The 15 Best Episodes Of Lucifer
Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis), the main character of the television show "Lucifer," has seen his fair share of adventures on Earth. Loosely based on the character from the comics, "The Sandman," created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg, the TV show takes Lucifer to new places — like fighting crime in the City of Angels. While it may seem counterintuitive, Lucifer enjoys helping the LAPD — and one officer in particular, Chloe Decker (Lauren Graham). Throughout "Lucifer," he assists Chloe on cases while dealing with his own long-lived problems, which include his issues with himself, his father (Dennis Haysbert), and his angel twin (Ellis, again).
Lucifer arrived on Fox in 2016, but was canceled after just three seasons. Luckily, Netflix was around to pick it up, and the show managed to stick around for three more seasons there, bringing it to a total of six seasons for the lucky devil. During that time he had plenty of popular episodes, which we've ranked here based on personal preference — with a hefty dose of IMDb.com ratings thrown in to keep things fair. These are the 15 best episodes of Lucifer, ranked from lowest to highest.
15. Quid Pro Ho
"Quid Pro Ho" sees Lucifer accompany Chloe and her mother (Rebecca De Mornay) to court to watch the trial of the man responsible for Chloe's father's death. This is after 16 years spent believing someone else did it, so the stakes are high. Unfortunately, Lucifer's mother (Tricia Helfer), who's been put in the body of trial lawyer Charlotte Richards, is the one defending the man, and given her status as the Goddess, she isn't easy to beat.
The episode has plenty to recommend it. Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside) stops his mother from blowing up Chloe with a car bomb in spectacular fashion. Lucifer gives a courtroom presentation from the witness stand that for some reason involves him wearing a woman's scarf like a skirt. Mazikeen (Lesley-Ann Brandt) takes on a member of a Chinese crime syndicate and wins. And despite not winning the trial, Dan (Kevin Alejandro) and Maze get the Russian mafia to take out the man who did it. It's a lot of great stuff for one episode and it leads to even more interesting things down the road.
14. Goodbye, Lucifer
It's Lucifer's last day on Earth — or at least that's what his time-traveling daughter, Rory (Brianna Hildebrand), says. But even in the penultimate episode of the series, Lucifer and everyone else have no idea why he leaves, or even if he does, for that matter. Chloe, for one, wants Lucifer to decide to stay and be with her and baby Rory, and Lucifer would if he could, but he's not sure that's an option.
Meanwhile, Dan, having been killed by Vincent Le Mec (Rob Benedict), becomes a ghost and is still in the area due to unresolved issues. And Amenadiel decides to become God, after the original God decides to retire.
Ultimately, Lucifer doesn't disappear on his so-called last day, but as he's celebrating, he gets a call. Le Mec has Rory at the exact place — 10th and Swanson — where Lucifer was reportedly last seen. It's a great setup for the final episode of the series.
13. Take Me Back to Hell
In the final episode of Season 1, Lucifer, Chloe, and the gang hunt Detective Malcolm Grant (Kevin Rankin), the man Amenadial brought back from the dead. There's some spectacular action in a warehouse that includes a fight between Lucifer, Amenadiel, and a bunch of bad guys, with Malcolm stabbing Amenadiel with one of Maze's blades that is "not of this world," and that's only halfway through the episode.
The rest of "Take Me Back to Hell" deals with Lucifer following Chloe as she goes to get her daughter, Trixie (Scarlett Estevez), from Malcolm in exchange for the big bag of money she took when she was trying to capture him. Malcolm has decided the one thing he wants more than life itself is for Lucifer to feel what it's like to die. So when Lucifer shows up, Malcolm shoots him, and because Chloe is nearby, it works. Lucifer prays to his father, God, for help ... for Chloe. But apparently, his father likes Lucifer where he is, because he sends him back to Earth. Lucifer distracts Malcolm while Chloe shoots him. It's a perfect early example of how Chloe and Lucifer are on more or less equal footing, despite him being the Devil.
12. Monster
Halloween has come to "Lucifer" in Season 2, and when Lucifer comes to join Chloe on a case at a wedding, instead of caring about the deceased bride, he's drunk, eats the evidence, and picks up one of the bridesmaids. Unfortunately, the perpetrator is just beginning his reign of terror, and Chloe suspects he has a list. But the bride and the next victim, the owner of a food truck, have nothing in common.
At the same time, Maze takes Trixie trick-or-treating. When Trixie says she wishes Maze had worn a costume, Maze shows Trixie her demon face, which she loves.
In the end, Lucifer helps Chloe take the killer down, but Chloe still thinks Lucifer could use someone to talk through his issues with. In response, Lucifer sees his therapist, Linda (Rachael Harris), who chafes at the metaphors she feels he's using. So, in a fantastic twist, he shows her his real face.
11. Somebody's Been Reading Dante's Inferno
Chloe is having a hard time after discovering that Lucifer is the Devil in Season 4, and the priest, Father Kinley (Graham McTavish), she's consulted about it has given her a potion to incapacitate him. She's under pressure to use it, and their latest case — a murder on a reality show — gives her the perfect excuse. Until Chloe has doubts.
