If you, along with most pop culture-loving nerds, miss watching new episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer every week, then it’s about time that you check out Lucifer.

Fox’s drama about the devil (Tom Ellis) vacating his throne in Hell and retiring to Los Angeles has really hit its stride in season two, playing more into the comedy as well as the heart wrenching drama. And according to one of the show’s stars, it’s about to pay homage to Joss Whedon’s iconic series in an upcoming episode.

“[I’m excited for] episode 8,” Aimee Garcia told us on set in Vancouver. “I think that it gives almost an homage to Buffy the Vampire [Slayer].”

It’s funny that she name dropped that particular series, since one of Lucifer‘s stars was actually a major part of the final season! DB Woodside, who plays Amenadiel on Lucifer, starred as Principal Robin Wood in season seven of Buffy, and he agrees that his Fox series is starting to feel a lot like Buffy in recent episodes.

“The network was really struggling with how to promote this show, knowing what it really was,” Woodside said. “There’s no show on television like it. We’re the modern day Buffy where we do comedy and then we can spin it and do hardcore drama and then at the same time, horror and this kind of supernatural thing that we do. We feel really comfortable in that now, knowing that we don’t have to be one thing. In television nowadays, that’s so hard. Everyone wants to identify a show as this is what it is. So when you have a show that doesn’t aspire to be one thing, I think it confuses people because we become a little bit overly simplistic and this show refuses to do that. We are what we are. There is no other show on TV like us and we’re proud of that. We hope people will continue to watch and I believe they will.”

According to Garcia, who plays LAPD’s spiritual forensic scientist Ella, episode 8 is her heaviest episode yet.

“You get to see her relationship with Lucifer unfold,” Garcia shared. “For most people, Lucifer is a panty-dropper. Let’s just call it what it is: he’s charming, he’s hot, looks great in a suit, that accent is out of control, so you look at him and you’re like, put a baby inside me. But with Ella, what I love about her, she’s not immune in the way that Chloe’s [Lauren German] immune, but she just gets all up in there, has no sense of personal space and just ends up hugging him. What I love is that he trusts her, he asks her for a favor, and for the first time in this episode, she puts her job on the line for him for this favor that he calls on, and she’s like come clean with me. We see a different relationship. ‘I need you tell me the truth.’ Does he tell her the truth like he just did with Dr. Linda [Rachael Harris] or does he not?”

Lucifer shocked viewers in the past two episodes when he decided to come clean to Linda about his true identity as the devil, and Ellis reveals that his reckless decision to tell the truth will have far-reaching consequences for every character on the show moving forward.

“That was quite literally one of the most exposing moments on this show so far,” Ellis confessed. “But also emotionally, for Lucifer, it was an exposing moment where he just made this decision to show the person that he trusts and to not get the reaction he was hoping for leaves him in a place where for the first time, he’s playing catch up. He wants to go back to Linda and in typical Lucifer style, doesn’t really want to talk about the elephant in the room because he’d rather just crack on with life. So he’s very, very exposed and vulnerable.”

He continued, “What he realizes is he’s turned her into a gibbering wreck and it’s not until the intervention of Maze [Lesley-Ann Brandt] that Linda gets some kind of light on that subject. The reality of it becomes a different thing and she’s left with a choice. It’s really good for the show that at least one of our human characters really does understand and believe for the right reasons. It’s not about faith, it’s about actuality. Further down the road, I think there may be some regrets there.”

And as for how this revelation is going to rock Linda’s world moving forward, Harris had only this to say: “Her mind is completely blown.”

According to Brandt, Maze is going to play a huge role in helping Linda adjust to her new worldview, knowing that the devil and demons and Hell are all real, and that is going to change their dynamic in a big and surprising way.

“Those scenes are my favorite in the season so far because it explores the need for this very strong female character to fit in and be accepted,” Brandt shared. “Especially after episode 4, she learns about sisterhood and female friendships and what it is to be there for someone or to have your friends be proud of you, and ultimately that’s all she wants her friend to do and be. There’s a selfishness that Maze feels to what Lucifer did by revealing himself. She bares a cross for his decisions. She always has to come in and save the day. That gets tiring. Like any friend who feels a little not appreciated, that’s going to hit and there’s going to be some issues going forward, for sure.”

But at least Maze has now found a new calling as a bounty hunter.

“The bounty hunting is cool because Maze has found a way to hunt, a legal hunt, essentially,” Brandt said with a laugh. “People who are seen by humanity as bad, she’s still very much a demon and if she had the choice between torture for bad or torture for good, she’d choose torture over whatever any day. But she’s going to find her new purpose on Earth because she can’t go home. She used that ticket up at the end of the first season. It makes her feel good, it gives her a sense of confidence, but moving forward, she still is going to struggle with finding her feet as a demon.”

What did you think of Lucifer‘s big reveal? Tweet me your thoughts at @SydneyBucksbaum!

Lucifer airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Fox.

Images: Fox