Series / Lucifer (2016)

"Tell me, what is it that you desire?" ^note From left to right: Daniel "Dan" Espinoza, Mazikeen "Maze", Lucifer Morningstar (front), Chloe Decker (back), Linda Martin, Amenadiel and Ella Lopez.

In the beginning...
The angel Lucifer was cast out of Heaven and condemned to rule Hell for all eternity.
Until he decided to take a vacation...

Lucifer was an Urban Fantasy crime procedural that debuted on Fox in 2016. It's based (however loosely) on the character Lucifer Morningstar from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Mike Carey's Lucifer, both published by DC Comics under its Vertigo imprint.

Lucifer Morningstar, the Dark Lord himself, has grown bored with dealing with sinners in Hell, so he decided to move to Hollywood and live it up as owner of the nightclub Lux. However, when a young singer he's trying to help gets murdered in a drive-by shooting, he decides to provide unsolicited help to LAPD Detective Chloe Decker in solving the case. Intrigued by how Chloe doesn't seem to have a dark side that he can exploit, he continues to pursue a career in amateur crime fighting both because he wants to figure Chloe out and because it amuses him.

The show stars Tom Ellis as Lucifer; Lauren German as Chloe Decker; Lesley-Ann Brandt as Mazikeen or "Maze," Lucifer's demonic assistant/bodyguard; Kevin Alejandro as Daniel "Dan" Espinoza, Chloe's cop ex-husband; D.B. Woodside as Amenadiel, an angel charged with returning Lucifer to Hell; Rachael Harris as Dr. Linda Martin, a therapist Lucifer decides to talk to/sleep with; and Scarlett Estevez as Beatrice "Trixie" Espinoza, Chloe's and Dan's daughter. Tricia Helfer joined the cast in the second season as Lucifer's Mother, the "Queen of Creation," using the body of Charlotte Richards, defense attorney, as did Aimee Garcia as Ella Lopez, newly assigned Crime Scene Tech and resident religious person. The fourth season introduces Eve, the mother of all humanity, played by Inbar Lavi.

Seasonal cast members include Kevin Rankin as Malcolm Graham, a corrupt LAPD officer tasked to bring down Lucifer by Amenadiel (season 1); Tom Welling as Marcus Pierce, the latest lieutenant for the LAPD (season 3); and Brianna Hildebrand as Rory, an angel who has a vendetta against Lucifer (season 6).

The show was created by Tom Kapinos (creator of Californication) and the showrunner is Joe Henderson (White Collar and Almost Human) with Jerry Bruckheimer serving as an executive producer.

On May 11, 2018 (just three days before the airing of the third season finale), Fox canceled the show due to low ratings, with two episodes that were meant to be shown in a potential fourth season being aired two weeks after the finale. Warner Bros. subsequently shopped the series around, and after a month of fan campaign, it finally found a new home in Netflix. On June 23, 2020, the service renewed the show for a sixth and final season, which consists of 10 episodes, adding up to 93 episodes in total. The final season was released on September 10, 2021. On May 3rd, 2022, Netflix announced they obtained the streaming rights to the first three series of the show, with episodes added on May 29th, 2022.

In an unexpected turn of events, Ellis made a quick appearance as Lucifer during the 2019 Arrowverse crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, revealing he is on Earth-666 (unsurprisingly), while a separate version of the character (portrayed by Gwendoline Christie) appeared in Netflix's adaptation of The Sandman.

There are unmarked spoilers ahead, especially regarding the revelation at the end of Season One that is treated as common knowledge by the characters later on. Be warned.

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Lucifer provides examples of:

