S05.E12: Daniel Espinoza: Naked and Afraid

[paulvdb]

Quote

A straightforward prisoner transport job turns into an increasingly dangerous, yet oddly invigorating, odyssey for Dan.

 

[BabySpinach]

What tied this entire episode together was the last line. 🎉🎉 For the show's first F bomb! 🎉🎉

This ep will probably improve on rewatch, since the first time through I was just impatient for more development in the main plot. But man, what a wild, wacky ride...

Edited May 29, 2021 by BabySpinach

[sharifa70]

With so few episodes to tell a story, I’m not a fan of all this faffing about. I’m also not a fan of Dan being so...hapless. I swear, if he’s that dumb, what does it say about Chloe for having been married to him? How does he even still have his job? The more absurd this got, the more I knew something had to be up: was Dan dreaming? Was this Ella’s novel? Meh.

[Gigi43]

I've been wanting a Dan-centric episode but this wasn't what I had in mind at all. I'm glad Kevin got a lot of screen time and "because you fucking shot me, Daniel" was fun... but that was about it. 

 

Once again Lucifer proves he's never actually done with Maze, like we thought he was in 5x8, since he got her in on the prank. 

[wilnil]

Now I want to go back to Ep. 8 to see if any of this was on Lucifer's "Operation Payback" whiteboard.

[sharifa70]

16 minutes ago, wilnil said:

Now I want to go back to Ep. 8 to see if any of this was on Lucifer's "Operation Payback" whiteboard.

Gaaah! I couldn’t get a sharp enough look to make out the whole thing.

[AnimeMania]

I hated this episode, it was stupid and pointless. I wish Dan had died from one of his multiple concussions, then the joke would be on you, huh, Lucifer.

What did Benito say to Dan, in Spanish, when he was holding his severed head on the dance floor.

If Dan had any brains he would have asked Ella what the antidote was for Ayquina Neurotoxin and see if she had some or could get some fast.

I am not sure how Lucifer got the LA and Mexico police departments to fake the Los X lady's arrest papers.

Edited May 30, 2021 by AnimeMania

[pootlus]

So someone smarter than me wondered how this tied in with Lucifer's revenge plan.  The screenshot is here:

Not much relevance except - in very small letters - SEVERED HEAD IN A BOX.  So Lucifer managed at least one thing on his list!

(You could also argue that "DISMANTLE HIS CAR" and "SEND HIM TO TIJUANA" came pretty close.

[AnimeMania]

7 hours ago, pootlus said:

Not much relevance except - in very small letters - SEVERED HEAD IN A BOX.  So Lucifer managed at least one thing on his list!

(You could also argue that "DISMANTLE HIS CAR" and "SEND HIM TO TIJUANA" came pretty close.

Convince Going to Hell, Hates Dogs

[greekmom]

I actually fast forwarded alot of this episode. Worst one of the series.

[sharifa70]

8 hours ago, pootlus said:

So someone smarter than me wondered how this tied in with Lucifer's revenge plan.  The screenshot is here:Not much relevance except - in very small letters - SEVERED HEAD IN A BOX.  So Lucifer managed at least one thing on his list!

(You could also argue that "DISMANTLE HIS CAR" and "SEND HIM TO TIJUANA" came pretty close.

Thank you for posting this! 

[Anela]

It was odd, but I liked it. I figured it was something like "The Game" and he needed something to let him blow through his angst. My favourite part was that it wasn't a friendly thing to help him at all, but Lucifer getting his own back. 

[Anela]

13 hours ago, pootlus said:

So someone smarter than me wondered how this tied in with Lucifer's revenge plan.  The screenshot is here:

Not much relevance except - in very small letters - SEVERED HEAD IN A BOX.  So Lucifer managed at least one thing on his list!

(You could also argue that "DISMANTLE HIS CAR" and "SEND HIM TO TIJUANA" came pretty close.

This is hilarious. I'd totally forgotten about that. So it wasn't so pointless, we just had to wait a year for the payback. 

[StarBrand]

Indeed, this one is skippable.  It strikes me as the kind of episode that in a 10 episode order, would never have happened. No other ep in season five really feels like that except this one.

Although, Lucifer saying "because you fucking shot me, Dan" was hilarious.

Edited May 30, 2021 by StarBrand

[jewel21]

Dan was having such a crappy, ridiculous day that it reminded me of Xander in the Buffy episode 'The Zeppo.' Towards the end I figured this had to be a dream or God messing with him, but it turned out to be Lucifer instead, heh. I was surprised he thought Maze was dead, though. I thought bullets couldn't kill her since she was a demon. 

[roamyn]

Well at least we got Dan’s naked butt!

[thuganomics85]

I thought this was the first F-bomb on the show so far and I'm glad it was confirmed above!

I'm all for more Dan and I'm glad Kevin Alejandro got to be front and center this time, but outside a few laughs, I thought this was only okay.  Part of the issue was that the more it went on, the more outlandish it got to the point that I knew something was up and it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped.  I did like that it all connected to Lucifer getting revenge for Dan shooting him, but while he obviously has a lot of power to make it all happen, I still think there was way too many variables for it to have worked as smoothly as it did. At the barest minimum, I really don't know why Dan didn't at least try to ask Ella if she ever heard about the supposed toxin he was injected with.

That said, I could probably watch the "Amenadiel carries/flies Dan" scene over and over again.  

While I don't think she would take a bullet for him, I do think Maze cares more about Dan then she would ever, ever admit out loud.

[DoctorAtomic]

This was clever, but I don't like hapless Dan though. I would have liked better if he either figured it out or came to a different ending than planned. 

I can buy that Dan was really pulled around to stop and think. If everyone was in on it, then Dan seriously got injured. 

