Pieces Fall Into Place in Lucifer Fall Finale “Quid Pro Ho” 

Audiences were left hanging last week with Lucifer’s mom about to detonate a bomb she’d placed under Chloe’s car as Mama God had figured out that Lucifer’s feelings for Chloe were keeping him tied to humanity.

Yeah, so that didn’t happen. Amenadiel arrives to stop her and is a little taken aback to discover his mom is super-powered. He does, however, manage to talk her out of it as he convinces her that killing Chloe would truly drive Lucifer to hate her forever. And that’s a long time when you’re both immortal beings.

After being dressed down for his cowardice by Dr. Martin, Lucifer arrives at Chloe’s to explain why he stood her up the night before. Chloe shuts him down but doesn’t get his butt out the door before her mother Penelope (Rebecca De Mornay, Jessica Jones) greets him and thanks him for supporting them on the first day of the trial for Warden Smith (Alex Fernandez, True Detective) for the murder of Chloe’s dad, Detective John Decker.

Recovering from having no idea about the trial (although it was fun to discover even celestial beings buy into Nietzsche‘s philosophy) Lucifer joins the Decker women at the courthouse, the “emotional jockstrap for the Decker family jewels” as it were.

Back at the police station, Detective Dan is savouring some afterglow from his night with the “goddess”-like Charlotte Richards which the ever-astute Ella cottons on to. The mood is shattered when he opens a parcel to find the head of the Russian mobster who is supposed to testify at Smith’s trial. He texts Chloe with the information just as Smith enters the courtroom with a smirk. Lucifer is cool and collected until he discovers that his mother is defense counsel for Smith. Things are off to a rough start.

Despite the loss of their star witness, the prosecution moves forward with the case. Lucifer’s mom however, as Charlotte Richards, surprises Judge Estrada (Karin Konoval, When Calls the Heart) by agreeing the trial should continue. She explains to Lucifer later that this is her plan to get him to see that Detective Decker isn’t good enough for him.

Hoping to offset the prosecution’s loss of Boris, the witness, Lucifer takes the stand… and then the floor… to regale the jury and court with an engaging, entrancing, and entertaining recount of his part in the sting on the Russian mobster. With props to simulate the towel he wore to the steam room, and multiple gestures to his pelvic region, the former Lord of Hell holds court one could say and has everyone except Mom, including a smitten judge, in the palm of his hand by the conclusion of his testimony.

For Detective Dan, the glow has definitely worn off his recent romantic encounter as he begins to realize he was used for information on Chloe and the Perry Smith case. Ella connects the dots to Charlotte Richards and helps him track down the meat slicer used to decapitate Boris.

The trail leads to one of the Chinese triad gangs and Lucifer and Maze accompany Dan to confront them. The meeting begins in an unorthodox manner as Dan reveals his recent dalliance with Charlotte just as they’re approaching the triad’s clubhouse (located in Vancouver’s gorgeous Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens) and gets thrown through a Chinese screen wall for his confession. The triad members greet them with many, many firearms but Lucifer strikes a deal with the triad head, Madame Li Chunhua (Elfina Luk, Blood and Water) – information on Boris’ killer if they (and by “they”, Lucifer means Maze of course) can defeat the triad’s top, blade-wielding goon.

Maze gets to have a lot of fun this episode. (Did I mention she blew up Amenadiel’s car earlier with the bomb she found under Chloe’s car?) Her fight with the triad champion is one of those fun montages that combines action, humour, and showmanship. Sadly, Lucifer calls her off before her happy, and Kang’s unfortunate, ending but they get their info and head off (see what I did there?) to find the ex-triad member who offed Boris.

Unfortunately, they find the killer executed by the triad for his betrayal staged at a meal with Boris’ headless corpse. This news puts Chloe under even more pressure to see Smith convicted and Charlotte offers her the chance to get him to plead guilty if Chloe throws Lucifer’s reputation under the bus and calls him a liar while testifying on the stand. Chloe doesn’t take the deal and stands by Lucifer’s testimony to the detriment of the trial outcome she so desperately wants. Perry Smith is found not guilty and walks free.

Penelope is understandably distraught by the trial’s outcome and is found by Amenadiel outside the apartment building taking a moment to come to terms. He’s brought flowers to apologize to Maze and they have a discussion about whether things happen because they are meant to or if they just happen. When Amenadiel gets a good look at Penelope, he is visibly shaken and leaves abruptly after Penelope reveals that she is Chloe’s mother.

As the legal system failed too deliver justice unto Perry Smith, Dan and Maze team up to deliver unto justice, tracking him down to his favourite strip joint and setting him up for pick up by the Russian mobsters who are missing Boris in their midst.

The fall finale wraps up with major answers to the core question that has stood since Lucifer premiered – why does Chloe Decker’s presence affect Lucifer so fundamentally? In a dark room, in the dead of night, Amenadiel explains to his mother that God sent him to L.A. thirty-five years ago to bless a childless couple with a baby. That couple was John and Penelope Decker, the baby – literally, a miracle baby – was and is Chloe. When he recognized Penelope, Amenadiel realized that his role in everything and Chloe’s very existence had been part of his father’s plan. Mama God realizes that Chloe is the key to everything she wants.

As brother and mother conspire, Lucifer is making amends by providing the dinner he chickened out of with Chloe. After weeks of personal turmoil on both sides, trust tested, questionable choices, and family drama, our two heroes finally get a moment to just be together. Testifying about their partnership in court allowed them to express feelings about each other they’ve never been able to say to each other. Our final look at them until the show returns is a tantalizing lean-in to a potential kiss.

Lucifer returns in January on FOX.