Tropes A to F

• Aborted Arc:
  • God's insistence that Lucifer return to Hell and run it again because it's falling apart without him was a major part of Season 1, with Amenadiel and Uriel both acting towards that end in His name. In Seasons 2 and 3 it hasn't been brought up and there's no word from anyone on the current state of Hell nor what Heaven intends to do about it and Lucifer (though Amenadiel's insistence in the Pilot could have just been a lie in order to convince Lucifer to return to Hell on his own, as per Loophole Abuse so Amenadiel doesn't have to break the vow he made in the flashback episode). It comes back up in season 4 when the demons start to come to Earth to try and convince Lucifer to return. Specifics are not given; it's only stated that Hell has been "really bad" since Lucifer left.
    • Oddly aborted in a different way in Season 5. Lucifer returns to be the King of Hell at the end of Season 4 after the Demon Invasion but ultimately returns after Michael is causing havoc on Earth, but leaves Amenadiel in charge temporarily with the intent of returning to his job once Michael is handled. However Amenadiel returns within an episode, as God had apparently told him that a "warden" is no longer needed in Hell. The reasoning is never explained, even when God himself shows up midway through the season but apparently Hell is plenty stable enough without someone watching over it now and the Demons show loyalty to both Lucifer and Maze in the Season Finale anyway.
  • Amenadiel's relationship with Maze was a big part of the first two seasons and why she joined Cain in season 3 after learning he and Linda slept together. However this plotline is dropped in season 4, with Maze getting a new love interest.
  • Amenadiel has a run-in with racist police officer Reiben in season 4's "Super Bad Boyfriend". He meets him again in season 6's "A Lot Dirtier Than That" when he becomes a rookie cop himself and finds out he's now a detective and that while he pretends otherwise, he hasn't changed a bit. He plans to bring Reiben down with help from within the police, but nothing ever comes of it.
  • In the end of season 5 Amenadiel plans to become a police officer. In the start of season 6, Amenadiel starts his career as police officer. Than, he decides to become God and the whole police officer thing that was teased to be a big thing is aborted for good.
• Above the Influence: At the end of "Pops", Chloe shows up drunk at Lucifer's loft, distraught over her belief that Dan had dumped her, and throws herself at him. Lucifer, to his own surprise, refuses to take advantage. Although he's not above toying with her when she wakes up by letting her think they had sex.
• Accent Interest: Lucifer's British accent raises a few eyebrows because a) he's living in LA, b) his brother has an American accent, and c) most people (including Lucifer himself) find it hot:
  [from "High School Poppycock"]: Well, I've had many accents over the years, but this one is clearly the best.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Charlotte's first appearance is preceded by Lucifer's performance of "All Along the Watchtower". Tricia Helfer previously starred in Battlestar Galactica where the song played a prominent role.
  • In "The Good, the Bad and the Crispy". Linda breaks out the duct tape to patch up Charlotte. Charlotte's actress was previously on Burn Notice where duct tape was a running theme.
  • Rebecca De Mornay, who plays Penelope Decker, previous played a pushy mother trying to get her daughter into show-business on Jessica Jones, named Dorothy Walker. However, Penelope is just a bit scatter-brained and well-meaning, and clearly loves both her daughter and grand-daughter, while Dorothy Walker was downright abusive.
  • In "The One With The Baby Carrot" one of the puppets in a suspect's TV show calls Lucifer "Doctor Who". Tom Ellis once appeared in a guest role in an episode of that show.
  • Lucifer tells Marcus Pierce "everyone has a Kryptonite". Tom Welling played Superman on Smallville. Lucifer also tells Chloe that one does't tell Superman not to fly. In Smallville, the showrunners were mostly forbidden from allowing Clark to fly.
  • DB Woodside played Dennis Haysbert's chief of staff on 24. Haysbert has now been cast as God, making Woodside his right hand once again. Additionally, the two were brothers on that series and are father and son on this one.
• Adam and/or Eve: Eve appears as a main character in Season 4, being able to return to Earth since she was created directly by God. She is indifferent towards both Adam and Heaven, since she was arranged to be married to the former, therefore there is no spark in their relationship. The original sin is not Eve eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but rather her cheating on Adam with Lucifer. Also, she is not the First Woman; she was created to replace Adam's first wife, Lilith, whom he is still pining after.
• Adaptational Heroism: The original Vertigo comics are quite nihilistic, with Lucifer being a Nominal Hero who does everything for his own benefit versus a bunch of Knight Templar divine host who will do anything to bring him down. By contrast, the Lucifer of this show is a Tragic Hero who genuinely wants to be a good person and shows plenty of affection to people close to him, while the conflict with the divine host is treated more like a soap opera-esque family argument than the cosmic warfare it is in the comics.
• Adaptation Distillation: In the show, Hell is of the ironic variety, as noted below. The source material shows this is more the purview of Izanami-no-mikoto's realm, specifically The House of Windowless Rooms where she and other members of the Japanese pantheon reside.
  • If anything, as listed in other examples, the entire series only has very superfluous connections to the comic book. If not for the brief crossover with the CW Crisis event, it could have been a separate entity with no connection.
• Adaptation Dye-Job:
  • In his comic run, Lucifer has blond hair; in Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists, he's shown with a brunette pompadour in some frames. In the show, it is black. This gets lampshaded in episode 12, when he tries to convince a satanist that he's the real deal.
    Satanist: You're supposed to be blond.
    Lucifer: Yes, I get that a lot.
  • This also extends to his identical twin brother, Michael, who is similarly blond-haired in the comics.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Lucifer, Amenadiel and Mazikeen all have drastically different personalities from their comic counterparts. See the character page for more details.
• Aerith and Bob: For example, you've got Lucifer Morningstar, Amenadiel and Mazikeen (no surname given for the latter two) alongside the more prosaic Chloe Decker, Daniel Espinoza and Ella López.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Mazikeen is called "Maze" by people close to her.
  • Lucifer very rarely refers to Chloe by her name and virtually never does so to her face. It becomes clear later on that "Detective" is his way of being affectionate to her.
    • He, however, is called out on this by Dan in "All Hands on Decker", who says that he should try to call Chloe by her name if he wants to get a Relationship Upgrade. Lucifer even counters the assumption through the excuse that "Detective" is more affectionate.
    • By the finale of Season 4, Lucifer has called Chloe by her name, to her face, four times: twice in the pilot, once in "Quintessential Deckerstar", when the two have their Big Damn Kiss, and once in "Who's da New King of Hell?", when he tearfully parts ways from her before returning to Hell.
  • Chloe and Dan's nickname for Trixie is "Monkey". This was actually John Decker's nickname for his daughter.
  • Amenadiel calls Lucifer "Luci"
  • Dr. Linda tries to give one to Amenadiel, but finds that "Amen" doesn't quite roll off the tongue.
  • Lucifer calls Azrael "Rae-Rae". For her part, Azrael calls Lucifer "Lu".
• Afterlife Angst: In Season 5 Dan winds up in Hell after dying. Lucifer tries to make things as nice as possible for him, even going so far as to order the demons not to torture him, but Dan still can't leave after being there for thousands of years. It turns out the issue is that he feels he wasn't a good enough father to his daughter Trixie, and that guilt is keeping him from moving on to Heaven.
• Air Quotes: In "Quid Pro Ho", Charlotte does this during the trial.
  Charlotte: But not until after she'd "found" her dad's killer dead?
  Lawyer: Objection!
  Charlotte: What's he objecting to? Air quotes?
• Aliens Steal Cable: Or angels in this case. In season 4 Eve reveals that Heaven gets ESPN, Adam's discovery of which is among the reasons she eventually returned to Earth.
• Alternate Self:
  • The Alternate Universe episode Once Upon a Time is set in a world where all the main characters lived a different life due to John Decker not being killed, with the only one lacking a counterpart being Trixie who was never born.
  • Crossing over with the Arrowverse during Crisis on Infinite Earths made several cosmic coincidences of this, like Dan Espinoza looking just like Earth-1 Sebastian Blood or Marcus Pierce looking just like the Superman of Earth-167.
• Alternate Universe:
  • The episode Once Upon a Time is set in a world where John Decker never died and Chloe became an actress, leading to several changes to the main cast: Lucifer never grew out of his Season 1 characterization, Ella became a criminal, Trixie was never born since her parents didn't meet, without Chloe or Trixie Dan never had any reasons not to become corrupt, Maze also fell further into corruption and now leads a cult due to never having Trixie in her life, Charlotte is alive and still an amoral lawyer, Amenadiel never grew to connect with humanity, and Linda became the host of a therapy show.
  • Lucifer is set on Earth-666 in DC's live-action multiverse established by Crisis on Infinite Earths.
  • The Goddess ends up creating her own unseen universe in the Void.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Charlotte, to both Lucifer and Amenadiel.
• Ambiguous Situation: Given how Lucifer appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019), it raises questions on how much of a role God and the Goddess played in creating the multiverse. In the comics God's comic counterpart the Presence created the entire multiverse, and while there were many Devil like figures (Lucifer, Satan and the First of the Fallen), there was only one Hell and Heaven for the entire multiverse. However Earth-Prime showed that it had a very different version of Hell in comparison to the one on Lucifer with different rulers and rules. This suggests each Earth has it's own version of Hell and Heaven, and by extension it's own God. However this is complicated by how both God and the Goddess created more universes by themselves, the former in Once Upon A Time and the latter with her void.
• Amicable Exes: Chloe and Dan are still friends after their divorce. If anything, they seem to be getting along better.
• Angel/Devil Shipping: In-universe between Amenadiel and Mazikeen. Amenadiel is an angel, Mazikeen is a demon (or half-demon, half-human should the comic be trusted) and things get steamy. It's later strongly implied that they've genuinely fallen in love with each other, something which confuses the both of them.
• Angels in Overcoats: Amenadiel initially wore a long robe or overcoat, though, after his fall and his wings rotting off he started wearing a grey hoodie or biker's coat instead. While Lucifer, who cut his wings off when he moved to Earth, prefers a snazzy suit.
• Arbitrary Skepticism:
  • Played with and then reconstructed. Chloe refuses to believe that Lucifer is actually The Devil Incarnate, despite the fact that she's seen him shrug off bullets, disappear from one place and appear in another (though this was due to him utilizing Amenadiel's time-slowing ability rather than any power of his own), and convince nearly everyone he meets to give up their deepest desires/dark and naughty secrets. At first, it seems like Arbitrary Skepticism, but in episode four, after Lucifer explaining once again that he is the Devil and bullets are pretty much a bee sting to him, Chloe sees his real face in a reflection and starts to believe. So Lucifer goads her into shooting him which he shrugs off for about a second before actually being injured the first time in the series. It's actually Chloe that makes him mortal. Add that to the fact that she is immune to his abilities, lives in the City of Angels where everybody has a persona they are willing to play to make it ahead, and the fact that "The Devil Incarnate" is often mistaken as being "the ultimate evil" instead of the (literally) canonical punisher of evil, it's actually somewhat believable that she doesn't believe his explanation of all of his "Lucifer-ness".
  • As of the season 2 premiere, zigzagged and discussed; in season one, Chloe never actually stated what she thought of Lucifer's Luciferness other than she didn't think he was the Devil. In the season two premiere, after she obtains a sample of his blood, Lucifer encourages her to test it and prove he is an angel and to prevent that, Amenadiel gives Chloe a perfectly logical cop-out explanation to everything that Lucifer does implying that he's not quite sane. Instead, she Takes a Third Option: having faith—-but not without doubt—in Lucifer, and states she doesn't believe his or Amenadiel's perfectly logical explanation, citing a joke from Annie Hall- "Doctor, my brother thinks he's a chicken!" Well, why don't you bring him in?" "I can't, I need the eggs." Chloe explains that she needs the eggs; she doesn't believe he's crazy and Lucifer makes her a better detective, and he has her back and that's all that really matters.
  • It's also heavily implied that she's leaning more towards Lucifer's explanation than Amenadiel's, because she says she's going to find out what Lucifer is (only resorting to who when Lucifer pushes her on it), and she pokes a billion holes in Amenadiel's explanation. Not to mention the thing that dissuades her from testing Lucifer's blood is a person of faith pointing out that proof of divinity kind of takes away the point of having faith. Chloe might not believe in Lucifer being more than human but at the very least she can see his results.
  • Likewise, Linda believes Lucifer's talk of devils and such is all metaphor for his feelings. In "Monster," Lucifer finally reveals his true demonic face to her and Linda is simply shocked silent and frozen to realize he truly is the Devil.
• Archangel Azrael: Azrael is the Angel of Death, whose blade destroys whoever it stabs in their entirety. She's also a nerdy, bespectacled dork who goes by "Rae-Rae" and has been pretending to be Ella's imaginary friend for years.
• Archangel Gabriel: Briefly mentioned by Michael in "Lucifer! Lucifer! Lucifer!" as being the one who first reported Lucifer's decision to retake the throne of Hell. She finally appears in person in the back half of the season. Amenadiel refers to her as "The Angel of Gossip" which she corrects to "Angel of Messages". As part of her domain she has the ability to travel anywhere, including between universes, which allows her to retrieve Azrael's blade from the void.
• Archangel Michael:
  • Makes an appearance in the form of his famous painting. In season 4 Linda suggests naming her and Amenadiel's child after him, but Amenadiel dismisses the suggestion right away.
  • Michael is revealed in season 5 to be Lucifer's twin brother. To differentiate the two, Michael speaks with an American accent, has a hunched posture, and likes to dress in old-fashioned and conservative outfits like turtleneck sweaters. He is the only angel who has a direct channel to God and despises Lucifer for gaining praise among the celestials despite his rebellious nature. Unlike Lucifer, he loves to lie, while his angelic gift is a distorted version of Lucifer's: he can coax out someone's fears, instead of their desires.
• Archangel Raphael: Briefly mentioned by Michael in "Lucifer! Lucifer! Lucifer!" as commending Lucifer's growth for retaking his job to oversee Hell.
• Archangel Uriel:
  • He is name dropped in "Favorite Son". Apparently he gives a welcome speech to new arrivals in Heaven, which Lucifer finds to be a fate worse than Hell.
  • He appears in Season 2 in order to force Lucifer to return their mother to Hell under threat against Chloe's life. He's revealed to be able to see the future to an extent, being able to anticipate all the potential outcomes of a sequence of events, and can manipulate them to bring about Disaster Dominoes. He's also a Knight Templar determined to kill their mother rather than let her worm her way back into Heaven, and ends up rendered Deader than Dead by Lucifer to protect her.
  • Uriel did say he was taking their mother back to Hell, but Lucifer killed him only after Uriel revealed the part of his plan where he kills Chloe. This is a huge point throughout season 2 - that Lucifer killed his own brother to protect 'his' detective.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Lucifer and a priest have a disagreement regarding their faith in God.
    Priest: God has a plan.
    Lucifer: Oh, His plan for me was quite clear.
    Priest: How do you know His plan is finished?
  • Lucifer asks one to Malcolm in "St. Lucifer" after the former is staring down the barrel of the latter's gun.
    Lucifer: Okay, so you kill me. Then what? What's in it for you?
    Malcolm: I live out my life. I don't get sent back to hell.
    Lucifer: Ah, but you'll die eventually. All you mortals do. Then what? Amenadiel can't do anything about that.
    [Malcolm is silent as the horror of this realization sets in]
  • In the second season premiere, after yet another self-serving blame-shifting monologue from Lucifer, Dr. Linda asks him point-blank if their sessions are really doing any good. The implication being that she might be ready to give up on him. This shocks Lucifer to the point that he later comes back and admits his own fault in the matter under discussion.
  • When confronted by Dan threatening him under the influence of Azrael's Blade, Lucifer asks him if he really thinks Lucifer is responsible for the breakup of his marriage to Chloe and his punishment for his bad actions as a cop.
  • In season 4, Lucifer asks Chloe point blank if she would ever be able to accept both sides of him, intentionally using his devil force while speaking to reinforce the reality of what he is. She can only bring herself to answer tearfully that she honestly doesn't know.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • In "Sin-Eater", Lucifer mentions that he reserves the worst punishments for pedophiles, Nazis and people who put their seats back on a plane.
  • In "Trip to Stabby Town", Dan under the influence of Azrael's blade blames Lucifer for ruining his marriage, his job and eating his pudding! Lucifer points out the first two are actually Dan's faults but confesses the latter.
  • In "Mr. and Mrs. Mazikeen Smith," Lucifer tells the doctor about Chloe's concern about Maze. Lucifer dismisses it, saying that he and Maze have been through "the plagues, the floods, the Dave Matthews band."
  • In "The Sin Bin," after Mazikeen unsuccessfully tortures the Sinnerman, Lucifer gives her a grilling replete with various suggestions for techniques she could try. She'd already done waterboarding twice, she felt offended when Lucifer suggested putting bamboo under the fingernails... but is quick to retort that Nickelback on repeat was the first thing she tried.
  • In "Spoiler Alert", Maze is insulted when Lucifer tries to confirm if she really has tortured Les Klumpsky to get info on the original Whisper Killer, since he has suffered five broken ribs, torn rotators in cuffs, and "It's a Small World" on repeat.
• Artistic License – Biology: Adam and Cain have light skin, a trait that did not exist in humans at the time of his birth. In the comics, Cain is also Caucasian (on top of being blond). Considering Adam was created wholecloth by God, rather than being birthed (and considering most angels are Caucasian), there might be some biology magic in play here.
• Artistic License – Law:
  • No police department would allow a civilian consultant to hang around the precinct constantly or tag along on every arrest, much less interrogate suspects. It's all but explicitly stated that Lucifer gets away with it because of his smooth talking ability and potentially bribery.
  • Lucifer (and Chloe for that matter) constantly do things that would get their cases thrown out, from warrantless searches to unlawful detainment to illegally obtained confessions. Almost every episode has at least one and often multiple irregularities that a defense attorney would have a field day with.
• Artistic License – Religion:
  • Amenadiel claims that every culture throughout history has had a devil figure, and that figure has always been some flavor of the "fallen son" archetype. Neither is true; many cultures have no evil figures in their religion at all, and among those that do, not all of them have the evil entity as a "fallen son" of any sort. Of course, Amenadiel was trying to manipulate Linda and has shown no compunction against lying, so he could have just been editing the story to fit his narrative. Or he might simply be ignorant of human religion, considering his lack of experience interacting with them.
  • In Season One, Linda claims that Lucifer's original name — Samael — means "Light-Bringer." Samael actually means "Poison of God", while Lucifer means "Light-Bringer."
  • Abrahamic folklore (or at least Biblical head-canon) attributes the Nephilim as being the half-breed offspring of angels and humans. In the series, Charlie is explicitly stated to be the first and (at the time) only example of this, Charlie currently exhibiting no anomalous characteristics beyond a few Informed Attributes.
• Artifact of Doom: Azrael's Blade. It was originally a Flaming Sword before God stripped pieces off it. Even in a reduced state it's still capable of killing Celestials and causes a Hate Plague when handled by a human. When fully restored Lucifer is able to use it to cut through the fabric of reality itself.
• As Himself: Sharon Osbourne appears as herself in season five's "Lucifer! Lucifer! Lucifer!".
• Asshole Victim: While many victims of the week have been decent people, many others turn out to be somewhat unpleasant at best and just plain horrible at worst. Special mention goes to the fitness guru from "Trip to Stabby Town", who ends up getting murdered by the woman he raped years before.
• The Atoner:
  • A paparazzi in the second episode wanted to make up for going too far in his previous work and causing unintended harm to others (including Chloe). Unfortunately, his attempts to do so didn't work out like he hoped.
  • Lucifer keeps denying it, but it is clear he feels quite guilty when his actions lead to a woman's death. He tries to make up for it by catching her killer and is quite relieved to find out that his involvement did not cause her death after all.
  • After killing Uriel Lucifer feels true guilt for the first time in his existence, to a crippling degree. Enough so that he tries to get himself shot with Chloe present to be punished for it. When that doesn't work he tries to unburden himself to Linda, but she doesn't believe him until he shows her his true face, which doesn't go over well. So he spends the next episode feeling guilty for that and for the harm he causes generally. Enough so that he tries to emulate Dan to be more reliable.
• Auto Erotica: Maze and Amenadiel have sex for the first time in the back of a car.
• "Awkward Silence" Entrance: You can always tell when Amenadiel shows up unannounced because everything slows to a crawl as a side-effect of his powers. It annoys the Hell out of Lucifer.
• Back from the Dead:
  • In the Season 1 finale, Lucifer is mortally wounded, briefly dies, and goes to Hell, so his father can show him that his mother has escaped.
  • The crazy plan Lucifer concocts to save Chloe from poisoning in "A Good Day to Die" requires him to die and enter Hell, because the only person who knows the antidote has been killed and sent to Hell. After he is successful, Linda revives him (and his mom, who volunteered to retrieve him when he did not come back on time) using a Magical Defibrillator.
  • In the Season 2 finale, the real Charlotte Richards, who died all the way back in the premiere, reposseses her body after Goddess leaves it. Season 3 reveals that Charlotte went to Hell during the duration of the possession, the experience of which makes her decide to turn her life around.
  • In the Season 3 episode "Infernal Guinea Pig", Lucifer and Pierce bring Abel back to life, but he ends up possessing a recently dead woman. Hilarity Ensues.
  • In the Season 5 finale, Chloe dies, being stabbed by Michael, and goes to Heaven. But Lucifer, unable to accept her death, travels to Heaven to bring her soul back and resurrect her, in the process causing him to die. This act enables him to win the contest to become God, and he is subsequently brought back.
• Badass Preacher: Father Frank from "A Priest Walks into a Bar." While he doesn't exactly kick ass and chew bubble-gum, he is pretty cool for a preacher. He played piano for a moderately successful rock band, he smoked (chewing on unlit cigarettes out of habit) and punched a councelor for juveniles he suspected was not his doing his job right. He goes to a man named "Lucifer Morningstar" for help, he was unoffended by Lucifer's various means of pushing his buttons and was even able to lower a few of his barriers. This is most telling when it is revealed that he knew Lucifer really was the Devil all along.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Or at least Corrupt Cops do, anyway. This was Amenadiel's plan to get Lucifer back to Hell: a good old-fashioned anonymous murder.
• Bait-and-Switch: In the opening of "The Would-Be Prince of Darkness", A barefoot woman is standing over a ledge quietly crying to herself while Lucifer encourages her to jump. It looks like he's goading her into going through with committing suicide, but once she jumps, it shows she was jumping into a pool at a party.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: Amenadiel implies that Lucifer's good deeds on Earth, in opposition of his destined role, are causing a disruption in the natural order of things.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In "Monster", Linda finally gets fed up with Lucifer's constant "metaphors" and "roleplay" and pretend games, and tells him he needs to come clean with who he is, who the real Lucifer is. So he shows her his real face. She takes it... reasonably well. In that she's rendered catatonic for a while, while others have gone completely insane by the same experience.
• Beast and Beauty: Lucifer is the Beast and Chloe is the Beauty.
• Being Good Sucks: Discussed between Dan and Charlotte in the episode The Sinnerman. Charlotte felt horrible for believing she fouled up an interview with a suspect only for Chloe to reveal the whole thing was a Batman Gambit because she didn't expect Charlotte to be able to stay on script. Dan comforts her by telling her how he screwed up several times but doesn't give up trying to be better.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension:
  • Trixie assumes that Mommy shooting Lucifer was an extreme version of this trope.
  • Ella sees Lucifer and Chloe arguing and thinks they should just Get a Room!.
• Berserk Button:
  • Daniel loves puddings. He loves them so much that he keeps stacks of them in the precinct fridge and labels them with his name so that other people won't touch them. He becomes so upset when he realises someone is stealing all his puddings that Chloe sarcastically asks him if she should put some unis on the case and arrange for him to receive counselling.
  • On a serious note, blaming Lucifer for humanity's evil is a sure way to get him legitimately angered. He also doesn't like being compared to God or called by his former name, Samael (in the comics, Lucifer still answers to the name Samael, but objects to being called the "Lightbringer").
• Better to Die than Be Killed: The criminal who stole the container holding Lucifer's wings, upon being confronted by a pissed-off Lucifer, throws himself off a roof.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Lucifer is a perfectly decent person, willing to help and be helped (unless it involves being talked back into Hell), and he's never without a witty rejoinder or an easy smile, but when he stops smiling, it really is in your best interest to listen to the man. If you don't listen to him about the evils of Disproportionate Retribution or hurting those you're close to, you have no one but yourself to blame when he drops his mask.
• Biblical Motifs: This world happens to have no superheroes or supernatural events that aren't linked to the Christian Bible. It's still a mystery how the God, Heaven and Hell on this show fit into the wider Multiverse.
• Big Damn Heroes: Maze and Amenadiel show up to save Linda in "The Good, the Bad and the Crispy". Bonus points for Amenadiel finally getting his time-slowing ability to work again.
• Big Damn Kiss: At the end of "Stewardess Interruptus", Lucifer and Chloe finally kiss.
• Big Eater: Saint Paul from the New Testament is mentioned to love eating a lot, and also to be chubby, according to Amenadiel and Lucifer
