Lucifer Season 3 - Series Finale

[shadowkat]

So saw The Lucifer Finale -- which does wrap up a lot of loose ends and does deliver in a few spots. But, was also disappointing in others. I didn't like as well as someone on FB did. Mainly because I thought once again they wasted a lot of time on the procedural and getting everyone on the same page. It was somewhat rushed in places, and the pacing was off. In short it contained all the issues that I've had with this series during the entirety of Season 3 -- bad pacing, too much focus on lame-ass procedural, and not enough on the Supernatural aspects or characterization.

Lucifer's biggest problem was trying to be cop buddy-show/supernatural hybrid and that's shown in spades here.

OTOH, I did like how it wrapped a few things up and...



1. Maze and Dr. Linda bond and Maze finally shows and tells Dr. Linda how she feels about her. Maze rushes to her -- to ensure she's okay and hasn't been hurt by Pierce. And has to fight 12 men and run four miles in horrible condition to do it.

2. Ella finally sees Pierce for who he is -- although their plan had some critical flaws. One of which was the fact that no one believed Lucifer about anything. Also, you'd think they would have someone, maybe Lucifer, check that guy out to see if he was lying about his sister. Pierce got away with a lot based on the utter stupidity of the other characters -- which I found contrived and irritating. That actually was my difficulty with the entire season. I don't deal well with television shows or books where the villain succeeds because the heros are too dumb to live. (I've recently given up on a soap opera I was addicted to because of this -- the villains won becuase the heroes were idiots and out of character. No. That's lazy and bad writing. If you write like that, you deserve to be cancelled. That said, I liked aspects of Lucifer and was sort of hoping that they'd redeem themselves...all they needed to do was drop the dumb procedural plot line.)

3. Lucifer reveals who he is to Chloe in a way, when he shields her with his wings. (Which was an interesting special effect.) And flies her far from the site. (Also really cool.) She doesn't realize something is off -- until it occurs to her that neither of them is injured and she's miles away from the site, and suddenly he's disappeared.

He reappears in true Avenging Angel fashion, bloody wings and all, and takes out all of Pierce's cronies. Then he and Pierce fight for the death, where Lucifer condemns Pierce to hell or rather Pierce condemned himself. But always wanting the last word -- Pierce turns around and says Lucifer is just as monsterous and goes too.

Sorry writers, that didn't quite work for me. Pierce was a sociopathic personality and Lucifer killed him in self-defense. You can't suddenly make him the devil, with his devil face revealed to Chloe, not the wings. It's not like Lucifer had much choice in that fight -- Pierce kept trying to kill him. The writers wanted this to be about Lucifer trying to decide who he really was, an Angel or a Devil, truth is he's both and immortal. And has always been an Angel and a Devil. So, I'm not sure there's much story in that, which is why this season failed. It kept going around and around in a circle, which is highly frustrating for an audience to watch. Hence the dropping ratings.

So, anyhow...Chloe drops into the scene and finally sees Lucifer in all his Glory, as the Devil. And I'm thinking okay, why now? Because he killed Pierce? Because she stopped being in denial and the viel lifted? Keep in mind, Chloe is an atheist. Also, Lucifer just saved her life.

It felt...I don't know, somehow contrived or forced? Or tapped onto the end? Not organic? I mean it's a nice moment and works thematically, I guess. But it felt jarring to me.

Is it a huge cliff-hanger? Well it depends on your point of view, I suppose. I didn't really see it as much of one, because...it felt like the end to a trippy short story or allegorical tale.
Also, I never saw Chloe and Lucifer getting together. Stopped shipping them together a while back.

Also, I had issues with Pierce winning. I really wanted that final bit to be Pierce in hell, reliving it over and over. I also wanted Chloe to be the one who killed him -- because that had a nice symmetry. Lucifer killing him felt oddly cliche and predictable and too easy.

4. I guess Amen and Charlotte's story ended in the previous episode, when both flew up to Heaven?
Which is good I guess.

5. Ella annoyed me up to and including the end. Sorry, she did. But I really liked Detective Dan, he had actually one of the best character arcs in the series as did Maze. The two characters that evolved the most and had the best arcs were Maze and Dan. Everyone else was no different than they'd began, which I found disappointing.

