Netflix Lucifer Season 5b: Complete Review

Popular Netflix Original, Lucifer’s Season 5b (S5:P2) has officially been released on 28^th May, 2021 globally on the platform itself. This season has been long-awaited by fans all around the globe and this anticipation has been building up since one and a half year now, which was halted due to this pandemic situation we are in. Especially after the first half of the season ended on a cliff-hanger with God (Dennis Haysbert) himself, appearing in the police precinct where the trio, namely Lucifer (Tom Ellis), Amenadiel (D.B Woodside) and Michael (Tom Ellis) were amidst a ‘brotherly squabble’ as Lucifer calls it later in the show.

Netflix Brings In A Lot Of Family Drama

In the first three episodes we witness the ‘Universe’s most dysfunctional family’, as the God’s eldest, most favourite son puts it. This statement was given during a family dinner which embarked the estranged relationship story the sons have with their Father, alongside keeping a constant alignment with Biblical instances. Twins Michael and Samael (Lucifer) get into a heated argument about who is better off. Michael claims Lucifer is lucky since he got his own kingdom to rule to which Lucifer replies that even though he was the King of Hell, it was still hell. As to state, the Devil himself got tired and frustrated of dealing with tortured, guilty souls for several millennia. He also points out suggestively that Hell no longer requires a warden, which is confirmed seeing that God didn’t particularly reply to this question. He also didn’t reply to another question asked by Lucifer, that whether God loves them and much to their displeasure, were left without no solid answer yet again. Understandably, Amenadiel fears the pain his mortal son will face as he grows up, and the beautifully executed exchange he has with his Father forces him to accept Charlie’s fate notwithstanding his touching offer to surrender his own immortality. God has now decided to linger his stay on Earth longer, and also has sent Michael back to The Silver City (rightly so!). This episode also covers the most heart-breaking dialogue by Lucifer from the trailer that says, ‘If I ever say those three words to you, it’d be a lie’. Well, much to our surprise, the Detective (Lauren German) handles it quite well this time around.

The following episodes show God wanting to be a permanent part of his children’s lives apparently to make up for the lost time with them. He turns every scenario into a full on high-school musical which the series literally took out of Damien Chazelle film. Chloe Decker, the Detective, confronts the God and goes on pulling a charge sheet of how he messed up in his decisions regarding his child(ren) and how he is a terrible father, respectfully. Later in the episode we see an emotional, musical heart-to-heart between God and his rebel son by the end of which a shocking revelation is made: God is losing control of his powers. Ooooh, right? Subsequently, the Devil now wants a relationship with his father and shows him the place he works, where like most critical fathers he points out his lack of desk and delegation at the precinct. This is when Dan Espinoza (Kevin Alejandro), Detective Douche, meets God and soon goes into a drinking spree on realizing he slept with God’s wife, as God Himself pointed out. (Spoiler: God does blast Dan into dust and grime, also putting him back together. Due to his glitch in powers or jealousy, he doesn’t specify). Father and son now meet Dr. Linda Martin (Rachael Harris) for some family counsel and to their surprised they get lashed on by our dear Linda who got into an argument with her baby daddy on the topic that their son, Charlie is a mere human and is somehow a disgrace to his father’s angelic being. Following this not-so-fruitful session with Linda, God gets heavily involved in His sons’ lives, giving up his divinity to turn into a mortal, also forgetting where he stored his powers (I mean now that he is human, a little old-age oblivion is allowed, right?). Fast-forward he gets into an in-depth conversation with little Trixie (Scarlett Estevez) about ‘denial’ (who has inherited her parents’ sense of righteousness, by the way) and remembers the location of the power storage, which turns out to be at ‘Home’ and resumes his responsibility as the Almighty. Not to forget, the possessiveness and care Lucifer displayed for his father despite several millennia of indifference.

Now that these first few episodes have had a fair share of familial drama, they establish that celestial beings are indeed not so different from the humans after all.

Netflix Does Focus On Supporting Characters

Further along the season we get a higher focus on our supporting characters, namely, Mazikeen (Lesley-Ann Brandt), Dan and Ella (Aimee Garcia), who are all dealing with their own demons. Lucifer being his Devilish self takes his revenge on Dan for shooting him by staging an elaborate (very over-the-top) prank which involves poor Dan thinking he got several people killed including Maze. Although, it helped Dan get out of his swamp he recently hit and realising that his oafish optimism is what makes him strong, Lucifer was happy doing his part and spending a hefty amount (some millions) of money. Cash never bothered him anyway!

