(Warning: This post contains massive spoilers for the series finale of “Lucifer.”)
Just when it seemed like Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) and Chloe Decker (Lauren German) would get their well-deserved happy ending after saving the life of their time-traveling, half-angel adult daughter Rory (Brianna Hildebrand), the reunited family had to go and finally figure out why Lucifer abandoned his daughter in the future: To become the proper ruler of Hell he was always meant to be, transforming into a Devil who doesn’t punish, but works to help the damned resolve their issues and move on to heaven.
Lucifer is very reluctant to go, knowing that he will miss Rory’s childhood and the rest of Chloe’s human life, with Rory going through all of the trauma she has already experienced once in the future again, unable to know why her father left her. But the Devil agrees to go back down below because Rory begs him to do so, telling Lucifer and Chloe that she doesn’t want them to change a thing they have done to lead them to this moment, because she does not want herself to change in any way, and knows she will be with them, just like this, again one day.
In the closing moments of the series, we see Chloe living out her days here on Earth with her daughters Trixie (Scarlett Estevez) and Rory, growing old and dying in front of Rory, and arriving in front of Lucifer’s therapist-like office — modeled after Dr. Linda’s (Rachael Harris) — where he’s seeing patients in Hell.
It’s a “heartbreaking” journey for Deckerstar, but one that German and Ellis both think was necessary.
“It is. It’s heartbreaking. And also what had to be done,” German told TheWrap. “I think even as the audience looking on, if it wasn’t that way, it doesn’t make the very, very ending as gratifying, right? So to know that they both did the right thing, more or less, did the right thing for Rory. Chloe stayed and is a mom and Lucifer is gathering this new journey, this new purpose that he has. It’s heartbreaking. But as Tom says, it’s bittersweet and you do get the sweet, at the end. But I think it was super smart, I think it’s the way it should have gone.”
Ellis added: “We didn’t want to do an end to show where the audience have their cake and eat it and then had some more cake and then more cake after that. It just didn’t feel right. It feels like that’s not a true reflection of what this show has been, or a true reflection of what we’re maybe trying to say at the end of it. And I think that to have that sacrifice made at the end, to understand that sacrifice, for Rory and Lucifer to truly understand why they didn’t spend their lives together, was the most important thing. Because once they understood that, they could accept it and then that made everything else fall into place.”
He continued, “But not knowing is the worst. And so them kind of like finding that within the season was the satisfaction that was needed. But I feel like it was important that Lucifer made some kind of sacrifice at the end of the show. Because, yes, you talk about Chloe’s human life, but as an audience member and as the characters we now know — Chloe knows there’s an afterlife, she knows Lucifer is immortal. So there’s only one person that’s going to lose in that situation if she didn’t know there was an afterlife, and that’s Chloe. And now it’s like, ‘Hold on, we can plan for further down the road.’ But what we would trick our audience into thinking is not think about that, we want to think about the here and now. So they didn’t live happily ever after — but they did, because they could.”
So what does “happily ever after” look like for these two in Hell? Will we hear wedding bells ringing for the couple that never got to tie the knot on Earth?
“I don’t know, what do you think, Tom? Do you think we have one?” German asked her co-star.
“Oh, definitely, and Vincent Le Mec is one of the bridesmaids,” Ellis said, referring to Robert Benedict’s villainous character who Lucifer is currently trying to help become a better man in Hell.
German added: “And Colman Domingo [who played Father Frank Lawrence] comes back and officiates.”
As for whether or not German and Ellis ever plan on reprising these roles for more “Lucifer” — the show that has been canceled and revived a miraculous number of times — at some point in the future, German offers one way she thinks it could work.
“My fantasy is that we shoot a ‘Lucifer’ movie, but in the style of ‘Naked Gun’ and ‘Airplane!’ So if we could ask the fans if they are ok with a ‘Naked Gun’/’Airplane’-style ‘Lucifer’ movie (laughs),” German said. “But no, I mean, Tom says it so well, how do you say it, muffin? It’s the right time to say goodbye.”
“It does feel like the right time,” Ellis said. “Never say never, and all of those things, but this feels like, this incarnation of these characters in this show, this feels like this is the right time to finish. Will we ever reprise these roles again? I don’t know. I don’t know. But at least the movie sounds fun in the future!”
German added: “That would be a riot!”
Read TheWrap’s interview with the “Lucifer” showrunners about series finale here and check back throughout the weekend for more “Lucifer” final season coverage.