• Big Red Devil: Downplayed. While Lucifer's true appearance is red, it's because of exposed musculature and as a result he resembles a skinned human with glowing red eyes. He also doesn't have horns, a tail, or cloven feet: Amenadiel made up Lucifer's association with goats to annoy him.
• Big "WHY?!": Lucifer screams this at the Spider when he shoots Father Frank.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: Played straight or maybe averted. Lucifer once remarks that there are few things bigger than him, and Linda, who's sleeping with him at the time, agrees on this point. Another time, he compares his prowess in bed to heroin but says that he's rather average in terms of equipment, though he doesn't define "average".^note Many men in real life are under the impression, possibly due to porn, that "average" is bigger than it really is. Season Five also has Linda tell Chloe that Lucifer is "well beyond average" in that department.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • In "Everything's Okay", Maze briefly speaks in the "Lilim language" while having her session with Linda. It's actually Afrikaans, Lesley-Ann Brandt's first language, albeit distorted.
    Maze: Kan jy vir my verstaan wat ek praat, want ek wil saam met jou praat en jy kan nie..? ^note Can you understand what I'm saying? Because I want to talk to you and you can't.
  • Maze does this again in "A Chance at a Happy Ending". Her Battle Cry is in Zulu (South Africa's most-spoken first language) and slightly more elaborate in meaning compared to the subtitle, which simply says "fight!"
    Maze: Babulale bonke! ^note Kill them all!
  • Happens again in "Our Mojo", when Ella and a guest character are shown flirting in un-subtitled Klingon. (Or at least, as close to flirting as seems to be grammatically possible.)
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The ending of "A Good Day to Die": Lucifer manages to save Chloe, and "Charlotte" finally seems to realize the damage her actions have caused. But Lucifer is tired of both his parents manipulating him so leaves LA, seemingly for good. When Chloe goes to see Lucifer, she finds his penthouse empty and his furniture covered in sheets.
  • Season 4 ends with Lucifer coming to terms with his self-hatred and taking responsibility for his actions, finally gaining a mature perspective on all that has happened with him. He learns to forgive himself and admits to Chloe the truth of his feelings and finds them reciprocated - but upon doing so is promptly forced to take his leave of Earth to reclaim the infernal throne, realizing that Hell's legions pose a threat to Earth and all he loves if left unsupervised.
  • Season 5: Lucifer is able to defeat Michael and due to his Heroic Sacrifice was chosen to become God. However Dan is dead and in Hell thanks to Michael's machinations, the original God has gone to be with the Goddess of Creation in the reality Lucifer sent her to in the Season 2 finale which means none of his children will ever see him again right when he was starting to connect with them, and while Lucifer has become God no one has much clue how he will ultimately perform at the role, least of all himself.
• Black Speech: The demons have one, as Maze briefly demonstrates in "Everything's Okay".^note Lesley-Ann Brandt actually spoke her native Afrikaans, albeit distorted.
  • Actually, she demonstrated it at least in couple more occasions in other episodes as well, and in single occasion, also shouted to other demons in Zulu (whether it was meant as a second demon language or a part of the same).
• *Bleep*-dammit!: Used with the director of the movie whose shot Lucifer walks into.
• Body Horror:
  • Lucifer's true appearance makes him somewhat resemble a skinless human.
  • It gets worse in season 4 when we first see not just his "Devil face", but his entire body in Devil form. Not only does he look skinless, but burned, and with clear chunks missing, like he has been slashed, probably injuries from his war with God.
  • Maze's true appearance has half of her face appearing to be horribly decayed.
  • In Season 2, Amenadiel realizes that he's become a Fallen Angel when his wings start to rot off his back.
• Bond One-Liner: On finding a victim whose crotch was set on fire, Lucifer and Ella engage in a series of bad puns, to Chloe's annoyance.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Lucifer and Chloe are trapped inside a burning building, and Chloe tells him that if he's got any tricks up his sleeve, now's the time. Instead of an awesome display of supernatural powers, we Gilligan Cut to Lucifer carrying Chloe out of the building with a fire blanket draped over her head.
    Chloe: You can put me down!
  • When Lucifer is being evicted from Lux, finds a moving crew in the process of packing up his piano and advances on them in fury.
    Lucifer: You have no idea who you're dealing with, do you? Well let me show you! [Gilligan Cut to the moving crew getting drunk and partying with the Lux girls]
• Brandishment Bluff: Amenadiel resurrects Malcolm and tells him if he doesn't kill Lucifer, Amenadiel will throw Malcolm back into Hell—while if he does, Amenadiel will get Malcolm into Heaven. This is a bluff twice over; angels aren't allowed to kill mortals, and Amenadiel has no authority to get Malcolm into Heaven or even just out of Hell.
• Break Her Heart to Save Her: Lucifer does this with Chloe; believing that her feelings for him aren't real and that she's just a pawn in his Father's plans, he runs away without telling her and returns seemingly married to Candy, nipping any possibly relationship they could've had in the bud. He claims that he did this in order to give her back her free will (her right to choose), though Amenadiel suspects that he's using that as an excuse to cover up his own insecurities (his belief that no one could ever love the Devil).
• Brain Bleach: In Everything's Coming Up Lucifer, when Maze returns he tells her of his suspicion that she's the one who let Mom out of Hell, and then makes a mention of desperate times making strange bedfellows. At which point he stops and complains that he's just put the image of Maze having sex with his mom in his head.
• Brawn Hilda: Lucifer comes very close to being throttled to death by one who turns out to be the Murderer of the Week. He's more embarrassed than anything else. "Don't...tell anyone...I died like this!"
• Broad Strokes: "Boo, Normal" was produced before the jump from Fox and Netflix and the writers developing the storyline of the fourth season. Lucifer's interactions with Chloe and Dan in the episode don't fit with the way season four portrayed the relationships making it unclear how the episode fit into continuity. Season 5 eventually established that at least some elements of the plot are still canon as "Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid" makes several references to the episode.
• Broken Aesop:
  • Season Five (and to some extent Three) has a running theme of "life's briefness is what makes it valuable." The problem is, the show takes place in a setting where humans have an immortal soul. This isn't always portrayed as a good thing (e.g., Eve growing completely bored with Heaven after several millenia, and of course you can end up in Hell instead), but all the same, it does make it nonsensical that immortality is considered a curse or a burden when everyone has it.
  • The series finale's You Can't Fight Fate ending pushes the idea that it's okay that Lucifer just abandoned Chloe and Rory on Earth in order to work full time as a therapist in Hell trying to help damned souls find redemption because he eventually has the realization that helps Rory overcome her own trauma. It ignores the fact that his complete lack of involvement in her life is what causes her issues in the first place and it should have been easily possible to find a work/life balance that let him help the souls in hell while still maintaining a relationship with his family .
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Lucifer and Chloe can fall into this sometimes. The best example is after Father Frank's death, when Chloe goes to Lucifer in order to cheer him up.
• Buddy Cop Show: Lucifer isn't a cop, but pulled some strings to become a police consultant, and likes to joke about being Chloe's partner.
• Brought Down to Badass: When Amenadiel is going through a crises of faith, his celestial physiology causes him to become mortal because he feels he's not worthy of the power, and since angels self manifest, this causes him to lose those powers. During this time he has a bar fight with Cain, who has resurrective immortality due to his curse. During the fight, Amenadiel proves why he was God's right-hand-man and leader of Heaven's armies. He easily beats the hell out of Cain, who's a millenias-old-warrior himself. Later Cain mentenions to Maze that Amenadiel actually killed him eleven times before Cain finally gave up.
• But Not Too Bi: Despite both characters mentioning same-sex lovers or being seen briefly with them, both Maze and Lucifer only ever have actual love interests of the opposite sex. Improved upon in the fourth season. Maze struggles with complex feelings for Linda and a desire for family, while developing a legitimate attraction to and connection with Eve. They become an Official Couple in Season 5.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday:
  • A pickup artist slept with so many women that he cannot remember one he slept with two years previously even after he is told where and how it happened. The really awkward thing about it is that he is now madly in love with the woman and has been dating her for four months. She is quite upset and tries to kill him.
  • In "The Weaponizer", when Lucifer remarks on the movie star's drug problem.
    Lucifer: Well, only if you consider ingesting millions of dollars of cocaine a problem. I call it a Tuesday...but apparently it's frowned upon.
  • In "Sympathy For The Goddess", Amenadiel tells Lucifer Maze is furious with him over their plan with Mom. Lucifer's response is none too worried.
    Lucifer: Is it Tuesday already? Anger is Maze's base state.
  • In "All About Eve," Dr. Linda mentions this when she talks with Chloe about how surreal her life has become in the last few years. Her best friend is a demon, one of her clients is literally The Devil, she's pregnant with a half-angel/half-human child by Amenadiel,, and she knows for a fact that Hell and Heaven are real places. Just a typical Tuesday for her now.
  • Double subverted in "A Lot Dirtier Than That". Amenadiel encounters Reiben, the officer (now detective) who pointed a gun at his head in season 4's "Super Bad Boyfriend", and it seems Reiben doesn't remember him. It turns out he does in fact remember Amenadiel and tells him that their encounter was a wake-up call and inspired him to be a better cop and a better person. However, this turns out to be bullshit; it was just a Tuesday that he happened to remember, and he's the same violent, racist cop he always was.
• By-the-Book Cop: Dan (compared to Chloe). Then again, it doesn't help that he was doing it out of a corrupt motive.
• Cain: He shows up in Season Three as Lt. Marcus Pierce. Whether or not he proves to be a villain or have had a Heel–Face Turn over his long life is left up in the air over the course of the season before settling on villain in the final episodes.
• Call-Back: Boo Normal draws attention to throw-away dialogue that appears in a couple of episodes of seasons 2 and 3. In Season 2, Ella comments about hearing voices before realising she's been overheard and becomes embarrassed. In the same season, Uriel and Lucifer mention that Azrael, the Angel of Death, is female. In Season 3, Ella mentions she's writing a book starring a forensic scientist who talks to ghosts. Boo Normal is about Ella and her relationship with an "imaginary friend" she describes as a ghost. The end of the episode reveals the ghost is actually Azrael, the Angel of Death, who befriended Ella because she's tired of just talking to dead humans.
• Calling Your Orgasms: Invoked and lampshaded: It's almost a Running Gag of the series that Lucifer (who loves sex) often complains how he hates that people scream "God!" when they come (God is his father and they do not get along).
  Lucifer: I can't stand that; why does Dad have to do with it and do people always call out him in that moment? That so totally ruins the moment!
• The Casanova: Lucifer. To the point where, as part of the investigation in "Stewardess Interruptus", Chloe and the LAPD end up filling the precinct with just two months' worth of his conquests.
  Chloe: Okay. A list of everyone you've slept with in the last eight weeks.
  Lucifer: Right, you'll need a much bigger notepad.
  ...
  Dan: Wow..! You slept with all of 'em?
  Lucifer: Yes. Bit of a dry spell, the last couple of months.
• Came Back Wrong:
  • Malcolm. We don't know exactly how he was before, so it might cross over with Informed Attribute, but he's been on a gluttonous rampage since he came back from Hell. And not just in the culinary sense. His wife says in episode 13, after mistaking Maze and Chloe for him and trying to shoot them with a shotgun, that he's been different since his "near death experience." We see boxes full of half-unpacked brand-new items strewn all over his house not two minutes before, and Maze says she's seen similar all-consuming behavior before.
  • Inverted in the case of Charlotte, who made a living keeping criminals out of jail but decided to change after experiencing hell.
• Canon Welding: Was brought into the Arrowverse during Crisis on Infinite Earths as Earth-666; Lucifer apparently (and rather unsurprisingly) has a history with John Constantine.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • Lucifer is totally open about how he's the Devil on Earth and is rather annoyed people don't believe it, especially Chloe, who's been around him long enough to see some fairly strange things.
    Chloe: I'm going to figure out your secret.
    Lucifer: It's not a secret when I'm telling you the answer!
  • Mom's first impression of Candy is that she's a "sinister genius" who managed to completely snow her, before realizing that Lucifer marrying her might be a sign of how broken he is. Her first impression was the correct one. Candy is a very convincing actress/con-woman whom Lucifer used to play everybody.
• Catchphrase: Lucifer has the show's only one, asking almost everyone he meets some variant of, "Tell me. What is it you truly desire?"
• Cats Are Superior: As a guy known for his narcissism and self-centeredness, Lucifer's opinion on the furry things with the same reputation is rather low:
  Lucifer: Want an animal to stare at you with contempt? Get a cat.
• Caught in the Rain: Discussed. In episode 7, Chloe leaves the auction site irritated after Lucifer refuses to help her follow a lead in her investigation.
  Amenadiel: Are you sure you don't want to chase after her? Maybe I can ask Father for some rain and make it a moment."
• Caught with Your Pants Down: In episode 4, Chloe steps out of the shower with her gun drawn because she heard an intruder, only to see Lucifer making breakfast. She's so surprised that she drops her towel. When she puts the towel back on, Dan and Trixie walk in, see the two of them and make assumptions.
  • A literal example in Season 4 when Chloe stops by Lucifer's place unannounced to ask him for help...right as he was shucking off his clothing to join his companion in the shower.
• Caused the Big Bang: Lucifer claims that the "Big Bang" was his parents having sex. His mother seems to support that suggestion.
• Central Theme: While each season series with a different Story Arc, a few recurring elements crop up repeatedly.
  • Communication and openness about one's feelings. Most of the main characters suffer from Poor Communication Kills, especially Lucifer, which causes them to misinterpret someone else's actions, causes their own actions to be misinterpreted, or they do things without consulting others. In the end, Honesty Is the Best Policy, and open conversations is the best way to truly solve problems, even if the process is unpleasant. This extends to being honest with yourself and being able to realize your flaws and willing to work to overcome them. The Reveal that celestial beings can self-actualize their inner turmoil, which is the cause of Lucifer and Amenadiel's Power Incontinence, directly shows that an inability to accept yourself for who you are just results in more problems.
  • Love, both familial and romantic. Most of the major character plots of the series center on the characters searching for one, the other, or both, and it's shown that lack of them in their upbringing has had a negative effect on them as adults. While the journey differs for each character, each of them needs to come to terms with their pain in some way or another in order to become better people, and only then are they able to be emotionally mature enough to have healthy long-term relationships with others.
  • Going hand-in-hand with both of the above, Lucifer's ability to draw out the deepest desires of others allows him to reveal their true nature, which is very often a turning point interrogating a suspect. Some people want entirely mundane and ordinary things, some want long-term goals, some want immediate resolution of an issue. And it's usually the case with criminals that (in their opinion, anyway) they were Driven to Villainy by some need or ambition that was going unfulfilled and they felt they had no other choice but to resort to ammoral actions. This shows the lengths some are willing to go to in order to get what they want when they can't have it.
• Cessation of Existence: Any supernatural beings killed by the blade of Azrael, the Angel of Death, don't go to Heaven or Hell, but are simply wiped from existence. Uriel tries to use it to kill his and Lucifer's mother, only for Lucifer to turn on him instead. Demons, who don't have souls, also suffer this when they die from whatever cause.
• Characterization Marches On: In the first season Lucifer was portrayed as an amoral character going through an identity crisis, with both Amenadiel and Maze claiming that his time on Earth has caused him to change. This implies that prior to the series Lucifer was closer to the traditional depiction of the Devil, and as the show continued it was made clear that Lucifer hated himself and believed he was a monster which was the source of his Devil Face. However the show never went into the specifics of his rebellion beyond his affair with Eve and two flashback episodes show that he wasn't that different from his Season 1 characterization and in some ways he was even better. As a result it appears that he was never this evil figure everyone believed him to be, though it's possible that Michael did his best to ruin Lucifer's reputation amongst his siblings.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Amenadiel's ability to slow time, which he uses to speak with Lucifer in public without being noticed. See Mundane Utility below.
  • The single feather Maze keeps that came from from Lucifer's wings returns in the Season One finale as Maze uses its divine powers to heal Amenadiel after he's mortally wounded with a demonic blade.
  • Amenadiel's pendant was on him since his first appearance. Trixie mentioned she liked it. But it finally got to use only in Season Two Finale.
  • Similarly, Lucifer's ring has been with him since the beginning. Season 5 reveals that it originally belonged to Lilith, the First Woman and mother of all demons, and contains her immortality. Comes back around in the finale as said ring allows Lucifer to barely survive being in Heaven despite his banishment so he can pass the ring to Chloe to revive her after Michael kills her.
  • After Chloe gets shot in the shoulder in the pilot, she starts paying attention to bulletproof vests and tries to check if Lucifer has one in the second episode. The detail is promptly forgotten until the season 3 finale, where she gets shot again, this time in the chest, but thanks to a bulletproof vest, she survives.
• Children Are Innocent: The very likely reason why Lucifer is such a Child Hater. His power to coax out someone's deepest (often scandalous) desires must be amazingly useless on anyone not old enough to have any impure thoughts.
• Children as Pawns: Michael gives his infant nephew Charlie a common cold, knowing that it will give Amenadiel, an angel that has lived for billions of years, fears about his son's mortality and the fact he will eventually outlive him.
• Chocolate Baby: The Celestials don't seem to abide by human racial terms. We don't how how the Mother's real form looks like (assuming she even has a one), but the Father is a black man, while the children are a motley of whites (Lucifer, Uriel, and Michael), blacks (Amenadiel), and Asians (Azrael and Remiel). They don't regard this as anything strange at all, even if the humans do; a Running Gag in the show is how humans are constantly surprised whenever Lucifer and Amenadiel claim themselves as brothers.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Amenadiel comes to believe that Lucifer's and his own transformations are coming from themselves and their own self-images rather than anything to do with their Father. He's right. Once he regains his sense of self-worth he recovers his angelic wings and powers. Lucifer comes to realize that his own state of angel or devilhood comes from how he's feeling about himself at the time.
• Cliffhanger:
  • The first season ends with Lucifer discovering that his mother has escaped from Hell.
  • The second season ends with Lucifer being knocked out by an unknown assailant, before waking up some time later in the middle of a desert... and his wings have grown back.
  • The third season ends with Chloe finally seeing Lucifer's devil face, but we don't see how she comes to terms with it. Before Netflix picked up the series, this was the ending of the series, since Fox did not renew it after Season 3.
  • The fifth midseason finale ends with Lucifer's and Amenadiel's epic fight with Michael and Maze being interrupted by God.
  • Season 5 Finale: Lucifer has become God and is holding the Flaming Sword while all the Children of Heaven are at his command.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Future football star Ty's ex-girlfriend. She violated her restraining order by stalking him at his party. Lucifer implies wrongly that she might also be Yandere.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All of the angels that have appeared in the show have different-colored (and sometimes shaped) wings:
  • Lucifer's are, surprisingly, gleaming-white and pure. Of course, this explains why he chose to cut them off. In season 4 they become darker and more bat-like as his morals decay and he descends into self-hatred.
  • Amenadiel's are metallic black and angular, indicating his unquestioning obedience to God. They become gray and softer near the end of season 3.
  • Uriel's are similar to Lucifer's but dirty-gray, indicating his calculating and unscrupulous nature.
  • Azrael's wings are black with hints of grey on them, as you would expect for the Angel of Death.
  • Remiel's have patterning similar to a bird of prey, such as a falcon. Fitting for a celestial huntress.
  • Michael, being Lucifer's twin, has the same pure wings as him, except it's black instead of white.
• Comically Missing the Point: Lucifer's sessions with Linda always start with this, though he usually gets her point by the end.
  • Linda tries to tell Lucifer that he needs to stop putting Chloe on a pedestal and he should treat her like a normal person instead. Lucifer concludes from this that his issues with Chloe will resolve themselves if he has sex with her.
  • Later in the same episode, Lucifer is trying to reconcile his issues with the list of attributes the chauvinist speaker is trying to sell and doesn't even think about selling out Chloe's status as a cop as he does so.
  • In Season 2, Linda has a similar conversation with Charlotte about telling Lucifer the truth about Chloe, with the same results: Charlotte completely misses what Linda was telling her and turns it into confirmation bias.
    Linda: (after Charlotte leaves) Well, now I see where he gets it from.
  • Really this is a Running Gag in general with any sessions with Linda. Nearly everyone she speaks to has a moment like this, not limited to Maze, the real Charlotte, Amenadiel, Chloe and even GOD himself. This isn't lost on Linda when talking to Chloe.
    Linda: You two are made for each other!
• Corrupt Cop: Lucifer outright calls the LAPD a "corrupt little organization", though whether he's right remains to be seen. Certainly the fact that Lucifer becomes a civilian consultant by bribing Chloe's boss with becoming Chief of Police, and that Dan in season two hides that Chloe was first on scene at the murder of her father's presumed killer doesn't help. Also, the first officer Lucifer encounters in the show takes a cash bribe instead of issuing him a speeding ticket. And then there's the matter of Dan and Malcolm.
  • Marcus Pierce is not only revealed to be Cain, the world's first murderer, but also the Sinnerman, a big time crime boss. He's finally exposed (at least in terms of the latter identity) in the season 3 finale.
  • Officer Reiben points a gun at Amenadiel's head for no reason in season 4. He shows up a couple of seasons later, and it turns out he has a history of similar incidents. He's not only never faced any consequences, but has been promoted to detective.
• Cowboy Cop: While not one to break fingers, Chloe usually follows her gut and refuses to let something go unless she has all of the answers, and will even "look the other way" should Lucifer do something amoral in certain situations.
• Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: Linda tries to get Lucifer abandon his "metaphors" in the episode "Monster" and pleads for his full honesty. Seeing that simply explaining would not work, he decides to show her his true, demonic face. She doesn't take it well.
• Crying After Sex: In episode 3 "The Would-Be Prince of Darkness", a man named Justin went around claiming to be Lucifer Morningstar to get free drinks and pick up chicks. He ends up making Lucifer look bad in the process, one particular grievance being that he ends sex quickly and cries afterwards.
• Cry into Chest: After Lucifer and Chloe finally catch the man responsible for murdering Chloe's father sixteen years before, Chloe cries into her partner's chest. Lucifer is surprised at first before returning the hug.
• Cult: In "Once Upon a Time", Maze never had any character development to moderate her personality in the alternate timeline, and leads a sinister all-female cult. The ending has her presiding over the induction of a new member, by having a super-heated metal mask grafted to the woman's face.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Maze versus the gang in "Sweet Kicks". Basically Maze vs. anyone who isn't a celestial/immortal.
  • "Take Me Back To Hell" has some drug dealers try and take down Amenadiel and Lucifer. It isn't really a fight, since at this point they don't even try to hide the fact that they're bulletproof.
• Cut Short: The series almost went through this in the third season, whose finale ends with a huge cliffhanger to raise anticipation for the fourth season. Less than a week before it aired, word got out that Fox had cancelled the series. Fortunately, a Netflix pickup a month later uncancelled it for two more seasons. The almost-series finale isn't so bad, since it resolves some major plot threads (Chloe finally learns that Lucifer is the Devil, Lucifer regains his devil face, Charlotte's murderer is put to justice, and Maze and Linda reconcile), but it doesn't tackle Chloe's and Lucifer's romantic arc.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Maze takes the spotlight in season 3 episode "Mr. and Mrs. Mazikeen Smith".
  • "Boo Normal" focuses on Ella and her friendship with the ghost Ray-Ray. Or rather, Azrael, the angel of death.
  • "Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid" appropriately focuses on Dan, with all other characters, including Lucifer, taking a backseat.
• De-aged in Death: The final episode shows Chloe dying as an old woman. She then appears in hell, the same age she was the last time Lucifer saw her.
• Deadly Nosebleed: Season 2 introduces Dr. Jacob Carlisle and his "designer poisons" - a sign that a victim has been poisoned is a nasty nosebleed (later followed by bleeding from the eyes). Chloe herself ends up being poisoned and suffering one of these as a result in the closing minutes of "Love Handles". This is especially serious, since Dr. Carlisle is the only person who knows how to make an antidote fast enough to save her life... and he's already dead.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • Averted. Lucifer's remit is simply to punish those who sin. While he can cause people to draw out their innermost desire, he has no interest in making deals in exchange for people's souls. The most he can do is leverage his Hollywood connections if he feels someone deserves a shot at fame and fortune. If the people he helps get in trouble, it's entirely their own fault. However, if he does a favor for you, he expects you to return that favor sometime in the future.
  • Lucifer explains to Chloe that sometimes he gets something immediately but often he just holds it out for later as a "Devilish IOU" in case it's needed.
    Chloe: Who would take a deal like that?
    Lucifer: They all do.
