Fox’s Lucifer season two episode three finds Lucifer’s mom on a journey to discover what could possibly be so interesting about being human. The episode titled ‘Sin-Eater’ also finds the crime-fighting super duo of Chloe and Lucifer on the hunt for a serial killer taking out people who post embarrassing videos online.
Airing on December 10, 2016, ‘Sin-Eater’ opened with a man apologizing for everything awful he’s ever done as he’s tied to a post and lit on fire, screaming as he dies. That fire scene fades to a much less disturbing one with Lucifer (Tom Ellis) dripping candle wax onto a gorgeous woman who’s obviously enjoying the experience. Mom/Charlotte (Tricia Helfer) interrupts the moment and Lucifer’s date seems to be interested in a threesome – which Lucifer quickly squashes by telling her Charlotte is his mom. Lucifer wants her to stop barging in, and Charlotte claims she just wants to be a part of her sons’ lives. Yep, she’s now practically begging to see Amenadiel but Lucifer thinks his brother will take her straight back to hell.
Detective Douche (Kevin Alejandro) apparently stood up Trixie but he makes it up to her with chocolate. He’s been busy helping out with everyone’s cases and Trixie wants to know if they’re still planning a family camping trip. Because their relationship is affecting Trixie, Dan asks to talk to Chloe privately later.
Chloe (Lauren German) and Lucifer are called out to the scene of the burned man and learn his confession was posted online on Wobble before he died. Ella (Aimee Garcia) is trying to figure out how the fire started, and she says the burn pattern indicates most of the accelerant was placed on his penis. Which, of course, allows Lucifer to toss in jokes about “great balls of fire,” “hot pants,” and “fire crotch,” and Ella plays along. Chloe’s not laughing. Lucifer decides whoever killed the guy is stealing his jam…you know, it’s Lucifer’s job to punish people. With a wicked smile he declares game on.
Lucifer remains fascinated by the charred crotch and Chloe believes they have to figure out who had a personal grudge against this victim. An officer walks up with info on emails from the victim’s boss, Leila Simms (Robin Givens), at Wobble that seems to indicate she had a problem with him.
They interview Leila who admits they dated briefly, and Lucifer bluntly asks why she tortured Nick to death. She confesses to being upset about pictures he shared because workplace romances are frowned upon, and Lucifer informs her Nick died by having his penis lit on fire. She calls in Ray (Vik Sahay) from Human Resources to pull up a video of Nick lighting an intern’s crotch on fire at a company party. Lucifer thinks it’s funny but the intern, Tommy, was made a laughingstock and quit.
Chloe and Lucifer interrogate Tommy (Harry Katzman) who says Nick made his life at work a living hell. Tommy believes Nick deserved what happened to him but won’t admit he did it. Lucifer uses his power but he barely gets out a word before Tommy confesses. Confession obtained, Chloe and Lucifer walk out of the interrogation room to find Charlotte surrounded by cops, all laughing and having a good time. Lucifer’s incensed, wanting to know why they’re all so chummy. Chloe reminds him Charlotte is a lawyer who used to be a cop. Plus, she’s a knockout.
Lucifer leads Charlotte away from the group and yells at her for showing up at the station and drawing attention to herself, reminding her Amenadiel wants to take her back to hell. She just wanted to see her son at work. He pushes her into the elevator and makes her leave, and Chloe is wondering how he knows her so well. He deflects and turns the attention onto her dysfunctional relationship with Detective Douche. Lucifer wants to know if she’s considered how their fighting affects those caught in the middle. Of course, Chloe thinks he’s talking about Trixie and of course, Lucifer is actually talking about himself. He says he’s bored by it all. Detective Douche interrupts with another video of someone apologizing for a video they made before being killed.
Chloe and Lucifer head out to the murder scene and now it’s apparent there’s a serial killer in town. This victim isn’t burned and is instead tied to a sex rack, as Lucifer dubs it. He was killed by having apples forced down his throat. Chloe finds the victim’s phone stuffed down his shirt and the video he apologized for is queued up. It’s a sex tape and Chloe figures out the serial killer is doing to these victims what they did to the people in the embarrassing tapes they posted online. Their new male victim’s dressed as a schoolgirl and putting two and two together they deduce the woman in the sex tape was a teacher. Good detective work leads to the discovery that the teacher was fired after the sex tape went online and she killed herself. She didn’t kill the apple victim, but a connection exists. Both embarrassing videos were posted to Wobble. Lucifer thinks both victims got what they deserved and so he’s happy with the killer’s work. Back to the bar he goes while Chloe just shakes her head.
Speaking of the bar, Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt) and Dr. Linda (Rachael Harris) are having a drink there and talking about Maze’s success in stepping out on her own and giving up her work at the bar (she’s there socializing, not working). Charlotte walks up, says a brief hi, and after she walks away Maze says she has to get rid of that b*tch. Dr. Linda misinterprets her response to mean she’s jealous of Lucifer’s new girlfriend. Maze says she’s not jealous but she wants Charlotte to get what she deserves. Dr. Linda tells Maze to talk to Lucifer, and Maze decides to find someone who will listen since Lucifer won’t.
Dan reached out to Wobble but can’t get info without a warrant. Chloe tells him she doesn’t want to put Trixie in the middle of their problems so she doesn’t want to go on the family camping trip.
