Lucifer and Amenadiel’s mother issues continue in Fox’s Lucifer season two episode two titled ‘Liar, Liar, Slutty Dress on Fire.’ The episode kicks off with a dead man coming back to life after suffering a heart attack, calling out for Lucifer, only to be killed by a bus. Next up is the victim of a shoot-out who’s quickly dispatched again before barely getting the word Lucifer out. However, the third time proves to be the charm as mom seems to have found the dead body of a sexy woman to be the perfect vessel to use while making contact with her kids.
Mom (Tricia Helfer) wakes from the dead, disoriented, and with the dead woman’s child calling her on the phone. She puts the cell in the ice bucket because why not and checks herself out in a mirror. There’s a screwdriver protruding from her back but all she can think about is Lucifer.
Mom’s at Lucifer’s place telling him how she wound up in this particular body. And, she’s not sure if humans are normally cannibals because men have been eyeing her “hungrily.” Mom’s confused about a lot of things but she’s sure this body has a nice butt, and even asks Lucifer (Tom Ellis) to feel it. Before things devolve into the really twisted category, Lucifer gets things back on track by saying he doesn’t believe her story. He takes a time-out to pray…actually, he’s calling for Amenadiel to send her back to Hell. Mom will have nothing of that but Lucifer says she’s got to go. Mom just wants to bond with her kids and she’s not holding the fact he was her warden in Hell against him. Lucifer wasn’t born yesterday and he doesn’t trust her, so he suggests they retrace her steps but not until she slips into something less knife wound-y bloody.
Lucifer and mom break into the hotel room where she was killed, and Lucifer’s weirded out by his mom in Maze’s sexy and revealing clothing. He says the dress is insufficient while mom thinks it’s impractical. As Lucifer looks for clues, mom and son chat about being cast down to Hell. The chat’s interrupted by the discovery of a dead man on the bed. Here comes the “liar, liar, slutty dress on fire” line from the title as Lucifer thinks mom killed the guy. A hotel manager knocks on the door and mom suggests they fly out the window to escape. She’s understandably shocked to learn Lucifer doesn’t have wings anymore.
They sneak out of the hotel and mom’s pissed her son cut off his wings. A random guy wants to know how much for Lucifer’s prostitute. Oh, definitely not a good question to ask as Lucifer sics his mom on the would-be john. He pulls her away before she can actually do anything to harm the guy and he’s decided she needs to “lose those clothes” because men can’t handle it. She takes him literally, stripping naked on the sidewalk. Lucifer yells, “Mom!” and makes her get in the car, covering her with his jacket and adding, “I’m traumatized for eternity now, so thank you very much for that.”
Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt) is about to leave when he brings in mom. Maze wants to torture his mother, but Lucifer makes her restrain herself. Instead, Maze just has to babysit her while he figures out what to do.
Detective Dan (aka Detective Douche) and Chloe (Lauren German) are tag-teaming Trixie (Scarlett Estevez) about the destruction of Tammy Twinkle Toes, her doll. Her eye’s popped out and she looks a mess, but Lucifer – who is outside the room eavesdropping – compliments Trixie on her work. Chloe tries to blame the doll’s desecration on Lucifer’s influence, but he says he can’t take the credit. Lucifer’s anxious to go investigate the hotel room guy’s murder and doesn’t know why Chloe’s in such a huff over a doll. She explains Trixie did it so she can get a new doll, like her friend did. Lucifer truly 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 victim Lucifer’s been dying to check out.
Ella (Aimee Garcia) is already there taking pictures, and Lucifer very specifically ‘guesses’ the cause of death is a 5” screwdriver. Lucifer draws her attention to the other pool of blood, telling her it’s from his evil mother. Chloe can’t believe he keeps blaming every murder on his mom and thinks it’s the case of a jealous husband. Lucifer, conveniently, finds the phone and Ella punches him, saying, “Good eye, Luc…ifer.” Just then, Dan comes in and says he’s found another body.
Back at the station, Ella says the new dead body is the maid. Lucifer still thinks his mom did both murders, and Dan thinks the person who killed the maid is a man because it was death by strangulation. A discussion’s held over tiny man hands and while everyone else lays out a possible theory, Lucifer says the killer – a she – must go straight to Hell as soon as possible. Off he goes, and Ella gives Chloe the name of the person who bought the cell phone. 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 he’s praying for Amenadiel who is still not answering. “It usually works. He must have gone for a whank or something,” says Luc…ifer. Ella tells Lucifer not to get discouraged if God doesn’t answer; it’s a one-way intercom.
Amenadiel (DB Woodside) is at his fake office where he masqueraded as a therapist. Dr. Linda (Rachael Harris) confronts him over the fact he used her and she trusted him and thought he was a friend. As she leaves a black feather floats into his hand.
At the law firm, Lucifer gets everyone’s attention by yelling … never the discreet individual, that Lucifer … asking if anyone recognizes the phone he’s holding up. Then he holds up a shoe and a guy recognizes it as Charlotte’s shoe. Charlotte is the owner of the firm and the guy who identified it, Brad Wheeler, didn’t know she was missing. They show him a photo of the dead guy from the hotel room and ask when he last saw her, and it sounds like he’s confessing. But, actually, he’s in love with Charlotte who is still married. He says she hates her husband, which gives Chloe and Lucifer another person to track down.