  • Amenadiel has an angelic one of these with Malcolm, though it's more of a "do what I say or else" deal. The "or else" part is Amenadiel deciding whether or not to reverse his decision to bring Malcolm Back from the Dead, which would send Malcolm back down to Hell.
• Demoted to Extra: Trixie, Dan and Chloe's 9 year old daughter, (although the writers vary on how old she is supposed to be) was a major character in the first 4 seasons, who along with Lucifer himself and Maze got a lot of the funniest lines. But in season 5 she only came out of her room twice, and in season 6 was "off at camp" and only appeared in 3 or 4 brief scenes.
• Devil Complex: Discussed Trope. Lucifer is completely honest with everyone he meets about who he is. People never believe him. They think he's either completely delusional, or engaging in an act to establish a Devil persona for himself — either as a PR exercise as part of his identity as a club owner or to handle his emotional issues and complicated family situation through the use of metaphors. However, he is absolutely adamant that the Devil is not the villain humanity portrays him as. He is a punisher of evil rather than evil itself and is incapable of creating sin within humans or forcing them to do anything against their will. All he can do is draw out desires humans already possess and encourage them to embrace those desires. When he does encounter people who worship the Devil, engage in murder in his name or push the belief that the Devil is the source of all evil, Lucifer tends to become extremely upset and angry about it. This comes to a head in Season 4; after learning the truth at the end of Season 3, Chloe runs afoul of a priest who also knows the truth and inundates her with the history of the Devil as recorded by the Church. When she confronts Lucifer with everything she's learned, Lucifer is both horrified and broken-hearted; it takes Chloe the entire season to reconcile the differences between the Church's representation of the Devil and her own personal understanding of the man she knows.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Or really, stops to Kick the Dog one too many times in Season 5. Michael had all but won by the end of Season 5 as he had the majority of Angel support in order to become God. While plenty didn't like him, Lucifer leading a rebellion really put him on a bad foot with everyone. If he just leaves it at that he becomes the Almighty Himself. But he's so obsessed with making Lucifer suffer that he gets Dan killed specifically so Chloe would feel enough guilt that would get her put in Hell and tries to force Lucifer to run it again, not because it needs a warden but specifically to twist the knife. Doing this just ends up pissing off both Lucifer and Chloe and guaranteed they would never surrender and ultimately leads to his defeat.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?:
  • Many people Lucifer compels into revealing their desire have this reaction.
  • In the pilot, actor Grey Cooer realizes that he confessed having an affair with Delilah in front of his wife.
  • In "Stewardess Interuptus", Dan says this after confessing to Lucifer that he still has feelings for Chloe.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In Candy Morningstar, Lucifer plays a basic rendition of the melody to the show's theme song ("Being Evil Has A Price" by Heavy Young Heathens) - or, at least, the short section that accompanies the title card after each episode's intro - on a suspect's bass guitar.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Well, something of a toss-up between "yourself" and "someone else". When Linda loses her psychiatrist licence late in Season 2, Lucifer and Maze pay a visit to the official in charge to get him to drop the matter, but everything Lucifer submits on her behalf only ends up making things worse.
• Disaster Dominoes: Uriel is able to invoke this, thanks to his ability to recognize patterns and essentially predict the future.
• Dismantled MacGuffin: Late in season 2, it is revealed that Azrael's blade is one piece of the Flaming Sword that God shattered into three pieces. The other two are the medallion of life and Amenadiel's pendant.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Lucifer is a big believer in karmic justice but he has firm standards on which punishment a particular crime deserves and gets quite upset when people go beyond what he considers to be reasonable. If you commit murder for petty and selfish reasons then Lucifer will gladly give you a Fate Worse than Death. However, if the transgressor merely slept with a woman and did not call her afterwards, then trying to kill the guy is going too far. Lucifer has no problem with giving the guy multiple nasty STDs but murdering the guy goes way beyond karmic justice.
  • On the other hand, when talking with Dr. Linda about what he plans to do when he finds the man impersonating him, he's very graphic about the pain he means to inflict. Linda says Lucifer might be some displacement for such a "minor inconvenience."
    Lucifer: I'll show you displacement when I displace his bollocks and stamp on them one at a time!!!
  • Any human wielding Azrael's Blade is compelled to kill for even the most minor of slights - someone ends up killed over a parking space, and Dan attempts to kill Lucifer for stealing his pudding. Subverted with the Blade's final wielder, however - she ends up killing the man who raped her years before.
• Distracted by the Sexy:
  • Except for Chloe, women who make eye contact with Lucifer have a very difficult time keeping their composure.
  • "Detective Amenadiel" reveals that Amenadiel has a downgraded version of Lucifer's charm. People who have genuine faith in God will naturally be attracted to him, either emotionally or sexually.
• Divine Date:
  • In season 2, Lucifer and Chloe briefly hook up before Lucifer discovers the events surrounding her conception and quickly breaks things off with her. The pair are hinted to still love each other, though Chloe doesn't actually know she's in love with the Devil himself at least until the season 3 finale. The two are not on good terms for most of season 4, thanks to Chloe getting freaked out by Lucifer's true face and nearly betraying him by luring him into a trap but by the end of the season have affirmed their love for each other. By season 5, they are a couple.
  • In season 2, Dan hooks up with Lucifer's mother, who possesses the body of Charlotte Richards, but it ends when she leaves for a different universe in the season finale. In season 3, Dan continues things with the real Charlotte, only for her to die in the season's penultimate episode.
  • Season 3 sees Amenadiel and Linda hooking up, but this causes Maze, who formerly dated Amenadiel, to become jealous, so Linda breaks up with him. The two rekindle their relationship in season 4, upon finding out that Linda is pregnant with his child.
• Divine–Infernal Family: Like in the original comic God and Lucifer have a strained father-son relationship. Unlike in the comics Lucifer also has a mother.
• Doing In the Wizard: Amenadiel tries to convince Chloe that Lucifer can survive getting shot and yet be up and about a few days later with no injuries due to a Kevlar vest and blood packs. While she doesn't really believe Lucifer is really the Devil, she obviously doesn't buy Amenadiel's mundane explanation either.
• Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal:
  • Lucifer's mom casually mentions having sex with her vessel's clueless husband and it's played as a joke.
  • Lucifer has the power to bring out people's "innermost desires", which includes making anyone who finds him remotely attractive be willing to have sex with him. While it's vague how much control he has over this, he is still fully aware of his effect on people and the person's ability to consent is extremely dubious, as the effects are uncomfortably similar to losing one's inhibitions due to drugs or alcohol. Notably, when Chloe is suddenly able to use this ability on him after the first time they sleep together in Season 5, he suddenly doesn't seem to enjoy it so much...
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: The first time Maze gets to torture someone on earth she gets so excited about all the possibilities that she has sex with him instead while he is tied to a bed. This is played for laughs.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Amendiel takes up excessive drinking in Season 2 after he falls from Heaven, and Lucifer tries to drink himself into a stupor after killing Uriel. Given that they're both divine beings with superior metabolisms to humans, they can't get drunk, but they certainly try.
• Duct Tape for Everything: Problem: Lucifer's mom got stabbed and is bleeding light strong enough to burn a human to a crisp instantly. Solution: Patch up the stab wound with duct tape.
• Duet Bonding: In "A Priest Walks Into A Bar", Lucifer does everything he can to mock and question Father Frank's faith, moral fiber and motivations, but after Frank reveals he used to play for a rock band, the two end up doing an impressive piano duet. After Father Frank is killed, Lucifer is alone playing "Knocking On Heaven's Door" (which he had earlier derided Frank for playing) when Chloe turns up just to comfort him. Despite her minimal piano skills he coaxes her into joining him in a rendition of "Heart and Soul", with the two clearly enjoying the moment.
• Dynamic Entry: When returning to the scene of Pierce's ambush for a final confrontation, Lucifer bursts in through a wall, smashing glass, masonry, and the Sinnerman's goons as he goes.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In the first episode, Lucifer implies that Hell has been inactive since he left when he berates Chloe for shooting at Delilah's murderer before he got the chance to punish him. This is not the case later in the season when Malcolm experiences Hell and in season 2 it's revealed that the damned are locked in cells where they relive their guiltiest moments in an infinite loop and those cells work just fine in Lucifer's absence. This could be explained away as Lucifer simply wanting to oversee the murderer's punishment himself, and being unable to if he's not in Hell.
  • Lucifer's loss of demonic power around Chloe is played straight throughout the series except in the pilot when the killer of the week shoots Lucifer several times in her presence to no effect. However, it's suggested in season 3 by Cain that it's Chloe's feelings that make Lucifer vulnerable and not Chloe herself, which Cain tried to use to get rid of his mark. Eventually, it's revealed that Lucifer's own subconscious decides whether or not he's vulnerable.
  • In the pilot, he seems to have, as part of his desire mojo, the effect of making women incredibly horny for him beyond what would be normal if he were a human with the same characteristics; see Linda's reaction to him. This effect quickly disappears. However, in season 5 something similar happens with Amenadiel and nuns which leads him to conclude that he was reflecting their faith in God, and that Lucifer is irresistible since others see their desires reflected back by him. His ability to draw out desires is also portrayed as people just wanting to tell him their secrets, but after the pilot Lucifer needs to maintain eye contact with someone for it to work. Also, it starts as them telling him anything vaguely desire-related, like that they've been cheating on their spouse, but then it's narrowed to them confessing the one thing they desire most.
  • Lucifer also scares a school bully in the pilot by switching his eyes from normal to red with horizontal pupils like a goat. Every time his eyes change in later episodes, his irises start glowing red and that's it.
  • Lucifer’s accent is different in the pilot episode, he speaks with a polite English accent but quite mumbled. For the rest of the series he speaks with a much clearer RP accent.
  • There's a significant change of sets for the precinct between season 1 and 2.
  • The first season is the only one to have an Opening Narration,^note "In the beginning...The angel Lucifer was cast out of Heaven and condemned to rule Hell for all eternity. Until he decided to take a vacation.", with later seasons doing away with it in favor of jumping straight to The Teaser. As a nod to this quirk, the same narration is featured in "City of Angels?" from season 3, an Origins Episode set five years before the start of the series.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Amenadiel suggests this once to Maze as a way for them to both get Lucifer to go back to Hell.
  • Amenadiel and Lucifer team up in "Wingman" in order to retrieve the latter's stolen wings.
  • They team up again in the season finale in order to stop Malcolm's killing spree and return him to Hell.
• Enhance Button: In Season Two episode "Sin-Eater" Lucifer and Chloe are able to see the killer of the week is holding someone hostage by zooming in and enhancing what is essentially an expy of a Facebook video. Averted also in that when Chloe asks the tech to zoom in on the video, the resulting image is heavily grained.
• Epiphanic Prison: Hell appears to be this to some degree, mixed with "Groundhog Day" Loop. People relive their worst moments, repeating them over and over ad infinitum. According to Lucifer, they can leave any time they want to, but their guilt compels them to continue the loop forever.
  Lucifer: The doors aren't locked. You could leave anytime you want. Says something that no-one ever does, doesn't it?
• Epiphany Therapy: Surprisingly averted. Lucifer has been in therapy and frequently comes to startling realizations about himself and his relationships to others. His pattern is to leap out of the office (before the session is even over) thinking he's cured, only to later come back and actually work through the problems at hand with Dr. Linda.
  • Special mention goes to season 4 when Lucifer comes to the realization that he hates himself. Thinking that recognizing the problem is the final step, instead of just the first, his self loathing starts to manifest physically, and he cannot hide his demonic face, and body, until he deals with the problem.
• Erotic Dream: Chloe has one about Lucifer at the start of "Love Handles".
• Establishing Character Moment: The pilot opens with Lucifer getting pulled over for speeding, shamelessly bribing a cop, and compelling him into admitting he enjoys abusing his power to drive fast even when there isn't an emergency.
• Everyone Can See It: By Season 2, practically everyone can see that Lucifer has deep feelings for Chloe - except for Lucifer and Chloe themselves. By the end of "Homewrecker", Lucifer finally realizes that he's in love and freaks out.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Lucifer is quite disgusted by some of the evil things humans are capable of.
  • When Lucifer comes upon a charlatan doomsayer on the street, he puts the fear of God into him for being a fake by showing what the Devil really looks like.
    Lucifer: If there's one thing the Devil can't stand, it's a fake.
• Evil Feels Good: It turns out that humans who manage to escape Hell return with their very damnation becoming a true curse that they actively embrace. See Came Back Wrong above.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Chloe and Lucifer's faces when they saw the news report about how Delilah's album sales have spiked in the wake of her death in the pilot episode.
• Expository Hairstyle Change:
  • Lucifer keeps his hair well-groomed most of the time. When it becomes messy, either he has just waken up from bed, or he is too upset to bother grooming it. In the latter case, it usually has something to do with Chloe (see "Vegas With Some Radish", when he is sulking out in Las Vegas after finding out that Chloe was put on his path by God and "All About Eve", when he broods out after learning that Chloe was working with Father Kinley to force him to Hell), though there are a couple other moments that don't involve her (like in "Monster", where he is mourning Uriel's death).
  • The flashback episode "City of Angels?", which takes place five years before the start of the series, has a few of this. Instead of the constantly-changing, fashionable hairdo that she is known for, Maze has long, straight black hair, showing that she has just recently arrived on Earth and has yet to learn human culture. Meanwhile, Charlotte sports a long bob instead of the shoulder blades-length hair she's seen with in all other episodes, showing that this takes place when she was still a crookish attorney.
• The Ex's New Jerkass:
  • Dan Espinoza experiences this trope when it comes to his ex-wife Chloe Decker. Dan and Chloe remain friends after they divorce, they seem to get along better than when they were married. They still work together and jointly raise their daughter, Trixie. However, Dan becomes repeatedly exasperated by the shamelessly boorish and snide Lucifer as Chloe's new partner and assumed lover, and constant bickering ensues. Although Dan partly blames him for the divorce, he eventually becomes Vitriolic Best Buds with Lucifer when he becomes Chloe's current love interest.
  • A less amicable example includes when Dan finds out Chloe has started dating Lt. Marcus Pierce, who's known for being an abrasive ass that nearly no one likes including Dan. It gets worse when it's revealed Pierce is actually a Serial Killer and the original Cain.
• Eyes Never Lie:
  • That Jimmy Barnes avoids Lucifer's gaze while being initially questioned about Delilah would suggest that this trope is in effect when the latter is trying to get inside someone's head. This is further reinforced by every other time he tries to get information from a person, i.e. the traffic cop, the unnamed bride, the big-shot actor, etc., he locks eyes with them, and they either hesitate for a second or drop into a monotone.
  • Confirmed in the second episode. Everyone who locks eyes with Lucifer after he says something to the effect of ''What is it you most desire?'' gives up their greatest desire, and the one person who doesn't averts his gaze.
• Facial Horror: At the end of "Sympathy for the Goddess", Chet has his entire face burned to a smouldering crisp by the divine light within Charlotte's body.
• Failed a Spot Check: Chloe is so pissed at Lucifer for blundering into a hostage situation that she fails to realize that the hostage taker she shot is not yet dead. This screw-up gets her shot.
• Fascinated By Humanity: Lucifer outright states it.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  • Subverted. Since there's no one in Hell to punish sinners, very nearly everything is a fate worse than death.
    Lucifer: No no no, you just let him off too easy! He needs to suffer! He needs to FEEL THE PAIN, not escape it!
    Chloe: Don't worry. I'm sure where he's going, the pain's coming.
    Lucifer: No, actually, it's not, and you know why? Because I'm HERE!
  • From the look on Malcolm's face when Amenadiel threatens him with a quick return to Hell where he was found, it looks like Hell is still a far worse place to go when you die, even if Lucifer has abdicated the Brimstone Throne.
  • Judging by the cell of Dr. Carlisle and then Lucifer himself, hell's residents have to live through constant repetition of their guiltiest moment, be it saving your work or stabbing your brother. Even "Charlotte" gets sucked into the guilt.
• Female Flatfoot and Snarky Guy: Or as Lucifer puts it, "Good Cop / Handsome Devil Cop".
• Filler:
  • Four standalone episodes were commissioned as an extension to Season 2 when Lucifer wasn't guaranteed to get a next season: "Mr. & Mrs. Mazikeen Smith", "City of Angels?", "Vegas with Some Radish", and "Off the Record". When Lucifer was renewed, these episodes were integrated into season 3.
  • "Boo Normal" and "Once Upon a Time" were originally commissioned for the show's potential season 4 before the show got canceled by Fox after season 3. They were subsequently shown in a double-hour timeslot two weeks after the season finale.
• Fingertip Drug Analysis: Lucifer squicks out Chloe by finger-tasting a pool of spilled blood, immediately identifying it as not human (turns out the victim's pet had been killed instead).
• Flaming Sword: It's eventually revealed that Azrael's Blade is actually the flaming sword that God claimed to have destroyed during Lucifer's rebellion so Lucifer wouldn't be able to use it against Him. Parts of it were removed that took away the flaming ability but still left it a major Artifact of Doom. Lucifer eventually restores the blade to its full abilities in the second season finale.
• Flashback: Word of Saint Paul from Tom Ellis is that the Lucifer who appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths is the amoral nihilist from before any of his Character Development on the show. That makes the show a "past Earth" (designated Earth-666) intersecting with the Crisis circa 2015 in its own timeline.
• Flexibility Equals Sex Ability: After Lucifer propositions Linda and tries to shoo Chloe out of the room, Linda adds that she does hot yoga and is "freakishly flexible", which piques Lucifer's interest.
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Discussed in "Deceptive Little Parasite" when Lucifer tells Linda about his plan to cut the Gates of Heaven with the Flaming Sword.
  Linda: Do you mean actual gates? Like big and pearly? Are we talking clouds? Harps? Old dudes in white robes?
  Lucifer: And my dad is Morgan Freeman? Focus, Doctor!
• Foregone Conclusion: Of course, by revealing this Ellis has revealed that he does not, in fact, believe that Lucifer's Earth will be permanently destroyed in Crisis on Infinite Earths, since unlike the other shows involved his "post-Crisis" storyline has already aired. But after all we kind of knew that.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In "Sweet Kicks", Chloe tells Lucifer about a cop named Malcolm Graham, who she suspected of being corrupt. He becomes a major player in the rest of Season One.
  • In "A Good Day to Die", Trixie meets Amenadiel for the first time and compliments the necklace he's always wearing. A few episodes later, his necklace is revealed to be the final piece of the Flaming Sword.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Despite her death kickstarting the show, poor Delilah never gets a single mention by Lucifer or her therapist Linda past the pilot barring the alternate universe episode "Once Upon a Time".
• Forgotten First Meeting:
  • In "City of Angels?", it is revealed that Chloe met Amenadiel back when she was an officer, five years before the start of the series. Both never recall this, since the meeting only lasted less than five minutes and Amenadiel was nearly unrecognizable (he wore sunglasses and a tacky holiday outfit). In fact, Chloe and Lucifer nearly met in the same episode as well when they visited the same LA building where Lucifer would later set up Lux, though they didn't quite make it. Lucifer, however, briefly glimpsed Chloe.
  • Played for Laughs in the pilot. When Lucifer and Chloe first meet, he tells her that she seems familiar and asks if she was one of his past flings. Turns out it is because he watched Hot Tub High School.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: In "The Monster", when Trixie asks Maze to put a costume, she just reveals her Nightmare Face.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With:
  • Lucifer appears to be a handsome white male typically dressed in black suits, but when he's particularly pissed at someone, he reveals a scarier face, skinned with only muscle and some bone showing and burning eyes.
  • When Dr. Martin insists that he show his true form (up to this point she thought he was speaking metaphorically), he shows his true face and she goes into a catatonic state. (She eventually gets better, but believes him [and Maze] from then on.)
• For Want Of A Nail: "Once Upon a Time" explores an alternate timeline where Chloe's father, John Decker, wasn't murdered during his fateful operation. As a result, Chloe had no motivation to become a police officer and continued her path as an actress, graduating from B movies to more prestigious action flicks, where she played a criminal-turned-officer. The films inspired Ella to change her career path from forensics to criminal carjacker and also Linda to enter showbiz by hosting a Dr. Phil-esque talk show. Because Chloe did not join the LAPD, she never met Dan, so they never married and had Trixie, and Dan continues being a corrupt cop because he no longer has any moral anchor. Not joining the LAPD also meant that Chloe never met Lucifer, negating most of the series' events from happening, resulting in Charlotte still being alive and sticking to her shady lawyer profession, Amenadiel still serving as God's most loyal angel, and Maze never undergoing Character Development to become more compassionate.
• Fourth-Date Marriage:
  • After leaving Los Angeles for 2 weeks in season 2, Lucifer comes back with his new wife. Although they are legally married, it turns out that she's actually a hired actress, and once she serves her purpose, the two divorce amicably.
  • Downplayed between Chloe and Marcus. While they have known each other for months, they only get into a relationship for two episodes before Marcus proposes to her and she accepts without hesitation. Though it's deconstructed and then averted in the following episode: those against the relationship can't understand why Chloe said yes, and Chloe herself begins to wonder why after having doubts, and by the episode's end she breaks off the engagement. It's implied in the episodes following that Chloe never actually loved Pierce but was forcing herself to be with him in an attempt to get over her feelings for Lucifer, seeing Pierce as the safer option. It's also shown in the season's final episode just how dangerous this trope can be, when Chloe learns that Pierce is the Sinnerman.
    Chloe: I almost married him! I almost married him!
• Frame-Up:
  • Towards the end of the first season, Malcolm murders the street preacher and places the corpse by Lucifer's bar to make it look like Lucifer killed him. Prior to that, he'd also placed one of the preacher's cufflinks at the scene of a murder Malcolm committed to divert suspicion.
  • "My Little Monkey" reveals that the man convicted of murdering Chloe's father was entirely innocent, and was paid to make a false confession so his daughter would be well off. The real culprit turns out to be the prison warden.
  • Season 3 has plenty: "Mr. & Mrs. Mazikeen Smith" had Maze realize that her bounty was being framed for murder by the Lieutenant who sent her after him in the first place. Maze herself then gets framed for the death of one of her bounties by the mother of a previous bounty who died in prison, and she blamed Maze instead of accepting that her son deserved to be there. Then in the season's final arc, Maze and Pierce make a plan to kill Pierce when he gets rid of his mark and frame Lucifer in order to persuade him to return to Hell and take Maze with him. When Pierce falls in love with Chloe, he tries to call off the plan entirely, then changes it by insisting that they find someone else to kill. After Chloe breaks up with him, Pierce settles on Amenadiel with the reasoning that doing so will get his mark back, but Maze backs out and Pierce attempts to kill Amenadiel himself - only to accidentally shoot Charlotte, instead. In an effort to cover his tracks, he tries to pin the murder on one of the criminals Charlotte was prosecuting, but by that point Lucifer and Chloe had already figured out that Pierce was responsible.
• Freudian Excuse: It's implied that Lucifer's jerkass ways are a cover for his history of crippling, existential loneliness over the thousands of years of his existence, the scorn he receives from his angel kin, silence and abandonment from his omnipotent father and humanity's tendency to blame and demonize him for their own shortcomings.
• Friendlessness Insult: When Mazikeen trolls Amenadial by joining him uninvited at dinner, he accuses her of being lonely, as Lucifer is currently not speaking to her. When she denies this, he points out that she has nothing better to do than troll him. She turns it around by pointing out that he's eating dinner in a restaurant by himself. Coitus ensues.
• "Friends" Rent Control: Subverted with Chloe's house. It is way beyond the price range of a cop in LA but it actually belongs to her mother who lets her live there rent free. In season 2, Chloe has to find a new place to live and has trouble finding something similar that she can afford. Maze offers to become her and Trixie's roommate and split the rent. Also the apartment had been the scene of a murder from a previous episode.
• Front 13, Back 9: Thirteen episodes of season 2 were ordered upfront, with nine being added later (four of them ended up being moved to season 3 after it was greenlit later, though they still wouldn't have caused continuity issues were they remained in season 2). It really shows in the 13th episode, "A Good Day to Die", which has a season finale moment with Lucifer and his friends racing against the clock to save Chloe, his mother having a redemption moment, and a cliffhanger that has him leave for Las Vegas to avoid Chloe for the moment. The next episode, "Candy Morningstar", is set after an in-story Time Skip and feels like a new season premiere instead of a continuation.
• Funny Background Event: In the final montage of the series finale Charlie, Linda and Amenadiel are celebrating Charlie's second birthday when he pops a pair of wings. Linda is taken aback but Amenadiel gives a triumphant fist-pump.

