‘Lucifer’ Season 3 Episode 16 Recap: Infernal Guinea Pig

Lucifer Season 3 Episode 16 Recap
Tom Welling and Tom Ellis in ‘Lucifer’ season 3 episode 16 (Photo by Ray Mickshaw / FOX)

At the end of season three episode 15 of Fox’s Lucifer, Chloe inadvertently gave Lucifer an idea as to how to kill Cain when she told him he can’t rewrite history. Season three episode 16 titled “Infernal Guinea Pig” begins with the sexy Devil laying out his plan to do just that.

Lucifer (Tom Ellis) draws stick figure representations of Cain and Abel, using artistic license to demonstrate how they were always on each other’s nerves. The series of drawings end with Cain becoming the first murderer, but Lucifer wants to go back in time and give Cain a clean slate. Lucifer explains he’s going to fly to Hell, retrieve Abel’s soul, and put it in another body. Thus, Abel’s no longer dead which means Cain never committed murder and won’t be cursed.

Marcus Pierce/Cain (Tom Welling) looks through photos of dead people, trying to pick out a body that will suit Abel. Lucifer stops his perusal of the dead to explain they need someone who just died. Chloe (Lauren German) shows up to report there’s been an explosion and one victim is on the way to the hospital. Lucifer and Cain’s potential newly dead person could be at the hospital.

Dan (Kevin Alejandro) and Chloe work the case while Lucifer heads to the hospital with Marcus.

Dan and Chloe determine the bomb was delivered by a messenger and the messenger was killed. The package was addressed to Alexa Lee, and unfortunately as a movie producer she has a lot of people who would like to see her dead. Bree Garland (Lauren Lapkus), her assistant, would know who’s the most likely killer, but Bree’s in bad shape at the hospital.

Speaking of the hospital, Lucifer decides he doesn’t want Abel in Bree’s body if she dies because she’s young and Abel would get to live another 80 years. They need someone old. The perfect vessel arrives with the death of an elderly gentlemen just feet away. It turns out he’s 97 and doesn’t have a family.

Lucifer spreads his wings and heads to Hell. He returns in a jiffy, but there’s been a mistake. He dropped Abel’s soul in Bree’s body as she expired at the same time as the old man. Abel is now running around as a young woman so Cain shouldn’t have his curse anymore. However, the mark is still on his arm so their scheme didn’t work.

Lucifer and Cain head off to track down Bree. They need to find her but can’t call Chloe (as Lucifer suggests) because that would mean Cain would have to say they put Abel in Bree’s body which would make no sense to the detective.

Lucifer figures out they need to ask a demon about Abel.

Dan and Chloe go through Alexa’s mail and it turns out there’s one letter that stands out as a potential threat from the killer. The letter writer wants people to read The Z Prophecy, and the same handwriting as the letters is shown on The Z Prophecy’s website.

Charlotte (Tricia Helfer) has a session with Dr. Linda (Rachael Harris) and she reveals she’s trying everything to jog her memory. Linda understands Charlotte has a strong need for control, but Charlotte changes the subject and wants to focus on recovering her lost memories. Linda asks if Charlotte has memories that feel like an endless loop where she’s trapped in her personal hell. Charlotte looks stricken and then walks out of Linda’s office, not willing to follow any of Linda’s suggestions.

Lucifer and Cain pay a visit to Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt) and she reveals Abel was the first soul in Hell. All the demons learned to torture by torturing him. Maze also reveals Cain was the star of Abel’s Hell loop. She informs them that Abel speaks English and other romance languages. Plus, the demons would rearrange his Hell loop and he would adapt. Maybe he thinks this is just another Hell loop and Maze suggests they think about where Lucifer would go since they’re both horndogs.

Bree struts down the streets and hits up gorgeous women outside a bar.

Chloe and Dan make their way through a forest, and Chloe admits she’s worried about Marcus snagging Lucifer as a partner. She confesses that now that she’s trained Lucifer to be a decent partner, Marcus swooped in and grabbed him. As they talk, a laser dot appears on Dan’s face.