Overall? IT had good bits and bad bits. I really liked the thematic pattern of it or how Lucifer is finally revealed to Chloe, and she says...it's all true, all of it. And he's looking at her perplexed. That was nice. But I had troubles understanding how his fury at Caine caused his flames and devil face to appear -- how he chose that because of his reaction to Caine, which felt justified?
That didn't make sense to me and didn't quite play. Because he felt that way about Caine through the entire season. Why wouldn't it show up sooner? And he didn't just decide he was the Devil in that instant.

I did like his epithany, that we make our own choices, that God isn't pulling our strings. What happens is on us. That worked.

I just felt the whole thing was really sloppy. After seeing Infinity War which felt a bit tighter and far less sloppy, I was a tad disappointed. I shouldn't have been, this whole season has been sloppy.
The writing and direction really slid down hill in S3.

So...rating? B-

Comments

[atpo_onm]

But I had troubles understanding how his fury at Caine caused his flames and devil face to appear(...) That didn't make sense to me and didn't quite play. Because he felt that way about Caine through the entire season. Why wouldn't it show up sooner?

"Might I suggest, 'This time, it's personal'. That's a classic for a reason." -- Oz, to Xander

Because Cain never tried to kill Chloe before, and while Chloe may not be in love with Lucifer-- I always thought she thinks of him as a dear, albeit quirky friend (paralleling Linda and Maze), he clearly is in love with her.

I agree that the season has been weaker than the previous ones, but as you noted it did have it's moments. The scene where Luci envelopes Chloe in his wings to protect her, and you see him in pain, his blood appearing bit by bit on the wings as the henchmen pummel him with automatic weapons fire I thought was stunning.

The question it raises though-- diesn't Chloe make him vulnerable, mortal? Clearly he wasn't here. Was the previous mortality due to his inability to admit to himself that he loves her, as opposed to her mere locality?

One man may perceive love as weakness (Cain), another see love as strength (again, paralleled by the Linda/Maze scene earlier).

I don't think he realized he was in devil face when Chloe returned and saw him.
Anyhoo-- The show for me this season-- 6.5 out of 10. Last night's ep-- 7.5, moments of 8.

[dar_vidder]

I was a bit disappointed in the finale, too. As you say, the pacing was off and some of the emotional beats didn't quite resonate the way they should have imo. The final Charlotte/Amenadiel scene from the previous ep was a powerful way to finish off both of their arcs this season, but I still felt Amenadiel's absence in this ep.

Sorry writers, that didn't quite work for me. Pierce was a sociopathic personality and Lucifer killed him in self-defense. You can't suddenly make him the devil, with his devil face revealed to Chloe, not the wings. It's not like Lucifer had much choice in that fight -- Pierce kept trying to kill him. The writers wanted this to be about Lucifer trying to decide who he really was, an Angel or a Devil, truth is he's both and immortal. And has always been an Angel and a Devil. So, I'm not sure there's much story in that, which is why this season failed. It kept going around and around in a circle, which is highly frustrating for an audience to watch. Hence the dropping ratings.

Agreed on all counts.

What I did like in the ep was the Maze/Linda reconciliation. Their relationship is one of the stronger ones on the show for me and the way it'd been dismantled this season on pretty flimsy grounds had felt cheap. I still hate the way the Maze/Amenadiel/Linda triangle played out, but at least at the end of the season the writers backtracked and made the storyline more about their friendship than anything else.

One of the biggest problems I had with the notion that everyone was basically manifesting their own realities (Amenadiel losing his wings as self-punishment, Lucifer losing his devil face and regaining his wings as reward) was the way that line of thinking translated to who gets into Heaven or Hell.

In the real world, there are lots of people who do horrible things and don't feel an ounce of regret or remorse or guilt. Psychopaths/sociopaths can do heinous acts without batting an eye. And on the other end of the spectrum, there are lots of people who carry enormous guilt over things that really aren't that bad in the grand scheme of things. So the idea that clean consciences/no feelings of guilt = an express pass to Heaven as if humans excel at objectively judging ourselves is preposterous.