Tropes G to L

• Gangland Drive-By: Happens to a priest who was involved in a murder/drug case. The shooter missed him however as he was was only trying to scare him, being the true drug dealer and a former protege of the priest.
• Genre Shift: The comic presents itself as an epic existential high-fantasy with gods and angels and the creation of multiple universes. The show however is a cop-drama with supernatural bells and whistles attached to it. Quite the shift.
• God: Is the father of Lucifer, Amenadiel, and all other angels, whom he conceived with the Goddess. He is also considered the sole father of Adam and therefore ancestor to all humans. Despite being absent for most of the series, his actions influence a big part of the story, albeit how much is up for debate.
  • In "Take Me Back to Hell", he grants Lucifer's wish to save Chloe in exchange for giving him a mission to capture his mother.
  • In "Lady Parts", because Lucifer renegades on his deal to capture the Goddess, God apparently involves Chloe in a car accident. The next episode reveals that it was actually Uriel who did it.
  • "Quid Pro Ho" reveals that, years ago, he sent Amenadiel to bless Penelope Decker to have a child: Chloe. In other words, Chloe is a miracle child, put in Lucifer's path by God.
  • God communicates to Amenadiel that he could leave Hell "Detective Amenadiel", since it no longer needs a warden. Later, it's revealed that this was actually because Lucifer helped a soul (Lee Garner/Mr. Said Out Bitch) overcome his guilt and ascend to Heaven. This triggers a change in celestial role of Hell and it didn't require a warden anymore, but instead a healer.
  • Finally appears in the flesh in "Spoiler Alert". He does look like Morgan Freeman, after all.
• Going Commando: Implied in "Saint Lucifer" when Lucifer gives his shirt and trousers to a homeless man and ends up naked. Demonstrated for real in "Everything's Okay".
• Go Mad from the Revelation:
  • This happens to nearly everyone who sees Lucifer's real face, but special mention has to go to Jimmy Barnes in the pilot between the hostage situation and Chloe waking up in hospital. Apparently, it was bad enough that just the mention of Lucifer's name makes him go suicidal, screaming "HE'S THE DEVIL! HE'S THE DEVIL!" (which, of course, is completely true). Then again, Lucifer did subject him to some serious Mind Rape.
    Jimmy: Please, don't hurt me.
    Lucifer: [in full devil-face] Oh, Jimmy... you're gonna wish that's all I did to you.
  • Dr. Linda's ex husband Reese sees Lucifer's devil face accidentally and it drives him into a paranoid state. We next see him working on a murder board full of clues, trying desperately to prove to his (ex) wife and the world that the devil is real. It doesn't help that everyone he interviews seems to love being around Lucifer (even Dan begrudgingly comes around).
  • Dr. Linda herself goes catatonic when Lucifer shows her his real face. She got over the catatonia, though she's still quite rattled by it.
• Gonna Need More X: When Chloe asks for a list of Lucifer's last two months' of sexual conquests as part of an investigation.
  Lucifer: Right, you'll need a much bigger notepad. Gilligan Cut to the police precinct, crammed to the rafters with Lucifer's exes
• Good Is Boring: Lucifer thinks this about Chloe's insistence on doing things by the book:
  Lucifer: Boring, boring, boring, boring.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Amenadiel is this to a T. He's committed to doing whatever it takes to make Lucifer return to Hell, whether that's giving Dr. Linda advice on how to get past his smarmy defense mechanisms, or giving clues on the whereabouts of certain angelic artifacts to thieves and businessmen, and maybe threatening dirty cops with one-way tickets back to Hell where he found them if they don't do what he wants.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings:
  • The angels all have birdlike wings, although with different colors. Lucifer, despite being what he is, has the most traditional angelic wings of them all: white bird wings. That is, until he decides to burn them off in "Wingman", though he regains them by the end of Season 2.
  • This becomes a plot point in Season 4. Even after he was banished from Heaven and got his devil form, Lucifer still had the angelic birdlike wings. Which is why it becomes extremely distressing when one day he checks them to find that his wings are now batlike and very black and red, much like the usual depiction of the Devil. Once he realizes the root of the problem in "Save Lucifer", they revert back to normal.
• The Grim Reaper: Azrael, the Angel of Death, shows up in the bonus episode "Boo Normal". She's...not very grim.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Linda and Amenadiel's son, Charlie. That being said, despite his human half he is still considered an angel. He can go to and from Heaven as he pleases (though someone has take him there first), and qualifies as a possible replacement for Lucifer as the ruler of Hell.
• Happiness in Slavery: Eve and Maze have tied up and gagged a random guy in his office and then start making out with each other. When Lucifer and Chloe come in and free the guy, we get this gem:
  Man: Thank you! These two maniacs barged in here and tied me up!
  Lucifer: Yes, I can see you've had a most unpleasant time here.
  Man: Well... it wasn't all bad.
• Hate Plague: Any human who touches Azrael's Blade has the overwhelming urge to kill with it over even the most minor perceived slight. Lucifer's opinion of Dan goes up because he's able to show some resistance.
• #HashtagForLaughs: When Amenadiel confronts Malcolm for not executing his orders, the latter answers that he knows that the angel has no actual means of pressure on him and ends up mockingly saying out-loud "#TeamLucifer", which is also the title of the episode.
• Headbutt of Love: Lucifer and Chloe rest their foreheads together towards the end of "Love Handles" after the episode's incidents have (seemingly) wrapped up, and Lucifer realizes that their relationship is indeed real.
• Heartbreak and Ice Cream:
  • A Clingy Jealous Girl is suspected of killing her ex-boyfriend's one-night stand, but surveillance footage shows that she actually spent all night at an all-night frozen yogurt shop, eating bucket after bucket of froyo and crying.
  • After exchanging their hardships, Lucifer and Candy eat ice-cream while wrapped in snuggies.
• Heroic BSoD: When Lucifer shows Dr. Linda his real face she goes completely catatonic, unable to move or speak. This continues into the next episode where she's afraid to leave her office and visibly freaked out when Maze shows up. She somewhat recovers by the next episode, but even in later seasons, she still freaks out from time to time.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • A variation. After being shot by Malcolm and dying, and despite all his raging at being forced into a role he doesn't want, Lucifer tells "Dad" he'll do, go, and be whatever He wants if Chloe can be saved from Malcolm.
  • Another variant from the same episode, Dan confesses to his and Malcolm's crimes, ending his career and ruining his life, in order to exonerate Lucifer after Malcolm framed him.
  • Lucifer jumps in front of a thrown axe to keep it from hitting Chloe. It only pins his coat to a post, but he tells her, in no uncertain terms, that he would do it again without hesitation, even knowing he's vulnerable around her.
  • Season 5 Finale: Lucifer goes into Heaven to save Chloe after Michael kills her, knowing full well that he'll be incinerated the second he arrives. Luckily for him he still had Lilith's Immortality Ring on him though he notes the protection is only temporary, and thus he transfers it to Chloe to get her back to Earth while he gets incinerated. Also luckily for him, this sacrifice was enough to "win" the contest to become God.
• High-Tech Heaven: It's implied that Heaven has access to all of Earth's technological advances. During Season 4, Eve mentions that Heaven has TV and Adam spends most of his time watching ESPN. At another point, Lucifer mentions that his sister the angel Remiel was fond of hot tubs (considering he was banished a long time ago, that means Heaven already had those long before Earth).
• Hilarious Outtakes: The DVDs and Blu-rays for the show feature gag reels as bonus content.
• Hilarity Ensues: In one of the Season 3 bonus episodes, Chloe has to infiltrate a furry con as part of a murder investigation. Things do not go as planned. Aside from the inherent humor value of seeing Chloe wander around in a fursuit looking very uncomfortable, it's actually a pretty respectful and even-handed portrayal of furry cons and the subculture. With the exception of the woman who gets in a fistfight with Chloe because she thinks Chloe stole her OC, but the YouTube upload of that scene is littered with furries only half-jokingly admitting that it's completely accurate to actual drama within the community.
• Hollywood Atheist:
  • Discussed, apparently un-ironically. When Chloe and Lucifer are talking religion, Chloe states that she is not a Christian but that she doesn't consider herself an atheist because she believes in right and wrong.
  • Carmen, the head of the black market auction ring specializing in religious artifacts, makes it clear that the only faith he has is in money. Seeing Lucifer's wings, however, rocks him to his core and makes him believe.
• Hollywood Genetics: A really minor case, but due to the recast of Dan's actor between the pilot and the rest of the series, we have the blue-eyed Chloe and the now-blue-eyed Dan with a brown-eyed daughter.^note Taken from a genetics site: You need a working HERC2 and a working OCA2 to have brown eyes. Because the two genes depend on each other, it is possible for someone to actually be a carrier of a dominant trait like brown eyes. And if two blue eyed parents are carriers, then they can have a brown-eyed child.
• Hollywood Satanism: The focus of the episode "#TeamLucifer". Lucifer himself finds it a disgusting and insulting perversion of what he stands for. As mentioned below, however, they eventually turn out to be harmless.
• Horrible Hollywood: It's set in Hollywood. Lucifer is a club owner, and Chloe is a homicide detective. It goes without saying that many of her cases are about show business abuse and corruption leading to murder.
• Hot as Hell: Lucifer in his human appearance is very conventionally attractive, well-dressed, and charming, as many in-universe characters attest to. Though his actual "devil" appearance as revealed in full in Season 4 is mottled, bald, and strangely emaciated, and his "devil face" scares many a criminal.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Any scene involving Dr Linda (played by the 5'1" Rachael Harris) and either Lucifer or Amenadiel (Tom Ellis and DB Woodside both stand 6'3").
• Humanity Is Infectious:
  • Lucifer's more human, compassionate side starts to emerge the longer he spends helping Chloe solve murders, as well as the time he spends with her in general.
  • Mazikeen is also starting to develop more human feelings, prompted mainly by her friendship with Linda Martin, as well as Trixie and Chloe and even her relationship with Amenadiel. In fact, it's fair to say that her Character Development is proceeding faster than Lucifer's.
  • Amenadiel eventually grows to like so humanity so much that he refuses to become the new God in favor of his life on Earth.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Most of the people encountered on this show are vain, selfish, lying assholes. Lucifer says that most of what is attributed to him is actually just because of this. People are killed for the love of money or status, or try to kill others in the name of Pride or Revenge. There are those who try to atone for earlier misdeeds or because they inadvertently caused undue suffering, but the majority of people seen here are only out for themselves.
  Lucifer: Why do they blame me for all their little failings? As if I spend my days sitting on their shoulder, forcing them to commit acts they would otherwise find repulsive. "Oh, the Devil made me do it!" I have never made anyone do anything, ever.
• Hunk:
  • Dan and Amenadiel have very ripped bodies, though the former is not so obvious until he takes off his shirt. This contrasts them with Lucifer, who is fit but rather skinny.
  • Marcus Pierce / Cain from season 3, played by Superman himself, Tom Welling. Gets lampshaded in "Let Pinhead Sing!", where Ella tries to cheer him up by commenting on his "big, strong arms".
  • Lucifer himself is noticeably more muscular as of season 4, which is recognizable since he probably has more shirtless scenes in season 4 than all previous seasons combined. Further highlighted with its teaser trailer, which consists of nothing but a slow, lingering shot of a shirtless Lucifer emerging from a pool.^note Apparently, before the show was picked up by Netflix, Tom Ellis made a bet with a trainer that if the show was saved, he would bulk up.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Maze defends Chloe with this gem: "No one calls my skank a skank!"
• I Am a Monster: Lucifer says this during a session with Linda Martin, dropping the name of the episode, because he feels guilt about having to kill his brother.
  • In season three, Lucifer realizes that his devil face wasn't a punishment from his Father but rather a way of punishing himself. After his failed rebellion he felt like a monster, so gave himself the face of one. He lost his devil face because he didn't feel like a monster anymore...but then the face makes a return after he kills Cain, hinting that he's gone back to believing himself to be a monster once again.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode, aside from the Pilot, is named for a line of dialogue from that episode.
• Idiot Ball: The butler in the pilot. What kind of employee stonewalls one minute and then changes his mind as soon as drugs are mentioned? It's a wonder his employer is still alive if that's all it takes to get in to 2Vile's home.
  • Lucifer wants Chloe and Pierce to break up, so tries telling her that Pierce is Cain from the Bible, but she doesn't believe him. It doesn't cross his mind for a moment that he can show her his wings and prove that the divine is real in order to protect her. But it's hinted a few episodes before that he's afraid that his celestial nature (specifically his wings) could end up hurting her in some way, so it's somewhat understandable.
• If It's You, It's Okay:
  • Invoking this seems to be one of Lucifer and Maze's favorite activities. In episode 2x4, Chloe asks how Maze got into the police station:
    Maze:' Let's just say that Samantha at the front desk is no longer into men.
  • In Season 3, Maze goes undercover at a massage parlor to get info on one of her latest bounties from his girlfriend, a regular customer:
    Girlfriend: Are you supposed to be massaging my boobs?
    Maze: I can stop if you want me to.
    Girlfriend: I didn't say that.
  • Chloe uses a particularly butch policewoman to guard a prisoner in the hope she'll be impervious to Lucifer's charms. She's not.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: In "Homewrecker", Linda thinks this is the real reason Lucifer left Hell - and that he's found it with Chloe.
  Linda: I think you did come to Los Angeles looking for something. But I also think you've stopped... because maybe you've found it?
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Chloe is immune to Lucifer's abilities and charms, sexual or otherwise. Lucifer is fascinated by the implications, but Linda the therapist also notes that he's more than a little disturbed. Her immunity means that Lucifer has to rely on being himself to get her attention, which leads to a genuine friendship developing between them and Lucifer falling in love with her.
  • If Eve is to be believed, Adam preferred his first wife Lilith because of this reason.
• Immortality Bisexuality: Lucifer, Maze and Eve.
• Immortal Breaker: Stygian blades can harm demons and angels. Azrael's sword can also, theoretically, kill anything and cause Cessation of Existence for gods and angels.
• Immortal Procreation Clause: Angels live forever and can't reproduce, at least not with humans. This is presumably the reason why Lucifer hasn't produced an army of devilspawn by now. Turns out fallen angels can, though, much to Amenadiel's shock.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: A suspect protests about being accused of two murders but Lucifer points out they only mention one murder and reveals that the other victim is missing. This causes the killer to find her to finish the job.
• In Love with the Mark:
  • Maze starts sleeping with Amenadiel to glean more information out of him and then kill him when he's outlived his usefulness. However, when she has the opportunity to do so, she finds she can't go through with it. In the Season One finale, she saves his life after Malcolm fatally injures him.
  • Pierce manipulates Chloe into a relationship with him in an attempt to make her fall in love with him so her feelings can remove his mark, and he can finally die. But then he falls in love with her, realizes that he can't break her heart like that, so breaks up with her. It's this selflessness that finally removes his curse.
• In Name Only: The source material is about the Lightbringer on his personal quest for freedom from God, which takes him to different dimensions and universes and puts him in conflict with many other supernatural forces. The TV series is about Lucifer hanging around in L.A. solving crimes. The only things retained from the comic are a few character names and the personal enmity between Lucifer and Amenadiel.
• Innocent Awkward Question:
  • Lucifer's first interactions with Chloe's daughter, Trixie.
    Lucifer (after Trixie introduces herself to him): That's a hooker's name.
    Trixie: What's a hooker?
    Lucifer: Ask your mother.
  • In the very next scene:
    Trixie: (to Chloe) What's a hooker?
    [Chloe glares at Lucifer, who looks away innocently]
    Chloe: Daddy'll tell you.
    [Dan smiles sarcastically at Chloe]
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Lucifer sometimes jumps between bragging about himself to thinking that he's a monster who deserves to be punished.
• Informed Flaw: Lucifer often refers to Dan as a douche ("Detective Douche, Saint Douche"), but from episode 2 onward, Dan seems more and more decent and supporting. Given that the divorce is not over yet, and that Chloe is basically the Black Sheep of the LAPD, which puts Dan between the hammer and the anvil, his moments of abrasiveness are understandable. Until Dan is revealed to be, you know, a Corrupt Cop. At least he appears conflicted about it, as opposed to Malcolm, who just oozes Evil Feels Good.
• Insane Troll Logic: Dr. Jason Carlisle in "Love Handles", sick of getting flack for leaving a college student to die in a car accident decides to prove that he isn't a monster, just human... by forcing innocent people to make similar Sadistic Choices.
  • Lucifer himself veers toward this territory occasionally, when just being narcissistic isn't enough for him to completely misinterpret whatever Linda is trying to get him to realize.
• Insistent Terminology: Lucifer insists that his wife Candy isn't a stripper but an exotic dancer.
• Insult to Rocks: In "A Good Day to Die", an dealer who's also an artist complains that people only buy his paintings as part of the deal and then they throw them like trash. Lucifer retorts that's an insult to trash.
• Internal Reveal:
  • After "Quid Pro Ho" revealed that God deliberately had Chloe put in Lucifer's path by having Amenadiel bless Chloe's parents to have a child, "Love Handles" has Maze learning of this fact, and Lucifer himself finds out in the episode's closing minutes.
  • In the season three finale, Chloe finally sees Lucifer's devil face and realizes that everything he told her was true.
• Ironic Hell: From what little we see all of Hell is like this. Everyone who enters Hell is trapped by the own guilt and forced to relive their greatest shame forever, over and over and over. Lucifer suggests that a person who can forgive themselves might be set free.
• It's All About Me: Granted, he is the lord of Hell so it's understandable Lucifer puts his own feelings and issues before anyone.
  Chloe: Only you could turn a tragic death into an excuse to talk about you.
  Lucifer: Well, who else would I talk about?
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: When Lucifer is being throttled to death by a Brawn Hilda wielding a fire poker, his (almost) last words are "Don't... tell anyone... I died like this!" Afterwards Chloe makes it clear she's going to get payback for all the snarky comments Lucifer has been making about her.
  Lucifer: I'm never going to live this down, aren't I?
  Chloe: Not if I have anything to say about it.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Chloe outraged at her mother, Penelope, wanting to take Trixie to an audition.
    Chloe: You can't just walk in here like...
    Penelope: Like I own the place? The place you live in, rent-free?
  • In season 3, it's revealed that Maze has been causing Lucifer's paranoia by making him think that he's involuntarily committing acts of heroism in his sleep due to his wings, in order to get him away from Chloe so Pierce can move in on her. She said it was easy because his narcissism and Daddy Issues dangerously and obsessively override everything else, including his feelings for Chloe. It's possible that this realization is what allows Lucifer to finally pull himself together, and by the end of the season he's realized that his Father isn't controlling anything and he's been responsible for his own actions the entire time.
• Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: In the fourth season finale Linda wakes up from a nap to find her newborn baby is missing. At first it looks like Amenadiel, the father, took him away but when he returns to house they realise a woman pretending to be the night nurse kidnapped him.
• Jesus Taboo: Despite dealing with the Jewish and Christian religions and featuring angels and demons ^note  While Neil Gaiman, who created the version of Lucifer that the show is based on, is Jewish, and pretty much all of the supernatural characters can be found or at least referenced in the Hebrew Bible and corresponding texts, the very concept of Satan as a fallen angel and deliberately opposed to God is a solidly Christian one, as is the very existence of Hell the show has never mentioned the Christ, not even in the episode with a priest. The closest the show even comes to bringing up the subject is a single, quick version of one of Lucifer's "Not hardly!" jokes when someone takes the name in vain, a view of a crucifix in the background of a church, and Chloe investigating a murder in a convent in Season 5. Despite talking quite a bit about their other siblings (including various fairly obscure angel names), they never seem to mention that particular brother. (In one Season 5 episode, God mentions that he bought some coffee beans from a Bolivian farmer who was "aptly named Jesús", although he doesn't say why it was apt.)

• Just a Flesh Wound:
  • Averted when Chloe gets shot in the shoulder in the series premiere. It is implied that she would have died without Lucifer's intervention, she spends some time in the hospital and has to take medical leave from work. The bullet leaves a significant scar.
    • Remains averted for several episodes; Chloe wears a sling in episode 2, and in the beginning of episode 4 the wound is shown still clearly not fully healed.
  • Subverted when Lucifer is shot in the leg. The wound bleeds and is painful but it is easily treated and later that day he is able to walk with just a small limp. However, the fact that he was actually wounded at all is an extremely big deal since Lucifer is supposed to be immune to human weapons, and was in the series premiere. Something is happening to him that he doesn't understand.
• Karmic Death: Reese Getty hires a serial killer targeting "frauds" to kill Lucifer. Said serial killer poisons him after realizing that Lucifer isn't the fraud - he is. Doubly so in that Reese was Dead All Along, and the whole episode takes place in his cell in Hell, so he'll keep getting killed for eternity.
• Kids Play Matchmaker: Lucifer attempts to get his parents back together in season two's "God Johnson". They even reference The Parent Trap.
• Kinky Role-Playing: Detective Chloe Decker once sneaks into Lucifer's private quarters to investigate him and finds a strange woman tied up in his bed. The woman is annoyed at the "rescue", assuming Lucifer unilaterally invited Chloe to join their scene.
• "Kiss the Cook" Apron: In the season one episode "Pops", Lucifer dons a dark blue apron reading "Kiss the Cook".
• Ladykiller in Love: Lucifer, who has charmed and slept with possibly thousands of women, realizes in season 2's "Homewrecker" that he's in love with Chloe.
  • Also, as explained just below, the chauvinist motivational speaker that Lucifer and Chloe are investigating has genuinely fallen in love with a girl...who he actually slept with years before and forgot about. She's not happy.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The chauvinist motivational speaker gets his at the end of the fourth episode. He'd fallen in love with the victim of the week, not remembering he'd slept with her as research for his book before he'd struck it big, and she meant to take revenge by faking her kidnapping to collect the ransom after stringing him along for four months.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Lucifer's Crime-Solving Devil song uses a bass version of the stand-out riff from Being Evil Has A Price; the show's theme song.
  • In The Angel Of San Bernadino, when a drug-wired Lucifer - after binge-watching Bones in an effort to stay awake - accompanies Chloe to confront a suspect, he starts rambling about how said suspect also killed the "intern from the hospital". Not only was the Bones episode he mentioned a real one, the suspect is played by Scott Rinker, the same actor who played the villain of the episode, who suddenly mentions that it wasn't an easy role.
  • In season 5 when Lucifer ( actually Michael impersonating Lucifer) returns from Hell, he's whistling the show's theme music. He also does this again in "Resting Devil Face".
• Left the Background Music On:
  • In Deceptive Little Parasite, a scene transition is accompanied by a piece of rock music. The following scene has that same music playing very quietly in the background due to it playing on Mazikeen's MP3 player (the audio is bleeding from her earbuds). When Chloe then tries to unload her recent problems on Maze, she uses the distraction to slip the earbuds back in, hiding them under her hair. As the scene shifts viewpoints between them, the music cuts in and out, with the music drowning out Chloe's speech for Maze. Until Chloe catches on to what's happening and yanks the earbuds out.
    Chloe: Okay, I'm gonna adopt a dozen puppies and I'm gonna let 'em sleep in your bedroom.
    Mazikeen: [obliviously nods]
  • Done in "Spoiler Alert". Chloe's kidnapping by Michael is set to dramatic music, which stays when it cuts to Lucifer...before being revealed to be a song Lucifer plays while drawing an unnecessarily-complex plan to get back at Dan for shooting him.
• Lilith She is the First Woman, Adam's first wife, and the mother of demons, including Maze, who resembles her. Despite being married to Eve, Adam still pines after Lilith, causing them to remain distant despite being the ancestors of all of humanity. Lilith debuts in season 5, where it is revealed that she left Eden because of disagreements with God and formed a friendship with Lucifer. When he was exiled to Hell, Lilith sent her children to Hell to accompany him, to spare them from the heartbreak of being left alone by people they are close with.
• Lighter and Softer: Than the source material, which depicts Lucifer as an Anti-Heroic Sociopath who only does things that directly benefit himself, with all else being a secondary consideration. In this, he shows compassion, cares about a mortal woman enough to personally investigate her death and puts the fear of God in a girl who bullied his erstwhile police friend's daughter.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Initially everyone, since they believe Lucifer's claim of being the Devil to be ridiculous. As a result, he has to show his Devil face to prove it.
  • Linda offers Lucifer sessions without really knowing his true nature, thinking that the talk about the Devil, God, and angels are metaphors for his complex issues. Lucifer finally reveals his true face to her in "Monster".
  • Chloe doesn't know who Lucifer really is, which has led to a lot of difficult situations where Chloe thinks less of him/thinks he's acting crazy when he's really just trying to help (most often her), situations which would be made a lot easier if she was in the know. She finally sees the truth in the season 3 finale.
  • This also counts with Ella, Dan, and possibly Trixie (the latter has seen Maze's real face, though she thought it was a Halloween costume). Dan is in on the loop as of the season 5 episode "BlueBallz". He doesn't take it well.
• Loophole Abuse: Hell was designed so only a celestial (usually an angel, though it's implied God or Goddess qualify as well) could rule it. One of the reasons why Lucifer remained King of Hell for so long is because none of the other angels were willing to take his place. So, when he tries to formally abdicate the throne, his former subjects decide to replace him with his nephew Charlie, a newborn half-angel who clearly can't make the choice for himself.

