In the last two episodes of season three Lucifer kicked it up, giving us the writing we’ve been pleading for all season long. While there were a few solid episodes at the start, the majority were subpar and the character assassinations were too much for some fans. The rest of us hung in there, hoping that big reveal might come in the season finale to make us feel like sitting through the love triangle, pretty much any Pierce scene, was worth it.
Lucifer delivered in the season finale, A Devil of my Word, but it all came too late. With cancellation announced these character won’t be able to continue – or complete – their stories. As someone who invested in this show from episode one, that’s frustrating. We’re all there for the journey, but in the end all we really want is a feeling of completion. That satisfaction that comes with reading that last line in a novel and closing the book.
There still may be a chance for pick-up, slim as it is, and you can read CJ’s 5 Ways You Can Save Lucifer post with tips on how to help if you want more.
I think we all deserve more. I said it a few reviews back and I’m saying it again: we need a ten-episode final season of Chloe working through the truth she can no longer deny. We need Maze finding redemption. Dan grieving and healing, and he and Ella being let in on the truth too. Maybe Trixie too. A darker, grittier big bad, more akin to Malcolm in season 1 than the Sinnerman farce. More devil face, and if not a happy ending at least a satisfying one with hope.
We all know this show is capable of fantastic episodes. I think they could find that consistent quality again.
#SaveLucifer?
A DEVIL OF MY WORD
We open this week at the scene of Charlotte’s murder. Everyone is struggling with the death – except Pierce who’s more worried about his own role in it.
He should be worried, because Dan is on to him, having discovered that Charlotte was investigating his Sinnerman link.
It’s at the precinct, as Dan tries to not sound crazy while delivering the news, that Lucifer is forced to admit he’s aware Pierce is the Sinnerman.
Lucifer handles Dan well as he lunges at the devil, propelled by anger because Lucifer knew. He pulls Dan in for what might appear as a comforting hug to those watching from the other side of the glass.
The team watches as Pierce delivers a speech so laden with false emotion it’s the only proof Chloe needs. Pierce doesn’t get emotional. He did it. He killed Charlotte.
Ella is one of the last of the group to be brought in on the loop. She plays innocent well and fools Pierce into thinking she’s naïve. Pierce, meanwhile, lacks the ability to sound even a tiny bit genuine as he tells her Dan won’t get into any trouble.
He’s on the phone the moment she leaves his office, organizing a hit on Dan.
But it’s a set-up. As Pierce’s assassin points a gun at Dan’s supposedly sleeping form, Chloe moves in.
Lucifer finally makes the connections between the appearance of his devil face, and how he considered himself a monster at the time, and the appearance of his wings, and how that coincided with him doing good. It was never Chloe falling in love with Pierce that freed him of his mark – because she never did – it was Pierce being selfless for once and loving her.
Maze genuinely cares for Linda – yes, this soulless demon is capable – and even still feeling the effects of the drug she takes out Pierce’s men and drags herself to Linda’s office to ensure her friend is okay. And in return Linda takes care of Maze as she recovers. Where Maze sees emotions as weak because she has let Pierce inside her head, Linda is there to correct her: “Emotions are hard, but that’s why they make you strong. And this is the strongest I’ve ever seen you.”
Maze embraces her humanity and apologizes to Linda, before hugging her. For all her demon aspects, Maze is truly at her best when she’s learning from the people around her. The character needed to go though this struggle with her demonic side because now we can really see the growth she has gone through these past three seasons. And while Maze will always struggle with it, I think the hardest part is now behind her.
Ella stands beside the Devil having a crisis about faith. She couldn’t have picked a better person to question God’s actions with. “Big guy, you and I are on rocky ground,” she tells the heavens. Lucifer gets that. He’s had a lifetime of feeling that way.
Dan, like most of these flawed, conflicted characters, has a darker side too, and it’s coming out again as he reminds us of his past actions. He’s no innocent. Moving into season four, this dark side might have come out more. He may have even had his own struggle with keeping it in check while breaking through the darkness the loss of Charlotte is sure to shroud him in. After these past two episodes there’s too much potential for a solid fourth season to allow this show to end like this.
After being led into a trap, the moment between Chloe and Lucifer that the show has been leading up to since the pilot episode happens. F I N A L L Y.
Pierce shoots Chloe and as she falls back against Lucifer, momentarily knocked out by the force of the impact, Lucifer wraps his wings around her to protect her from the gunfire. He is not invincible with Chloe in his arms, and the bullets damage his wings. He flies them out of danger, up to the roof.
It’s in this moment that Chloe is starting to accept the truth. Not only is she suddenly up on the roof, but Lucifer has disappeared.
In one of the best scenes this show has ever done, Lucifer bursts in and uses his wings as weapons, fighting Pierce’s men. They’re bloodied, battered, but still pack a punch. Fueled by rage, this more angelic side of him we’ve seen this season is shaken off as each feather is dislodged. It’s symbolic that he retracts his wings for his final fight with Pierce. There is nothing angelic here.
They fight, but it’s over quickly, with Lucifer embedding one of Maze’s blades into Pierce’s chest.
Pierce won’t be going to Heaven, not after killing Charlotte.
“Deep down, you know you’re a monster,” Lucifer tells him. As he speaks of the fate awaiting Pierce, Lucifer’s own Devil face begins to reappear. It starts with his eyes, as we saw earlier in the season, and slowly spreads as flames lick his face. Neither can outrun who they truly are.
Pierce dies and it’s at this moment Chloe enters the room. Lucifer’s mask has slipped and he’s unaware.
“It’s all true,” Chloe breathes out in shock.
The big reveal has finally happened.
Season four could have been a gloriously angsty journey of Chloe coming to grips with that. There’s so much potential here.
If you want to see more, be loud. Get out there and join in the #SaveLucifer and #PickUpLucifer movement. The show is currently being shopped and fan engagement is part of what will help make this campaign successful.
The Lucifer story should not end here.
