‘Lucifer’ Bonus Episode ‘Once Upon A Time’ Recap: Deckerstar No Matter What [SPOILERS]

It would probably piss Lucifer off that the big man himself narrates one of the best episodes of the show. And in the voice of none other than one of Lucifer’s co-creators and author of “American Gods” Neil Gaiman. And yet, “Once Upon A Time” is one of the most hilarious episodes of the show up to date. Kudos to the show’s own Kevin Alejandro who acts as Detective Espinosa for this successful directorial debut. It’s like a total reset of “Lucifer’s” pilot episode but, a bit funnier and a lot more emotional because, well, memories.

In an alternate universe created by Lucifer’s mom, Lucifer (Tom Ellis) and Chloe (Lauren German) never met.  As for the others, let’s just say they’re all the same and well and no one’s dead yet. But, everyone’s surely in for a hilarious surprise. After all, this is the one world where God has not one nudge in it.

Pilot Reversed

This episode starts quite gruesomely with Chloe being gunned down to death. But, as Chloe starts choking on the blood capsule, the cameras stop rolling. Her good friend and stuntman Stryder Novac (Rocky Myers) comes to the aid of the now famous actress and lead character in a hit cop movie. As they walk along, Stryder tells Chloe that he’s not going to be on set to do the car stunt for her the next day. He got his dream job as a NASCAR driver. And he invites Chloe to have a drink with him.

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Chloe humors Stryder’s invitation to Lux. And there, she just passes by, with Lucifer completely oblivious to her. On the other hand, a breathing, living Charlotte Richards (Tricia Helfer) approaches Lucifer as his attorney. She presents him the papers for his Vegas Lux expansion. And Lucifer takes her to the penthouse where they engage in quite a steamy moment which Lucifer also stops. Apparently, he’s more in the mood of business. He escorts Charlotte to his safe and opens it up to reveal his in cash payment for the expansion.

Unfortunately, Lucifer wakes up in the morning to find a dead Stryder Novac in his club. And to complete the whole pilot episode reprise, a familiar detective arrives to investigate: Detective Espinosa or as Lucifer calls him now Detective Dildo. As per usual, Lucifer criticizes Dan by reminding him of the Delila case (as in pilot episode Delila) that went to the wind because of him. And since the devil doesn’t trust this corrupt LAPD as he calls it, he vows to clean up the mess on his own.

Friends Off Tangent

Meanwhile, Chloe shows up as a guest star in a show like Dr. Phil’s. In this world, it’s Dr. Linda. And she does her job as a therapist just like before but, on national TV and with celebrities instead of the devil and the occasional demon.

Afterward, Chloe turns up at the LAPD, not as a real cop, but as the daughter of Lt. John Decker (Louis Herthum). In this world, the bullet missed papa Decker’s heart a few inches to the right, so he’s still alive and kicking. Chloe asks him about Stryder’s case, and her dad tells her that it looks to have been a bar fight. Chloe objects and tells him that Stryder’s not going to mess up his career in NASCAR with a bar fight. Her father promises to look into it but, tells her that that’s as far as she goes with her involvement in the case.

On the other hand, Lucifer takes the murder weapon he nicked from the crime scene to his good friend and professional car thief Ella. She identifies it as a T-handle torque screwdriver which specifically seems to have come from a pro-racer toolkit. Aside from the sharpened tip, it’s like the other screwdrivers. So, with a bit of money, Lucifer leaves it in Ella’s care so she could find out more about it as he heads to the race tracks.

Bad Cop Got Too Real  

By the tracks, Lucifer finds Chloe impersonating a detective. So far, she’s found that Stryder was supposed to replace Rex Wilson (David Meunier) in NASCAR. And she suspects that Wilson was behind Stryder’s death so he wouldn’t replace the famous old driver. Lucifer introduces himself and volunteers to take the case off Chloe’s hands. But, Chloe refuses to accept his help and goes off on her own.

Meanwhile, Dan is busy embezzling money in the precinct. (This is the topsiest turvy so far in this alternate reality.) Charlotte catches him in the act and offers him a bigger deal: Lucifer’s safe. Dan is hesitantly in teaming up with Charlotte but, she convinces him otherwise. And in that little exchange, the sparks seem to have far flown already.

Back on the race tracks, Lucifer plants himself right in the middle of Wilson’s path and gets into prayer position. Just as Wilson’s car comes to hit him, Amenadiel stops the time. Lucifer thanks his brother for his swift arrival and realizes that Amenadiel has become quick these days.