Tropes M to R

• The Main Characters Do Everything: Played straight. Chloe, Lucifer and Dan investigate the cases, interrogate the suspects and arrest the criminals. In season 2, Ella seems to be the only forensic scientist.
• Magic Antidote: When Chloe Decker is poisoned, Ella describes how the victims start to have seizures and then their organs literally boil in the latter stages of poisoning, followed by death, with the team scrambling to get the antidote. Later, this character is shown having these latter-stage seizures as the characters obtain the formula for the antidote, not even at the stage of creating the antidote itself. The show then cuts to said character recovering, seemingly only a little worse for wear, as if they wouldn't have suffered significant internal damage in the time it would take to make the antidote and then administer it.
• Mama Bear:
  • When Malcolm kidnapped Trixie, she went against police protocol and removed his money from evidence in order to meet with him and exchange it for her daughter's life.
    Chloe: Trixie is all that matters.
  • Goddess, of all people, gets a moment when she offers to go back down to Hell, the one place she's afraid of, in order to pull Lucifer out. She states that she's willing to "face a thousand Hells to save my son".
• Manipulative Bastard:
  • Chloe does it in the name of finding suspects that went to a certain party. A kidnapped girl pulled this on the Straw Misogynist who was legitimately in love with her.
  • Lucifer's mother pulls a lot of strings, and even tries to kill Chloe in the mistaken belief that this will induce Lucifer to come back to Heaven with her. Her vessel, Charlotte Richards, was no better before she was chosen for Body Surfing.
  • Michael from season 5 is a prime example. He manipulates damn near everyone close to Lucifer so they will be tortured emotionally or turn against him, basically taking the role of the traditional Satan in real-life beliefs.
• Man of Kryptonite: Chloe is this for Lucifer. Aside from being immune to his supernatural charm, every time he's genuinely injured, it's when she's nearby.
• Meaningful Name:
  • A couple. Beatrice, Delilah.
  • Lucifer's club is named "Lux," Latin for "light."
• Metaphorically True:
  • During much of season 2, Chloe believes Charlotte Richards is one of Lucifer's many, many, many ex-flings^note In season 3, it is confirmed the police talked with over 90 people Lucifer had sexual relations with in the last two months. Lucifer denies it but the detective doesn't believe him. She is in fact God's ex-Wife possessing Charlotte's body, and Lucifer's mother. She eventually just tells Chloe she is Lucifer's father's ex-wife, and Chloe assumes a stepmother relationship. When Chloe states this to Lucifer, and apologizing for her assumptions, he notes what she said isn't technically a lie.
  • Pierce claims that the Sinnerman "killed his brother". Since Pierce is The Man Behind the Man for the Sinnerman (thus making him the real Sinnerman) and is confirmed by Lucifer to be the biblical Cain, then yes, the Sinnerman did kill his brother.
• Midseason Replacement: The show is one to Minority Report, which got its episode order cut down by Fox and eventually canceled for the 2016-2017 season. It ended up running for three seasons before Fox axed it, necessitating a move to Netflix.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Played with; a Glamour Failure is often shown via a reflective surface, but doesn't happen every time there's a mirror.
• Mistaken for Racist: In the pilot, Lucifer confronts Delilah's ex, a famous rap artist, who comments that his name would make a great rap-artist title. Lucifer voices his offense and has to clarify that he does not hate black people or music made by black people, he just hates rap music. Lucifer is not even sorry about this. He appears to go on the explanation to just piss off the ex, insinuating that while there are talented rap artists, 2Vile (or however it's supposed to be spelled) is not among them.
• Modesty Towel: Chloe wears one in the cold open of episode four. She accidentally drops it in front of Lucifer when checking on a noise she heard. Hilarity Ensues when Dan and Trixie enter unexpectedly moments after she's covered up again.
• Moment Killer:
  • In "Pops" Lucifer is doing his usual seduction of a woman using a strawberry. After a sensual bite of the fruit, she utters, "Oh God!" Lucifer stops and has an angry face, asking why she had to say that before walking away.
  • In "Sin-Eater", Lucifer is engaged in some kinky waxplay with a new paramour... only for his mother to walk in and politely ask to be introduced to her.
• Monster and the Maiden: The series pairs human LAPD detective Chloe Decker with the devil himself, Lucifer Morningstar, who helps her with cases as a "consultant".
• Morality Pet:
  • Chloe for Lucifer. She literally brings out his humanity, and is able to talk him down from seriously hurting the criminals they catch.
  • Trixie is one for Maze.
• Motive Decay: In-universe. Lucifer realizes that a Serial Killer started killing because he wanted to exact karmic justice on his victims but now he simply likes killing and punishing evildoers has become just an excuse. This leads Lucifer to realize that he liked his job as Lord of Hell not because he wanted to punish sinners but because he liked the power.
• Mr. Fanservice:
  • Lucifer himself. Shots of him shirtless and even trouserless abound. In season 4, Lucifer goes shirtless pretty much every episode (and in two of them, he gets outright butt-naked).
  • Dan, Pierce, and Amenadiel, all of whom are ripped hunks. Dan and Amenadiel both have gone shirtless at some point in the series to prove it (Dan even has several).
• Ms. Fanservice: Maze loves to dress in them leathery dominatrix outfits. Charlotte Richards too, particularly when she dresses in Maze's, uhm, "costume" in "Liar, Liar, Slutty Dress on Fire".
• MST3K Mantra: Invoked in-universe when Lucifer sings along while strumming his own theme song on a bass guitar.
  Decker: That better not be Marla's bass.
  Lucifer: It's already been processed. And I've written you a song! Ready? [Lucifer strums the melody to the show's theme song] "Crime-solving devil! It maaakes sense! Don't overthink it!"
• Mugging the Monster:
  • A criminal steals a shipping container that belongs to Lucifer and contains his wings. The criminal is freaked out when he sees what is inside and then he has to face a really pissed off Lucifer. After Lucifer shows him his true face, the criminal jumps off a building to his death rather than face him.
  • Dan constantly threatening Lucifer for putting Chloe in danger, unaware that he's actually threatening the Devil himself.
  • A would-be mugger aims a gun at Lucifer's mother, demanding "money or your life, bitch". She kills him with a single shove.
• Mundane Utility: For a given level of "mundane". Early on, whenever Amenadiel arrives on Earth, he makes time slow down to a crawl so he can talk to Lucifer without being observed by humans. If Lucifer summons his brother, it is supposed to be for a matter of Celestial importance. Instead, the Lord of Hell specifically summons him to save a human from being shot and prove to Chloe that Lucifer is who he says he is. Amenadiel is furious that he was summoned for something so trivial.
• Mundane Wish:
  • Lucifer does his "What do you most desire?" to a supermodel. The answer? A cheeseburger.
  • Lucifer insists that he grant Ella a favor in return for some off-the-books forensic work. So she whispers something in his ear that totally offends the Devil. She wants him to come to church with her.
  • Lucifer wants to start a riot in a mental hospital so he can escape. The inmates aren't interested in escaping or doing anything violent... but one woman wants to turn the lights on and off, and a man wants to steal underwear, so a whole ward full of inmates doing what they most desire at the same time causes the required chaos for his escape.
• Musical Episode: Season five episode "Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam" is one of these as God uses his divine power to make the people around him break into song.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Maze's reflection shows half of her face horribly burned off, resembling her comic counterpart's original appearance.
  • In episode 6, Lucifer gives a frustrated speech about never having forced anyone into committing evil — it is almost word for word the same tirade that he made in The Sandman (1989) album Season of Mists.
  • Silver City is mentioned.
  • In "#TeamLucifer" a Satan worshipper remarks that he expected Lucifer to be blond, which he is in the comics.
    • In the same episode, one of the Satan worshipers' real name is Mike Carey, who was the writer of the original comic series.
  • In "The Good, the Bad, and the Crispy", Lucifer opens a tear to the void, where his mother can start over by creating another universe. Similar to a 2000 story in the comics where Lucifer decides to create his own universe in competition against God.
  • The scar Lucifer puts on Michael's face closely resembles the one Mazikeen gave Lucifer in the comic series.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Lucifer, after he is forced to killed Uriel.
  • And, at the end of Let Pinhead Sing, after his efforts at "driving her out of the spotlight" (in order to spare her from his father's wrath for his continued defiance) lead to Chloe going to an Axara live show with Pierce, Lucifer ends up in Linda's office, on the verge of tears.
    Lucifer: ...I think I've made a horrible mistake.
  • Played for Laughs in "Trip to Stabby Town" with Linda, when it hits her that she had sex with the Devil.
• Naked People Are Funny:
  • In "St. Lucifer", Lucifer decides to do a good deed and give his clothes to a homeless man... stripping completely nude, in the middle of a pawn shop, to do so. A strategically placed table with a joystick on top of it hides his groin.
    Chloe: ...aaand he's naked.
  • Then it happens again with Lucifer's mother. On being told her clothes aren't suitable, she removes them in the street.
  • Lucifer and Ella strip without a second thought to get into a nudist colony in "Orgy Pants to Work". Inside the colony, everyone's naughty bits are covered by the scenery to the point of being a Running Gag.
• Neck Lift:
  • In "A Priest Walks Into a Bar", Lucifer gives one to Father Frank's killer.
  • In "A Good Day To Die", Lucifer gives one to Amenadiel because he's angry that he was involved in Chloe's conception.
• No Social Skills:
  • Lucifer's an odd variant - he's great with most social situations, when he can turn on the charm (metaphorical and literal) and talk his way into or out of anything, but when he's faced with Chloe or her daughter (the former can No-Sell his charm, which fascinates and bemuses him, and the latter thinks he's the bee's knees even without it, something which completely baffles him), his attempts to be charming come off as they would to most if not for his gift - weird, annoying and creepy. He also has no issue with stripping completely nude in the middle of a pawn shop to give a homeless man his clothing.
  • While it doubled as an attempt to troll him, Maze stripping an unconscious Dan naked and placing him in Chloe's bed was an actual attempt to get them back together, and she's genuinely puzzled when it didn't work (because waiting naked in someone's bed has always worked for her).
• Noodle Implements: When interviewing a number of Lucifer's recent lovers, Chloe has to listen to them go into detail about their trysts, all of which involve unusual objects.
  Lover 1: He even did this thing with a pan flute and a butternut squash.
  Lucifer: I was improvising. I didn't have any zucchinis.
  Lover 2: He even did this thing with my Tibetan singing pot and artisanal honey.
  Lucifer: It's a game I play called "Do I make you horny, honey?"
  Lover 3: ...with some Vaseline and a car battery.
  Dan: What?!?!
  Lucifer: Oh, it's a move I call "Gentlemen, start your engines!" It's bloody brilliant!
• Noodle Incident:
  • Meeting over drinks, Amenadiel asks Maze if she's ever heard "the story of Lucifer and the goat" and then admits he started it. She actually laughs, saying Lucifer hates the story and couldn't figure out how it started and Amenadiel is happy to finally be able to tell someone about it.
  • It's unknown when exactly Lucifer stopped going by his previous name, Samael. His siblings and mother all call him "Lucifer", which implies that this probably happened long before he fell from Heaven.
  • While Chloe's Old Shame film "Hot Tub High School" is brought up several times, it's never revealed what actually happens in the film, other than Chloe appearing naked at least once and her character eating too much cake and puking in a cute guy's hair.
• Not Actually the Ultimate Question: Amenadiel has a habit of misconstruing simple questions, offering a lengthy and introspective analysis of his current state of being to the (now bewildered) person who just wanted to know something much more mundane (i.e. what would he like to drink).
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Chloe doesn't find Lucifer as charming as everyone else. It's implied that her ability to No-Sell his abilities is at least in part thanks to Amenadiel's blessing on her parents, who were having trouble getting pregnant at the time.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: A recurring theme in the show among its characters.
  • Mythologically, the Devil is supposed to be the embodiment and purveyor of all evil. Lucifer Morningstar, however, is actually just a scapegoat for humanity's own faults, as he is a misunderstood partier that indulges in earthly pleasures to curb his loneliness.
    Lucifer: All I ever wanted was to be my own man here. To be judged for my own doing. And for that? I've been shown how truly powerless I am. That even the people I trusted—the one person, you—could be used to hurt me.
  • Mazikeen is a demon that has spent a portion of her eternal life torturing humans in Hell, but she also loyal to Lucifer as his protector and former lover. She manages to befriend a young girl and even develops a relationship with Amenadiel.
  • Amenadiel directly antagonizes Lucifer with a personal vendetta against him under the guise of doing Heaven's work and blames him for his predicament but takes a Heel–Face Turn after developing a relationship with Maze, reconciling his own sense of self-entitlement and works with Lucifer to fix his mess.
  • Dan Espinoza is a Dirty Cop willing to shoot other Dirty Cops, take bribes and do anything to cover his ass, but ultimately confesses and turns himself in, doing the right thing.
  • Nick Hofmeister from "Lucifer, Stay. Good Devil" was a Paparazzi Dung-Beetle that invaded the privacy of those he photographed but gave up such behavior after he did this to Chloe at her father's funeral, even trying to make sure that Josh did not do the same. It didn't work, but it's the thought that counts.
  • Debra McCall from "The Would-Be Prince of Darkness" would come across as the kind of girl who would kill the girl sleeping with her estranged boyfriend though really she just went to drown her sorrows in ice cream for a good few hours when it happened.
  • As big of a scumbag as he is, Carver Cruz from "Manly Whatnots" legitimately loved Lindsay, willing to pay her ransom and comply with her "kidnapper's" demands.
  • Ex-con, Yellow Viper from "Sweet Kicks" went legit and decided to focus on teaching legal graffiti art in a class, simply being the fall guy over a girl's death.
  • While Diego Ramirez from "Sweet Kicks" went about his grief in the wrong way, he really was broken up about his cousin's death, reduced to a sobbing mess when confronted about it. His wife Dani understands too, being his accomplice.
  • Biker-bar owner Hank from "Favorite Son" would rather focus on his merchandising career than continue the traditional "biker lifestyle", saying that it's for his health.
  • Connor from "A Priest Walks Into a Bar" was being manipulated by his counselor into his illegal doings, something Frank was able to recognize.
  • The various Satanists in "#TeamLucifer" are framed by Malcolm for the ritualistic murders of their own members. In reality, the Satanists are quite harmless, either Hormone-Addled Teenagers rebelling against their parents or Goths finding community, the horrifying imagery they use purely for aesthetic purposes, averting the stereotype altogether.
• Not Hyperbole: When Chloe asks if "Lucifer Morningstar" is a stage name, Lucifer responds that it's "God-given." This is normally a euphemism for one's birth name, but of course he is being perfectly literal.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • When Chloe tells Maze one reason she became a cop (besides being able to shoot people) is she doesn't like people getting away with their crimes. Maze realizes she has a similar mentality towards the damned she used to punish.
  • Later in Season 3, Amenadiel realizes that celestials and humans are not that different from each other. Both are flawed and struggle to grasp what God's true intentions are. Also, self-actualization affects both of them. Humans who believe they deserve punishment get sent to Hell. Angels who lose faith in themselves lose their wings.
  • In "Really Sad Devil Guy", Lee and Lucifer note that they both keep the people they love at arm's length due to the fear of disappointing them with their inevitable selfish actions.
• Number of the Beast: When Lucfier crosses over to the Arrowverse, this world's designation is Earth-666.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: When Lucifer returns from Vegas with new wife Candy, most of the main characters assume she is a bimbo that Lucifer picked up, and she gives them no reason to question that assumption. As the episode ends, she reveals that she is actually a very canny ally.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Crossing over with Intergenerational Friendship. In spite of his dislike of children, Lucifer gradually warms up to Trixie (although he's still very uncomfortable around her). Trixie later makes friends with Maze after wandering into Lux.
  • Maze later attends a session with Linda in order to try and fit in with humans more, and ends up becoming good friends with her. This continues even after Linda finds out Maze is a demon.
• Oh, Crap!: Chloe and Lucifer have this reaction when Chloe shoots Lucifer in the leg. Chloe is horrified that she just shot another person and Lucifer is freaked out because the bullet wound is actually bleeding and he is in pain.
  • Another moment of realization hits when Lucifer's mother attempts escape.
    Lucifer: Okay, then we'll just have to find her before that happens! I mean... how far can a celestial being trapped in a feeble human body for the first time get?
    Mazikeen: Well, let's see: she's stupid-hot, wearing my clothes and she's got a corporate credit card.
    Lucifer: ...bollocks.
• Once per Episode: Lucifer compels a suspect into revealing their desire.
• One Head Taller: Linda Martin (played by the 5' 1" Rachael Harris) with pretty much every men she is paired with. Not helping the case is that the two men she's most seen with, Lucifer and Amenadiel, are played by really tall actors (both Tom Ellis and D. B. Woodside are 6' 3"). She is also towered by the supertall Charlotte Richards (played by Tricia Helfer, who is 5' 10½"), as demonstrated in "Homewrecker".
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • In the fourth episode, Chloe reaches out to touch the scars where Lucifer's wings were cut off. It's a shock for her when he suddenly spins and catches her wrist, appearing nearly on the verge of tears. It's her first peek at the pain under his devil-may-care facade.
  • At the end of "Take Me Back To Hell" Amenadiel realizes Lucifer is genuinely frightened about a being escaping Hell. In disbelief, he asks who escaped. Lucifer's answer: "Mum."
  • Any time Mazikeen, usually fierce and unflinching, starts to cry.
    • When Trixie shows delight at her demonic face in "Monster", she smiles tearfully, grateful.
    • When Linda fails to revive Lucifer in "A Good Day To Die", Mazikeen turns away, her expression crumpling.
    • Maze starts to cry in Linda's office while she and Lucifer are there together, as Linda furiously tells him what Maze has been feeling, and Lucifer tries to blow it off, only to look over and see her in tears.
    • In Season 4, she begins to fall in love with Eve, leading to her singing a very emotional public performance of "Wonderwall" to everyone's shock, particularly Lucifer's.
  • Pierce tearing up in the precinct while making an announcement is what clues Chloe in that he was the one who killed Charlotte, because he never gets emotional.
  • Upon hearing from Chloe how much time Lucifer has been spending with Eve, Ella realizes their relationship may be more serious than Chloe wants to admit.
• Opening Narration: Episodes of the first season open with one. This is not retained in future seasons, but does get a nod in the prequel episode "City of Angels?", since it's set five years before the start of the series.
  "In the beginning...The angel Lucifer was cast out of Heaven and condemned to rule Hell for all eternity. Until he decided to take a vacation."
• Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: At the end of "Sympathy for the Goddess", Amenadiel finds out in a book that the key to the Flaming Sword was given to God's favorite son. He immediately assumes it's Lucifer's ring. Then Amenadiel's pendant is drawn to the sword...
  Lucifer: Is that the key around your neck or are you just happy to see me?
• Our Angels Are Different:
  • Angels are the children of God and Goddess. They are ageless Winged Humanoid who possess a unique superpower suited to their personality. They are Nigh-Invulnerable, capable of shrugging human weapons, but they are not immortal, as they can be injured and/or killed by demonic knives and Azrael's Blade. In the case of Lucifer, he is also rendered mortal if a certain human (in this case, Chloe) is somewhere nearby. Furthermore, angels need sleep, as demonstrated in "The Angel of San Bernadino". Like humans, angels have souls and will go to either Heaven or Hell upon death unless they are killed by Azrael's Blade. Finally, only angels are eligible for the position of King of Hell, hence why Lucifer has been ruling it since he was first cast out, since none of his siblings want to replace him.
  • Angels can lose their wings and powers if they feel that they are not worthy of them; Amenadiel loses them in Season 2, because of his intense guilt of indirectly causing a series of murders, while, Lucifer, despite being cast out of Heaven eons ago, still has them because he never feels in the wrong of rebelling against God.
  • Angels normally cannot have children, but fallen angels can. In Season 4, Amenadiel ends up impregnating Linda and it is stated to be the first human-angel offspring in history. Their son, Charlie, is born without wings, but according to Amenadiel, he can travel between Heaven and Earth anytime he wants, although someone will have to take him to Heaven first. By any means, he is still considered an angel, as result, he is eligible to become a King of Hell.
• Our Demons Are Different: Demons are the children of Lilith, the first human woman, and therefore called the "Children of the Lilum". They inhabit Hell, where their job is to torture souls, mostly humans but also the Goddess, under Lucifer's supervision. Like angels, demons are ageless, but are otherwise as mortal as humans, which is why some are highly proficient in combat, like Maze. Demons don't have wings, so if they want to enter Earth in their own bodies, they have be accompanied by an angel (Lucifer carried Maze to Earth and her attempt to get him agree to send her back to Hell is a big plot point in Season 1). However, demons can also enter Earth by possessing human bodies who recently died, although Lucifer strictly forbade the practice years ago. Finally, demons don't have souls; if they die by any means, they cease to exist.
• Our Gods Are Different: The universe has not one, but two creator gods: God and his wife, Goddess. The two are parents to angels, but only God is considered parent to humans. His wife's disapproval at his new creations caused her banishment from Heaven and imprisonment in Hell. We have yet to see God, but we have with the Goddess. She doesn't have a body of her own and on Earth she must possess a (dead) human vessel, which interestingly is brought back to life after she leaves it. From what we see, the Goddess is one of the most powerful beings in the universe, but since she was imprisoned for a long time she is out of touch with her powers; her godly essence, if unrestrained, is a celestial nuke. Like angels, the Goddess is ageless and Nigh-Invulnerable, but can be killed by Azrael's Blade.
• Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Amenadiel tries to scare Maze into complying with his demands, only to recoil in fear when Maze licks him flirtatiously.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Lucifer's mother is just as much The Hedonist as he is, which tends to squick Lucifer out. Amenadiel is equally squicked out when he witnesses their mother making out with Dan.
• Pass the Popcorn: In "Love Handles", Chloe wakes up from an Erotic Dream to find Maze sitting at her bedside, eating popcorn and apparently enjoying the show.
• Personality Powers: In addition to common powers like Super-Strength and wings that let them fly between dimensions, each angel has a unique power that fits their personality. Linda at one point asks Amenadiel whether the powers are shaped by their personalities or the other way around, but he admits that even the angels themselves don't know. It's implied increasingly strongly, and eventually explicitly stated, that angels' powers are shaped by their self-image rather than the other way around.
  • Lucifer has the ability to draw out a person's innermost desires, befitting his nature as The Hedonist and The Corrupter.
  • Amenadiel has the ability to slow time to a crawl. He uses that to carry out his father's will without needing to actually interact with humans.
    • Later, he loses his time powers but instead gains the ability to reflect people's love of God back at them, making him extremely charismatic to strongly religious people. The implication may be that he still wants to serve as his father's envoy among humanity, but now he also wants to personally connect with the humans.
  • Uriel can spot patterns, letting him both predict the future and set Disaster Dominoes moving. From what we see of him, he seems to be the angelic version of a nerd - unpopular, cerebral and prone to aspiring to Awesomeness by Analysis.
  • Azrael can choose to be invisible to all humans except the ones she wants to see her, fitting her personality of being awkward but affectionate - it means that she can interact with the people she choses to while still avoiding the world at large.
  • Michael possesses a similar ability to Lucifer's, except instead of desires, he draws out someone's fears. Fitting for a Manipulative Bastard.
  • Gabriel can deliver a message anywhere, even into other universes, and is implied to have some sort of omniscience. Both handy for a divine messenger and for a shameless gossip.
• Perspective Reversal: For most of the show, Lucifer is shown to constantly complain about his father and attribute all of his misfortune and pain to how he treated him, and to a lesser degree the Goddess as well. However it becomes pretty clear that both his parents are not that different from him in personality, with the Goddess and God when he appears having their own interpretation of their relationship with him. Come Season 6, Lucifer finds himself being accused of being the reason for all of his time travelling daughter's problems and for being an absent parent.
• Police Are Useless: Subverted in the pilot. Lucifer clearly does not think that the LAPD will properly investigate Delilah's murder so he decides to look into the matter himself. He is then pleasantly surprised when he sees that Detective Chloe Decker is actually investigating the case seriously. Her investigative methods are just as effective as Lucifer's and she does not have access to supernatural powers. She's also the first one to realize the motive behind Delilah's murder and who was responsible.
  • Season 3 plays this straight when it shows an alternate universe where Chloe never became a cop. In that universe Dan caught Delilah's murder case and proved utterly inept, leading Lucifer to think that all cops are useless.
• Police Psychic: The premise has the Devil himself Lucifer Morningstar join LAPD Detective Chloe Decker as a "consultant" for a homicide. Lucifer's contributions usually involves either using his wealth and extensive connections to get them into places or using his Compelling Voice to get people to admit their guilt or their seediest wants.
• The Pornomancer: Lucifer, naturally. In "Stewardess Interruptus" they fill the entire police station with his lovers from just the past eight weeks.
  • Also deconstructed in that Lucifer is devastated to learn that none of the people he's had sex with cared about him beyond enjoying sex.
• Possessing a Dead Body: It's possible for the denizens of Hell to escape by possessing the body of someone who recently died.
• Poster Patchup:
  • After Lucifer punches a hole in Linda's office wall, she covers it up with a framed diploma.
  • When Maze throws a knife at the wall of the apartment she shares with Chloe, the latter complains that they will have to pay to repair the damage. Maze states that Chloe's young child Trixie is already working on "another alien drawing". A wall full of drawings is revealed, all of which turn out to be covering various damages caused by Maze.
• Power Nullifier: It turns out that this is why Lucifer's mental powers don't work on Chloe, and why he bled when she shot him - something about her suppresses his abilities.
• Power Perversion Potential: In Season 6, after Lucifer finds out that Chloe kept Amenadiel's amulet, the two of them take advantage of its powers to engage in Destructo-Nookie that trashes his penthouse.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: invoked
  • In My Little Monkey, as part of his emulating of Dan, Lucifer announces their arrival in one scene by coming up with two of these.
    Lucifer: [mouth-trumpet fanfare!] Never fear! Luci-Dan is here! Or is it Douchifer, actually? It's got more of a ring to it, hasn't it?
  • In season three Lucifer mentions his and Chloe's ship name "Deckerstar". In the same episode Ella later mentions "Pecker" as a ship name for Pierce and Chloe.
  • In "Orange Is the New Maze", Lucifer suggests "Ameninda" and "Lindadiel" for Amenadiel/Linda.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The show takes many liberties with the source material, and outside of a few characters and references it has very little to do with the original comics.
  • Lucifer receives a huge amount of Adaptational Heroism, going from a Sociopathic Hero striving to acquire whatever he desires to a Lovable Sex Maniac solving crimes for the fun of it.
  • Maze's comics incarnation is the Intelligible Unintelligible (due to her Lilim deformity meaning she only has half a mouth) and hides her half-corpse face with a mask while on Earth. This would be expensive in terms of special effects and hard on the actress, so instead Maze is able to make herself appear completely human with her powers, and her speech is unaffected.
• Precision F-Strike: There are only two instances of f-bombs being dropped in the show, both occurring after the move to Netflix (as Fox, being a broadcast network, prohibited them).
  • Lucifer gets the series' first uncensored f-bomb at the end of "Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid" when he tells Dan he arranged the elaborate plan as revenge because "you fucking shot me, Daniel."
  • At Maze and Eve's wedding, Maze becomes too choked up to give much of a speech and says, "I just love you so fucking much."
• Prim and Proper Bun: Linda.
• Public Domain Artifact: It turns out that Azrael's blade is actually the flaming sword that guarded the way to Eden, which can cut through anything including the gates of Heaven. This is Mom's plan to regain the Silver City.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In "#TeamLucifer", after a particular series of upsetting events, a Lucifer who is in a VERY bad mood, encounters the street preacher from before. Only this time, after his brush with Lucifer, the phony reverend has turned legitimate. And he’s blaming Lucifer for the recent string of murders. Lucifer’s response is appropriate for one who’s sick and tired of being blamed for all the evil in the world.
  Lucifer: STOP! BLAMING! ME!
• Rage Against the Heavens: Lucifer, fittingly enough, does this at the end of "A Priest Walks Into A Bar", after Father Frank's death.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Lucifer is wild, carefree and endlessly snarky compared to Chloe's attempts at being professional.
• Race Lift:
  • In the comics Amenadiel is Caucasian in appearance, long silver-hair dripping off of his Neanderthalish face that only a mother could love. In the TV show, however, Amenadiel is played by an attractive black actor.
  • Remiel is a white male in the comics but is changed to an Asian female in the show.
  • Mazikeen is portrayed by black actress Lesley-Ann Brandt, despite being white in the comics.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Linda getting pregnant in her late forties/early fifties is attributed to the father being Amenadiel, an angel — while Rachael Elaine Harris really was pregnant at around that age in Real Life.
• Really Gets Around:
  • Delilah had a history of sleeping with sleazy and abusive men, and was known to cheat on her boyfriends. This leads to Lucifer and Chloe suspecting that she might have also slept with the drug dealer that killed her. As a result they initially explain away a vital piece of evidence that points to who ordered the murder.
  • During "Stewardess Interuptus" Lucifer needs to give Chloe a list of every person he has had a sexual encounter with in the past eight weeks. The total number of people clocks in at 92 sexual partners, male and female.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lucifer gets blasted with one after an officer is killed when he lets a suspect run.
  Dan: I can't believe you let him go. ...You think you're helping, Lucifer, but you're not. You're a wrecking ball and everything you touch turns to shit. First Charlotte, now Joan. When will you learn, hm? You're not one of the good guys.
• Recursive Canon: In "Candy Morningstar", a billboard advertising Supergirl on The CW is prominently displayed in the background. Crisis on Infinite Earths established that, like Supergirl, Lucifer takes place in one of many universes in the Arrowverse's multiverse.
• Refuge in Audacity: Lucifer's standard M.O. In season 3, in an attempt to recapture his old bad self to spite his father, Lucifer takes it upon himself to teach a bunch of kids at a drug rehab camp how to deal drugs.
  • Also extends to his whole idea of not having a secret identity. It's impossible that if a supernatural being most of humanity hates and fears existed they would be this in-your-face about who they are, right? Guy has to be crazy.
• Resignations Not Accepted: Lucifer doesn't want to be in charge of the Underworld anymore, but Amenadiel insists that he go back and take care of things. Amenadiel implies that things have gone to hell since Lucifer decided to set up shop in LA.
• Resurrective Immortality: This only seems to apply if Lucifer's caught off guard. If he isn't, he barely even notices bullets.
  • This is in keeping with how celestials' powers come from the mind; that is, if he knows in advance, he can brace himself.
• The Reveal: "Take Me Back to Hell", the Season One finale, ends with Lucifer discovering that his mother has escaped Hell.
  • Season Two's "Quid Pro Ho" reveals that Chloe was conceived when God sent Amenadiel to bless her parents 35 years ago, so they could have a child - which is why Chloe is able to make Lucifer mortal. It was the only time Amenadiel was asked to perform such a task.
  • In the last two episodes of season three it's revealed why Lucifer's wings came back and why he lost his devil face, and why Amenadiel lost his powers: it's their own actions and how they see themselves that determine their identities. Amenadiel felt guilty for his actions in season 1, so he unconsciously took away his wings and powers on his own because he didn't think he deserved to be an angel. Lucifer lost his devil face and gained his wings because he felt good about himself and didn't think he was a monster anymore. When he fell from Heaven, he gave himself the devil face because he felt like a monster, and his devil face returns after killing Cain probably because he thinks he's a monster again.
• Rousseau Was Right: Well, when the series is about the freaking Devil finding redemption, you know this show subscribes to this viewpoint. There's also the fact that Hell is an Epiphanic Prison: you are damned and kept there by your guilt. Yet, Lucifer mentions that monsters like Hitler, Stalin, and Caligula are prisoners of Hell. This implies that even the worst of us, no matter how deeply they buried it, felt guilty for their crimes.
• Running Gag:
  • Lucifer (white with a British accent) introducing Amenadiel (black with an American accent) as his brother, and mortals doing a double-take.
    Lucifer: I know, shocking, isn't it? He's much less handsome than I am.
  • Lucifer's constant disappointment at people's deepest desires. Every time he expects it to be something salacious but most of the time it is petty and irrelevant.
    Lucifer: Tell me, what is it you truly desire?
    Model: A cheeseburger.
  • Linda trying to subtly guide a patient (usually Lucifer) towards an emotional breakthrough, only to have them have entirely the wrong epiphany — whereupon them trying to put it into practice becomes, in turn, a Running Gag for the rest of the episode.
  • People keep stealing Dan's pudding.
  • That poor Lee lad who keeps meeting Lucifer in season openings (except for season 1). He's not exactly poor anymore.