Forensic expert Ella Lopez is shown to be in the process of healing from the betrayal Pete (her serial killer boyfriend, played by Alexander Koch). She has come to believe that she is only attracted to bad people proving she herself is a bad person (unbelievable!). Even though a number of people provided her with validations of her being one of the best people out there, which includes Dan, Linda, Amenadiel, she still struggles to accept this as the truth. Eventually, she comes to terms with her inner ‘darkness’ after Daddy Morningstar (a.k.a God) tells her, ‘the darker the darkness, the brighter the light. And you, my child, shine very, very bright. I can see it all the way from Heaven.’ This really touched her, although she didn’t suspect anything (phew!).

Having made amends with both his sons, God now wishes to retire from his duty, asking Amenadiel and Lucifer to keep it a secret amongst them. Only to throw a huge retirement barbeque with all his children in a park, midst of the city of Los Angeles. He successfully dodges the question of his successor and emphasises on his ‘retirement plan’. In dire effort to prove him worthy of being God, Lucifer goes on a spree of curating the perfect retirement for his old man, totally losing any interest or attention in the case he and the Detective are handling at that point. No wonder Chloe isn’t excited about him yearning to be God, but supports him, nevertheless. By the end of that investigation, it suddenly strikes what would be the ideal retirement for his father; reuniting with his wife, as he mentioned the Goddess of All Creation to be the only woman he will ever love (after Lucifer tried to set him up with Penelope Decker, played by Rebecca De Mornay. Classic him!). He then requests his sister Gabriel (Kimia Behpoornia), Angel of Messages, to ask his mother to visit their father on Earth. To which, we behold the Goddess at Lux, with enough juice for this one-way ticket, once again in Charlotte Richards’ body which apparently her permanent vessel on the earthly plane. (Well, we certainly do not complain, I mean who wouldn’t want Tricia Helfer back on screen!) The creators of the Universe reunite and decide to fulfil their matrimony, but in Her Universe. It indeed leads to a rather emotional parting of Father and sons, leaving the latter on yet another cliff-hanger: he wouldn’t name a successor since he wants them to pave the way on their own, which is all part of his elaborate plan. He then disappears into a godly aura (duh), giving this heart-warming smile which binds the whole reason why Dennis Haysbert is the absolute fit for God (it was really beautiful).

Sometime later, following a very heartfelt talk with her mother, Chloe gets inspired to aid Lucifer in becoming God and decides to quit LAPD and become God’s consultant. As the couple are about to have a moment post Chloe’s sacrificial disclosure, Remiel (Vinessa Vidotto) flies down to the penthouse bearing the news of Michael gathering all the support of their siblings to back him for the thrones of Heaven and that she, will back Lucifer while spying on the evil twin. It is also revealed to the viewers that Gabriel was all along in line with Michael and she came bearing gifts from her Mother’s Universe: Azrael’s blade (the blade which can kill any celestial being. It did kill Uriel (Michael Imperioli) in one of the previous seasons. Also Azrael is played by Charlyne Yi).

Lucifer Yearns To Be God

At this point Lucifer is trying a bit too hard to win the swing votes from his siblings to support his candidature for God. Disappointing as it is, he ends up getting none no matter how much he tried to bribe with money, women, wine or lure with handsome Hollywood crushes. Driven with desperation, he drops the façade to wanting to keep the evil brother from getting the throne sales pitch, and reveals his true motivation behind this prospect. He is doing this to be worthy of Chloe. Cherry on top, the receiver of this revelation is none other than Zadkiel (Joel Rush), who to say ‘despises’ Lucifer, would be an understatement (I mean, he is the Angel of Righteousness after all). Meanwhile, ever since Chloe announced her retirement to her precinct with an emotional speech, to which Ella is visibly upset; Dan takes up a case of French fences stealing valuables off of dead bodies. On one such encounter Dan is taken hostage and beaten mercilessly trying to get him to give up the identity of a lead on that case, about which Dan actually has no clue. He does try to fight and leave but gets shot multiple times and bleeds to death. That too in Chloe’s arms after he reveals the lead he discovered. It is the penultimate episode of the series and leaves every character and, needless to say, viewers in deep despair (I legit Cried!). Adding fuel to the fire, he ends up in Hell subject to not dealing with his guilt on the earthly plane.

