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"Liar, Liar, Slutty Dress on Fire" is the second episode of the second season of Lucifer.

Summary[]

"When Lucifer's mother, Charlotte, turns up at the scene of a grizzly murder pleading innocence, Lucifer is hesitant to believe her tale. Not wanting to leave her on her own, he instructs Maze to babysit her – and not to torture her, allowing him to investigate the case with Chloe."[1]

Plot[]

The episode opens with a dead man coming back to life, calling out for Lucifer, only to be hit by a bus. The victim of a fatal shoot-out is the next to call out for Lucifer, he is quickly shot again. Then a dead woman awakens in a hotel room, disoriented, and examines herself in a mirror, she pulls a screwdriver from her neck.

A wary Lucifer listens as his mum explains her current incarnation, he carefully disarms her, taking the screwdriver she had pulled from her neck. Lucifer says he doesn’t believe her story, and folds his hands for a call to Amenadiel who can tack mum back to Hell. Mum slaps his hands, telling him she just wants to be with her children. She doesn't blame him for being her warden in Hell, she just blames his Father. Lucifer still doesn’t trust her, so he suggests they retrace her steps so he can check her story, but suggests she changes into clothing less bloody first.

They then break into the hotel room where she awoke, with mum sporting an outfit borrowed from Maze's closet which makes Lucifer uncomfortable, “perhaps we shouldn't have borrowed from Maze, her clothing is insufficient.” As Lucifer looks for clues, they talk about the reason she was cast down to Hell, interrupted by Lucifer's discovery of a dead man on the bed, “I think you left out a minor detail...Liar, liar, slutty dress on fire, Mother.”

When a hotel manager then knocks on the door, mum suggests they fly out the window and he tells her he has cut off his wings. She is shocked, “I mean, come to Earth, get a haircut or something, but that's a little extreme.” Once outside, a passerby wants to know how much to tag in on what he thinks is a prostitute. When Lucifer jokes that mum kill this one, she starts to oblige before Lucifer pulls her away before she can actually do anything to harm. Lucifer decides she needs to “lose those clothes” because they seem to be a problem. She takes him literally, stripping naked on the sidewalk. Lucifer yells, “Mum! You're naked! Get in the bloody car, will you? God. Traumatized for eternity now, so thank you very much for that,” and covers her with his jacket as they head back to the penthouse.

Maze is there and about to leave when he brings in mum. Maze is delighted that the woman now has a physical body, something a torturer can get her teeth into, but Lucifer makes her restrain herself. Instead, Maze is told to keep an eye on her while he figures out what to do. Maze disparages babysitting, and he replies, “Well, my mum in the body of a disturbingly hot woman-sit, but yes.” At the precinct, Dan and Chloe are tag-teaming Trixie in the interrogation room about the destruction of her doll, Tammy Twinkle Toes. The doll's eye has been popped out and she has marker scribbles on her face, but Lucifer – who is in the observation room – compliments Trixie on her work. Chloe tries to blame the doll’s desecration on Lucifer but he says he can’t take the credit, though he does approve.

Lucifer is anxious to find out if there have been any murders recently reported, “Something that screams 'crazed witchy woman on a rampage' perhaps?” and doesn’t understand why Chloe is in such a huff over a doll. She explains Trixie did it so she can get a new doll. Lucifer appreciates Trixie’s manipulation and calls Chloe a bad mother, telling her she’s abandoning her child in its time of need. The argument is interrupted by a call about the murder of the young man in a hotel which Lucifer calls “fantastic news.” Ella is on scene taking pictures, and says the CoD is a puncture wound to the neck and speculates ice pick, while Lucifer very specifically ‘guesses’ a 5 inch screwdriver. Lucifer then draws Chloe's attention to the pool of blood in the lounge, saying perhaps the other person was the young man's killer. Chloe rather likes a case of a jealous husband, “Are we really still on the whole 'my mother did it' thing....What, you're just throwing homicides at her until one sticks?” Lucifer then conveniently finds a phone and Ella is delighted. Dan enters and says there is another body – that of the maid who appears to have been strangled. At the precinct, Lucifer still thinks his mum is good for the murders, but Dan thinks the killer is a man because manual strangulation calls for strong hands. Lucifer says the killer – a she – must go straight to Hell as soon as possible, and then says he must make a call. Ella gives Chloe the name of the organization who bought the cell phone, a law firm. Dan heads out to check on missing persons, while Chloe wants Lucifer to go with her to the law firm that bought the phone. She interrupts Lucifer as trying to contact Amenadiel, who is still not answering. “It usually works. He must have gone for a wank or something.” Ella, who assumes he is simply praying, tells Lucifer not to get discouraged if God doesn’t answer.