Topes S to Z

• Sadistic Choice: In "Love Handles", the killer of the week is subjecting people to these, forcing them to choose between destroying the source of their livelihood (an actor being told to damage his face, a surgeon being told to mangle her hand, etc) or letting an innocent person die from poisoning. He was a college professor who was vilified by the public for saving himself and his dissertation during a car accident, as opposed to the innocent victim who was in the car with him. He was trying to prove that any other person would make the same choice he did.
• Satan Is Good: Pretty much the entire point of the show. Sure, Lucifer may be amoral, as self-centered as a gyroscope, and constantly trying to get the female lead into bed with him (at least until he falls in love with her), but he's very dedicated to punishing wrongdoers and saving innocents (even when he doesn't believe he's doing it), and some wrongdoings disgust him deeply.
• The Scapegoat: Lucifer claims that most of what he's blamed for is actually misattributed to him and that a lot of humans really are just scum.
• Scenery Censor:
  • In "Orgy Pants to Work", Lucifer and Ella visit a nudist camp while investigating the life of a murder victim. While there are brief (and not so brief) views of their bare backsides (this episode was in Season 4, which was released on Netflix), everything else is obscured by strategically placed props and Ella's Godiva Hair.
  • "Liar, Liar, Slutty Dress on Fire" had one scene where Lucifer's mom was covered up by nothing more than a glare of light on his windshield.
• Secret Identity: Averted and mocked relentlessly. Lucifer makes no effort to hide who he is, practically telling everybody who he is to their face. The drama comes from those who try to rationalize and assume that he is either lying, delusional, or kidding. Especially Chloe. Played with a little in that while Lucifer doesn't hide who and what he is, neither does he go around proving it, as he easily could. He seems to implicitly agree with God's rule against proving the existence of the divine to mortals. Until Linda insists that he tell her the truth, which he does by showing her his true face.
• Self-Deprecation: The show's premise (the Devil solving crimes?) has been poked at a few times in the show itself:
  • In "Candy Morningstar", Lucifer creates an impromptu song that has these lyrics.
    "Crime-solving Devil, it makes sense, don't overthink it!"
  • When circa-1940s Lucifer realizes that he will have to solve a robbery in "It Never Ends Well for the Chicken":
    Lucifer: The Devil solving crime. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
  • Lampshaded in the Season 5 ¡Diablo! show-within-a-show episode, where the parody delights in highlighting some of the show's more absurd leaps of logic and relationships.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
  • A sports agent fears that his star client will leave him for another agent, so he engages in some very shady actions to prevent that, including killing a woman. The client was not planning on changing agents, but when he finds out what the agent did, he fires him on the spot.
  • Rory's time travel at the beginning of Season Six ultimately proves to be what sets up Lucifer's disappearance, as it leads to Vincent Le Mec escaping from prison and kidnapping her in order to get revenge against Lucifer.
• Self-Inflicted Hell:
  • "A Good Day to Die" shows Hell's tortures to mostly be this, as sinners are tortured based on their biggest regrets. The killer from "Love Handles" is a reliving the experience of being ridiculed for not saving the car crash victim, played on an endless loop. Lucifer gets stuck stabbing Uriel again and again until his mother breaks him out.
  • A writer is stuck reliving a set period of time where he discovers Lucifer is sleeping with who he believes to be his wife, that Lucifer really is The Devil, and why his marriage failed, only for it all to be an Ignored Epiphany leading to his death, and he wakes up at the beginning to relive the whole thing again, having forgotten everything.
• Series Fauxnale:
  • Season 4 downplays this. The ending, where Lucifer parts ways from Chloe (seemingly) for good after confirming their love for each other, while rather bittersweet and open-ended, is obviously designed just in case the series didn't get renewed for season 5.
  • Season 5 was originally announced to be the final season, and the showrunners developed its story with this in mind. Netflix gave a series renewal after filming had wrapped, so the showrunners simply chopped off the last 10 minutes of the season finale, before developing a whole new season around that. There are quite a few plot points that would have served the season just as well had it remained the last one.
    • In the premiere, Lee Garner/Mr. Said-Out-Bitch, who appears Once a Season, is killed off. The "once a season" part is also averted since he reappears in the finale, where his storyline is concluded.
    • Lucifer and Chloe become a couple in the fifth episode and consummate their relationship in the sixth. The scene in Heaven at the finale, where Lucifer offers Chloe a ring, can be construed as their Metaphorical Marriage.
    • Lucifer and God, whose enmity is the reason the former was cast out, reconcile.
    • Chloe, whose identity is largely shaped up by her work as a detective, quits the LAPD.
    • Dan, an original cast member that has been in the series since day one, dies. His actor confirmed that he was the one who suggested for Dan to die before the series finale, because he thought that Dan's redemption arc could only be resolved in his death.
    • After spending the entire series struggling to connect and find someone to love, Maze gains a soul and starts a relationship with Eve.
• Serious Business: In Season 3, "Welcome Back, Charlotte Richards," pudding is given this treatment. A company's recipe is so closely guarded that they refuse to cough up security footage of a murder to avoid revealing the ingredients, they hire a private investigator to pursue Lucifer and Chloe to ensure no company secrets are exposed, and they and a rival company they're intending to merge with clam with laywers the instant they're approached for questioning. Gets a bit more justified when Ella realizes why they don't want the recipe getting exposed: each of two secret ingredient actually falsified the pudding's "higher protein content" that they proudly advertise, while their combination eventually led to formation of kidney stones.
• Sexy Surfacing Shot: The announcement teaser for season 4 is just about a shirtless Lucifer emerging from the pool.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Lucifer's overweening pride is handsomely accentuated by this trope.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: When Ella joins Lucifer in Las Vegas, he's wowed when she comes down in a hot dress showing off leg.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Linda and Dan of all people have been encouraging Lucifer and Chloe.
  • Ella's on board too.
    Ella: Are you done having your whisper fight? Just make out already.
  • In season three, Ella jumps ship and starts shipping Chloe and Pierce together. Everyone is baffled, even Chloe herself (not understanding how Ella can see sexual tension and heat between the two of them). It's later revealed that a lot of this was because of Ella's hero-worship of Pierce and becoming attached to the idea of "beautiful Pecker babies". Once she realizes that Chloe never loved him and was never fully invested in the relationship, she apologizes and jumps back onto the Deckerstar ship. Dan, meanwhile, sticks firmly with Deckerstar throughout the season.
  • In season 4, Dan encourages Maze to confess her feelings to Eve.
• Shipping Torpedo:
  • Dan sees Lucifer as a bad influence on Chloe (which is ironic, since he's firmly all for their relationship later on). Maze (initially) and Lucifer's mom see Chloe as a bad influence on Lucifer, and both considered murdering her but didn't go through it.
  • Lucifer disapproves of Maze and Amenadiel. Also, not only does he get mad when he learns that Dan slept with his mom, he also makes sure that they don't see each other again.
    Lucifer: The last thing I need is a step-Dan.
  • In season three, Lucifer disapproves of Chloe and Pierce together because of his feelings for Chloe. Amenadiel and Charlotte disapprove because they believe it's God's will for Lucifer and Chloe to be together (Charlotte is even the one who plants doubts in Chloe's mind and makes her reconsider her decision to marry Pierce). Dan disapproves because he just doesn't like Pierce.
    Dan: [about Pierce] Screw that guy.
• Shooting Superman:
  • In the first season finale, mooks insist on emptying their guns into Lucifer and Amenadiel despite clearly seeing it does squat. One of them resorts to pistol-whipping Amenadiel from behind, and somehow manages to look surprised when it doesn't work.
    Lucifer: I should warn you - (gets shot, irritated sigh) - this is hardly a fair fight.
  • This gets Played Straight or Subverted depending on whether Chloe is around Lucifer or not. If she's near him, expect Lucifer to duck for cover and be mindful of his newfound mortality. If she isn't around, then Lucifer is free to go all-out and show the poor Mooks shooting him why it's a really bad idea to piss off the Devil.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Show Within a Show:
  • When she was a teenager, Chloe was a B-movie actress who starred in a film called Hot Tub High School where she did a scene topless. She considered it a personal embarrassment, not only because of the nudity, but also because she thought she got into showbiz in the first place thanks to her actress mother, though her father was supportive. Lucifer pokes fun at this early in their relationship, because he is secretly a fan of the film.
  • "¡Diablo!" from the episode of the same name is this and a parody of the show itself.
• Sickening Sweethearts: In "A Little Harmless Stalking", Lucifer and Chloe both decide that they're tired of overthinking their relationship and decide to just go for it. They quickly become a mushy couple, much to the annoyance of everyone else.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift:
  • Amenadiel's wings in the pilot episode were glossy black and angular, almost metallic, and the feathers had sharp edges. At the end of season three, his wings are noticeably more rounded, the feathers are soft and wide, and it's a much lighter shade of grey. It reflects how Amenadiel's time spent on Earth surrounded by people he's come to care for (Maze, Linda, Charlotte, even Dan) have softened him. He's no longer a radical, fanatically carrying out his father's wishes; he's become a much more accepting and moderate person.
  • Played for Laughs in "City of Angels?", where it's revealed that Lucifer came to Earth wearing a white disco suit, but changed it to the black three-piece suit seen in the rest of the series because a bystander told him it looked like something her grandfather wore. That and the fact that it got dirty easily.
• Slashed Throat: How Dr. Carlisle takes his own life.
• Small Role, Big Impact: A standard Monster of the Week criminal shown in Season 3's "City of Angels?". While committing an entirely unrelated crime, he tries to cover up his motive by mugging Amenadiel and stealing his necklace. This sparks a chain of events that leads to Lucifer bringing Maze to Earth, buying what will become Lux, and deciding to remain on Earth, forcing Amenadiel to let him by calling in a favor he owes Lucifer for his aid in retrieving the necklace. Their involvement also helps Chloe make detective (since Amenadiel reporting the mugging is what led her to an important clue). In other words, an unassuming accidental murderer ends up causing the events of the entire series.
• Special Edition Title:
  • "¡Diablo!" replaces the standard "LUCIFER" title card with "INSPECTOR ¡DIABLO!", as a nod to the episode's focus on the Show Within a Show.
  • "It Never Ends Well with the Chicken", recolors the title card monochrome to reflect the show's Film Noir setting.
  • Unlike all other episodes, the title card of "Is This Really How It's Going to End?!" isn't set to "Being Evil has a Price", but a somber instrumental. The episode has two game-changing moments: Chloe quits the LAPD and Dan is killed during a case.
• Spit Take:
  • In a flashback, Candy does this after Lucifer proposes to her.
  • Linda does one when Amenadiel announces he has contracted chlamydia from a prostitute.
• "Spread Wings" Frame Shot: One poster◊ has the titular Fallen Angel stand in front of a gate that is shape like a pair of wings.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!:
  • After Amenadiel and Lucifer finally get back the latter's stolen wings, Lucifer realizes they have been holding him back, calling them "an easy way back into his old life", so he burns them. Amenadiel, outraged by such pointless destruction, immediately starts beating down on Lucifer. However, this is exactly what Lucifer wants (despite getting his face pounded into the sand):
    Lucifer: Yes! Hit me again! Release your anger! Become wrath! FALL LIKE I DID!
  • That last statement shocks Amenadiel to his very core, disturbed at how close he came to, yes, falling just like Lucifer.
• Succession Crisis:
  • Lucifer's decision to abdicate the throne of Hell culminates in one after he makes it official in Season Four. Now that they no longer have a king, the demons immediately try to find a new one by kidnapping Charlie and forcing him on the throne. It's only resolved after Lucifer retakes his rightful place as the ruler of Hell.
  • After God decides to retire, Heaven is plunged into one. When Amenadiel, the expected and most ideal candidate to replace him, declines the position, an election is held between Lucifer and Michael to determine the next candidate. Michael's petty desire to keep screwing over Lucifer, however, causes him to escalate things into a full-on war between angels and demons instead. That war actually kills Lucifer (via Heroic Sacrifice to save Chloe), and would've killed Michael as well and further muddled the issue had Lucifer not been resurrected to take the throne, as said Heroic Sacrifice proved him to be God's rightful successor.
• Superdickery: Episode 2 opens with Lucifer convincing a seemingly suicidal woman to jump. She's actully jumping into a swimming pool.
• Surprise Car Crash: At the end of "Lady Parts", an SUV crashes into Detective Decker's Crown Victoria after she had ended a call regarding a move to a new apartment. The next episode reveals that Uriel set the crash in motion.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Lucifer is so used to being Immune to Bullets that he seems to forget that normal people are not. He blunders into the middle of a hostage situation and gets both the hostage taker and Chloe shot as a result.
  • Chloe is a living embodiment of this trope to Lucifer due to her immunity to his powers. He is used to the fact that reality generally does not apply to him and through Chloe he gets to experience bits of what life is for a regular human man. She rebuffs his sexual advances, refuses to tell him her secrets and generally treats him like she would any obnoxious creep. He's legitimately surprised when, after Chloe shoots him at his insistence (which she only does after she catches a glimpse of his real face in a reflective surface), he starts bleeding like a normal person.
  • Unsurprisingly, the new lieutenant is not fond of Dan, a self-confessed Dirty Cop who escaped punishment for his crimes because they were swept under the rug. But then it's revealed that Lt. Pierce is actually Cain from the Bible, and the Sinnerman as well...
  • In Season 2, Charlotte/Goddess was pleased with herself for discovering that she could make her husband stop asking awkward questions by having sex with him. In Season 3, we learned that he ended up leaving the real Charlotte and getting full custody of their children, so clearly the trick wasn't working as well as she thought.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: Characters regularly walk in and out of Lux even when it's supposed to be closed. Criminals and people with guns in general enter the club very easily that you wonder if the club has any security at all (the place has been the scene of at least one major hostage situation, yet patrons crowd it as soon as the following episode). Also, everyone has access to the penthouse, even though it's supposed to be a private residence (then again, Lucifer is the only permanent occupant and he obviously doesn't need to fear for his life unless Chloe is around). Eventually lampshaded in season 4 when an exasperated Lucifer says he should put a lock on the elevator.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Subverted, as Lucifer isn't the antagonist in this case. Here, while he is literally the Devil, his fall is portrayed as tragic and cruel. This is especially telling in "A Priest Walks into a Bar" where he ends up befriending a priest, who was unbothered by the fact that he knew Lucifer really was the Devil, seeing him as lost just like any other man.
• Take Off Your Clothes: Lucifer asks Chloe to take her shirt off because he wants to check to see if she has angel wings. It says a lot about how their relationship has progressed that Chloe complies with the bizarre request, despite Lucifer having made blatant sexual advances to her in the past.
• Take That!:
  • Lucifer ranks various tyrants in Hell at the end of "Trip to Stabby Town"... and ends the list with Donald Trump.
    Lucifer: I mean, I know he's not dead, but he's definitely going.
  • In "Mr. and Mrs. Mazikeen Smith," Lucifer dismisses Chloe's concerns about Maze, saying that he and Maze have been through "the plagues, the floods, the Dave Matthews Band..."
  • When having the Sinnerman tortured, Lucifer suggests Maze (whom he notes is Hell's most brutal torturer) play Nickelback on repeat; she replies that's the first thing she tried.
  • Hell apparently plays some Justin Bieber, as well.
    Lucifer: Gosh, you should hear the screams.
  • When Lucifer is told he's in danger in the beginning of "Sympathy for the Goddess":
    Lucifer: Is it the Yakuza? Nephilim? One Million Moms?
  • In "Somebody's Been Reading Dante's Inferno" Lucifer notes that Jim Morrison and Gary Coleman are both in Hell.
  • On a meta level, to the show's critics:
    Lucifer: (strumming the theme song on a guitar) Crime-fighting Devil, it makes sense. Don't overthink it...
  • "Is This Really How It's Going to End?!" contains a jab at the show's former network, which unceremoniously ditched it after the third season.
    Chloe: Where were you last night at 8 PM?
    Odetta: Giving a reading to a programming exec at Fox.
    Lucifer: Good luck with that.
• Taking You with Me: After getting shot, Jimmy Barnes tries to kill Chloe and Lucifer.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: Lucifer and Richard Kester (played by Jim Rash)...except he's not particularly concerned if Richard (who he suspects of murder) jumps, just so long as he gets some insight into jealousy and relationships. On learning he's perfectly innocent, he makes no secret of how sad he finds the guy.
  Richard: Aren't you supposed to tell me that I have a lot to live for?
  Lucifer: Well, I wish I could, Ricky, but your life sounds incredibly bleak. Ironically, it seems, there's nowhere to go but up.
• Tangled Family Tree: Briefly discussed in "Sympathy for the Goddess". Chloe realizes that since Charlotte is Lucifer's stepmom, this means that if Dan marries her, he will become Lucifer's stepdad. A further implication is that if Chloe someday hooks up with Lucifer, this will mean Dan is Chloe's father-in-law. Dan, who is also her ex-husband. Of course, at the time, both Chloe and Dan don't know that Charlotte is Lucifer's biological mother, which is probably much worse.
• Technicolor Science: in "Vegas With Some Radish", Lucifer walks into a lab at the police station that has lots of beakers full of colourful liquids.
• Therapy Backfire:
  • Most episodes involve one of Lucifer's sessions with Linda where she will try to lead him to a realization and he will then have an "insight" that runs in exactly the opposite direction, usually towards the most self-serving version possible.
  • In "Et Tu, Doctor?", Lucifer manages to get Linda involved in their most recent case in an effort to get Chloe past her ex. Unfortunately, all it does is show Linda that Lucifer is just jealous of the attention Chloe gives Dan.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. Lucifer, the Dark Lord of the Underworld, realizes that he has issues and decides to seek therapy in exchange for having lots of sex with his therapist. Until she ultimately decides to keep their relationship strictly professional.
  Lucifer: Here's the deal: we can have as much naked cuddle time as you desire. But you're going to have to listen to me too. There's a few things I'd like to discuss with you. You know... just an existential dilemma or two. Deal?
  Linda: Yes!
  Lucifer: Lovely!
• Time-Freeze Trolling Spree: In "Everything's Coming Up Lucifer", Amenadiel freezes time when they realize that the bank robber they interrogate isn't possessed by their mother. While they discuss the matter at hand, Lucifer messes with him, putting a tiara on his head, stealing his gun, stripping him down to his briefs and tying his shoes together before leaving.
• Time-Shifted Actor:
  • In "My Little Monkey", Chloe's father John Decker is played by Chris Payne Gilbert in flashbacks to the day he was killed. In "Once Upon A Time" we see an alternate universe version of John Decker, who was not killed, now played by Louis Herthum.
  • In "It Never Ends Well For The Chicken" we see Lilith in the 1940s played by Lesley-Ann Brandt (who also plays Maze). When Maze tracks her down in the present day she's now much older and played by L. Scott Caldwell.
• Time Stands Still: Amenadiel's gift is similar to this, but not quite. Whenever he shows up, everything mortal slows down to a crawl, even bullets.
  • Amenadiel loses this ability in season 2, but manages to briefly regain it in "The Good, the Bad, and the Crispy" to stop Linda's hemorrhage long enough for Maze to take her to the hospital.
  • In "Spoiler Alert", Amenadiel's fears over Charlie causes him to gain the ability to literally stop time. Everyone is surprised at this, since it was previously thought to be impossible.
• Title Drop: The show always sneaks the name of an episode into the dialogue of that episode. ^note Lucifer: Oh, sorry. I thought this was the part where you leave me behind and say something like, "Lucifer, stay. Good devil!" Lucifer: Finally! The would-be Prince of Darkness! Lucifer: No, but it's quite pressing. What if you have all those... manly whatnots and a woman still doesn't respond? Diego Ramirez: No! W-We just wanted in. We wanted a pair of Benny's sweet kicks! Linda: Because you are his favorite son, Samael. Lucifer: Fair enough. Considering we're on a clock now, I could use a wingman. Lucifer: (After Linda twists his comment about Chloe being defensive and asks him why he's defensive) Et tu, Doctor..? Lucifer: (After Father Frank Lawrence introduces himself at Lux) Hah! A priest walks into a bar? I've heard this one before. Never seen it, though! (As "Pops" is the nickname given to the murdered chef, this episode title is dropped numerous times.) Lucifer: Oh, Saint Lucifer? (chuckles) Suits me, don't you think? I've always looked at do-gooders with pity. Malcolm: Plus, I got this beauty right here. (holds up Lucifer's coin) So... unless you've got a better offer? #TeamLucifer. Lucifer: You win. I'll go willingly. Please, just... take me back to Hell.

