled about the beautiful life they're going to give him. She finally agrees to get some sleep and hands Charlie over.

She'd hired a night nurse, but the agency reported that the family called and canceled. Lucifer connects the dots and realizes that Amenadiel wanted to take Charlie to Heaven. As Linda processes this betrayal, Maze breathes, "I'll kill him."

Then Amenadiel shows up without the baby. He says his Silver City plans changed after he and Linda talked, so he gave Charlie to the night nurse and went for a walk. I APOLOGIZE, AMENADIEL.

Ella then calls with information about who contacted the agency and says everyone's praying—er, pulling for them. After she hangs up, she tells Dan how alone she feels without God and says that basing her faith on the good times isn't the point. She needs to rely on it for strength to get through the bad times. Dan hugs her, and I am so glad Ella's journey this season took her back to the core of her character.

Anyway, the cell phone that canceled the nurse belongs to Lyla, who was with Dromos at Lux and whose apartment contains a pool of blood but no body. Yup, the demons are expanding their numbers. Eve arrives at the church, upset by the change of plans, but Dromos has a half-angel he can mold into Hell's perfect king. He sneers that he doesn't need her or Lucifer anymore and slaps her to the ground.

At the precinct, Lucifer surprises Chloe by telling her, "There are more important things than me right now." (Personal growth!) Of course, then he says the demons' actions are all about him, but this time it's true. They decide not to fill in Dan and Ella about what's really going on (too hard to believe and too hard to bounce back from), so they head to his place to discuss the three demons and a baby in private.

They find his place trashed and Kinley's vial missing from his safe. Then Eve shows up to confess how she created this whole mess, concluding with, "It seemed like a good idea at the time!" Poor Eve: naïve, thrill-seeking, and in love, but never malicious.

The trio put their heads together and figure out where the ceremony will take place. When they arrive, Lucifer asks Chloe to stay outside so he won't be vulnerable, while Eve insists on going in with him to make up for the harm she's caused. Then Amenadiel flies in with Maze, and the quartet enters just as the demons are about to give Charlie a bottle laced with the vial's contents.

A fight ensues, and in the melee, Eve's able to slip out with the baby. The Lyla demon chases her into the alley, where Chloe drops her in a hail of bullets and Eve finishes the job with a spiked heel to the eye. It's gross, but Chloe's impressed.

Then Chloe enters the building to make sure Lucifer's okay. He wants her out so she won't see him killing Dromos, but Chloe has something important to say: She isn't afraid of him. She's afraid of losing him, afraid that he'll forget about Earth and about her. She starts to say something that sounds a lot like "I love you" when dozens of freshly made demons pour in and pull her away from him.

That's the impetus Lucifer needs to shift into his full Devil self. His minions all kneel, and he orders them back to hell. They collapse and obey. When Chloe looks again, he's returned to his human form, and rather than fear, she's looking at him like … how do I put this delicately? … like she's considering what a night with the most powerful creature in the room might be like. I mean, am I wrong??

Outside, Eve returns Charlie to Amenadiel with an apology, then tells Maze that they do share a connection, but before she can be anyone's partner, she needs to learn who Eve is. She kisses Maze goodbye and walks away barefoot to figure some things out. Oh, I hope those two crazy kids can make it work! They're good together.

Other wrap-up character beats: Ella puts her cross necklace back on. Yay! Dan looks wistfully at a photo of Charlotte. Sniff! Amenadiel turns down Linda's offer to send Charlie to Heaven where he'll be safe, promising, "No one will protect him like we will." Co-parenting FTW!

Then we come to Chloe and Lucifer. He stands on his balcony, a hopeless look on his face, aware that the demons will defy him and keep coming back. He has to return and be their king.

It's exactly what Chloe was afraid of. "Please don't go," she begs. "I love you."

He wipes away her tears and tells her that Eve wasn't his first love. "It was always you." Then he kisses her and wings his way to Hell, where the last shot is Lucifer sitting on his throne in human form, alone.

Hail to the king, baby.

Stray feathers

• What a ride, friends. We just enjoyed ten episodes of practically perfect television. Thank you, Netflix, for this gift.
• In the end, were you satisfied? Did you enjoy Eve as much as I did? Are you elated that Chloe finally worked through her feelings? Relieved that Ella found her faith? Delighted to learn that Dan was such a good beat-boxer? Let me know in the comments!
• Not to sound greedy, but … We! Need! Season! Five!

Finale grade: A

Overall season grade: A

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