Amenadiel, meanwhile, is at his office where he had masqueraded as a therapist until outed as Lucifer's brother. Linda confronts him over the fact he used her, and she trusted him, thought he was a friend. As she leaves a black feather floats into his hand.

At the law firm, Lucifer gets everyone’s attention, “Attention, lawyers! Hello! Hello. Attention, please. Now, does anyone recognize this critical piece of evidence found at a gruesome crime scene?” Then he holds up a shoe and one man recognizes it as Charlotte Richards' shoe. Charlotte is the owner of the firm and the man who identified it, Brad Wheeler, her partner, and he didn’t know she was missing. They show him a photo of the dead man from the hotel room and he says she would not have been sleeping with him as they were monogamous – she wasn't even sleeping with her husband. So then it was off to talk to the husband.

At Charlotte’s house the husband is unaware of his wife's activities, he is the house husband, and has been dealing with sick kids all week. The house is a mess, he’s a mess, but they don’t suspect him of murder. He recognizes the dead man as some one who had come by with a package for Charlotte, but doesn’t know him. After Chloe leaves to confirm the husband’s alibi with the children, Lucifer asks him “When exactly did you surrender your manhood? I mean, I'm all for stay-at-home dads, and believe me, I personally commend you for not abandoning your children, but that's still no reason to give up....Mr. Richards, you have an entire slice of salami stuck to your shirt!” He takes Richards to his closest, tossing away his Crocs and Hawaiian shirts, and finds a garment bag that looks promising - the bag is full of cocaine, Lucifer gives it a taste test, and declares it “the good stuff.” Chloe enters the bedroom moments later, surprised by Lucifer’s discovery.

Chloe examines the packages of cocaine at the precinct, Dan wants to know if the coke is the husband’s. Chloe thinks it’s the wife’s and it would explain why she was killed. She accepts a delivery and opens the box and discovers it’s a new doll for Trixie. Lucifer sent it, “Did the mini kitchen come too?” Just then a match is made of the fingerprint lifted off the cocaine, and it’s an associate of a known drug kingpin, Victor Perez. Dan heads out to call the FBI, Chloe also leaves taking the doll with her, and Lucifer follows but not before he grabs a package of cocaine for himself.

Maze and Charlotte are talking about torture, and Charlotte says she could not be broken because she doesn’t deserve to be punished. During their talk, Maze tells Charlotte Lucifer made a deal with God to send her back to Hell – and he won’t break that deal. Charlotte didn’t know that, and is upset, she knocks out Maze.

Chloe is packaging up the doll and Lucifer tells her she’s a bad mother, but Chloe says he’s projecting his mother issues on her. Dan has found some info on Charlotte’s drug connection and, apparently, both Charlotte and the murder victim were helping to bring down the cartel, not working for them. They were working with the FBI, and cartel hit man, Jimmy the Carpenter’s, weapon of choice is a screwdriver. Chloe and Dan have to plan their next step carefully so as not to interfere with the FBI’s case, and Chloe says that Perez could be after Charlotte since she survived, Lucifer is suddenly worried about mum.

Lucifer finds Maze back at the penthouse and explains mum is not a killer, at least not on Earth, but she is the target of a cartel hit man. He doesn’t want mum to leave the house but unfortunately she has already escaped and taken a credit card. If Charlotte dies and mum goes into a different body, they’ll never find her.