While Chloe is trying to understand why Lucifer is vulnerable only when she's near him, she gets a text that the girl they thought was the murderer may not be their culprit after all. At the crime scene, Lucifer jumps in front of an ax for Chloe, and she is finally convinced that she should definitely not roofie Lucifer.
In other news, Linda learns she's pregnant ... with Amenadiel's child. Linda and Amenadiel are having an angel baby, to their surprise. It's an interesting storyline that's carried through the rest of the series.
10. The Good, The Bad, and The Crispy
In the fantastic final episode of Season 2, the Goddess in Charlotte Richards's body is leaking light, the godly life force that animates her, and after she's shot, she requires medical attention. So she goes to Linda — a bit of a stretch because although Linda may know about Celestials, she's still human, not to mention a psychiatrist. But then Linda breaks out the duct tape.
Meanwhile, Lucifer and Amenadiel have found the final piece of the celestial sword that can take them back home, around Amenadiel's neck. But Amenadiel, after having his powers terribly depleted, needs to work through this revelation before he and Lucifer use the necklace.
But when the Goddess returns to Linda's to get information and ends up beating her to within an inch of her life, Amenadiel, his powers restored, slows down time so Maze can get Linda to the hospital. Miles away, Lucifer and his mother take advantage of everyone else's slowness, so Lucifer can use the necklace to send his mother to an entirely new universe, leaving Charlotte behind ... and very confused.
9. Off the Record
"Off the Record," is a standalone episode, but it does an exceptional job of explaining Lucifer's charms — and what Hell is really like. Reese Getty (Patrick Fabian), a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the L.A. Telegraph, discovers his wife, who happens to be Linda and has been separated from him for two years, has taken up with Lucifer. He still wants her back, so he plans an article that will out him as a fraud.
He can't find any evidence, though, so he's preparing to drop the story. Then he sees Lucifer's devil face. Fast forward about a year, and Reese is still working on the Lucifer story. He discovers the villain in Chloe and Lucifer's most recent case (John Billingsley), and since the man has a thing for taking down phonies, he sics him on Lucifer.
But the man discovers Lucifer always tells the truth, and that Reese is really the fraud. Reese ends up dying from the poison the killer gave him, but he wakes up again in the hospital. It turns out he's stuck in a loop and only he can get himself out of it — but he probably never will.
8. Is This Really How it's Going to End?
"Is This Really How It's Going to End?" is a popular episode among many Reddit users, and we agree with them. Lucifer tries to take the job of God, but quite a few angels may prefer his twin Michael instead of him. At the same time, everyone is searching for a killer and, unfortunately, Dan finds him. The man catches him off guard and takes him to his boss, Vincent Le Mec, who proceeds to torture him until he gets a phone call, leaving his associate behind to shoot him. Dan fights back and wins, but then Le Mec shoots him in the back, and Dan dies.
Amenadiel and Lucifer follow the clue Dan left to the grave of a boy Amenadiel had tried to help, and Lucifer discovers Amenadiel gave him his necklace, part of a celestial sword, before he died. But someone has since stolen the necklace as a way to re-assemble the blade: Michael. At the end of the episode, Maze and Lucifer find the people who killed Dan and make them pay, but the question of Michael is still open, and now Lucifer is primed for war.
7. A Chance at a Happy Ending
The final episode of the fifth season proceeds directly from the prior episode, and it centers around Lucifer's war with Michael. But it's looking like Lucifer is at a disadvantage because all the angels, outside of Amenadiel, support Michael. So Lucifer suggests he and Michael go head to head.
They battle and eventually, Michael, who has the celestial sword, seems to win. Just then Chloe takes the key from the sword and runs. As Lucifer gets the blade, Michael stabs Chloe and she dies. Lucifer follows Chloe up to heaven — despite his father's ban on him entering the eternal kingdom — and discovers that his ring from Lillith protects him, at least for a little while. But the ring is only good for one person, so when Lucifer finds Chloe, he gives it to her and appears to burn up from the inside.
When Chloe comes back, Michael is standing over her and, because the key to the celestial blade makes her super-strong, she beats Michael, nearly killing him. Then Lucifer flies back to the war. He doesn't know how he survived, but he strips Michael of his wings and becomes the new God.
6. Quintessential Deckerstar
In the penultimate episode of the third season, Lucifer is trying to do everything he can to recapture the magic of his partnership with Chloe by revisiting his past hits, but Chloe would rather just solve their current case.
Meanwhile, Charlotte is trying to redeem herself with Amenadiel's help, but she keeps having nightmares of being killed by the bad guys she's previously helped. One of those people is Forrest Clay (Doug Savant), a baseball player with a squeaky-clean reputation, although Charlotte thinks he's guilty of abusing women. She gets a confession from him after she convinces his current girlfriend to turn on him.
At the same time, Mace goes head-to-head with Marcus Pierce, aka Cain (Tom Welling) from the Bible, and loses after Cain tricks her into believing that Linda is in danger. Cain then goes to kill Amenadiel, who's sitting with Charlotte in Griffith Park. Charlotte jumps in front of Amenadiel when she hears the gun and dies. In a fantastic feat before the final episode, Amenadiel flies Charlotte's soul up to heaven as Chloe, Dan, and Lucifer get to the park to find Charlotte's body.
