In an alternate universe, Chloe never became a cop yet she and Lucifer still end up working together to solve a murder.
Tropes
- Alternate Reality Episode: The episode takes place in a reality where Chloe never became a cop.
- And the Adventure Continues: The episode's ending indicates this world's version of Chloe is going to be a cop for real and is tempting Lucifer to join her.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Chloe's attempts to intimidate a suspect are wildly over-the-top thanks to how she's just an actress in this world pretending to be a cop. The suspect realizes she's just repeating a speech from one of her movies.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The opening showing Chloe gunned down in an alley, making it seem like the episode is about Lucifer if he never met Chloe because she died... until it turns out it's just a scene she's shooting for her latest movie.
- When Chloe enters the bar, it looked like she and Lucifer are going to meet right then and there... until she walks to her friend Stryder Novac. While Lucifer was waiting for Charlotte.
- It looks like Chloe and Linda are talking in Linda's office... only for it to be the set of Linda's talk show, which is an exact replica of her office.
- Chloe thought of talking to the detective (Dan) that's on the case, but her dad doesn't want her involved in the investigation. So the two never got to meet.
- Instead of killing Charlotte, Maze lets her go to indulge in all her greedy desires, as she knows the more Charlotte sins, the more fun Maze will have with her when she gets to Hell. However, Maze does threaten to gut Charlotte if she and Dan ever return to LA."No one steals from the Devil!"
- Seeing what they think is a suspect stealing a car, Chloe takes off after him in what looks like the setup of a big chase... and they just go about 20 feet before she quite calmly gets in front of him and he stops easily.
- Bait the Dog: The actor Linda was interviewing said that he got cleaned up and that his wife is giving him another chance. But then it's revealed that his wife is cheating on him.
- Butterfly Effect: Openly noted in the voiceover of how one minor change can affect so much.
- Call-Back:
- Dan claims Delilah's murder back in the pilot was "open and shut."
- Lucifer still has his Pentecostal Coin, since he never needed to spend it to leave Hell, and still has the habit of levitating it above the palm of his hand while thinking.
- Lucifer still treats Amenadiel as his personal turn-up-and-stop-time service, like he did back in Season One.
- "You humans love your money."
- Also like in the pilot, Chloe asks Lucifer if he's psychic, and he responds that he can't read minds, he's "not a Jedi".
- Comically Missing the Point: Ella was inspired to become a criminal from Chloe's performance as a glamorous criminal leading a carefree life... and apparently missing out on the ending, where said criminal turns her life around and joins the police force.
- Corrupt Cop: Without Chloe and Trixie to help him out, Dan has gone from just a few mistakes to openly taking bribes and covering up crime scenes. And the corruption is the reason why Lucifer decides to take matters into his own hands on the murder case.
- Creator Cameo: The voice of God is none other than Neil Gaiman.
- Cult: Maze seems to have formed one as a means of coping with living on Earth.
- Devil in Plain Sight: A literal example as Maze wears her demon face in public under a mask.
- I Choose to Stay: While Lucifer originally wanted to move to Las Vegas, he decided to stick around in LA after helping Chloe solve a case.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite the different circumstances, Chloe and Lucifer still meet and solve a case together, with the ending implying that Chloe will become a cop and Lucifer will assist her on cases.
- Also, Dan and Charlotte still end up being attracted to one another and even run away together at the end.
- Lucifer and Dan still antagonize each other. Only Lucifer is aware of Dan's corruption, while Dan threatens Lucifer to stay out of his business.
- Even without Lucifer's presence, Chloe and Linda are still acquainted with each other.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: The basis of the episode, a look at what might have been if Lucifer and Chloe never met.
- With her father never killed, Chloe continued her career as an actress.
- Lucifer is still the arrogant club owner planning a move to Las Vegas.
- Dan is now a fully corrupt cop.
- With their lives taking different paths, Chloe and Dan never met, let alone got married, so Trixie doesn't exist.
- Linda is hosting her own talk show.
- Instead of a crime tech, Ella is part of the "family business" as a garage mechanic into stolen cars and low-level deals.
- Charlotte is Lucifer's lawyer.
- Amenadiel does nothing but follow Lucifer around and refuses to interact with humans.
- Maze has a following of humans who wear robes and half-masks like hers.
- Karma Houdini: Delilah's producer from the pilot presumably never got caught.
- Killed Off for Real: Apparently Chloe's character gets this in her fifth movie.
- Lampshade Hanging: Lucifer comments that in the films Chloe has starred in,
Rome looks suspiciously like Vancouver, which was exactly what the show did until it moved back to LA for tax reasons. - Misaimed Fandom: In-Universe. Ella was inspired by Chloe's character in a movie to become a car thief, willingly ignoring how the character ended up joining the police.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Linda's face when she reveals to an actor live on air how his wife has cheated on him and realizes she ruined a man's life just for ratings.