I could also buy that Dan wouldn't want to drag Ella in and didn't mention the poison, but I would have called UCLA first thing. 

I also wondered about the Easter eggs from past adventures. 

The kgb joke was brilliant. 

Great f bomb though. 

Edited May 31, 2021 by DoctorAtomic

[Anela]

2 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

This was clever, but I don't like hapless Dan though. I would have liked better if he either figured it out or came to a different ending than planned. 

I can buy that Dan was really pulled around to stop and think. If everyone was in on it, then Dan seriously got injured. 

I could also buy that Dan wouldn't want to drag Ella in and didn't mention the poison, but I would have called UCLA first thing. 

I also wondered about the Easter eggs from past adventures. 

The kgb joke was brilliant. 

Great f bomb though. 

He did ask if it might be God, messing with him. 

[tennisgurl]

They could have titled this one Daniel Espinoza And The Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. I figured that something had to be going on, things were just getting too over the top ridiculous even for this show, so while I thought this episode was way too much at times, I do like that it was paying off a joke from over a year ago. It also helped Dan finally get over his confusion about Lucifer and realize that, yeah he's the devil, but that doesn't mean that it has to be weird or anything. That was also a quality use of what I think is the shows first fuck. 

I know that Maze was in on the joke, and Maze is Maze and all, but she did seem to be touched by Dan sincerely telling her how much he appreciates her helping him and that he doesn't mind that she's a demon. Even if she might not have taken a bullet in the chest for him, she does really care about him, in a Maze kind of way.  

My biggest laugh was that the dog was apparently in on it too. 

Edited June 1, 2021 by tennisgurl

[DoctorAtomic]

Was Linda's run in at the restaurant part of the prank? If not, then no, Lucifer can't control everything. 

[madmax]

I thought it was funny.  I laughed a lot at this one.

And that look from both of them after the last line?  Priceless.

[Delphi]

It's so Lucifer to not let shit go but instead plan for months,  while dealing with more important stuff, to plot his revenge. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I noticed on the board Lucifer made that his time line for Dan was basically how they opened the episode. 

[theatremouse]

I might have been in a better mood about this episode had they not done the "dead but obviously not dead" thing immediately before. This show just keeps reminding me nothing ever has actual consequences. I am bored by that.

[Gwendolyn]

On 5/29/2021 at 12:34 AM, pootlus said:

So someone smarter than me wondered how this tied in with Lucifer's revenge plan.  The screenshot is here:

Not much relevance except - in very small letters - SEVERED HEAD IN A BOX.  So Lucifer managed at least one thing on his list!

(You could also argue that "DISMANTLE HIS CAR" and "SEND HIM TO TIJUANA" came pretty close.

I'm surprised how many callbacks there are actually to the white board: Hates dogs, bounty (it would've made more sense to send Maze after the criminal than a cop), severed head in a box, kidnap (that's kind of what Luis did after the bike shop), send him to Tijuana (I'll have to re-watch to see if that's where Dan went), dismantle car/car crash trajectory graph, and convince going to hell. And it could be argued the fear of getting fired is what kept Dan from asking Chloe or Ella for help.

It's totally in character that Lucifer would spend $5 million and call in a ton of favors to get even with Dan for shooting him. Considering the point of Dan shooting him had been to kill him (since he did it while Chloe was around), I can see how Lucifer would see risking Dan's life over and over all day was an equivalent reaction. We've been shown/told time and again that because of their immortality that both Lucifer and Maze both have the emotional maturity of children and therefore the same follow through on the consequences to the mortal human (like 3 concussions in one day) are also lacking.

Despite Kevin Alejandro giving it everything, this episode was stressful to watch until the pay off line with the appropriate f-bomb at the end. So I might enjoy it more on the re-watch. If for no other reason than to re-watch Dan call for a celestial Uber.

[dwmarch]

On 6/1/2021 at 3:10 PM, tennisgurl said:

That was also a quality use of what I think is the shows first fuck. 

I agree, it was. Since jumping from network TV to Netflix, they've kept the cursing in this show to places where it would fit. By comparison, if you want some serious whiplash, take a look at Designated Survivor. On network TV characters would utter mild curses (dammit, son of a bitch) when they were really upset. Once they moved to Netflix and there was no more swear filter every character started swearing in every scene for any reason or for no reason at all. World leaders, government officials, industry titans, all swearing like sailors just because they could. The tween daughter even swore on the show. It was ridiculous.

[sinkwriter]

I got pretty irritated throughout the episode because poor Dan's day just got worse and worse and I was like, come ON. And it annoyed me that no one seemed to care. I mean, true, Lucifer wouldn't really say much or ask if Dan was okay, but Ella would! She didn't even ask him what happened to his head!? That would be one of the first things to come out of my mouth if a friend and colleague walked into my office and was all disheveled and bloody. At that point, I was annoyed. (Especially when you find out that she wasn't in on it, so she would have every reason to be worried about him. Same with Amenadiel and Linda. They would be concerned.)

By the time they got to the showdown, I thought, okay, maybe part of the plan is to fake the Russians' deaths (especially after the first improv guy got shot), so that Dan's corrupt friend would get caught in the nightmare and turn himself in. But when everyone started getting shot, I was like, what the hell is going on? This can't be real. And when Maze got shot, I was like, no way, she's not going out like this. Not yet. No way. So then I knew something more was going on.

But the last line was definitely the best part of the episode. I laughed for several minutes, and even rewound to hear Lucifer say it again. Lol.

[AnimeMania]

Something stupid, Lucifer took a selfie with Daniel in Lux during this episode. Here's how the picture turned out.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSmh1fsoNAm/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=3bb5539b-93b3-41a5-a9ce-dbf70f8969be