Lucifer Season 5 Episode 12 Recap – Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid

[00:00:50] Dan wakes up and goes through his daily morning routine. He prepares breakfast: a nutritious shake with toast on the side. He also does some morning exercise. He goes to the precinct to work, and Lucifer comes in to pester him. Lucifer’s jokes are no longer funny or irritating to him. He points out that ever since he knew the whole truth, everything doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Lucifer doesn’t understand what Dan is going through. He goes to Chloe and tells her about Dan. Chloe insists Lucifer gives Dan more adjustment time like what she did when she found out the whole truth. Lucifer wants to know if they have a new case to solve. Chloe tells them they do, but it’s just grunt work. Lucifer uses Dan for their case since it’s just grunt work.

[00:04:00] Dan agrees to extradite the criminal from Mexico for them. He tells Lucifer he could use the long drive to process his thoughts. But Chloe has issues with the other officer in Mexico—Luis Navarro. Dan tells Chloe not to worry because he’s no longer a crooked cop like Luis. He assures Chloe he can handle Luis. Dan reaches Mexico and Luis meets him in a bar. There was a mix-up with the paperwork, so the prisoner isn’t going to be transferred until the next morning. Luis invites Dan for a few drinks to pass time. Dan agrees, but a few drinks turn into a whole drinking session. Luis wants Dan’s advice how to become a clean cop. Dan tells Luis about his whole realization about God, the devil, heaven, and hell.

[00:08:00] Luis offers Dan a business proposal that sounded illegal. Dan refuses. Luis respects his decision. Luis introduces Dan to his business partner, Benito. They resume the drinking session as beers are followed by tequilas. The next day, Dan wakes up beside the dead body of Benito. He goes to the bar to call for help. He finds Luis and tells him about Benito. Luis goes to the back to check and confirms that Benito is dead. Dan wants to call it in, but Luis stops him. He tells Dan the Russian mob probably killed Benito because he’s his business partner. Dan asks Luis how much he owes the mob. Luis comes clean and tells him he owes $200,000. Dan gets angry and disappointed. He really thought Luis already has his shit together.

[00:13:00] Luis begs Dan for help. He knows the mob will go after his family. He wants Dan to deliver the money to the mob, so he can stay in Mexico to guard his family. Dan picks up the prisoner and Luis’ money. The prisoner he’s taking to LA is a talker. She wants to know what’s inside the box Dan accepted from Luis. She knows it’s illegal despite Dan telling her otherwise. The prisoner tells Dan she also got into trouble a few years back, but she turned her life around by finding God. She tells Dan to find God, and he will get out of any mess. Dan wants everything to work out for the prisoner, but he gives her a word of caution. He tells her life has a way of blindsiding people.

[00:16:00] Suddenly, a truck rams his squad car. Everything goes black. Dan wakes up in the middle of nowhere with a busted squad car. The prisoner and Luis’ money are gone. Dan tries to call for help, but his phone isn’t working. A car passes by. Dan knows them— Ryan and Kevin from his improv class. He hitches a ride back to LA. Dan goes to Lucifer for help. He explains what happened to Lucifer who laughs and makes a mockery out of him. Dan begs for Lucifer’s help who agrees to help as long as they do things his way. He climbs the fence to go to the back of the store while Lucifer enters the store to talk with the gang.

[00:23:00] Dan sees the box at the back of the store. He does his best to open the lock, but he can’t. Lucifer is having a great time speaking with the gang in the store. Dan hears a noise from the back, so he hides. Someone else knows about Luis’ money. The guy opens the back storage and takes the box. Dan intercepts him and tries to get away. Dan is almost home free when the guard dog wakes up and attacks him. Lucifer is already holding a therapy session with the gang members when they hear the dog barking. He doesn’t have a way out, so Dan makes his way to the front of the store. The prisoner recognizes him, so Lucifer has to improvise. He tells Dan to escape while he holds the gang off.

[00:27:00] Dan takes one of the bikes from the store and leaves. He notices blood is dripping from the box. A car gets in front of his bike which sends him flying. Luis comes out to pick up Benito’s head inside the box. He tells Dan he isn’t supposed to look inside the box. One of Luis’ henchmen knocks Dan out. They bring him back to his apartment to speak with him. Luis tricked Dan; he isn’t making a payment to the mob. He is sending them a message. He discovered Benito is working with the mob, double-crossing him. Luis killed Benito and planned to send Dan with his head to the mob. The guy Dan met at the bike shop is one of Luis’ men. Since Dan interfered with the plan, he’s now involved with Luis and his gang.

[00:30:00] Luis poisons Dan with some neurotoxin. He instructs him to kill a Russian bookkeeper to get the antidote. Dan has 10 hours to kill the bookkeeper, or he’ll end up dead. He returns to the precinct to ask Ella for help. Dan wants to fake the murder and asks for her help. Ella tells Dan she will help because she’s also working on faking a murder for her novel. Ella explains how Dan can pull off the fake murder. He goes to a house in the middle of nowhere with all his gear. He knocks on the door, and a woman named Svetlana opens the door. She sees Dan is a police, so she wants him to leave. Dan explains someone sent him to kill her, but they will fake her death instead.

