Lucifer returns to Earth, for real this time, to deal with his twin brother. While in L.A. he helps Chloe investigate the murder of a television writer whose show is based on Lucifer and Chloe.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Maze has this opinion of her Lieutenant ¡Diablo! counterpart, a hulking man who hooks up with the show's version of Linda.Maze: It's like looking in a mirror.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Maze attacks Lucifer for not taking her back to Hell with him, he points out that she isn't his minion anymore, that she wanted freedom so he gave it to her. When she snaps that she doesn't have wings to go to Hell, Lucifer asks why she didn't just ask Amenadiel to take her. Maze can only get up and walk away as she realizes that she could have gone back at any time and she was just looking for an excuse to be mad at Lucifer.
- Asshole Victim: The victim of the week is a TV writer whose career Lucifer had helped get started, but it's made clear that he was both a lazy boss who took credit for other people's work and a complete control freak who refused to give anyone any leeway from his vision (which is largely stolen from Lucifer's life). Not helping matters, it's pretty clear that the guy was incredibly sexist, as his version of Decker is reduced to a fawning Ms. Fanservice who solves crimes almost entirely through lap dances, and the only other women are similar. The second victim, however, averts this, as while he was an idiot, he was apparently a Nice Guy who was just a bit too delusional about his own abilities.
- Big Damn Reunion: The episode marks the first time that Lucifer and Chloe meet since the last season finale. Though he has to prove that he is indeed Lucifer by showing his gift, once she realizes the truth, she hugs him.
- Canon Foreigner: In-Universe, Diablo has a police captain while except for lieutenant Olivia Monroe Season 1 and Pierce in Season 3, neither Chloe or Lucifer really had superiors that they had to report to. While the scene Lucifer and Chloe watched implied he admired Diablo, the script has a conversation between Diablo and Belinda where Diablo claimed that the captain hated him and wanted him off the force.
- Chekhov's Gun: Maze leaves one of her daggers embedded in the wall of Lucifer's penthouse after their confrontation. Later in the episode, Lucifer uses that dagger to scar Michael's face.
- Cry Laughing: When Linda tells Maze that she has abandonment issues, the latter starts laughing at the ridiculousness of her having them, which descends to crying once she processes them.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The actor who stars in Diablo is a clown who thinks he's a detective, just from playing one in a TV series. He still manages to discover the real murderer.
- Elvis Lives: According to Lucifer, he's the only person who knows where a very much alive Elvis Presley is.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Upon getting confirmation from Lucifer that she is a miracle child put in his path by God, Chloe is greatly upset and spends most of the episode either keeping her distance from him or making passive-aggressive comments about it.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Lucifer is rocked to discover that Michael, long the butt of the joke of the family, is now God's right-hand man and the only person in Heaven with a connection to him.
- Gender Flip: In the Lieutenant ¡Diablo! show, Maze's counterpart, Blaze, is a male bartender who makes out with Linda's counterpart, Belinda. He seems to be a Composite Character of Maze and Amenadiel.
- Genre Savvy: Because Lieutenant ¡Diablo! is based on Lucifer's life, the actors playing Diablo and Dancer are quick to recognise that most killers have a "yearning" that motivates them to kill, while also noting how Chloe is such a Dancer since she's the Straight Man. Meanwhile the real writer who did all the work is unsurprised when Chloe comes to question her, having been writing for shows like this for years and understanding why she would be a suspect.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Diablo was based on Lucifer, but it seems to be an idealized version and does not seem to share many of the problems of the original.
- Hidden Depths: The actor playing Diablo is clearly an idiot, but much like Lucifer himself he actually does have moments that show a much smarter mind. While he does steal evidence from a crime scene, Lucifer does point out that's exactly what he would have done. And later Lucifer realises that the actor was keeping notes of the case and has figure out who the real murderer was.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Michael gets an additional one at the end, when Lucifer wounds his face with Maze's demon knife, creating a large scar.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Chloe is upset over Lucifer keeping the secret of her blessed birth quiet for so long, Lucifer rightly points out that when he found out, Chloe didn't even believe that he was the Devil, and it was rather difficult to bring it up later.
- Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: Heavily downplayed, but Lieutenant ¡Diablo! is heavily based on Season 1 of the show. By this point the writing has improved, the show takes itself less seriously and many of the characters have developed beyond the versions seen on Lieutenant ¡Diablo!, such as Maze no longer being Lucifer's servant.
- Mirror Match: Lucifer vs Michael.
- Mistaken for an Imposter: Lucifer thinks this is what's happening when Maze goes after him, but she quickly clarifies that she knows he's not Michael but is very pissed off.
- Monster Clown: At the beginning, Lucifer torments a sinner in Hell who has coulrophobia (fear of clowns) by putting him in a circus cage where he is tortured by clowns.
- Mythology Gag: Chloe's counterpart in "Diablo" is named Dancer, which was actually her name in the original pilot.
- The Other Darrin: In-universe as the new showrunner hears "suggestions" from the network on how they can easily recast the title role, as "who says the Devil can't change how he looks?"
- Pass the Popcorn: Maze and Linda when they see their counterparts in ¡Diablo! making out.
- Rage Breaking Point: Chloe, who has been struggling to deal with the revelation about her status as a miracle child, completely loses it when Lucifer wants her to sympathize with his revelation of being strung along by Michael's manipulation.
- The Reveal: Michael has secretly been influencing scores of Lucifer's actions for his entire life, right up to his rebellion against God.
- Self-Deprecation: While most of Lieutenant ¡Diablo! is typical Stylistic Suck parody of itself, some of the show's criticisms are exaggerated in Diablo, such as depicting Dancer as both having bad judgement and being a boring Straight Man, as well as the fanservice that the show indulges in.
- Show Within a Show: "Lieutenant ¡Diablo!" is a rip-off of Lucifer and Chloe's work together, where Diablo does all the work while his partner Christie Dancer"is a former stripper who's recently become detective after joining the force to solve her father's murder.
- Special Edition Title: The title card replaces the usual "Lucifer" title with "Lieutenant ¡Diablo!", the name of the Show Within a Show based on Lucifer and Chloe.
- Stylistic Suck: Lieutenant ¡Diablo! is intentionally cringy with bad quality, justified In-Universe since it's based on Lucifer's life with the showrunner's issues making him change many details.
- Take That!: There are quite a few jabs at the
Executive Meddling that the show went through on Fox, before Netflix gave the showrunners much more free rein. - Take That, Audience!: The former showrunner of Lieutenant ¡Diablo! rants that whenever something goes wrong with a show, everyone will always blame the showrunners first, which is a pretty common occurrence in real life.
- Writers Suck: Or rather, showrunners suck. The Victim of the Week is a hack who only got into the business because of Lucifer, and proceeded to rip off Lucifer's life for his show (though Lucifer is charmed by this). He's depicted as having been an arrogant, lazy control freak with some pretty obvious deep-seated issues with women, who also apparently thinks that Viewers Are Morons so he'd cut out any kind of genuinely well-written trails of evidence and replace them with shameless fanservice. It's pretty clear that without Lucifer, this guy would never have been successful, and clearly didn't deserve the success (which is part of what got him killed).
- You Are in Command Now: Lucifer briefly gives the job of overseeing Hell to Amenadiel while he goes topside to confront Michael. Also, after the death of the Victim of the Week, a showrunner, the real writer ends up taking over their role, much to their dismay (as they would now be blamed for anything that went wrong).
