Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched the sixth and final season of Netflix’s Lucifer.
All bad things must come to an end. Sadly, in this case, that means Netflix’s hit series, Lucifer. The sixth and final season is now streaming and we’re already missing our favorite devil and all his friends. That being said, we will take solace in the fact that the beloved characters all got the endings they deserved. Chloe [Lauren German] and Lucifer [Tom Ellis] end up together for all of eternity. Amenadiel [D.B. Woodside] became GOD — and his son with Linda [Rachael Harris], Charlie, got his angel wings! Maze [Lesley-Ann Brandt] and Eve [Inbar Lavi] walked down the aisle, Ella [Aimee Garcia] and her “stem initiative” found love with Carol Corbett [Scott Porter]. Heck, even Dan [Kevin Alejandro] got his happy ending with Charlotte Richards [Tricia Helfer] in Heaven!
As we bid adieu to our beloved celestial and earthly characters, ET Zoomed with bosses Joe Henderson and Ildy Modrovich to break down the final moments of the series.
ET: When did you guys decide that you were going to bring Rory into the mix? When did you decide Lucifer and Chloe were going to have this daughter?
J.H. Well, when we found out that we might have a season 6, our first answer, they said, “Do you want to do a season 6?” And our answer was, “No, we don’t. We’re super happy with how we’re sticking this landing. We love this and we don’t want to do it.” And they were like, “Well, listen, if you don’t have a story for it, we don’t want to do it either. But if you have a story worthy of it, we want to do it.” So it was a mixture of incredible responsibility and also incredible excitement because we were like, “OK, let’s give it a swing. Let’s look at it.” And one of the things I love about TV is how much you don’t know the new stories to tell until you get to an ending. You don’t know what beginnings could exist until your characters have gotten to a point where they can start telling you. And so we got to the end of season 5 and we felt like we’d finished everything. And then we talked about the themes we hadn’t explored yet. We talked about where the characters had gotten themselves now. And we realized what we’d explored so much of Lucifer coming to terms with his father and that sense of abandonment. And now that he had dealt with that, what if we turned those tables on Lucifer himself and made him the person abandoning someone? And all of a sudden, we just like, “Whoa!” We got so excited. We started riffing. And then it was like, boom, here’s a story that not only we want to tell, we would have been heartbroken not to tell.
I.M. Yeah. The final chapter in his growth was you might learn something, but then to teach it, you know what I mean? It’s sort of like learning a language. You’re like, OK. I think. But then to actually speak it is a whole other thing. And so I think that was what we realized we hadn’t done with Lucifer. That Lucifer hadn’t been with the roles reversed, been the one who has abandoned, not the one who has been abandoned. And of course we had to figure out, how do we do that? Because he would never do that intentionally, but still get that feeling of, wow, I hurt somebody, so that’s how the season came to be. And we were so excited. We were like, we rule, we were so happy.
ET: Something else that really made sense to me this season was Amenadiel actually taking on the role of God. Kind of walk me through that decision. Was that always the plan?
I.M. You know, it kind of was… We did come to that at the end of season 5, for sure, so I can’t say we started there, but it was the perfect end for his journey to this angel full of hubris and then to see him fall at one point and lose his might and then to regain it, but with humility and with humbleness and with an inclusivity of saying, let’s all do this together and I’m not going to be above you looking down like a pious angel, but to say we’re all in this fight together. And that’s what he learned throughout the season. And it was such a great ending for his character. I feel it was really satisfying.
J.H. Just to me, the person who should be God as the person who doesn’t want it, but the world needs it, and that felt right. And it felt beautiful because here is this life that he wanted to live. He’s got a son, he’s got all of these reasons not to take the job, but we need him and finding a way for him to go, “Hey, I’ll do it, but I’m also going to do it on my terms. I’m going to learn from my father. I’m going to grow. I’ve gone on this incredible journey. I’ve seen how my dad did it,” giving him that arc of learning his own power and learning so much power comes from sharing power was really important to us.
ET: We did not get a Chloe and Lucifer wedding, but we did get an Eve and Maze wedding! Was that always the plan for them? I thought they were the perfect pairing. Is that kind of why you wanted them to be the ones to tie the knot?
