The Punishments Fit the Crimes in Lucifer “Sin-Eater” 

With the introduction of Lucifer’s mother this season, the crime procedural aspect of the show, and therefore Detective Decker’s plot line, has understandably taken a backseat so far. With “Sin-Eater”, the search for a serial murderer is very much front and centre, with the episode opening with a victim begging for forgiveness for his crimes before dying a rather gruesome death by immolation (not that that stops Lucy from cracking some fantastic puns at the corpse’s expense later on). I gotta admit it was nice to see a really juicy mystery set the episode’s pace again.

This return to form is perfectly timed, allowing Tricia Helfer’s “Charlotte” (still housing the former Mrs. God) a little off-screen time to explore the human experience and observe her entrepreneurial son’s activities. A little too closely sometimes as she interrupts a bit of play-time at the top of the episode involving hot candle wax, a feather duster, and whipped cream. Her journey of self-discovery this episode includes a (non-arresting) escort to the police department, shopping, table dancing, and thwarting a mugger. Also, like many mothers, she’s not super impressed with Lucifer’s choice of career.

Meanwhile, the murder investigation leads detective and consultant to the offices of Wobble, a Facebook-like social media website, where the first victim’s supervisor, Leila Simms (Robin Givens, Head of the Class, House of Payne) is the initial suspect. When she hears that Nicholas Sands (Matthew MacCaull, Legends of Tomorrow) had his genitalia set on fire (first), she calls in Ray Codfree (Vik Sahay, Chuck) to show Decker and Lucifer a video that good ol’ Nick had posted on Wobble wherein he sets an intern’s crotch on fire at a company retreat.

The killer’s method becomes clear when a second victim shows up, trussed up in a bondage set-up, dressed in Catholic school girl clothes, and choking on WHOLE apples (cue Lucifer’s “deep throat” comment). Both victims had been forced to confess their sins and beg for forgiveness on their own phone camcorders. Both victims had posted humiliating videos of people they had wronged on Wobble. Both victims were killed in ways recalling the videos they had posted. Lucifer realizes that the killer is a punisher and a pretty good one at that. He expresses a little bit of professional admiration for the work to Chloe’s exasperation.

The case cracks once Chloe realizes the killer must have been a Wobble website content monitor (the employees who spend their days watching all the crap that has been flagged as inappropriate, talk about a special kind of Hell). Lucifer finds the monitoring office delightful (of course) but agrees they need to catch the killer and drags himself away from a video of a naked man trying to ride a rhino. His desire to catch the killer alive is so he can ask why he punishes his victims. As Chloe points out sarcastically, it’s good to know he always has his priorities straight.

They track the killer and his latest victim, supervisor Leila, down to the Wobble server room where Leila is about to be burned alive with the business she helped found. The killer is revealed to be Ray, the head of HR, frustrated with all the horrible things people do to each other on social media and in real life. Lucifer gets his heart-to-heart with him, pointing out to him that in his fervor to punish evil-doers, he had become deserving of punishment himself. Detective Decker saves them all a crisp ending by activating the fire extinguisher system. There’s something amazingly clever about the Devil being soaked in fire retardant foam.

The reunion of Amenadiel and his mother finally happens after Maze goes to him to solve her Charlotte issue. She immediately notices that he’s hiding something but assumes he’s found a rebound partner which he does nothing to correct her on. She sics him on Charlotte without exposition beyond the fact she’s a new woman in Lucifer’s life and she wants her gone. In a hurry to get Maze out of his space before she figures out he’s losing his wing feathers (and, progressively, his divinity) he agrees to speak to Lucifer.

Charlotte faces Amenadiel head-on when they encounter each other in Lucifer’s apartment. Possibly sensing his need for a mother, possibly just incredibly convincing in her claim to want to be closer to her sons, she sways him to her side and he sticks around so they can have a nice family group hug with Lucy once he’s solved his own dilemma about being (and enjoying being) a punisher. With a rediscovered sense of purpose, he declares his decision on his mother’s predicament: she is sentenced to life as a human, specifically as Charlotte Richards who comes with a husband, child, and job. Oh, this definitely has some wicked potential…

While the three fallen folk are tightening their family knot a bit, Chloe and Dan come to the realization that their limbo-esque relationship is not working out for Trixie (although she seems content at the moment to extort her parents for chocolate cake). While Chloe has been frustratingly indecisive about taking a family trip in a tertiary story line and comes to him at the end of the episode to clear the air and admit that she’s been punishing him a bit in her own way, Dan pulls the trigger and decides that they need to divorce.

Lucifer airs Monday nights, 9pm ET/PT on FOX.