Lucifer 5B review: Those pesky relationships and loose ends

Lucifer season 5B doesn’t pull any punches. God’s arrival in Los Angeles was meant to help stop his sons from killing each other in a battle royale-style fight, but his presence also helps everyone in Lucifer’s universe to think about the people around them and how their connections impact their lives.

SPOILERS FOR LUCIFER SEASON 5B FOLLOW

The theme of Lucifer 5B is relationships. Fathers and sons. Mothers and daughters. Brothers. Friends. Lovers. This theme carries through the entirety of 5B and delivers some powerful punches along the way.

God’s presence in Los Angeles has caused some serious introspection among the team as each member of the cast contemplates his or her own situation and how they would like things to be. For some the answers are clear, but for others it’s complicated.

Longtime Lucifer fans will love 5B because it takes a deep dive into each character so that everyone has their time to shine. The writers balance the episodes out by keeping several characters involved in each story so there’s never a time when it feels like the characters are too far removed from the story.

Lucifer season 5B brings everyone together after tearing them apart

After coming out of a global pandemic, if there’s one thing that we can all appreciate right now it’s the importance of the people in our lives. Lucifer has been struggling with the notion that he’s not worthy of Chloe’s love, stemming from his daddy issues. Once God is able to show him how much he’s always cared, Lucifer’s eyes are opened to the possibility that he’s been seeing things the wrong way all along.

With his new vantage point, Lucifer sets out to take over when God decides it’s time to retire, and it’s not until the very last episode that he manages to speak the three little words fans have waited for. Yes, Lucifer tells Chloe he loves her, right as he’s about to perish.

But let’s back up a moment, because there are so many big moments in this episode that we don’t want to start out with one of the bigger moments from 5B.

There are cameos. Tricia Helfer returns as God’s wife, Charlotte. Inbar Lavi returns as Eve. Brian Voltaggio, the celebrity chef, shows up as an incentive for one of Lucifer’s siblings to support his campaign to take over. God is able to resolve his issues with Charlotte and return to her dimension. Eve shows up as a bounty hunter and ends up showing Maze how much she loves her.

Amenadiel struggles with the idea of his son Charlie being mortal, but his decision to be a good father no matter what happens supersedes everything. Linda comes face to face with the daughter she gave up for adoption, and the experience helps her let go of her past so she can focus on her future.

Maze, who has been on a quest to get a soul, finds out she’s had one all along. When Eve shows up she is forced to face her fears of losing her or give her up entirely. She decides that she can’t live without her.

The biggest journey of the season goes to Dan. Dan’s journey begins when he gets punked by Lucifer, who wanted to make up for the time Dan shot him. After living through the worst day of his life and thinking he’s lost everyone in his life, he’s able to make peace with losing Charlotte and the discovery that the people in his life are celestials. (Watching him squirm when God addresses his relationship with Charlotte is so much fun) But Dan’s journey comes to an end when he gets shot by a group of mercenaries.

Dan’s loss in the penultimate episode of the season brings everyone together. Bygones are bygones. What’s important in the final battle against Michael is that they stand together. And it’s in those moments when Lucifer is able to tell Chloe how he really feels.

Lucifer 5B is about relationships, and in the end all of the petty squabbles are meaningless when you consider the fragility of human life. When Dan’s life is lost, it brings everyone together so that they can face an uphill battle against Michael, who orchestrated Dan’s death and put plans into motion so that Chloe would feel so guilty that she’d end up in hell. Michael doesn’t understand the connections Lucifer’s friends share, so he’s caught off guard when Team Lucifer is able to rise up and fight when it counts.

Each episode in 5B is a celebration of the show and its characters. It’s a love letter to fans, setting up the show’s final season. I particularly like the fact that they eschewed a cliffhanger and gave fans some closure and a sense of what’s coming in season 6. Lucifer is god, Chloe is alive, they’re in love and they will probably be searching for Dan’s soul now that the battle is over.

The Lucifer writers are masters of the slow burn, but Lucifer 5B is thoroughly fulfilling and it gives fans plenty of enjoyment as well as a burst of excitement heading into the show’s final season.

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