They make it to Charlotte’s house and the hubby knows about Charlotte’s affairs and doesn’t really care. The house is a mess, he’s a mess, but he seems like a decent enough guy and the crime-fighting duo don’t suspect him of murder. He recognizes the dead guy but doesn’t know him. After Chloe leaves to confirm the husband’s story that he’s been home for the last three days, Lucifer asks him when he gave up his man card. The guy actually has luncheon meat stuck to his T-shirt and Lucifer is not impressed. He takes him to his closest, making him toss out his Crocs and Hawaiian print shirts, as well as a Dave Matthews tribute tank top, and then Lucifer stumbles upon a garment bag. Lucky Lucifer, the bag is actually full of cocaine which puts a huge smile on Lucifer’s face after he gives it a taste test. Chloe enters the bedroom moments later, shocked at Lucifer’s discovery.
Back at home, mom (who we’ll now call Charlotte since that’s the body she’s wearing) is learning what a parent is supposed to do by watching TV. It’s all about the Mac ‘n Cheese. Maze lays out her torture tools and is ready to get down to business now that Charlotte’s wearing a meatsuit and is chained to the couch.
Chloe examines the packages of cocaine at the station and Dan walks in carrying a box and wanting to know if the coke is the husband’s. Chloe thinks it’s the wife’s and would explain why she was killed. Chloe opens the box and discovers it’s a new doll for Trixie. Lucifer sent it and he’s all smiles when he walks in and sees it’s been delivered. “Did the mini kitchen come too?” he asks as Chloe fumes over the gift. Just then a match is made of the fingerprint lifted off a cocaine bundle and it’s an associate of a known drug kingpin. Dan heads out to call the FBI and see what he can find out. 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 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 gets upset, but not too upset to knock out Maze who gets too close.
Chloe is packaging up the doll when Lucifer tells her she’s a bad mother. Chloe says he’s projecting his mother issues on her. Dan’s 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 hitman Jimmy the Carpenter’s favorite weapon of choice is a screwdriver – their murder weapon. Poor Lucifer, the killer isn’t his mom. Chloe and Dan have to plot their next steps carefully so as not to interfere with the FBI’s case, but Lucifer’s looking skeptical about their plan of action. And when Chloe brings up that the kingpin has to be after Charlotte since she survived, Lucifer is suddenly worried about his mom.
Lucifer finds Maze back at the house and explains mom’s not a killer, at least not on Earth, but she is the target of a cartel hitman. He doesn’t want his mom to leave the house but unfortunately she’s already escaped and taken a credit card (Maze told her what they’re used for). Maze confesses she let the deal with God out and Charlotte is probably running away. If she dies and goes into a different body, they’ll never find her.
Lucifer starts going door-to-door in a tanning salon where the kingpin hangs out and finally finds him in a tanning bed. He smoothly and without pausing in his questioning knocks out the henchmen while telling the cartel boss he needs to stay away from Charlotte. As he knocks one of the boss’ men through the wall, lots of packages of cocaine fall to the floor. The wall is stuffed with cocaine bundles and Lucifer jokes, “Look at that! A snowstorm in a tanning salon. How ironic.” Chloe and an officer show up and arrest the cartel boss.
Back at the station, the kingpin says he knew the guy was feeding info to the FBI so he fed him false information. He claims he did not have him killed. Also, Jimmy the Carpenter couldn’t be the killer because he’s dead.
Chloe tells Lucifer they have to find someone connected to Charlotte and Marco that didn’t know Jimmy the Carpenter is dead. The cartel knows that 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.
Lucifer and Chloe talk to one of the lawyers who would have had a lot to gain by Charlotte’s death, but he says he didn’t kill his boss/mentor of 12 years – and definitely didn’t kill her out of professional jealousy. He messes up by saying he thinks Charlotte is dead and tells them he’s done answering their questions.
Charlotte has been busy since escaping Maze. She’s got a shopping cart full of different cheeses and as she makes her way to the car, the lawyer approaches with a screwdriver asking why she’s not dead. He traced her by her credit card use and is about to stab her again after she realizes he’s the one who killed Charlotte. Fortunately, Lucifer stops him. Chloe is right there as Lucifer slams the lawyer against a car, and she distracts Lucifer long enough for the guy 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 stab is to help explain the blood pool back at the murder scene. He also tells her they have to act like they don’t know each other.
Charlotte’s looked at by paramedics as Chloe and Lucifer engage in a little sexually-infused private conversation – or at least sexually-infused on Lucifer’s part. 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. “Neglect 101. You’re abandoning her in her time of need, detective,” replies Lucifer. Chloe knows this all has to do with his mom, but she explains doing what’s best for your child doesn’t always make them happy.
Amenadiel visits Dr. Linda’s office to apologize for hurting her. He’s sorry he ruined their friendship. She accepts his apology.
And now we see why that black feather that appeared earlier was so important. Amenadiel takes off his shirt in front of the mirror and his wings are molting, turning black and feathers are falling off. He screams.
Back at Lucifer’s place, mom presents him with Mac ‘n Cheese which she calls 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 but knows she can’t have that. She says now she’ll just try to be a good mom to him on Earth. He doesn’t accept it, reminding her she abandoned him when dad cast him down into Hell. And now comes the big, unexpected twist: mom’s the one who sent Lucifer to Hell. He’s blamed dad all along but she says she did it to save his life. Dad wanted to kill him but mom saved Lucifer by begging God to send him to Hell instead. She did it out of love. But, she says she’ll return to Hell if he really wants her to go back. Lucifer tells her she can stay for now until he figures things out.
Lucifer leaves and mom stares up to the heavens with a wicked, self-satisfied smile.