Dan and Chloe put their hands up as Wade (Blake Shields) warns them to leave. After Chloe asks about the messages to Alexa, he admits he wrote them. But he wasn’t threatening her, he wrote her a letter to let her know about the Earth’s magma flow. Her movie The Plunge made a mockery out of a serious issue regarding the magma flow. Wade hated the movie, but he got more Twitter followers after the film debuted so he’s not angry with Alexa.

Abel, in Bree’s body, checks out all the women at the bar. Amenadiel (DB Woodside) arrives and tells Abel he’s a pawn brought to Earth by forces he doesn’t understand. Abel thinks Amenadiel’s hitting on him until he shows him a mirror. Abel’s impressed with her female body and finally understands the weird looks from women.

Lucifer Season 3 Episode 16 Recap
Guest star Lauren Lapkus and DB Woodside in the “Infernal Guinea Pig” episode (Photo by Ray Mickshaw / FOX)

Amenadiel asks if he knows how this will end and Abel says it always ends with Cain killing him. He can’t avoid that death because it never changes. Amenadiel hands him a gun, suggesting he kill himself to end the cycle.

Meanwhile, Cain and Lucifer are searching strip clubs and not getting any closer to Abel. However, Lucifer has figured out that when they find Abel, he’ll need to kill Cain to end this. Lucifer asks if Cain thinks he’ll go to Heaven or Hell, and Cain declares his conscious is clear.

Spotting some hotties nearby, Lucifer follows them into the same bar Abel, in his Bree body, is checking out.

Back at the station, Chloe and Dan look over what they retrieved from Ward’s place. Somehow he was sort of right about something and there’s a connection between Alexa and the Bolivian drug cartel. There was even a Bolivian contractor who ended up in LA that very morning.

At the bar, Abel shoots the Bolivian contractor just as Lucifer and Cain arrive. She escapes and Amenadiel doesn’t know where she/he went. Amenadiel reminds Lucifer their dad cursed Cain for a reason and thinks Lucifer’s acting recklessly. Amenadiel doesn’t want to remove the cruse and reminds him their dad can still take things from him, things that matter more than his Devil face. Amenadiel is determined to find Abel and send him back to Hell.

The Bolivian cartel hitman was trying to kill Bree, and Marcus needs to report it to Chloe.

Back at the station, Chloe takes the news well. She’s not even mad they lost Bree but reminds them to clue her in first if they’re going to lose a witness.

Chloe now believes Bree was actually the target, not Alexa. Marcus heads out to find Bree while Lucifer pairs up with Chloe to talk to Alexa. Alexa can’t believe Bree is still alive after suffering fatal internal injuries and claims to be happy she’ll have her assistant back. She can’t function without her. She also says that Bree dealt with the investors, including the Bolivians.

Bree installed a biometric lock on the file cabinet and Alexa can’t get in to retrieve the financial records Chloe wants to look over.

Back at the station, the team figures out Bree was embezzling and that’s why she was the target. Chloe’s still mad Lucifer picked Marcus over her and gives Dan and Lucifer a lecture about loyalty.

Cain meets up with Maze and gets her to help find Abel by saying Amenadiel doesn’t want them to find her. She’s all in, dropping her bounty hunting case to help. She knows Abel would be after food or boobs. Just then Abel arrives at Lucifer’s and shoots Cain before he can react.

Abel does a happy dance over slaying Cain but is immediately shocked to discover he’s not dead. Cain’s still cursed and Abel begs for Cain to deliver a quick death. Maze explains this isn’t a torture and they aren’t in Hell. Abel’s out of Hell and alive.

Lucifer and Cain meet up to discuss Plan C, which doesn’t actually exist.

Bree’s at the police station to keep her safe from the Bolivians. Charlotte and Chloe interrogate her and Bree’s really interested in getting with these women. She’ll share whatever she needs to because she wants to “lay” with each of them. She also reveals she’ll do anything to escape where she’s been.

Amenadiel thinks he’s tracked down Abel but it’s actually a trap set up by Maze to keep him out of Lucifer’s way. They go at it, even though Amenadiel says he doesn’t want to fight.