Lucifer’s smiling as he looks out over his domain, checking out the women when he spots his mom doing some dirty dancing on a table. She just wanted to find out why humans were happy dancing and admits, disturbingly for poor Lucifer, she got a ‘tingle’ rubbing up against humans. He puts her over his shoulder and carries her away from the dance floor. Charlotte says she gets why he has the club and hangs out with Maze, but doesn’t get his job with the police. He tells her he’s a civilian consultant and she doesn’t understand why he still punishes people. He replies, “It’s what I’ve always done.” She says punishing people is what his father wanted him to do and wonders if he’s still trying to win over his dad. He gives her the red-eyed glare and warns her to be careful.
Back at Wobble, Chloe wants Leila to give her a list of who looked at both videos but unfortunately, they don’t track videos that way. Leila explains they have content moderators who take down videos that are too disturbing, and that’s where Chloe catches up with Lucifer. He’s enjoying some videos, especially one of a naked man jumping on the back of a rhino and landing on its horn. He’s extremely amused by it but Chloe’s not. Chloe wants to know what he’s doing there and he admits it’s to find the killer so he can learn why he wants to punish people. Chloe, confused, has no idea why Lucifer wants to talk to the killer about his motivations. He loves this special room and its moderators who get to see everything including all the most disturbing videos, which leads Chloe to believe the killer is one of the moderators.
And now we finally catch up with Amenadiel (DB Woodside) who is drowning his sorrows in wine. Maze shows up and he quickly vacuums up his feathers without letting her in. She breaks down the door and wants to know what he’s hiding. She thinks he’s getting some, and he plays along. Maze tells Amenadiel she wants this new woman in Lucifer’s life gone and as he spots a feather on the ground, he agrees to talk to Lucifer to get Maze to leave.
Chloe thinks when one of the moderators saw the video of Nick, their co-worker, something in them snapped and now they’re killing people. Lucifer argues no one chooses to punish people, to be a Sin-Eater, and absorb the worst of humanity day in and day out. But then Lucifer decides none of the content moderators did it, pointing out photos of “ugly” children, flower pots, and a reunion poster for Destiny’s Child. He says these people still have hope. They discover Leila is actually the person who was moderating the longest, but she disappears before they can talk to her again.
Amenadiel pays a visit to his brother but he’s not home, however, Charlotte is. She’s wearing a towel and nothing else and Amenadiel doesn’t know who she is. She tells him she’s having trouble with her kids and that she’s trying to get closer to them. She asks if he’s a good son and he says he’s trying to be. She asks if a good son would automatically take his father’s side in a divorce and take his mother back to hell? He realizes she’s his mother and she’s going off about Lucifer being obsessed with his human job and Amenadiel still being his father’s loyal soldier. She agrees to go back to hell, telling him to take her back. Then, she hugs him and says she will always love him.
Back at the station, Chloe and Lucifer discover Leila was one step ahead of them all along. Then a message pops up on Wobble’s homepage indicating Leila’s going to kill herself live on air. Lucifer’s upset that he won’t be able to talk to her (making it all about himself as always), but Chloe doesn’t think that Leila killing herself fits the killer’s M.O. They pull up a video of Leila driving and see there’s someone in the backseat pointing a gun at her. She’s a victim, not their killer.
Tracing the signal, they figure out Leila is back at Wobble’s headquarters in the server room. Chloe and Lucifer spot her as she’s shooting her apology video. She begs to be let go but Ray, the H.R. guy, has her at gunpoint. Leila is made to pour gas on herself as Ray lights his lighter. Chloe and Lucifer are hidden but Chloe can’t shoot him because he might drop the lighter. Lucifer tells Chloe to leave but Chloe won’t, and Lucifer decides to go have a chat with the killer. He asks why he’s punishing people since he’s not being forced to do it, and Ray says it’s because he couldn’t take it anymore. Lucifer argues that Ray didn’t have to do this, he wanted to. Lucifer tells him he won’t be able to stop because he loves it, and Ray agrees that he did like seeing them beg for forgiveness. Lucifer tells him he became someone deserving punishment and Chloe pulls the fire extinguisher just as the lighter falls to the floor. Lucifer punches Ray in the face for good measure and then makes a joke about looking “quite extinguished.
Chloe chats with Dan at the station and says she knows she’s been hard on him for a while. She was angry and felt betrayed, but she knows he’s been working hard to make it right. She even agrees to go on the trip but he says no. Dan agrees that she was right and that they shouldn’t lie to Trixie. He knows he’ll always be Trixie’s dad and part of their lives, and it’s time to move on. He tells her it’s time they get a divorce.
Heading home, Lucifer’s surprised when he sees his brother waiting for him and immediately asks if he did it. Charlotte walks in, so the answer is definitely no. Lucifer doesn’t understand why Amenadiel didn’t do it, and Lucifer’s surprised he’s going against their dad. Charlotte’s happy to have her sons back, but Lucifer says not so fast. He punishes because he’s good at it, it makes him happy, and so he decides that his mother’s sentence will be to remain on Earth among the creatures she despises. He’s going to make her live her life like she’s really Charlotte, complete with a husband and children. That’s the price she’ll have to pay if she wants to be with her sons. She agrees.
Charlotte is heading home, walking down a dark street when she’s held up at gunpoint. The robber attacks her when she doesn’t give up her purse fast enough and she pushes him, discovering she’s as strong as her sons.