After a little bit of digging, the devil realizes his brother hasn’t gone home in a while. Because Amenadiel can’t bring Lucy back to hell, his pride won’t let him face their family in the silver city. As Amenadiel let’s go of his hold on time, Lucifer yanks out Wilson from his car. He confronts Wilson but, Wilson’s team comes along, and the driver is handed over to Chloe.

Another Deckerstar Begins

Chloe tries to scare the information out of Wilson. Then Lucifer comes along and does his mind trick which leads Wilson to spill everything. Wilson has established a managing agency, and Novac was one of his clients. Stryder was supposed to purposely replace him in the tracks. And apparently, Stryder needed the money to get himself out of a jam with a coworker. Realizing that they have the same goal, Chloe offers to work with Lucifer. He almost refuses but, she convinces him with the information that she knows who Stryder had a beef with.

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Meanwhile, Linda’s show is doing well. However, well is not enough. Now, one of the producers is forcing her to reveal an affair to the actor she was currently on the show. Linda refuses knowing it would completely break him down. But, she has to choose between that or the ratings.

On the other hand, Chloe introduces Lucifer to her co-star Erika Dunlap, the person Stryder was having trouble with. As she waits for them outside Erika’s trailer, her father catches sight of her. Lucifer comes out of the trailer clearly disheveled from some happy time with Erika. And Lt. Decker doesn’t hold back on telling his daughter to quit playing detective. Lucifer comes to Chloe’s defense but, he’s only met with papa Decker’s fierce indignation.

No matter, Lucifer reveals that Erika asked Stryder to lie at court that she got injured on set so she could get the money she needed. But, he wouldn’t do it. Instead, Stryder and a partner came up with another plan to steal something from the set. And he promised Erika he would help her out. Chloe realizes that Stryder must’ve backed out of the heist to protect his NASCAR career. And his partner did not like that at all.

No One Steals From The Devil

Meanwhile, Charlotte pushes through with her and Dan’s plan. She opens up Lucifer’s safe but, is caught red-handed by none other than the devil’s most trusted demon, Maze. Along with a cult-like group, Maze ties up Charlotte to a chair and asks her to tell the truth for her freedom. Charlotte eventually cracks and says she’s stealing because she deserves it. And she’s going to spend it however it pleases her.

The answer seems to satisfy Maze, and she lets the attorney go. But, before she goes, Maze makes it clear that with the path Charlotte’s taking, they’ll be meeting in the future somewhere very familiar to another version of Charlotte – hell.

Back to Stryder’s case, Lucifer takes Chloe to Ella. Upon seeing her, Ella gushes on about how big a fan she is of the actress. In fact, Chloe’s character is Ella’s inspiration of being a car thief. In favor to Chloe, Ella tells them what she found on the screwdriver. The clues lead them to the stunt coordinator Ben Rogers.

The pair goes back to set and finds Rogers driving off with the $6 million Porsche for the movie. Just in time, they manage to stop him. Chloe bluffs about finding his prints on the murder weapon and it sends Rogers running.

Lucifer corners the man and Rogers admits to the crime saying that Stryder’s refusal to go through with the plan forced his hand. Rogers lets out some bullets on the devil but, since he’s still immortal at that point, it did no actual good. In one pathetic attempt, Rogers tries to flee again but, Chloe’s golf club stumps him. Chloe mistakenly thought Rogers grabbed a prop gun.

Lucifer Is Still Not Happy With His Dear Old Dad

Later on, Lt. Decker takes back his words and admits that Chloe is a brave woman who’s smarter than him and more headstrong than her mother. He pushed her away when it came to his work because he didn’t want her to be in danger. After all, a parent just wants what’s best for their child. At that moment, Lucifer realizes that their dads may not be so alike as he thought before. Chloe gives it the benefit of the doubt but, Lucifer refuses to hold his breath.

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As for the others, Ella’s busy admiring her newly Chloe autographed movie poster. Maze is doing her own thing branding a new member of her cult. Linda just caused an emotional breakdown from an actor on the air for ratings. Amenadiel still refuses to involve himself in human contact no matter how obvious he wants to. And lastly, Dan and Charlotte are busy running off with all of Lucifer’s money (They’re criminals but, at least they’re together this time).

At the end of the day, Lucifer and Chloe meet up. And Chloe opens up her desire to join the force. Lucifer offers to tag along. And thus starts the Deckerstar adventure we all know. After all, as God says, no matter how much you shake things up, some end up making the same choices, drawn to the same people and the same passions. Considering, everything actually ended pretty well.

So, God asks, “Does that mean I shouldn’t have manipulated things, to begin with? But, more importantly, wouldn’t you if you were in my shoes? After all, a parent wants what’s best for his child.”