5. Spoiler Alert
In the eighth episode of Season 5, Ella (Aimee Garcia) is dating Pete (Alexander Koch), and he's just given her a key to his place. Things are going awfully fast for Ella, but Chloe tells her to take it in stride. Meanwhile, Chloe, who's looking for a serial killer, has gone missing in the middle of an investigation.
As Lucifer tracks down a lead, Ella goes to Pete's house to find his research on the killer from his job as a newspaper reporter. But she finds something else. Behind a wall is all the paraphernalia of the serial killer. Pete is the culprit, and Ella's found him. The trouble is Chloe is still nowhere to be found.
It turns out that Lucifer's twin brother, Michael, has stashed her in a cave. Lucifer, Dan, and Maze rescue her, and Maze stays behind to confront Michael, but Michael tells her that he can get her what she wants. So when time stops at the end of the episode and everyone else freezes, Lucifer and Amenadiel take on Michael and Maze in a thrilling fight. That is until Lucifer's father interrupts — yup, God — and tells them to stop fighting.
4. A Good Day to Die
In this stand-out episode, Chloe has been poisoned by the Professor — the bad guy of the previous episode — and Lucifer is determined to find the antidote, even if he has to go to Hell to get it. He takes the room below Chloe and has Maze and Linda kill him, while Amenadiel guards Chloe so no one can move her.
In Hell, Lucifer finds the Professor, who's enduring a torture of his own making. Lucifer tells him if he helps save Chloe's life, he might be able to alleviate his guilt and get out of Hell. The Professor gives him the formula, although it doesn't get him the relief he craves. But the trouble is, Lucifer can't get out of Hell either, having stumbled into his own personal loop involving his deceased brother Uriel.
The Goddess comes to save Lucifer, and as Amenadiel holds off everyone who tries to get in the room to move Chloe, Lucifer is revived. But it's the sad ending that really brings the episode home. Lucifer no longer trusts his and Chloe's romance, because he's found out Chloe was made specifically for him. He leaves town without a word.
3. Save Lucifer
The second to last episode of Season 4 involves the case of twin realtors, but the thing that makes this episode so good is Eve's (Inbar Lavi) pursuit of Lucifer and Lucifer's changing looks. Maze tries to help Eve by posing as her girlfriend, but Maze is just realizing that she's actually interested in Eve, who's still completely unavailable due to her fixation on Lucifer.
Meanwhile, as Lucifer absorbs the fact that he hates himself, he starts to look like the devil version of himself. As his situation gets worse, Eve kidnaps Father Kinley, the person Chloe went to after she'd learned about Lucifer's true nature. Eve is trying to get him to help her with Lucifer and has Maze along for the ride, but Maze has finally had enough. She tells Eve that sometimes she has to accept when someone doesn't love her, talking to herself as much as to Eve. But Eve doesn't listen.
Instead, she kills Father Kinley and tells him to deliver the message to Hell that the demons need to come get Lucifer. At the same time, Lucifer takes the first step toward feeling better about himself and once again looks like himself ... just in time for Father Kinley to wake up as a demon.
2. Who's da New King of Hell?
This is the second-best episode of the show, and once again, it's a season finale. This time it's the fourth season ender, which has a spectacular rating of 9.6 on IMBb.com. Father Kinley appears to Lucifer and tells him he's there to bring him back to Hell. Except it's not Father Kinley, but Dromos, a loyal demon. Lucifer tells him he has no interest in going back to Hell and to return immediately, but Dromos has other plans.
Dromos kidnaps baby Charlie with the intention of having him rule in Lucifer's stead. Lucifer and Chloe figure out that Dromos and his troops have gone to the Mayan and Lucifer, Maze, Amenadiel, and Eve go to confront the demons. They have one hell of a brawl.
Chloe comes to see if Lucifer's okay when even more demons come in and tear her away. So Lucifer puts on his devil face and commands them to leave. But, in doing so, Lucifer realizes he needs to go back to Hell to keep the demons contained, seemingly putting an end to his and Chloe's romance before it's even started.
1. Devil of My Word
Many, including the folks at FilmDaily and IMDb.com, agree that this is the very best episode of the show. Lucifer, Chloe, and Dan search for evidence that will get Cain arrested for the murder of Charlotte, but it's not easy, because Cain knows how to frame others for his crimes.
The group seems to catch a break when they find one of Cain's henchmen and he tells them that if they can protect his sister, he'll tell them everything. But as Chloe and Lucifer go to find the sister, Ella checks on her whereabouts and discovers the henchman is an only child. Just then, Chloe and Lucifer find themselves surrounded by Cain and his goons. After Chloe shoots Cain, Cain's men unload their bullets on Chloe and Lucifer, and Lucifer protects them with his wings. Then Lucifer flies them away.
After determining Chloe is safe, Lucifer takes on Cain and wins, but not before Cain tells him he can't outrun who he truly is. Lucifer wears his devil face as Chloe comes into the room, and Chloe suddenly realizes everything he's told her about himself is true. It's a fantastic episode full of mythology and action in equal measure.