• A Threesome Is Hot: It's called the Devil's Threesome for a reason. Maze arranges a foursome at one point, but her boss has to rush off and suggests that she indulge herself instead.
  Chloe: That better not be Marla's bass.
  Lucifer: Don't worry. It's already been processed. And... I've written you a song! Ready? [starts playing] Crime-solving devil! It makes sense! Don't overthink it!
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: In "Pops", Lucifer brings a suspect who's also a skilled chef to cook for the dinner with Chloe's family. Unfortunately, an argument causes everyone but Lucifer to leave without taking a single bite of the food.
• Time Loop Trap: How Hell operates in this universe, with each inhabitant constantly looped in their own personal nightmare.
• Title-Only Opening: The first season opens with a short Opening Narration, The Teaser, and capped with the title card (set to a short riff of Being Evil Has A Price by Heavy Young Heathens). The narration is left out from the second season onward, but everything else stays the same, including the title card.
• Together in Death:
  • Originally averted with Dan and Charlotte. While Charlotte goes to Heaven after her death in "Quintessential Deckerstar", Dan goes to Hell after his death in "Is This Really How It's Going to End?!". Despite everything he did to make himself better, Dan still feels guilty of something which is preventing him from ascending to Heaven. His storyline in Season Six is trying to figure what that is, which is made even more difficult when Rory takes him out of Hell and back to the living world as a ghost; as he's now incorporeal, none of the angels can take him back, so Dan is forced to figure it out on his own without the use of a Hell loop. As it turns out, it was his guilt over not being able to see Trixie grow up — once he makes peace with that and finally says goodbye to her, he lets go of his guilt and ascends to Heaven, where he finally reunites with Charlotte.
  • Played straight with Chloe and her father, as the two end up in Heaven after their deaths. When Lucifer meets them, they are having a lakeside picnic.
• To Hell with This Infernal Job: Lucifer simply decided he was sick of Hell and left to open a nightclub in L.A. However, his brother Amenadiel is determined to get him back at his post.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The upcoming episode previews naturally end up spoiling certain important plot points, such as Chloe's Deadly Nosebleed at the end of "Love Handles" being shown prominently in a preview a few weeks before the episode aired. Likewise Charlotte's days being numbered was spoiled by the preview for "Deceptive Little Parasite".
• Twist Ending: The end of "Off The Record" proves to be one; the pullback shot reveals that Reese is actually in Hell, and that the events of the entire episode are his eternal torment that he's been reliving over and over and over again.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Michael is Lucifer's identical twin brother, so them looking the same is not unusual. However, Maze is later revealed to not only resemble, but flat-out be a carbon-copy of her mother, Lilith (they are played by the same actor, Lesley-Ann Brandt), which is unusual.
• Unflinching Walk: Lucifer does one towards speeding cars.
• Unreliable Narrator: Because Reese's story is a vignette playing out in Hell we don't know how much is real and how much is his own nightmare version of events. Considering that the interviews took place in season 1 but was shown occurring in the season 2 precinct (there was a change of location between seasons), there's some merit to this theory.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Lucifer and Chloe. Their romance progresses very slowly; it takes them until the midseason 2 episode "Stewardess Interruptus" to have a Big Damn Kiss, the penultimate episode of season 3 to recognize that they see each other more than just friends, and the tail end of season 4 for them to finally say the L word. Even if the attraction is obvious since early in season 2, the chronic Cannot Spit It Out that plagues them (Chloe because she's a recent divorcee and therefore wary of romance; Lucifer because he can't believe someone can actually love the Devil) coupled by outside problems mean that the UST festers for a long time. Lampshaded by Ella (a huge supporter of them hooking up in-universe) in "Our Mojo", which follows "BlueBallz", in which the two have sex for the first time.
  Ella: OMG. I was so ready to have my Deckerstar dreams crushed again.
  Chloe: Why?
  Ella: 'Cause it's been one bummer after another with you two. I didn't want to get my hopes up.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • Not a sight, per se, but Lucifer Morningstar's name counts. Major characters tend to at least question the name, but minor characters often have no reaction whatsoever to Chloe addressing her companion as "Lucifer". But then, it is Hollywood, and when Chloe herself first heard his name, she assumed it was a stage name.
  • In "Sympathy for the Goddess", Lucifer and Maze end up fighting in broad daylight until they both bleed, yet no one in the background pay attention.
  • In fact, Lucifer doesn't make any attempt at all to conceal his identity, powers or parentage. Everyone he meets ignores all this and puts it down to him being eccentric.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Chloe lampshades the fact that Lucifer likes to create chaos wherever he goes and as a result his favors tend to have unforeseen consequences. He once helped a street artist avoid criminal charges and jump-started the guy's career. Another man went to jail instead and this started a chain of events that caused the death of an innocent woman and more people are likely to die in a pointless gang war that is about to start in retaliation for her death. All of this could have been avoided if Lucifer was a bit more careful who he did favors for.
  • This is actually a plot device used in Season 4, where Lucifer is described as the source of tragedy and chaos just by existing on Earth.
• Unwitting Muggle Friend: Chloe for Lucifer. She has no idea he's the Devil at least until the season 3 finale. Dan and Ella count, too. Linda as well until Lucifer showed her his true face in "Monster".
  • Lucifer has actually made multiple attempts to prove to Chloe that he really isn't human. Early in the first season, he convinced Chloe to shoot him to demonstrate his invulnerability but it turned out being around Chloe makes him vulnerable. In the third season, he tried showing her his true face, but it turned out he lost his devil face when his wings grew back. Both times, it caught Lucifer (and the audience) completely by surprise.
• Urban Fantasy:
  • Downplayed. The show is much less fantastical than its comic book inspiration. It would have been an average major broadcast network police procedural if not for the supernatural elements that occasionally pop up here and there.
  • In general, the Fox seasons and Netlfix seasons focus on one over the other. The first three seasons were "urban", largely grounded in reality with a heavy focus on the police procedural side to the show and limited fantasy elements. The last three seasons were "fantasy", slowly moving away from being a police procedural to deal with more world threatening and fantastical plots, to the point that season 6 pretty much abandoned the premise of Lucifer working for the LAPD.
• Vampires Own Night Clubs: Well the Devil does, but Lucifer is consciously living this trope.
• Vanity License Plate: Naturally, Lucifer's license plate reads "FALL1N1"^note "Fallen One".
• Vehicular Kidnapping: One Body of the Week is dragged into a van by kidnappers before his death. This horrifies the kidnappers, who turn out to be paid pranksters who make a business out of staging abductions and didn't know that their client had died afterwards. Lucifer himself pays to be "kidnapped" in this way so he can talk to the employees.
• Vigilante Man: Lucifer tends to take the law into his own hands whenever he feels like it, which puts him at odds (and eventual partnership) with Chloe.
• Villainy-Free Villain: Reese Getty in "Off The Record" is a reporter who at first suspects Lucifer is up to something shady in his downtime and wants to expose him in revenge for sleeping with his (separated) wife, Linda, and then when he accidentally sees Lucifer's true face he becomes obsessed with exposing him to the world, convinced that he's evil. His motivations and views are rather sympathetic, but he's an obnoxious and obsessive Jerkass who lies to and manipulates people to get dirt on Lucifer. It ultimately gets subverted, when he manipulates a serial killer targeting frauds to kill Lucifer instead, and the man ends up murdering an innocent bystander.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Lucifer and Chloe, with the former greatly enjoying pushing the latter's buttons and being fascinated by/respecting her for her ability to No-Sell his abilities.
• Waxing Lyrical:
  • In the first episode, Lucifer interrupts a wedding to question the groom, a sleazy record producer, then turns to the smoking-hot supermodel bride:
    Lucifer: Please allow me to introduce myself...
  • In the second episode, Lucifer asks Chloe if she kissed a girl and liked it.
  • In "Trip to Stabby Town", Lucifer tells a suspect "tell me what you want, what you really, really want".
  • While investigating a murder in "God Johnson", the team happens to meet God Johnson who claims to be God.
    Ella: Come on, guys. Is it really so crazy? I mean, what if God was one of us?
    Chloe: Just a slob, like one of us.
    Ella: Exactly! Or just a...
    Chloe: Or just a stranger on a bus.
    Lucifer: My father would never use public transport. That song is completely unrealistic.
    Ella: What song?
• Wedding Ring Defense: Turns out to be the case with Lucifer and Candy. They used the fake marriage in order to trick Charlotte into revealing her plan, but Lucifer possibly also used it to nip Chloe's romantic feelings for him in the bud.
• Wham Episode: "Monster" - Amenadiel turns his back on God, and Dr. Linda has seen Lucifer's true face.
  • "Homewrecker" - Lucifer finally realizes that he's in love with Chloe and freaks out over it, standing her up in the process. Lucifer's mother, also having realized her son's feelings for Chloe, decides to get rid of her once and for all - by having a bomb placed under her car.
  • "Quid Pro Ho" - The secret of why Chloe is special is finally revealed when Amenadiel meets her mother for the first time and suddenly realizes that she's the daughter of an infertile couple God had sent him to bless 35 years ago so they could have a child, the only time Amenadiel was ever asked to do that.
  • "The Good, the Bad and the Crispy" - Amenadiel gets his powers back just in time to save Linda's life, Mom is sent away into the void by Lucifer in order to create her own world, and Lucifer finally decides to tell Chloe the truth...before being knocked out and stranded in the middle of the desert, where he discovers that somehow, he has his wings back.
  • "A Devil of My Word" - Pierce is outed as the Sinnerman when Dan figures out that he killed Charlotte. Lucifer realizes that he lost his devil face and gained his wings not because of his Father, but because of how he saw himself; he felt good about himself and no longer felt like the devil. Maze and Linda reconcile their friendship after Maze's downward spiral. Pierce tries to kill Chloe and Lucifer, but Lucifer protects them with his wings and flies Chloe to safety, which gets her to confront the issue that Lucifer has been telling her the truth this whole time. Lucifer confronts Pierce and finally fulfills his promise to find a way to kill him by dealing him the killing blow. Then his devil face returns - in time for Chloe to arrive and see it.
  • "Who's Da New King of Hell" - The finale to Season 4 completely upends the show's primary dynamic when demons break free of Hell and mount a rebellion, forcing Lucifer to leave Earth and reclaim the infernal throne to contain them.
• Wham Line:
  • The first season closes on one, as Amenadiel realizes that Lucifer is scared at the prospect of having to track down and return someone who recently escaped from Hell:
    Amenadiel: Lucifer, who escaped?
    Lucifer: ...Mum.
  • Season 2's "God Johnson" has the titular character drop the line "It's real good seeing you, Samael.", causing Lucifer to realize that this person locked in a mental institution may actually be God.
  • "Quid Pro Ho" has this from Amenadiel, having realized just why Chloe is special.
    Amenadiel: Thirty-five years ago, Father, He asked me to come down here to bless a couple who was unable to have a child. He had never asked me to do anything of this sort, and He never did again. Today, I met the mother again. And I found out what the result of that miracle was. Or, rather, who.
  • "The Good, the Bad and the Crispy": Lucifer makes a decision and calls Chloe to tell her:
    Lucifer: ... But I also wanted to say that I am done hiding. So, I'm coming over now... to tell you the truth about me.
  • In "The Sin Bin", Lucifer stabs Pierce in the chest... and Pierce sits up from it.
    Lucifer: I wonder why I didn't figure it out sooner. The world's first murderer. Marked by God and doomed to walk the Earth alone and for a tortured eternity. It's quite the moniker. Still nowhere near as ridiculous as "the Sinnerman". Wouldn't you agree... Cain?
  • "The Angel of San Bernardino", when Lucifer confronts Pierce after the latter breaks up with her:
    Lucifer: Your mark... It's gone.
  • "A Devil of My Word": Chloe finally sees Lucifer's devil face. "It's all true..."
  • "Spoiler Alert": "That's enough! Children, you know I hate it when you fight."
• Wham Shot:
  • At the end of the second season episode "Monster", Dr. Linda refuses to listen to Lucifer's story about killing Uriel and demands that he be completely honest with her. He shows her his true Nightmare Face and it makes her temporarily catatonic as the credits roll.
  • At the end of "Homewrecker", Lucifer's mother is revealed to have placed a bomb under Chloe's car. The episode ends with her just about to push the detonator - as Chloe prepares to get inside her car.
  • The ending of "Love Handles" has Lucifer barge into Chloe's bathroom, demanding to know if she knew that she was put in his path by God all along... and then the camera focuses on Chloe's reflection in the mirror, showing that she is bleeding profusely from her nose, revealing that she's been dosed with Dr. Carlisle's designer poison, which means the only person who can save her life is already dead.
  • The final moments of "The Good, The Bad, and The Crispy" are a whole series of Wham shots. Lucifer is knocked out by an unknown antagonist, he wakes up in the middle of the desert, the gem in his ring is missing... and he has his wings back.
  • At the end of "Mr and Mrs Mazikeen Smith," we see someone compiling information on Maze. And her file is labeled "Mazikeen of the Lilum," proving that this person is much more informed than Maze is expecting.
  • As Reese Getty lies dying at the end of "Off The Record" having drunk the poisoned vodka, Lucifer reassures him that he didn't drink all of it. Reese's eyes flutter closed...and he wakes up in the hospital, giving the impression that he's survived. But then we're shown that attending him is the exact same nurse from the episode's beginning, who says the exact same lines as she did before. Getty repeats everything he said from the opening scene as well, and the camera pulls back out of his hospital room door to reveal pale blue, slowly falling ash, and thousands of other doors set into endless miles of stone skyscrapers. Reese has been in Hell this entire time, and every single one of the episode's events are his greatest regret that he has been reliving again and again for who knows how long.
  • At the end of "The Sinnerman", Lucifer attempts to interrogate the Sinnerman whom is in custody. However, he finds that the Sinnerman gouged his own eyes out just to spite Lucifer, all while laughing and gloating "Now, you'll never know what I want."
  • At the end of "The Sin Bin," Lucifer meets with Pierce at the bar and stabs him through the chest. Pierce slumps over as Lucifer drinks his glass...and then Pierce sits up and yanks the knife out. Lucifer smiles as he now realizes Pierce is Cain, the first murderer, condemned to walk the Earth for eternity.
  • "The Angel of San Bernardino", when Lucifer confronts Pierce after the latter breaks up with her, he notices that Cain's mark is gone.
  • "A Devil of My Word": After three seasons, Chloe finally sees Lucifer's devil face and realizes that everything he told her was true.
  • "Devil is as Devil Does": Lucifer's wings have returned. And transformed. They're no longer angel wings, but demon's wings, and they scare him.
  • After an episode spent dealing with a racist cop, we see Chloe's illusions of him being just the one bad apple shattered as she looks over a table-full of personnel files.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: The Sarcasm Mode version when Amenadiel finds that Chloe has a sample of Lucifer's blood. Lucifer argues that one human having proof of divinity doesn't mean much.
  Amenadiel: Sure, I mean, what could possibly go wrong if angel blood enters the police department's forensic database?
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Lt. Monroe, Chloe and Dan's boss, only appears in season 1. After that she's never mentioned again (though since Pierce steps in as the new lieutenant in season 3, it's possible Monroe got her wish and was promoted to Chief of Police).
• What If?: "Once Upon a Time" is this, showing a universe where Chloe's father never died. As a result, Chloe never had a motivation to become a detective or join the LAPD, thus she and Lucifer never met. However, they still end up working together in a case and by the end of the episode, it seems that Chloe will train to become a detective after all.
• What You Are in the Dark: Lucifer can't actually force people to sin nor buy people's souls in exchange for favors (although he'll use his Hollywood connections if he likes you). However, he has the innate ability to draw out people's dark sides and get them to reveal their innermost desires. Although he certainly has no objection to encouraging people to sin, he's actually somewhat disappointed when people simply give in to their urges.
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?: "¡Diablo!" centers on "Inspector ¡Diablo!", a police procedural inspired by Lucifer's adventures with Chloe and the LAPD (Lucifer told them to the showrunner). In it, Inspector Diablo solves crimes with Detective Dancer, who was a stripper before she joined the LAPD.
• Wing Shield: Lucifer can use his wings to this effect after they regrow, though it's largely unnecessary since he's immune to mortal weapons. Played for Drama in the Season 3 finale when he shields Chloe Decker from multiple gunmen even though that immunity is suppressed, causing him serious injury.
• With Due Respect: When Chloe meets God in season 5, the first thing she does is chew him out for being a terrible father, but she keeps interjecting "with respect" during her tongue-lashing.
• World of Snark: Lucifer is the snarkiest of the lot, but almost everyone else has Deadpan Snarker tendencies, frequently leading to Snark-to-Snark Combat.
• Would Hit a Girl: In one instance, Lucifer got into a fistfight with Maze; one so destructive that most of the stone ornaments surrounding them are split completely in half. Granted, Mazikeen is a demon who has a greater degree of hand-to-hand combat prowess than Lucifer does; with her superior skill matched up against Lucifer's formerly-divine resilience having the fight end in a stalemate.
• Written-In Absence: Maze is absent in most of the first half of season three, probably because Lesley-Ann Brandt was giving birth to her son at the time. Lucifer mentions in the first episode that she's off bounty hunting, which is why he asks Linda to cut off his wings and in the second episode, he has a telephone conversation with her.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Hell apparently.
  • Malcolm was dead for 30 seconds on Earth before being brought back to life but he spent 30 years in hell.
  • "Really Sad Devil Guy" is set two months after Lucifer's departure in "Who's da New King of Hell?" According to Lucifer, however, it's been thousands of years since he left Los Angeles.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious:
  • In the first season finale, Lucifer actually refers to Dan by name, instead of "Detective Douche", when he sacrifices his career and freedom in order to exonerate Lucifer. And, by Season 3, showing the character development (and perhaps out of backhanded respect for how a mortal was able to resist the urges of Azrael's blade in Season 2), Lucifer almost exclusively refers to Espinoza as Daniel or some variation of his actual name.
  • Lucifer pretty much exclusively calls Chloe "Detective", except for the few times where he lowers his guard to be near her emotionally. When he apparently returns from Hell in season 5, Chloe notices something is wrong when "Lucifer" regularly calls her by her name, even in non-emotional moments.
• You're Insane!:
  • In "#TeamLucifer", Lucifer calls Malcolm insane when the latter confesses he killed the satanists to please him.
    Malcolm: I know! Don't you love it?
  • Lucifer also says this to Uriel, after he announces his intention to kill their mother Deader than Dead.
• Your Costume Needs Work: A woman, having spent time in the company of a man claiming to be Lucifer Morningstar, thinks Lucifer is pretending to be Lucifer, and also says his English accent is terrible.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Angels like Lucifer and Amenadiel are shown to be greatly affected by their decisions on Earth; when Amenadiel starts to Fall, he assumes it's God punishing him, just as Lucifer assumes it's God screwing with him. In reality, their own inability to properly reconcile their actions with what they think they should be doing is revealed to be the true culprit and once they fully realize and acknowledge their mistakes they return to normal.

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