One silver lining, Maze and Eve (Indar Lavi) are back on! They met at a bounty scene where Eve (now a bounty hunter too) was actually trying to impress Maze into getting back with her but she gets shot at and ends up in the ER. She lives but the thought of losing Maze did try and convince Eve to take her mother, Lilith’s (again Lesley-Ann Brandt) immortality ring. To which Eve politely replies that she doesn’t wish to live forever because of what it resulted for her son Cain (Marcus Pierce in previous seasons, played by Tom Welling). Maze says she cannot be with her if she will potentially die (you know the whole soul-growing thing) and leaves her again. But when Dan dies, Maze is an angry mess because she misses her friend. Linda then explains her, ‘Never loving someone is far worse than losing a loved one’, which made Maze realize that she wants to be with Eve even if she will die a human.

Proceeding further, what unfolds is Michael is trying to assemble the Flaming Sword, the ultimate, most powerful weapon gracing the Universe. This information is conveyed to Lucifer and Chloe a few days after Dan’s death when Remiel winds up dead in the penthouse’s balcony, killed by Azrael’s blade. This happened shortly after Michael came with a ‘peace offering’ for his twin to return back to Hell as its warden with Chloe with him for eternity, since she blames herself for Trixie’s being fatherless for life and that guilt will be her doom. Michael also accepts he got Dan killed and killed their sister himself.

Grand Season Finale: The Final Showdown

They (Lucifer, Chloe, Amenadiel and Maze) team up to channel their anger and resentment towards the evil contender of throne and devise a plan to defeat him. The following day being the final ‘election’, Lucifer, Chloe and Amenadiel try and stall the celestial gang while Maze ‘calls in help’. Much to everyone’s utter surprise, Zadkiel (the righteous brother) backs Lucifer claiming his reason for the throne is as noble as it can be. Everyone lands on the decision of fight till death between the twins, resulting in the last standing to be named God. Michael activates the Flaming Sword and a clashing battle embarks between him and Lucifer. The latter clearly having the advantage overpowers Lucifer, just when Chloe comes in and blindsided him into dissembling the Sword. But their triumph is short-lived as Michael shoves a shaft (with which Lucifer was fighting) into her belly, killing her instantly. Lucifer refuses to accept her death and flies to Heaven to bring her back, despite knowing he will turn to ashes due to the banishment he is subjected to. Well, he lands in The Silver City, very much unharmed, having Lilith’s immortality ring around his finger, which can only save him for so long. He finds Chloe, who has now reunited with her father (John Decker played by Russell Simpson) in Heaven and reminds her of her unfulfilled duties on Earth. After receiving the validation from her father, she accepts to go back with Lucifer, to which the latter denies owing to the fact that Lilith’s ring only has enough power to send only one of them back to Earth. Lucifer, with every ounce of the love he has for Chloe, selflessly takes the ring off and puts it in Chloe’s finger along with Amenadiel’s celestial necklace of strength. We see Lucifer bursting into flames and Chloe tries to make sense of what’s happening. She, in a blink of an eye, wakes up back on Earth amidst the battlefield, which now has broken into intense fight between Lucifer’s side and Michael’s, with a towering Michael over her and realizes that her love is gone for good. Channelling this anger, coupled with the super-human strength from the necklace she clasps, kicks and punches Michael with all her might and puts up a good fight. By the end of which she holds Azrael’s blade to his throat and is getting provoked by Michael into killing him. Just in time she suddenly turns around at the warning by Lucifer to stop as it is not her to kill someone out of anger. Everyone is bewildered as to how be this possible. Lucifer then punishes Michael by chopping his wings off instead of killing him for good, only to let himself hit by reality that he is still alive. It doesn’t take the others as much time and everyone, including Michael bow before their new King of Heaven, acknowledging Lucifer, now Samael, The Lightbringer as The God, Almighty.

Well, that was all Lucifer Season 5, Part 2 had in store for us. We sure are now waiting for the next season 6, which is also going to be the final season of this series.

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