- Mythology Gag:
- God is voiced by Neil Gaiman, the creator of the comic book character that Lucifer Morningstar is based off of.
- Maze's half-mask over her face is what the character wears in the original comic.
- Noodle Incident:
- "What is it you're using my talents for this time, Luci? Another orgy you want prolonged?"
- Captain Decker mentions being chased by a naked guy with a harpoon once. Even Lucifer has to give an amazed look at that.
- Not-So-Fake Prop Weapon: Subverted. When confronted, the killer fires several shots at Lucifer, which naturally have no effect. When Chloe takes him down, she remarks the guy must have grabbed a prop gun by mistake. Buttoning his coat to hide the bullet holes, Lucifer lets her think that.
- Not So Similar: Lucifer's opinions of his father and Chloe's at the end.Chloe: My dad surprised me. Maybe yours will too.
Lucifer: (scoffs) I'm not holding my breath. - Not What It Looks Like: Lucifer assures Amenadiel that he didn't have him freeze time at the race tracks for his own sexual experience.
- Number of the Beast: The code to Lucifer's penthouse safe is 666.Lucifer: Is cash acceptable?
- Oh, Crap!: Lucifer's reaction to finding a dead body in his club. Though it's more of an inconvenience for him, since it affected his Las Vegas deal.
- Old Shame: In-Universe: even in this world, Chloe still puts up with her old Hot Tub High School nude scene.
- Point of Divergence: The main difference between the two realities is that Chloe's father was never murdered, so she never had a reason to become a cop in the first place.
- Prelap: Erika screaming Lucifer's name, then we hear Charlotte calling out Lucifer's name a second before we cut to her scene.
- The Rival: Fellow actress Erika is this to Chloe.
- Same Character, But Different: All of the characters are different because of John Decker being alive, but God's closing narration discusses this trope: Ella has a completely different job due to being inspired by Chloe's character, but while more rough around the edges is essentially the same person; Maze's potential to be a better person is still there, but without Trixie or anyone else to encourage it she instead regressed and became far worse; Linda is exactly the same person, but due to different circumstances makes an immoral choice; Amenadiel is also the same person with the same desire to connect more with humanity, but because of different events occurring was never given the opportunity to make this choice; while Charlotte and Dan are much more selfish and corrupt than in the main universe, they still end up falling in love; and despite the very different circumstances that they met, Lucifer and Chloe are still drawn to each other and solve a crime because that's who they are.God: Give someone different options, different circumstances, will they themselves end up different? Sure, they might end up with a different job, find inspiration from different people. But will they still be the same person at their core? Some might continue down a darker path, never knowing there was a different way. The potential buried deep down, but still there. Some make immoral choices, instead of moral ones. But they'll still have the same conscience. The question is, will they ever make the choice to listen to it? And sometimes, it isn't the right moment in someone's life to make a certain choice. And no matter how badly you want to nudge them in the right direction, you know they need to find it on their own. And some people find love in the strangest of situations, and are, somehow, happier for it. And some, no matter how you shake things up, end up making the same choices, are drawn to the same people, the same passions.
- Shout-Out:
- Chloe's movie character (whom she uses as her police alias) is Detective Bonnie Gennaro.
- Lucifer calls Erika a "Lara Croft-wannabe".
- Too Much Information: Chloe doesn't want to hear Lucifer talk about the way he and Erika had sex. However, Chloe realized Erika wasn't injured as she claimed, so she's not the culprit.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Lucifer actually shoves bills into Ella's VSC.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: Chloe's dad scolds her for impersonating a cop and working with Lucifer. This led her to a brief Heroic BSoD, thinking her dad will never see her as a potential cop.
- Wham Line: The narrator revealing who he is at the end of the opening.Narrator: Normally, it would be impossible to get an answer to that questionnote . But I can. Just one of the benefits of being God!
- What If?: The key reason this world is so different is that Chloe's policeman father was never killed. Thus, she never became a cop and stuck to being an actress. The consequences of this change are that:
- Chloe and Lucifer never met until this episode, which is set around 2018. This means that the two years worth of crimes they solved remained unsolved with the criminals getting away with their crimes, as implied by Dan's comment that Delilah's death was an Open-and-Shut Case.
- Dan and Chloe never met, got married and had Trixie because of their different career paths. As a result, their was nothing to stop Dan from embracing his darker impulses.
- Lucifer calls Dan "Detective Dildo" instead of "Detective Douchebag". Though Dan is the one who calls Lucifer a "douchebag".
- Chloe's performance in The Weaponizer inspired Ella to become a criminal.
- Linda became Chloe's therapist, who in turn helps her get her own tv show.
- Uriel and Charlotte are still alive, with the latter seemingly never having a family and remaining an Amoral Attorney.
- Word of God: In-Universe and quite literally, in fact. God is the one narrating the episode and, better yet, He's played by Neil Gaiman, the creator of the Sandman comics, from which the Lucifer TV show is (loosely) derived.
