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Lucifer: Partners 'Til the End

"Because if the devil can be redeemed, then anyone can."

We've finally reached the end. I'm still not ready.

A series finale is always a very weird episode, especially to review. It's so inherently tied up with fan expectations and hopes that it often ends up being a review of the series as a whole. Especially when you love the show as much as I love this one. It's been my favorite show on air since about halfway through Season One, and I've been burned by a few finales recently.

If you've been reading my reviews so far this season, then you can probably guess how I feel about the ending, and it's a shame because this was an excellent episode leading up to that. Putting aside the issues with Rory getting kidnapped that I'm still not over (she has all the human weaknesses? Since when...?), seeing her chained up with her wings pinned was both a heartbreaking and a stunning visual. This situation was her worst fear. She finally got her father back, got confirmation that he loved her and was committed to her, and now she was going to be used to bring him to his death, both as bait and with her feathers as the murder weapon. How does someone even deal with that possibility, especially knowing that Lucifer disappears?

It's Chloe and Lucifer's worst fear too. Their baby girl is in danger, and there was a very strong chance that Lucifer wasn't going to walk out of that showdown. I could have very easily seen Chloe lie to Rory about why Lucifer left if it was because he died saving her in order to spare her the guilt. Luckily it didn't come to that. I adored the pair of them storming the warehouse. Lucifer obviously got the flashier stuff with his wings and super strength, but Chloe was just as effective and vicious. I love the way that it was shot, too. Loved Chloe getting sidelined due to stabbing less, even if there was a nice "full circle" feeling to it thanks to it being in the same location that she was shot back in the first episode.

Besides, the confrontation between Le Mec, Lucifer, and Rory really was a crowning moment for the father/daughter relationship, as well as the entire series arc. Rory screaming out "Dad" and him talking her out of murder and a devil face of her own was just perfection. It made me tear up. And I was incredibly pleased to see Le Mec slowly die and the fear as he realized that there was only darkness waiting for him.

All of this brings up the concept of Lucifer as a healer, a moral guide. A Lightbringer. Hell doesn't need a warden anymore. It needs someone who can help the broken and the damned and bring them the peace that they deserve. I love this. It makes sense for a character who has insisted time and time again that he wasn't evil and that he only reacted to and punished due to people's own actions. Now, he's reached a level of maturity where he can support and correct instead of harm. He can finally shed the image of the devil and embrace the angel. The fact that this help extends to people like Le Mec also carries a really interesting message. He's not there just to help the Dans of Hell. He's there to help everyone. Anyone can be redeemed. Anyone can achieve happiness and peace.

But did he really have to completely abandon his life and family on Earth in order to fulfill this role?

I know, I know. They have eternity. Forty years is a blip to celestials. Logically, I understand that but emotionally, I don't care. This entire series has been about Lucifer, and Maze and Amenadiel, coming to Earth and building a home and a family here, surrounded by people who love them. All of that got taken away from Lucifer. He couldn't enjoy any of it. And it still feels cruel to both Rory and Chloe for forcing them to go through the anger and pain that led to Rory time traveling in the first place. It feels unfair, and that angered me. I know that Lucifer and Chloe have eternity together. I know that no one is really dead and gone thanks to the existence of Heaven and the afterlife. I know that the ending is fundamentally happy. I just hate the forced separation beforehand.

At least we got Chloe and Lucifer at the piano one last time, playing "Heart and Soul." The two of them sitting next to each other made me sob.

So where does this all leave the series as a whole? How do I feel as I finally say goodbye to Lucifer and the world within it? Right now, a little empty, but satisfied. Everything was tied up. A complete story was told, and it was fundamentally happy at its core. We got to watch each character grow and change and find their calling, and every single one of them felt fundamentally right. Everyone left in a better place than when they arrived. I really can't ask or hope for anything more than that. I don't feel the need for the story to continue, although the idea of Lucifer and Chloe together giving therapy sessions could definitely be played for some comedy.

I feel like I've just said goodbye to a very dear friend, one that I will sorely miss.

Random Thoughts

Were we supposed to know who the female mercenary was? I felt like I was supposed to recognize her, but I didn't.

I adored Amenadiel's fist pump when Charlie's wings popped out. And Linda's look of utter shock.

Dan and Charlotte together in Heaven was completely perfect, and it only got better with the waffles and the pudding.

It was nice to see Sonya again and promoted. Hopefully, she and Chloe ended up doing some good together.

I really, really wish that we saw Trixie learn the truth. How do you explain anything like this to her?

Amenadiel in all white was absolutely gorgeous. Godhood looked good on him.

Thank you to everyone who has read and commented along with me over these last few seasons. It's always been a treat to read your thoughts!
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.

9 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Fangirl. This was a monster of a series, and you finished it. A huge accomplishment. Thank you. :)

    I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that I really loved this finale. They went really big but they also went really personal. I was braced for a tragic ending, and yes, a long separation like that was tragic. But the two of them helping the souls in Hell with therapy made me happy. It capped all of the therapy Lucifer had with Linda that made him such a different being.

    And Amenadiel as a loving God made me happy. Dan and Charlotte in Heaven together really made me happy. I also wish we'd gotten a Trixie moment, but the lack of it didn't ruin things. In fact, this last season made me want to watch the entire series again someday.