[00:35:00] Svetlana distracts Dan. As soon as he turns around, she hits him on the head. Dan passes out again. By the time he wakes up, Svetlana is gone. She took all his gear and his car. Dan doesn’t know what to do, so he calls a friend for help. He gives him his location, and his friend arrives. Dan called Amenadiel. He didn’t have a choice. He wants a quick ride back to his apartment. Amenadiel tells him he isn’t an Uber. Dan begs Amenadiel, so he agrees to fly him back to LA. He tells Amenadiel he might puke on him and pass out on the way to LA. Dan arrives at his apartment to find Maze waiting for him. Maze hears from Lucifer about Dan’s problem, and she wants a firsthand account of things.

[00:39:00] Dan agrees to tell her everything as long as she doesn’t laugh about it. Maze laughs maniacally hard as Dan is having the most ridiculous day ever. Dan doesn’t share in her amusement because he had six hours left to get the antidote. Maze comes up with a plan to screw Luis and get him his antidote without killing Svetlana. Dan appreciates Maze for helping him. Maze tells Dan she’s only helping because she considers him a friend. Maze tells Dan he’ll be Joe Stone because his real name sounds like a cop. Dan meets with the Russian mob to explain his plan. They agree to the plan because Maze vouches for Joe Stone. Dan is about to shake on the deal when Linda approaches him.

[00:43:00] Dan gets up and goes over to Linda. She realizes Dan is undercover when he asks her to hit him. Linda hits him like a boxer. Dan returns to the table and tells the Russians that Linda is his mistress. Linda rushes to the table and spews water on Dan’s face. The Russians like Joe Stone even better with all the theatrics that happened. Dan returns to Lux to put on one of Lucifer’s suits. He’s having second thoughts about their plan, but Lucifer assures him everything will be alright. Dan thinks Lucifer will be there as his backup but he won’t. Lucifer tells Dan he’s got bad relationships with Russians and doesn’t want to jinx the plan. Lucifer assures Dan he got him some muscle to help with security.

[00:46:00] Ryan and Kevin arrive as Dan’s muscle. He doesn’t want to involve them, but Luis and his men arrive. Dan can’t do anything but just act out with them. Maze arrives with Svetlana. She’s still alive. Maze explains Luis could kill Svetlana on his own so that he could assure himself Svetlana is dead. The Russians arrive to save Svetlana, and everyone draws their guns. Dan tells everyone to stop. He tells them it won’t do anyone any good if they kill each other that night. The Russians lower their weapons and so do Luis and his men. Ryan and the rest of the improv crew lower their weapons too. Maze lets Svetlana go then lowers her dagger. The Los X’s suddenly appears. Ryan provokes them, so they start shooting him. Ryan falls to the ground and dies instantly. Everyone starts shooting one another.

[00:49:00] All the improv team gets shot and dies. Maze uses Svetlana as a human shield and tells Dan to find the antidote. Dan struggles to get hold of the antidote as he squirms and crawls around the club. Everyone dies as Luis manages to shoot the Russian mob boss. Luis shoots the vial from Dan’s hand and is about to shoot him. Maze takes the bullet for Dan. The Russian mob boss shoots Luis and kills him. He calls out to Joe Stone with his dying breath. Dan cries and apologizes at Maze’s lifeless body. He’s the only one left alive as Lucifer arrives to ask him what happened. Dan tells Lucifer he’s just trying to help someone, but one thing led to another. Everyone is dead.

[00:52:00] Lucifer tells Dan that people who don’t deserve to get shot were shot while he’s trying to do good things. Dan doesn’t understand why Lucifer tells him that, but Ryan gets up and apologizes. He could no longer hold his laughter. Everyone gets up laughing and hugs each other. Lucifer congratulates everyone and tells them it’s party time. Dan realizes everything was just a prank. No one died as he roamed around the club, speaking with everyone. The Russian mob boss invites Dan to his wedding as Luis apologizes to him. He tells Dan that Lucifer offered him a lot of money, so he couldn’t resist. Benito comes running in with his fake severed head. Dan can’t believe everyone was in on it, and Lucifer planned everything.

[00:54:00] Maze tells Dan he should contact Amenadiel and everyone else to tell them he’s okay. Maze laughs at Dan’s reaction to their prank. Dan tells Maze he really thought she died. Maze won’t take a bullet to the chest for him. Lucifer approaches Dan at the bar. He tells him every penny he spent was totally worth it. Dan can’t believe Lucifer planned everything. Lucifer tells him he’s predictable, so his plan was successful because he knows Dan will use his optimism to push through. He adds that Dan is always trying to do good despite everything turning against him. Dan thanks Lucifer for the prank. He’s very depressed about everything, and the prank did a lot of good for him.

[00:56:30] Lucifer gets disappointed. He didn’t prank Dan to help him get over his problems. Lucifer pranked Dan to get back at him for shooting him.