Lucifer’s Fall Finale Takes a Stab at “The Sin Bin” 

After The Sinnerman’s eye-opening (sorry, too soon?) reaction to Lucifer’s interrogation last week, our engines were well and truly revved for this mid-winter finale. And the episode takes us on quite a ride before delivering its bombshell reveal.

We start with a glimpse of the crime du jour, a woman (Britt Baron, GLOW) calling 9-1-1 as she runs in terror from some unknown assailant.

Cut to Lucifer hosting a hump-day rager complete with piñata in his penthouse, chatting with Maze about his imminent triumph over his nemesis, The Sinnerman, who is on his way back to police custody having received the necessary medical treatment for his self-inflicted eye-gouging.

The two scenes are horrifically tied together when The Sinnerman enters the precinct and his phone (still in its evidence bag) starts ringing. Over a video feed, they see the woman from the opening scene, Maggie Cole, being restrained in some sort of reservoir filling with water.

Despite The Sinnerman’s assurances that they’ll never find her without letting him out to lead them there (and Lucifer’s insistence that they take the blindman on the extorted “field trip” and, thus, out of the police station), Decker and Pierce demand an investigation on the missing woman’s abduction first.

This takes them into the high-speed world of roller derby where they find out lots about the politics of the rink but get no closer to tracking down the missing Maggie. True to Lucifer’s predictions, although he’s still surprised by it, Decker decides they need to break The Sinnerman out.

Decker’s intricate plan involves an Ella distraction, a little burglery, some Lucifer charm, and a bomb scare (poor Espinoza) which goes off without a hitch (although there was some unfortunate eyebrow makeup continuity issues in the flash-forward scene with Ella) until they realize that Pierce knew what they were up to the whole time.

In the rush to rescue Maggie, Decker and Pierce leave Lucifer alone with The Sinnerman and he takes advantage of the opportunity to whisk him off to his Beverly Hills estate for a private session with Maze.

Despite the dark tones of the main plotline, they retain a nice twist of humour when Maze basically admits defeat, unable to break The Sinnerman with her myriad of torture techniques – from the naughty to Nickelback. At this point, Lucifer has the bright idea that killing human – breaking the first law of angelhood – will rid him of his wings for good and takes Maze’s blade with that in mind.

While Decker, Espinoza, Lopez, and Pierce are figuring out where Lucifer took The Sinnerman, Luci dances around the actual act of murder, talking up the potential ways of execution while The Sinnerman taunts him with his cowardice and inability to carry through.

Kevin Carroll‘s portrayal of The Sinnerman is a thing of crazed beauty. We never know what is truly motivating him and he plays it all as the supreme authority in button-pushing, egging Lucifer on to greater heights of rage until he accidentally hits the off-switch, comparing Lucifer killing him with God’s own Old Testament ways of smiting those who displeased him.

When Lucifer retracts his threat to kill him, we suddenly see a reversal in The Sinnerman’s demeanor. He begs Lucifer to kill him, saying that it has to be him. They struggle with the knife until Pierce shows up and dispatches The Sinnerman with several quick rounds.

In the aftermath, Decker is coming down firmly in Pierce’s court with no time nor interest in Lucifer’s explanations for why he, once again, went his own way despite promising to stick to script. Poor Chloe, talk about the definition of insanity.

Before we get to the major reveal, let’s chat a second about the secondary plot wherein Espinoza forgets to book an overnight babysitter for Trixie (then finds out their go-to has died) only to run into Charlotte Richards whom Trixie takes a shine to. Since Maze is off torturing the blind man, I guess Charlotte was the next least-acceptable adult figure to leave your child with so … sure.

Scarlett Estevez has been sorely underused so far this season so seeing her solve Charlotte’s problems in her typical Trixie-manner was a holiday joy in and of itself. Although her interactions with Maze will always be my sunshine on a cloudy day, if Charlotte’s gonna be a regular and return to some sort of relationship with Espinoza, this pairing has some decent potential.

And now to the finale’s real revelation. Pierce’s introduction this season was abrupt and, for the most part, unexplained. Lopez’s infatuation with him is mystifying to me and, initially, for most of the our core cast.

Ever since he took a bullet for Decker, there’s been a number of scenes designed to make him appealing but we would’ve had to have been blinder than The Sinnerman to fall for them. And our dapper devil has never bought that bill of sales.

So when he shouts at Ella – the moral equivalent of kicking puppies for sport – it’s no wonder that Lucifer takes notice. Connecting a photo of The Sinnerman as a child being embraced by an unidentified man with a distinctive birthmark on his arm to Pierce’s military tattoo on the same arm, his epiphany is that the lieutenant is no other than Cain, humanity’s first murderer, condemned to roam the earth for eternity as an immortal.

Now that we know, the hints become apparent. Pierce is the persona Cain needs in the daylight – the law enforcer, the protector. It hides his true self, The Sinnerman. The blinded man was his minion, his puppet, his front to the world, a body to attach his name to, and bait for the trap he’d laid for Lucifer.

Of course, he killed that bait. Bait that it appears he raised from childhood (based on the photo). So when he kicks, I mean yells, at Ella, there’s an understandable grief driving the snap. Even immortal murderers have feelings, I guess.

Pierce even told Decker that The Sinnerman killed his brother. And as Cain’s victim was his own brother Abel, he was certainly telling a version of the truth.  A little dissociatively. But definitely the truth.

Of course, Lucifer needs to know for sure so he stakes him with a rather large bar knife straight through the heart and then waits, nursing a drink, for Pierce to revive. And ask for his own drink. It’s the scene we never expected but which we totally needed. Cheers to angels and men.

Lucifer returns at 8pm, January 1st on FOX. I know. Seriously.

But until then, chew on this: what actually happens when an angel kills a human and why was Cain trying to make it happen? I think it has something to do with the blinded man’s final words.

“You supposedly believe in free will. Then honour MY free will. To die.”

Maybe the blinded man was more than a henchman. Maybe he was an extension of Cain himself? Woah. Can’t wait for this to play out. See you back here on January 1st! Happy New Years, Luci-fans!