And the show seemed to lean into that when it was stated as fact that Pierce would've gone to Heaven if only he hadn't accidentally killed Charlotte. Excuse me, what? He was the Sinnerman, he'd done all manner of illegal, corrupt things. Then he briefly fell in love with Chloe which allowed him to finally lose his mark, but one brief moment of selflessness (followed up by a string of super selfish, evil acts) shouldn't have wiped his slate completely clean. I just...I'm all for redemption in my entertainment, but in this case, Pierce falling in love with Chloe and not wanting to hurt her was just not enough. It could've been a good start if he'd turned over a new leaf and tried to make amends in a broader sense, but that never happened.

[anoyo]

There were a lot of things wrong, but I enjoyed it. I guess I lowered my standards enough for it to be good, in a relative definition of good.

I enjoyed Dan Not Giving Up and being a badass. That was fun. I also enjoyed Ella actually managing to play Pierce, and her reaction after that. Chloe adamantly refusing to believe any of the supernatural was real was super frustrating, and her reaction at the end was both semi-authentic and semi-absurd. Maze & Linda were fantastic, as always. Lucifer was honestly refreshing in this episode. He wasn't all wibble-wobble-oh-no, but he didn't run off on his own to deal with everything, either (which me would have done early-season). That felt like a good character progression for him.

Sure, it was flawed (I mean, seriously, that episode could have done without the procedural; I like it, honestly, in most episodes, but that one was really hindered by it), but I feel like it dropped a lot of the things that were really wrong with season three and tied up a bunch of loose ends.

I'd love to see it picked up by another studio, but I doubt it. If it just sort of ends there, well, I'm not hugely disappointed. All of the things that were Driving Me Crazy got pulled together, so I'll deal with it. (Like, Chloe finally knows-knows, Cain is fucking dead, Amenadiel figured out the wing shit, Lucifer is both an angel and the Devil, and everybody knows where they stand.)

[shadowkat]

Completely agree. We appear to be irritated by the same things. ;-) And you've articulated what was bothering me very well, thank you!

What I did like in the ep was the Maze/Linda reconciliation. Their relationship is one of the stronger ones on the show for me and the way it'd been dismantled this season on pretty flimsy grounds had felt cheap. I still hate the way the Maze/Amenadiel/Linda triangle played out, but at least at the end of the season the writers backtracked and made the storyline more about their friendship than anything else.

Agreed. I was only really shipping Maze/Linda, and I agree that was the only emotionally satisfying reconciliation at the end. The love triangle didn't work and felt contrived. But at least they back-tracked it at the end.

And the show seemed to lean into that when it was stated as fact that Pierce would've gone to Heaven if only he hadn't accidentally killed Charlotte. Excuse me, what? He was the Sinnerman, he'd done all manner of illegal, corrupt things. Then he briefly fell in love with Chloe which allowed him to finally lose his mark, but one brief moment of selflessness (followed up by a string of super selfish, evil acts) shouldn't have wiped his slate completely clean

Agreed. This was my difficulty with the entire Pierce arc. I think the writer's were playing with the idea of how people create their own hells or punishments (which in of itself, makes sense and works), and the idea of "free will" (or what happens is on us - also works) but they went too far with it in regards to Pierce. To the point that it made no sense, and was blatantly absurd, not to mention offensive.

Yeah, sure, if you kill someone, you will relive killing them over and over as your punishment or if you enable them to kill others, you relive that over and over...but if you don't feel guilty about it, you go to heaven and don't relive it? So a sociopath or psychopath like Pierce goes to heaven, and would have gone if he didn't accidentally kill and regret killing Charlotte? Really? So if he'd killed Amen instead or Lucifer or Dan, he'd go to heaven? And he gets a clean slate for briefly doing something selfless for Chloe (which honestly wasn't that selfless) after years of being the equivalent of a serial killer?

The thematic/moral structure of the series not only contradicted itself, it made no sense. You can't just condemn people based on guilt, and that's what the series appeared to be doing -- if you feel guilty, you are condemned. If you don't? No problems.

[shadowkat]

See dar_vidder's response below yours, they basically layout my problems with this season perfectly. And why the ending with Peirce and Lucifer didn't work for me and the season's thematic arc didn't work.

I'd have given S3 - 5 out of ten, and the final episode 6.5, if that for the reasons dar_vidder states below and the fact that Lucifer acted like an idiot through most of it.

[shadowkat]

Dar_vidder above actually does a really good job of articulating my issues with it.

[yourlibrarian]

And has to fight 12 men and run four miles in horrible condition to do it.