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  2. Thanks, Billie! And thanks for having me on site for the reviews! :)

    I definitely want to watch this series again someday too. Even with it's rough patched (*cough cough* Season 3) it's one of my favorite series of all time and one of the more consistent ones as well. I think I'll love this episode more as the pain and annoyance of them separating wears off. Now that I know it's coming, it be something I can prepare for haha

    And yes, Dan and Charlotte made me very, very happy. I was totally prepared to not see him at all, but them confirmed to be together and happy was exactly what I had hoped.

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  3. Bwagh! I’ve been waiting for this review since I binged the last couple of episodes. I agree about hating the forced separation - you’d think Amenagod would be... amenable if nothing else.

    This episode just gave so many payoffs. Rory’s situation was enough to tie everything together for me, and give good context to her teeny attitude. It felt like a crappy role for Chloe - lying her whole remaining life while Lucifer is therapisting it down below. Even that had a payoff though.

    Thanks for all the reviews. I’ve read since the first and enjoyed them all.

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  4. Ah, Doux Reviews has finally caught up with me! I loved this episode. I wept and wept. The final solution was something worthy to make Lucifer abandon Chloe and Rory - saving all the damned souls.

    It would have been wonderful to see Trixie, but there are problems with trying to age a tiny teenage actor. My opinion is that she has known the truth for years. She is the one who made that drawing of Lucifer and Chloe, in which Lucifer is a devil. Moreover, there was that (not so good) episode in which Maze used Trixie to learn about her mother and the ring.

    The end is perfect. Lucifer and Chloe have always gotten their thrills from working together (I think young Lucifer rebelled against God because he was bored). Finding out the core guilt of each damned soul will appeal to the Detective. This is much better than just living the good life up in Heaven.

    Thanks so much, Honest Fangirl!

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  5. I liked that the last season was more a send off and epilogue for the characters than major plot points and milestones. Weve done that already this season was just more of a celebration.
    It was mostly great and i had the same feeling of frustration but satisfaction. My only peeve was how Le mec got hold of Rory but again that would have made more sense if he took Trixie first and Rory tried to intervene but got herself hurt.

    Trixies actress was unavailable for a lot of the season and i think that hurt it in some ways as she wasn't as connected to everything (hardly got any Trixie and Maze) and they missed an opportunity of her finding out and having some unexpectedly flippant reaction to it all. (My head canon) but also she didn't even get a goodbye with Lucifer. Rather than bringing in a character like Adam for no reason but to be a plot and agenda device that time could have been used to have Rory have more time bonding with Lucifer but also spending more time around Charlie and Trixie who we hear are her future peers. With so many lovable characters its easy to say what they missed out on giving us so that is also the mark of a good show that you always want more interaction between the characters you like so much.

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  6. Anonymous, I really liked that last line of yours. It *is* the mark of a good show when you always want more interaction between characters you like. Lucifer to a T.

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  7. It was a fitting and satisfying finale for the show. Honest Fangirl, you called it early in the season: Everybody was lying to Rory her whole life. At her insistence, no less. It's still hard to imagine everybody carrying off the deception for decades, but at least the reasoning behind it was sound, given the risks of changing the future.

    This episode also made me reevaluate my reaction to "A Lot Dirtier Than That" which at the time struck me as a way to shoehorn trendy concerns of the day into the show. The transformation of hell from a place of punishment to a place of healing now looks like the core story arc of the show, and God's plan in placing Chloe in his way was presumably to bring this about. With that in place, Amenadiel's stint as a cop in Season 6 and Chloe's subsequent work to clean up the department gives us a parallel story for the LAPD. It was punishment of the guilty that first drew Lucifer to the police, but Amenadiel's story envisions a more protective/healing role for the police in the community. Maybe they wanted to use Hell as a metaphor for the justice system all along. If so, I think they needed to explore some of these themes more in earlier seasons, but it's an ambitious and interesting idea.

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  8. Thanks ladies for the lovely review ride for this fabulous show.

    I admit that I was confused why Luci couldn’t go to Earth to at least see Chloe in secret, if Amenigod did. But then someone posted that if Lucifer ran into Rory, or someone slipped up and mentioned he was on Earth, Rory might not have self-actualized time travel, and through the domino effect, Dan might not have come to his realization abt leaving Trixie, there for not getting to Heaven.

    And that’s what I was most looking forward to. I would’ve preferred to see their greeting, but I loved the waffle & pudding touch.

    So Remy was right. There WAS a new celestial! I loved Amenigod’s fist bump. I hope they saved all that bubble wrap. DB, BTW looked hella good in that white version of his S1 robes (*dress*)

    Toward the end I actually burst out crying. And I realized that was because it really hit me that this show is over. No other show has made me feel that way. Yes,I cried at the end of ‘SPN’, but that was because of what happen in the finale. Only ‘Lucifer’ brought me to tears this way.

    Thank you to everyone involved, but mostly the writers for their sharp wit, weaving of storylines, and fleshing out real, flawed humans & celestials, right from the get go.

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  9. Overall, it was good finale. Did it end the way I wanted it to, did the storylines all make sense, was some of it terribly over the top and unrealistic and illogical? Yes. I didn't hate it though, I just thought they could have done better and it wouldn't have been saccharine or fairytale-like and it would have given meaning what had gone before. Meaning all the trials and tribulations that Lucifer and Chloe and the rest of them had gone through and not trivialized it with thrown away lines. [I would have eliminated the Adam/Rory storylines myself] The main thing I didn't like was having him do therapy in Hell and not be with the family he fought and died for, it felt like they were punishing Lucifer the same way he thought his Dad had. I also didn't like that Trixie didn't get to say goodbye to Lucifer. That was the bookend I needed, but it is what it is as they say.

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