Dan calls Chloe to let her know Alexa retrieved Bree’s stuff, including her cell phone, from the hospital which is suspicious. Chloe walks Bree through the studio where she works, but Bree doesn’t recognize the place. That doesn’t matter since she still has the same fingerprints so she can open the file cabinet. Dan, Chloe, Lucifer, and Marcus realize the Bolivians were working with Alexa, not Bree, but Bree found out and the cartel tried to pay her off.

Dan wonders why Alexa sent them straight to the place where they’d find proof. Chloe figures out too late that if Bree opens the cabinet, it will explode. Bree puts her finger on the pad and the drawer opens, revealing the bomb. Chloe holds Bree’s hand in place to keep it from going off.

Dan and Marcus tell Chloe over the phone to get out of there, but Chloe won’t leave. Lucifer also wants Chloe to leave and Dan tells her to think about Trixie. Marcus gives Chloe instructions for defusing the bomb, but Lucifer’s furious she won’t get out. Chloe says she’s choosing to be there and tells him he can leave, but he refuses saying he’s her partner. Lucifer takes over holding Bree’s hand on the pad while Chloe disarms the bomb. It works, and Bree is free.

Maze and Amenadiel continue their fighting, and Amenadiel admits he doesn’t understand why Maze is so angry about him and Linda. He reminds her she dumped him, but she’s upset about the sneaking around and the lies. He explains they were trying to protect her, but Maze screams that she doesn’t need protecting. She punches him, but he doesn’t react. She yells at him that it’s no fun if he doesn’t fight back. “It’s about as much fun as watching you break Linda’s heart, I’d say,” replies Amenadiel. She marches off, angry, telling him he ruined even this.

Outside the building, Chloe tells Lucifer they lifted Alexa’s print from the bomb. The cartel was using her films to launder money and Bree was attempting to expose that. Then Chloe thanks Lucifer for staying with her, saying she couldn’t have done it without him. “Without me you wouldn’t have been in danger in the first place,” says Lucifer quietly after Chloe walks away.

Charlotte returns to Dr. Linda’s, ready to trust her this time. She’s scared about doing it, but the Hell loop is even scarier. Charlotte confesses she wakes up, smells the coffee, and sees a man walking into her house. That person shoots her family as she smiles. The man who does it should be in jail but she got him off, and she doesn’t move as her family’s murdered. She’s the reason he’s free. She wakes up every morning like that, but each day it’s someone else who walks in and shoots her family. It’s always someone she set free. All she does is smile each time it happens and die inside again as it happens over and over. She doesn’t know how to stay out of that place but she’s trying her best. Linda tells her it’s a very brave start.

Abel thanks Cain for saving his life. Cain’s still got the mark, and Abel realizes Cain is in a kind of hell, too. They say they’re sorry, but they still need some space and can’t be in each other’s company.

Abel walks away as Lucifer arrives. Lucifer tells Cain he wants to dissolve their alliance because it puts Chloe in danger. If Chloe died, it would have been his fault. He always keeps his word, but breaking this deal is the easiest decision he’s made.

Cain says as long as Abel’s alive, he still has hope. They watch as Abel’s almost hit by one car and breathe a sigh of relief when he’s safe. That only lasts a few secrets as he walks into the path of an ambulance and is killed.

More on Lucifer Season 3:
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 1 “They’re Back, Aren’t They” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 2 “The One with the Baby Carrot” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 3 “Mr. and Mrs. Mazikeen Smith” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 4 “What Would Lucifer Do?” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 5 “Welcome Back, Charlotte Richards” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 6 “Vegas With Some Radish” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 7 “Off the Record” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 8 “Chloe Does Lucifer” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 9 “The Sinnerman” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 10 “The Sin Bin” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 11 “City of Angels?” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 12 “All About Her” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 13 “Til Death Do Us Part” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 14 “My Brother’s Keeper” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 15 “High School Poppycock” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 17 “Let Pinhead Sing!” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 18 “The Last Heartbreak” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 19 “Orange is the New Maze” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 20 “Angel of San Bernardino” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 21 “Anything Pierce Can Do I Can Do Better” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 23 “Quintessential Deckerstar” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Episode 24 “A Devil of My Word” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Bonus Episode “Boo Normal” Recap
Lucifer Season 3 Bonus Episode “Once Upon a Time” Recap