After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, Lucifer is back, and we have our Lucifer season 5B review. SPOILER — if you’re a fan, you’ll love this
Speaking of spoilers, we’ll keep this as light as we can — there are plenty of huge moments.
If you need a reminder of where the show had paused, check out our season 5A article. In a nutshell, Lucifer’s twin brother Michael has been causing trouble and their father (God, played by Dennis Haysbert) has arrived on Earth. Meanwhile Lucifer (Tom Ellis) and Chloe (Lauren German) consummated their relationship, though he has yet to say those three little words. Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt) wants a soul, Linda (Rachael Harris) revealed a daughter, Dan (Kevin Alejandro) found out about Lucifer actually being the Devil, Amenediel (DB Woodside) worried about his son, and Ella (Aimee Garcia) has bad taste in men. Back to our Lucifer season 5B review…
Not the final season
There’s a shape to these new eight episodes. When written, the show was concluding at the end of this run. However, it was renewed before the finale was finished, prompting a rethink to leave something for season 6.
It was widely teased there might be death, God would be thinking about retiring, and there would be a big battle between Lucifer and his brother, with Lucifer’s allies few in number. On the way to the finale, we had a much heralded musical episode (Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam — our favourite track [just] Every Breath You Take) and each of the main characters got a story focussed on them. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll now know why Linda slaps Dan (hard), Linda gets arrested, how the Flaming Sword gets back to Earth and how we end in a big battle.
It’s fair to say each character hits a cusp in their life and starts the transition to the next stage, which would have been off-screen had the show ended here. Instead there’s plenty of food for thought for season 6.
Tom Ellis gets a lot to do as both Lucifer and Michael, but we also enjoyed how Chloe has evolved and is happy to work through Lucifer’s inability to express his feelings, or even believe them. The presence of God in a few episodes was amusing yet poignant, and Chloe’s comments to him are brilliant.
Family Matters
We got to see many more of Lucifer’s angelic siblings: Remiel in particular adds to the story. There are a lot more returning characters (such as Inbar Lavi’s Eve) for cameo moments, including two (the only ones we hadn’t predicted) right at the end. There’s a family dinner at Linda’s and a later meal for Chloe, Lucifer, God and a date whom Lucifer lines up for his father. Here’s the point to mention the millennia of anger Lucifer has stored and up tries to work through with his father before God moves on, leaving a vacancy.
While the show can only end in a few ways (it’s rare a hero doesn’t make it through to the end, but it does happen, even when shows bear their name), they avoid it was all a dream / test / big reset and fans need a box of tissues several times. We liked Dan’s reaction to the idea Lucifer might become God; we were keen for Trixie to find out the truth, Maze fretted about souls and we hope Ella gets a chance to develop further with whatever season 6 throws her way.
If we wanted to be critical (as we should) we could point out how both the romance and the day to day business of police work take second place to Celestial matters, but it’s good to see a show evolve, even if we hope it isn’t too different when it returns.
Summary
This is not a jumping on point for new fans (start with season 4 and the big flashback trailer). The show’s many fans love the blend of good-humoured romance mixed with police-procedural, twists of darkness and the Celestial. Lucifer season 5B does a lot for the key characters and touches lots of moments from earlier in season 5 and much before. If you had a list of things you’d like to see before the show ends (we do), this ticks a lot of those boxes. This is more of the same but with more at stake, some real emotional lows and some epic highs. Had it finished here it would have ended on a high, the only question now is how to match the standard for the final season.
You can catch the whole of Lucifer seasons 4 and 5 on Netflix, season 3 on Prime and (at present) you can’t watch seasons 1 or 2 as part of a subscription in the UK (unlike in the US). We expect that to change.
RATING: 