J.H. Yeah, I mean, part of it was, we knew where we wanted to end with Lucifer and Chloe sort of together for eternity. And so wedding, no wedding, like to me, they are soulmates. The fun of it was we had discovered this amazing chemistry between Maze and Eve, and we wanted to celebrate that. We wanted to have an opportunity to celebrate their love, to celebrate a demon finding a soul. A woman finding herself. And also like an opportunity for the whole ensemble to cheer on someone that’s so much to them. So the wedding was just a celebration of the show and of those characters.
I.M. What we also realized is that Maze in our final season was the one who was kind of happy. Like ironically, our angry demon was kind of like, “Wait, I think I’m fully realized.” I mean it, which was such a fun thing to play with like in episode eight, the one that D.B. directed so beautifully. She’s like, “I don’t know what’s wrong with you guys.” She’s figured it all out. And it was a really fun new toy to play with for her.
ET: Joe, you did mention, obviously, Chloe and Lucifer do end up together for eternity. Her final time on Earth is, like Rory says, just a blip in time. I did find it funny that her final words to Lucifer were, “I thought you could use a partner.” Why did you ultimately decide to end the series that way — with that scene and with those words?
J.H. I don’t even remember who pitched, ’cause we’ve had that line for a long time. And I don’t know, was that you, Ildy? Ildy nods. That makes sense. That feels right.
ET: I thought the ending was perfect. It’s funny because we did talk about a time jump the last time that I spoke to you guys and you guys were kind of cagey about it and it turns out there is a time jump and we do see Chloe on her deathbed. And then as she crosses over, Amenadiel actually says to her, “Are you ready to go home now?” I assume she’s in Heaven because she’s with Amenadiel but then she goes to Hell. So is her version of Heaven, Hell? Did I understand that correctly or is that just my own interpretation?
J.H. I would argue Lucifer is home for her and vice versa.
I.M. Lucifer’s home.
I.M. I love what you said though about Hell is Heaven for her because it is ’cause that’s where Lucifer is. I just think it’s a great way to put it.
J.H. I’ll walk through the thinking. One of the things was we know Chloe has gone to Heaven. We know that she is this wonderful soul and this great person. And so, I mean, one, we wanted people to wonder, oh my gosh, her Chloe lives for every meal together. And two, we wanted them to feel, oh, her home is with him and he’s been waiting for her, so that Hell becomes a home for him as well.
ET: Lucifer as a therapist in Hell was also brilliant on so many levels because that’s where all of his growth was — with Dr. Linda in therapy. Talk about just the significance of that and was that kind of an “LOL” moment for you guys to be able to do that?
I.M. Yeah, I mean, it seemed fitting also because the end is kind of a bookend to the pilot in a way, he ends the pilot with going to Dr. Linda and starting on the journey of this fallen angel, this broken soul, finding some kind of forgiveness and redemption and that’s where he is. So begins all these other, damned souls’ journeys, on that couch but now Lucifer is on the other side sitting in the hot seat. It just felt poetic in a way, you know?
ET: I do feel like everyone did get a happy ending… Ella and Dan as well. Whose ending was the most challenging for you guys to figure out and why?
J.H. Honestly, I would say Lucifer and Chloe because it kept changing. We knew where we wanted to end, but we also kept revisiting it. We kept tapping it. We kept going, “Does this work? Does this work?” Tom had a lot of thoughts and we really brought him into the conversation and it kept shifting and changing and always within the same sort of world, but it’s the most important relationship of the show and we wouldn’t let it not be exactly what it needed to be. And I personally am just thrilled because I think we ended on the exact right version. But the beauty of it was being open to, can we go this way? Can we go this way? Maybe we tweak this a little bit and make sure we honor the characters.
I.M. It was kind of a microcosm of the way we sort of worked the whole series together because we really did kick the tires hard on it. We, with Tom, we had probably four or five hour-long talks with Tom about it on FaceTime, just really talking it through and then sending each other things. We brought it obviously to the room and we differed in opinion. I mean, we clashed on it. Some wanted almost more of a straight ahead happy ending but we all did want it to not be sappy because that wasn’t our show. Our show was this balance hopefully of dark and light and not having everything be perfect, but finding the beauty and the love in it. So I think we found it.
