Reese wakes up in the hospital and asks after his wife, only to be told that he hasn't had any visitors in the time he was unconscious. He sets out to find his wife and patch things up between them, but sees another man leaving her house. So, he decides to punish that man: one Lucifer Morningstar...
Tropes present in this episode include:
- Amicable Exes: Reese and Linda aren't this. If Reese had his way, they wouldn't even be exes.
- Casual Kink: Reese sneaks into Lucifer's penthouse and finds a woman tied to the bed. When Reese pulls the gag out of her mouth, she cheerfully reveals that she's there voluntarily and is totally fine with bondage. The scene ends with her asking Reese to put the gag back in, since she can't do it herself.
- Dead All Along: Reese, as it turns out. While the events of the episode presumably took place more or less as shown when he was alive (with the probable exception of the opening scene where he wakes up in the hospital), what we are shown is actually his torment in Hell, and probably not the first iteration of it, either. Reese himself apparently never even figures it out.
- Determinator: A Deconstruction. Reese's obsession with exposing Lucifer as The Devil to the world is hurting his work and his personal life, to the point that his boss gives him an ultimatum to drop this case and pull himself together or she'll be forced to fire him.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Reese is a deconstruction of this. He constantly tries to win Linda back, even after they have been separated for two years and basically living different lives. Far from winning her heart, he ends up repulsing her.
- Epiphanic Prison: According to Lucifer (who should know, given that he used to run the place), people go to Hell only if they believe that they truly deserve punishment for their actions. Once there, they're forced to live their greatest sins over and over. They could leave any time they want, as the doors aren't locked, but nobody chooses to do so.
- Foreshadowing: Most of the characters in this episode tell Reese that he needs to change his ways, only for him to ignore them. There are also instances of irregular time jumps that are given an odd sound effect. Also, at the beginning of the episode, Reese has extensive stubble, which matches the stubble he has after a year chasing after Lucifer. Lucifer even explains exactly the situation that he is in, exactly how Hell works. With The Reveal that he's in Hell, these make sense as part of his torture.
- Foot-Dragging Divorcee: Even after two years of separation, Reese does not want to divorce Linda.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Or All Just a Dream; it depends on your perspective. This episode is one loop of Reese's experience in his cell in Hell.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Reese ends up being poisoned to death by the same serial killer that he hired to poison Lucifer.
- Hypocrite: The serial killer targets those that pretend to be something that they're not: a supposed natural beauty that got cosmetic surgery, a vegan that owns a cattle ranch, and so forth. Reese tries to trick him into targeting Lucifer, but the killer abandons the attempt when he realizes that Lucifer is an honest man, and instead targets Reese for being a lying reporter.
- Intrepid Reporter: After he finds out that Lucifer is the Devil, Reese spends an entire year collecting evidences to expose him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Reese at one point seems genuinely sorry for his actions and wants to apologize to Linda, but it turns out that it was another of his desperate attempts to get her back.
- Late to the Realization: It takes Lucifer a while to realize that the man that Reese wants to kill for sleeping with his wife is him, and this is after Reese shot him.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In-Universe. Lucifer (or rather the demon portraying Lucifer in Reese's hell loop) tells Reese how humans keep themselves in hell with their own guilt, the doors are unlocked but no one ever leaves. He's actually describing the situation Reese is stuck in as he's saying it, but Reese doesn't catch on.
- Mistaken for Gay: Lucifer notices Reese eyeing him from across the room and assumes Reese wants to sleep with him.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Reese has a moment of this when Lucifer dresses him down for thinking that humans sin for any reason other than their own choices. He desperately wants Lucifer to be responsible, because the only alternative is that it was his actions that led to the death of the woman in the club.
- When he pushes Linda while trying to keep her from calling the cops, Reese is horrified and tells her to send the cops to his office to make things right. Sadly, it just turns into another ploy to get her back.
- Never My Fault: Reese never takes responsibility for his actions, and always blames Lucifer.
- Not What It Looks Like: Reese sees Lucifer doing seemingly shady things, like having a girl tied to his bed or bribing a cop, only for them to have perfectly reasonable/kinky explanations.
- Oblivious to Their Own Description:
- Lucifer doesn't catch on that Reese is describing him, if in a deliberately skewed way, until Reese makes it clear that he's been talking about Linda all this time.
- Lucifer tells Reese exactly how Hell works and how mortals end up down there. The end of the episode reveals that he's describing Reese's situation, and Reese still can't bring himself to see it.
- Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo: When the serial killer realizes that Reese tricked him into doing his dirty work, he switches his drink with Lucifer's poisoned one and puts the latter on the table. It ends up in the hands of a random club-goer.
- Psycho Ex-Boyfriend: More like Psycho ex-husband. Reese is this to Linda; he's determined to get her back, no matter what it takes.
- Redemption Equals Death: Subverted. Reese manages to help catch the serial killer after being poisoned, but in his dying moments, all he cares about is the hope that doing so will bring Linda back to him. Lucifer's disapproving look says it all.
- The Reveal:
- Reese is told that his wife is waiting for him at his office. The wife? Dr. Linda Martin.
- Reese is in one of the cells in Hell. After "dying", he wakes up in the hospital to begin the whole loop again.
- Room Full of Crazy: Reese fills his office with photographs of Lucifer and every person in his life to a point that would make a dedicated stalker proud.
- Tantrum Throwing: Reese trashes his office after being forced by his editor to drop the story on Lucifer because it's impacting his work.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Reese at first just wanted to punch Lucifer, which wouldn't have accomplished much. But Lucifer, unaware of the situation, convinced him more was needed to truly punish someone for sleeping with his wife.
- Reese was on the verge of giving up his attempts at finding some dirt on Lucifer, having reluctantly concluded that he was exactly what he seemed— and then Lucifer went devil-face on a suspect in the interrogation room without realizing that Reese was on the other side of the one-way mirror, sending him spiraling into complete fanaticism.
- Later on, Lucifer does this again when, upon being shot by Reese, he complains that if Chloe was around, he would have been bleeding on the couch. This causes Reese to realize that Lucifer is mortal when he is around Chloe, setting up the attempted assassination plot.
- Visual Pun: When Reese interrupts Lucifer's "playtime" with a woman who's into bondage, Lucifer tilts the wine bottle that he's holding downwards in a way that's suggesting that he's, ah, lost his amorous mood.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The first half of the episode is set sometime around season 1. Linda still accepts sex with Lucifer as payment for his therapy, and Lucifer states at one point that it's been "a couple of weeks" since he started working with the LAPD.
- You Monster!: Played for Laughs when Lucifer calls Reese a monster for shooting him and ruining his Burberry suit.
