‘Lucifer’ Season 3 Episode 20 Recap: Angel of San Bernardino

Lucifer Season 3 Episode 20 Recap
Tom Ellis in ‘Lucifer’ season 3 episode 20 (Photo Credit: Fox)

Fox’s Lucifer finally returns after a much too long three-week break with season three episode 20. The episode titled “Angel of San Bernardino” features one of Tom Ellis’ best ever performances and moves multiple storylines along, some in surprisingly shocking ways.

Season three episode 20 begins with a woman waking in the middle of the night to the sound of arguing in her house. A gunshot rings out and as she’s about to be shot, she sees an angel whisk away the killer.

Over at the station, Pierce (Tom Welling) and Chloe (Lauren German) escape to the evidence closet for a make-out session. Shortly thereafter, Pierce joins Lucifer and Chloe at a crime scene. Lucifer’s pissed because Pierce kills their banter, but Pierce says he’s only there because the victim is well-connected. Chloe, meanwhile, acts all jumpy and guilty.

Ella (Aimee Garcia) is already at the crime scene and introduces them to the murder victim, Kevin. He’s from a very wealthy family, but apparently he was renting a room at this house and was shot in the chest by an intruder. The home’s owner explains what she heard, including the fact the killer knew Kevin’s name.

She then describes the angel she believes flew in and saved her. She also claims the angel took her Saint Gabriel figurine when he flew away.

Chloe thinks she’s joking when she asks if it’s one of Lucifer’s brothers, but Pierce lags behind Chloe as she walks away to ask if it could be one of Lucifer’s siblings. Lucifer can’t believe Pierce thinks his dad would send someone down to Earth just to stop a murder.

Amenadiel (DB Woodside) show’s up at Lucifer’s, anxious that Charlotte might tell someone what they told her. He’s worried about what she’ll do now that she knows. Lucifer, however, doesn’t care because no one would believe her anyway. Lucifer then asks if Amenadiel knows if there’s an angel around who’s randomly saving people. Amenadiel claims that angel would have to be bored or confused.

After Amenadiel leaves, Lucifer finds the Saint Gabriel figurine on his bedroom floor.

Lucifer takes the figurine to Dr. Linda (Rachael Harris), confused where it came from. He thinks it might be a sex toy but Linda wonders if he’s “sleep flying” since he’s having trouble sleeping now. She thinks he’s conflicted over Chloe’s relationship with Pierce, but he assures her he’s not a 16-year-old crying in his bedroom listening to Adele.

Chloe and Pierce enjoy an afternoon together at her place, but then she sends him away before Trixie comes home. She’s not ready to introduce her daughter to any man yet.

Lucifer calls her in and he’s incredibly worried about solving this case. He needs to prove he wasn’t the angel and Chloe assures him he’s not. Chloe informs her partner that their murder victim, Kevin, fought with a guy named Phil and off they go to speak with him at a ritzy rehab facility.

Phil’s not upset about Kevin’s death and calls him a douchebag. Phil’s a TV producer and is sure he doesn’t have to explain his whereabouts, having nine legal shows under his belt. Lucifer goes berserk and demands to know if the angel who appeared at Kevin’s murder looked like him. Phil, understandably confused, explains he and Kevin always argued about rehab and getting clean. Phil punched him and that was all. Phil then provides his alibi; he was with hookers. Turns out Phil’s a sex addict.

As they’re getting ready to leave, Chloe expresses concern over Lucifer’s state of mind. Lucifer is adamant that he needs to solve this murder, but Chloe sends him home to rest.

Lucifer borrows Chloe’s handcuffs and chains himself to the floor before falling asleep on his bed. Amenadiel wakes Lucifer up the next morning and Lucifer’s not happy to see his brother. “On the list of things I like to wake up to, your face falls someplace after a horse’s head and Coldplay tickets.”

Amenadiel shows him a newspaper with an article on the Angel of San Bernardino. Lucifer and Amenadiel believe Lucifer’s the do-gooder angel because his handcuffs are broken and his bed’s messy.