Lucifer heads straight for Perez at one of his money laundering concerns, a tanning salon. He digs him out in a tanning bed. He smoothly and without pausing in his questioning knocks out various henchmen while telling Perez he needs to stay away from Charlotte. As he knocks one of the boss’ men through the wall, a veritable snow storm ensues, “Look at that! A snowstorm in a tanning salon. How ironic.” Chloe and an officer show up and arrest Perez.

Back at the station, Perez says he knew the dead man was feeding info to the FBI so he fed him false information. He claims he did not have him killed, and that Jimmy the Carpenter couldn’t be the killer because he’s dead. Chloe tells Lucifer they have to find someone connected to the victims that didn’t know Jimmy the Carpenter is dead, which means it has to be someone at the law firm. Chloe warns him he can’t go do another shakedown, but he’s worried about Charlotte’s welfare. One of the lawyers would have had a lot to gain by Charlotte’s death, but he says he didn’t kill his boss of 12 years, but they point out they never said Charlotte is dead, just missing.

Charlotte has a shopping cart full of cheese and makes her way to the car, the lawyer approaches with a screwdriver asking why she’s not dead. He had traced her by her credit card use and is about to stab her, after she realizes he’s the one who killed Charlotte. Lucifer, however, “Sorry. Can't kill my mum.” Chloe arrive as Lucifer slams the lawyer against a car, and she distracts Lucifer long enough for the suspect to try to escape. Chloe chases after him, while Lucifer stabs his mom in the arm with the screwdriver because now she’ll have to “sell the whole Charlotte charade.” The wound is to explain the blood pool at the murder scene. He also tells her they have to act like they don’t know each other, that it might be too much for Chloe to handle. Charlotte says she looks like she can handle quite a lot, eliciting a proud smile from her son as he watches Chloe take down the bad guy.

Charlotte is looked at by paramedics as Chloe and Lucifer talk. He’s in trouble for beating up suspects and for buying Trixie a $200 doll. He wants to know why, and Chloe says it was part of teaching Trixie a lesson and he replies it's a case of “Neglect 101.” Chloe responds gently, “I don't know what happened between you and your mother. And if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here for you, but listen to me; doing what's best for your child it doesn't always make them happy.”

Meanwhile, Amenadiel visits Linda’s office to apologize. He i sorry he ruined their friendship. She accepts his apology. Amenadiel then retreats to his office and takes off his shirt in front of the mirror; his wings are molting, they are unfit for flight. He screams in anguish.

Back at Lucifer’s place, mum presents him with 'cheesy noodles,' “It’s what mothers make to bring their children joy,” she explains. She wants everything to go back to the way it was with him and all her children. She wants her home back. She says now she’ll just try to be a good mom to him on Earth. He doesn’t accept it, “It's too late, you abandoned me, Mum. You just stood by and watched as I was cast out, thrown into Hell and vilified for all eternity. There aren't enough cheesy noodles in the universe to fix all that, I'm afraid.” Charlotte then tells him that after his rebellion, his Father was so angered as to want to destroy Lucifer. Mum begged that he be banished instead, she did it out of love. She then says she’ll return to Hell if he really needs her to go back. Lucifer tells her she can stay - for now - until he figures things out. Lucifer leaves and mum stares up to the heavens wearing a self-satisfied smile.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Guest Starring[]

  • Eric Ladin as Liam Pickering
  • Colin Egglesfield as Brad Wheeler
  • Michael Goorjian as Elliot Richards
  • Daniel Edward Mora as Victor Perez

Co-Starring[]

  • Sydney Bell as 911 Caller
  • Carlo Yu as Bloody Gang Banger
  • Jonathan Stanley as Guy with the Gun
  • Phillip Reed as Middle Aged Man
  • Babak Haleky as Hotel Manager
  • Colby Wilson as Sleaze Ball

Notes and Trivia[]

  • Lucifer is the one who says the title in the episode.
  • Chloe continues to get her police skills confused for parenting; using interrogation techniques on Trixie whenever she needs to make her fess up to doing something wrong.
  • When Goddess jumps from body to body, the bodies' eyes flash white, a sign of her divinity. Lucifer's eyes will be shown briefly doing the same in My Brother's Keeper.
  • We see how damaged Amenadiel's wings are.

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Links[]

Season 2

References[]

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