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Recap / Lucifer (2016) S05E12 "Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid"

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Daniel goes to Mexico for a prisoner transfer, but things keep going wrong and it soon turns into the worst day of his life.


Tropes:

  • Absurdism: The entire plot acts as one big absurdist play. Dan is unwillingly pulled into a massive conspiracy where he is used as a patsy, punching-bag, and Cosmic Plaything in a world devoid of sense. Lucifer having planned the whole thing as one giant joke on him does nothing to diminish this, and it even gives Dan clarity and catharsis after living in fear of the truth behind the Masquerade, in spite of Lucifer's intentions.
  • Batman Gambit: Lucifer arranged for Dan to have to deliver illegal goods so he wouldn't get Chloe involved and unravel the entire charade.
  • Broad Strokes: The episode confirms that the events of "Boo Normal" are canon in some way, as Lucifer reminds Dan how he failed to keep an eye on a teenager, but skirts around when exactly that incident took place.
  • Call-Back: The entire episode and the elaborate prank Lucifer pulled on Dan is revenge for shooting him back in "Spoiler Alert".
  • Continuity Nod: Ella's now writing a novel about a forensic scientist who talks to ghosts.
  • Cosmic Plaything: Dan goes through some really tough times, which he lampshades. Until it's revealed that they were all just part of Lucifer's pranks.
  • A Day in the Limelight: The episode focuses on Dan and is told from his perspective.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Lucifer sinks millions of dollars into an elaborate revenge prank on Dan for shooting him.
  • Driver Faces Passenger: Dan gets into a car crash by turning to argue with the prisoner he's transporting.
  • Faking the Dead: Dan tries to fake Svetlana's death so that he doesn't have to kill her. Unfortunately for him, she doesn't cooperate and knocks him out instead.
  • Food Slap: Linda throws a drink in Dan's face to sell the charade that she's a disgruntled ex-girlfriend.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: When Dan questions if everyone was privy to Lucifer's pranks, Maze replies that Amenadiel, Chloe, Ella, and Linda were not, and just assumed that Dan was acting weird. Lucifer emphasizes how he knew that Chloe would have seen through the whole thing fast, so had to work harder to keep her from finding out.
  • Mr. Fanservice: As the title of the episode indicates, we get to see Dan naked multiple times.
  • Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters: The Los X gang sells... custom bicycles. They're also surprisingly polite and empathetic to Lucifer, even letting him vent his frustrations.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: Lucifer's convoluted plan to mess with Dan went off without a hitch. However, in the end he realises that the reason he could predict Dan's actions so perfectly was that he knew that Dan would try to do the right thing at every turn. Thus, instead of rubbing Dan's face in his inadequacies like he intended, he's proven that Dan is actually a good person at heart. Also, having found that he can hold on to his moral compass even in the face of absolute chaos makes Dan feel a lot better about living in a world where God Is Flawed.
  • Precision F-Strike: A pretty hilarious one at the end of the episode:
    Dan: Well, then why did you do all this?
    Lucifer: Because you fucking shot me, Daniel.
  • The Reveal: All the things that went wrong and all the deaths were fake. It was all part of an elaborate revenge plot by Lucifer.
  • Sleeps in the Nude: Dan sleeps naked according to this episode.
  • Taking the Bullet: Maze appears to die taking a bullet for Dan, but it was all part of Lucifer's revenge plan. When Dan tells her he genuinely thought she was dead Maze laughs at the thought of taking a bullet for him. On seeing Dan's reaction to that she amends it to "not in the chest".
  • Xanatos Gambit: Luis states that this was the plan the whole time when it came to Dan delivering a package. If the Russians decide to Shoot the Messenger, then Luis loses none of his current crew while still making his point abundantly clear. However, if Dan survives the ordeal, then he's on the hook for delivering human remains and Luis can blackmail him into more jobs. Either way it was a win-win. Of course, The Reveal that this was all part of Lucifer's convoluted plan makes this more of a Discussed Trope than anything else.

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