Lucifer reads the article but still can’t wrap his head around the fact it’s likely describing him. Amenadiel believes he caused this by making Lucifer reveal his wings to Charlotte. God must be punishing them by making Lucifer do good deeds. Lucifer knows only the killer can verify the angel’s identity, so he heads off to work.

Ella tells Pierce she thinks his relationship with Chloe is cute. However, she knows Ella hasn’t said I love you yet and thinks he should be patient.

Charlotte (Tricia Helfer) spends the morning telling people what she really thinks, which results in her insulting anyone who crosses her path. Done with the insults, she drags Dan (Kevin Alejandro) away from the station for an impromptu lunch date.

Chloe and Lucifer visit Kevin’s exe and her new husband, Jeremy, and she reveals they used to do drugs together. She says Kevin liked drugs more than her and she hasn’t talked to him in years. He called her occasionally but she didn’t talk to him because he always wanted money for drugs.

Charlotte and Dan have a few drinks over lunch and she’s super happy she’s now able to just speak her mind. Charlotte believes she can do what she wants because she’s got a direct line to God and what she wants to do now is get naked in the restaurant’s supply closet with Dan. Dan’s up for it and strips down in the closet. Unfortunately, the male manager’s the one who discovers Dan posing naked in the closet…

Lucifer Season 3 Episode 20 Recapeview
Tom Ellis in ‘Lucifer’ season 3 episode 20 (Photo Credit: Fox)

Chloe does research while Lucifer paces, telling her once again about his concern that he might be the Angel of San Bernardino. Chloe suggests he go home and get some sleep but when he says that’s when he becomes the Angel, she tells him to stay awake then. He decides that’s a great idea and does whatever it takes to stay awake including tons of drugs, getting his freak on with women, constructing weird table things, riding tricycles, and participating in a fight club. But when he flips on the television and discovers Bones, he’s instantly fascinated. (Thanks for the entertaining montage with a mostly shirtless Tom Ellis, Lucifer writers!)

Chloe and Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt) have a chat over the phone, and Maze apologizes for upsetting Trixie.

Lucifer shows up at the station looking horrible and doesn’t have any idea he’s been gone for a week. He explains he’s just watched all 12 riveting seasons of Bones and calls Chloe “Booth.” He’s decided Bones is a documentary of their partnership. He rattles off a bunch of facts about the human skeleton and only settles down when Chloe shows him a surveillance video of Kevin getting arrested a few months ago. Kevin was with a guy named Matt Kessman who might be Kevin’s dealer.

Chloe and Lucifer head over to see Matt and Lucifer’s barely keeping it together. He grabs a cup of coffee with lots of sugar and then watches from a balcony as Matt delivers a toast at a wedding. Matt introduces himself to the wedding guests as a doctor and Chloe thinks he’s lying. She and Lucifer follow him into the parking garage and watch as he meets with the groom.

Matt’s holding a wad of cash and Lucifer launches into a lengthy rant. He’s confusing what’s going on now with an episode of Bones. He then realizes Matt is an actor who actually was on that episode of Bones. The groom admits he hired Matt to be his best man because he doesn’t have any friends.

Chloe wants to know why Matt was fighting with Kevin in the alley. Matt explains he was hired to be Kevin’s friend and to get him to do drugs, but Kevin wouldn’t. Matt doesn’t know who hired him, but he got the job through Masquerade, Inc.

Maze visits Pierce at his place and confirms she talked to Chloe. Maze is happy to be part of Pierce’s plan to get Decker to fall for him. She wants Decker to suffer when Pierce vanishes without any warning. Pierce doesn’t care who gets hurt as long as he’s finally able to die. The key is for Pierce to work his way into Decker’s heart and that should make him vulnerable in her presence, just like Lucifer.

Chloe and Lucifer look up Masquerade, Inc and figure out whoever hired Matt is probably the killer. Lucifer wants to head out now but Chloe wants him to go home and sleep. He pounds the table and yells he can’t sleep in front of everyone, and Chloe has him take a seat in the interrogation room.

