Lucifer recap: 'The Sinnerman' 

After a few weeks of highly enjoyable stand-alone episodes, the long-rumored, greatly feared Sinnerman finally makes his onscreen debut. Did he live up to the hype? Let’s recap and find out!

We open on a flustered Chloe, who bought an accidental ticket to the Marcus Pierce gun show when she walked into his office to ask for a personal day. He curtly says he’ll consider it, which annoys Chloe as she leaves for a fresh murder scene.

The victim is Joey Pileggi, who’s found with two shots to the chest and legs that were pulverized post-mortem — ironic for someone working as a runner for the mob.

The discovery of expensive shoes, a real Rolex, and $10,000 in cash in his possession suggests that this could’ve been mob retribution for skimming. Charlotte, the former mob attorney who’s now working her first case on the prosecutorial side, suggests that the person who brought Joey into that life would likely be the one to do the deed.

And good news! Lucifer knows exactly who that is. A few months ago, Joey asked Lucifer for a favor to help him realize his Scarface-for-millennials dream, so Luci introduced the kid to Frankie the Knife. Bad news, though: This is how Chloe learns that Lucifer’s back in the favor business, which doesn’t thrill her.

During Frankie’s interrogation, Charlotte can’t help but advise him not to answer Chloe’s questions. Old habits! When Lucifer whammies him with his desire mojo, Frankie says he wants to catch Joey’s killer and make him pay because everybody in the “family” loved the kid.

But a second murder pushes the investigation in a different direction. The owner of a beauty salon to the stars is found shot dead and hanging by her hair. Yep, she’s another of Lucifer’s favor recipients, which suggests that the Sinnerman may have noticed Lucifer was trying to escalate their rivalry and responded accordingly. Chloe’s rightfully frustrated to learn that Lucifer and Pierce have been working together on the DL to track the Sinnerman.

She forgets her irritation, though, when she spots Pierce carrying a table across the main room of the precinct, biceps a-bulging. Ella notices and

that the two of them never got anything going despite their palpable (but invisible to the rest of the world) chemistry. Also, Ella matched blood, skin cells, and hair at the two murder scenes to DNA from a Sinnerman crime scene in Chicago.

Eager for a distraction, Chloe decides to lean on Frankie to locate the Sinnerman. Pierce offers to go with her, but she stammers out that she’ll take Charlotte instead. When Pierce announces that there’s tension between them, Chloe looks like she wants to die, but he actually means that he hasn’t answered her about her day off yet.

Okay, let’s hop over to Dr. Linda, who’s been questioning Lucifer about whether an angel’s powers shape his personality, or vice versa. First, he tells her that angel school sorts them all into different houses based on their powers (adorably, she believes him for a hot second), and then he shrugs and says all he knows is that he was born with his powers, and they’re perfect for him.

Later, she pursues the same line of questioning with Amenadiel, who suggests that God gave him his time-stopping power so he could fix things on Earth without being discovered. Linda thinks that sounds lonely, and Amenadiel says it was always easier to avoid humans — until recently. The vibes! The flirty vibes, y’all!

Their charged moment is interrupted when Maze bursts in. Yay, Maze is back! She hugs Linda (and uses the chance to cop a feel) and immediately picks up on the suuuuper chummy mood between her bestie and her exie.

And she’s not wrong. As soon as Maze leaves, Linda calls Amenadiel brilliant, tall, and gorgeous, and Amenadiel describes her as accomplished, beautiful, and passionate. They kiss (called it, Lucifans!), although Linda pulls away to say it’s a mistake. Amenadiel apologizes, but they’re kissing again in no time.

Maze is unsettled enough after leaving Linda’s office that she tracks down Lucifer, who blows her off to answer a call from an unknown number that turns out to be the Sinnerman himself. Target acquired, Lucifer heads to an abandoned building and finds himself locked inside a large freezer with a TV set up inside broadcasting the Sinnerman’s face.

 Kevin Carroll, playing unhinged menace) wears sunglasses and declines to take them off so Lucifer can hit him with his desire mojo, which the Sinnerman calls a parlor trick. (Also, this begs the question: Could Lucifer actually work his magic through the TV?)

The Sinnerman gloats that the murders were bait for the devil, but he declines to explain his end goal or the reason for the return of the wings and loss of the demon face. He signs off, and a furious Lucifer, trapped inside foot-thick steel walls, vows to uncover the Sinnerman’s greatest desire and then destroy it.

Lucky for Lucifer, Maze tracks him down — not to rescue him, but to yell at him for ignoring her agitation over Linda and Amenadiel. She describes finding them in Linda’s office, talking and “clearly about to bone.” Lucifer points out that “talking in her office” is literally Linda’s job, and besides, why does Maze care if their old flames have a fling?

Maze seems conflicted and finally says she doesn’t like her best friend cozying up to her ex. Lucifer gently asks (rather compels) her to consider what she honestly desires, which causes Maze to fall silent and then set Lucifer free.

(Next page: The Sinnerman has an eye-popping surprise for Lucifer)