Lucifer’s out of control and falling apart, telling Chloe his wings are back and his father’s manipulating him. He thinks it’s either that or Linda’s right and he’s suppressing feelings about Chloe and Pierce. Chloe ignores the angel stuff and asks why he doesn’t like her relationship with Pierce. Lucifer continues on, telling the truth and revealing Pierce is really Cain and has been around for eons. Pierce only cares about ridding himself of the curse his father placed on him. Chloe, of course, doesn’t really listen, but she does confess she’s happy when she’s around Pierce. He treats her right and she thinks he’s a good man. She almost says she loves him.

Amenadiel visits Charlotte who’s just purchased an expensive diamond necklace. She’s carefree after deciding to spend money and not worry about things. She believes Amenadiel and Lucifer can take her to Heaven when the time comes so nothing matters. Amenadiel explains they can’t get anyone into Heaven and Charlotte gets upset, realizing she relapsed into her old ways. She’s certain she’ll go to Hell.

Trixie looks up the Masquerade, Inc site on her mom’s work computer. Pierce walks by and waves, and Chloe finally opens up to Trixie about her relationship with Pierce. She confesses she likes him a lot and wants Trixie to like him too. Trixie asks if that’s the reason she’s been so happy lately, and Chloe admits it is.

Meanwhile, Jeremy wanders around his house and spots an open window. He spots Lucifer seated in the corner of his living room. Lucifer flips on the light and asks, “Trouble sleeping?”

Lucifer admits he knows Jeremy used to be an actor. Lucifer also puts two and two together and figures out Jeremy’s wife hired him to play husband and father, and Lucifer thinks Jeremy was also hired to kill Kevin. However, it turns out Jeremy’s “wife” actually fell in love with him and so he needed to get rid of Kevin.

Lucifer demands to know if Jeremy saw the angel at the murder scene, but Jeremy’s sure no one was there. The homeowner saw the reflection of the figurine’s wings on the wall and thought there was a real angel saving her from being murdered. Jeremy stole the figurine and then destroyed it because it had his fingerprints on it.

Lucifer’s confused about how it got to his house and pissed Jeremy destroyed Kevin’s family and used his weaknesses against him. As he’s talking, Lucifer realizes Pierce is the one who set the whole angel thing up.

Chloe arrives at Jeremy’s right after Lucifer takes off, and he immediately confesses he killed Kevin and he’s a pathetic imposter.

Lucifer frantically looks through his place for the figurine so he can convince Chloe that Pierce isn’t a good guy. He explains all this to Maze when she arrives, yelling about how Chloe wouldn’t believe him. Lucifer finally finds the figurine and Maze convinces him to sit down and tell her the whole story. She hands him a drink and he thanks her, saying it’s very kind of her. That act of kindness is so unlike Maze that Lucifer realizes she’s helping Pierce.

Maze confirms this angel thing is all her idea. She planted the figurine after Pierce told her about the woman who claimed to see an angel. Maze taunts Lucifer with the details of what she’s managed to pull off. She tapped into his daddy issues and when she keeps talking, he realizes she’s stalling him.

Lucifer races off to Chloe’s and Maze laughs as he leaves. (Maze season two was so much more fun than Maze season three.)

Pierce arrives at Chloe’s place with a piece of chocolate cake. Trixie’s out for the night so Chloe teases they can share it together tomorrow morning, hinting that Pierce can spend the night. Chloe’s done worrying about how this affects everybody else. She confesses she really likes spending time with him and as she’s about to say, “I love you,” Pierce stops her. She thinks he’s pressing pause because it’s scary to be in this relationship. Instead, he tells her she’s making it too hard and it’s not worth it. Of course, Chloe doesn’t understand the true meaning behind his words. He leaves her place and screams in frustration once he’s outside her door.

Lucifer arrives at Chloe’s and Trixie lets him in the door. He sees Chloe’s expression and leaves without saying a word, heading over to Pierce’s place. (Tom Ellis is absolutely terrific in this episode).

Lucifer punches Pierce in the face, screaming at him for hurting Chloe. Pierce admits he just needed Chloe to say she loves him, but then realized he couldn’t do that to her. Lucifer warns Pierce that since he hurt Chloe, he should prepare for a beating. As they talk, Lucifer notices Pierce’s mark is gone.

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 16 “Infernal Guinea Pig” 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 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