I did like that bit.

Also, yes, your comment about Ella seeing Pierce for who he was suggests that people accepting the truth was the general thrust of the final episode. Even with Maze and Linda, Maze's actions in this and the previous episode show that when push comes to shove she can't deny what's truly important to her.

Lucifer reveals who he is to Chloe in a way, when he shields her with his wings. (Which was an interesting special effect.)

Yes, I liked that very much. Though I was also amused that Lucifer knows what happened with Amenadiel because his feather conveniently fell off yet Lucifer's are apparently bulletproof!

She doesn't realize something is off -- until it occurs to her that neither of them is injured and she's miles away from the site

Actually she's not, she's just on the roof of the same building. That's why she reappears so quickly and she's descending the staircase.

You can't suddenly make him the devil, with his devil face revealed to Chloe, not the wings.

I'm pretty sure she was aware of the wings though, so she did see both. Plus she already believes in Lucifer's good side.

It's not like Lucifer had much choice in that fight -- Pierce kept trying to kill him.

True, but I think it's significant that his devil face appears when he begins to revel in revenge on Pierce.

The writers wanted this to be about Lucifer trying to decide who he really was, an Angel or a Devil, truth is he's both and immortal.

I agree that in many ways this has been obvious all along. But given that this ends up being the final episode, I think that the duality was a good statement, especially if we contrast it with Maze's speech to Linda.

I agree that it was not a cliffhanger to me -- given that the producers knew the end was likely but not certain, I felt that things were left in a good place for pretty much everything. And definitely in a promising place for fanworks.

Re: Chloe killing Pierce, I think it would be unlikely she would do so and more likely that she'd end up actually dead in such a confrontation because she would hold back whereas Lucifer does not (and would be much less likely to in any scenario).

[shadowkat]

Re: Chloe killing Pierce, I think it would be unlikely she would do so and more likely that she'd end up actually dead in such a confrontation because she would hold back whereas Lucifer does not (and would be much less likely to in any scenario).

Which was exactly what happened. Chloe drew, Pierce drew, they hit each other, and he told his men to finish it. Not expecting Lucifer to be able to shield her with his wings.

So, yeah, you're right, she'd be dead.

True, but I think it's significant that his devil face appears when he begins to revel in revenge on Pierce.

Except, why didn't it appear throughout? It's not he's changed any. He reveled in Revenge and negative emotions throughout the series.

No. I think it has to do with the writer's lame-ass theme that if you think you are a monster, you are a monster, if you feel guilty, you are guilty. As opposed to, oh I am a serial killer, but I don't see myself as a serial killer so all is well. This is just absurd.

I get the whole quilt being a useless emotion motif...but having no remorse for your actions = sociopath. So all sociopaths go to heaven? Really?


I agree that it was not a cliffhanger to me -- given that the producers knew the end was likely but not certain, I felt that things were left in a good place for pretty much everything. And definitely in a promising place for fanworks.

I think the whole cliff-hanger bit has a lot to do with what a fan wants from the series. If they want closure -- they weren't ever going to get that from this series. And I honestly think this was the best ending we could have hoped for.

I don't really see Chloe and Lucifer together....and it was sort of interesting that when she sees his devil face or actually devilish form, he's not aware of it at all. Oblivious to what she's seeing. And she sort of realizes that he was trying to tell show her it all along. I do sort of like her exclamation of disbelief..."It's all true? All of it? Everything?" Keeping in mind she's an atheist who doesn't believe in God, let alone the devil.

It wasn't a bad ending, not a good one either...but considering the writing this season, about the best that could be expected.

Someone on FB wondered what went wrong -- did they get a whole new writing staff? Was it network interference?

I'm willing to bet the latter. There's a hint in one of the episodes as to what the writers were dealing with -- when Lucifer binge-watches Bones and tells Decker they are just like that show. The studio/network probably told them they wanted a model more similar to Bones and less similar to well Supernatural. Shame, if they'd been on CW, it would have been the opposite. These writers tried to do what the network/studio wanted and failed miserably. Fox has tendency to destroy television shows that don't fit it's model. If they fit, there's no problems. If not...sigh. (See Sleepy Hollow).

[yourlibrarian]

The studio/network probably told them they wanted a model more similar to Bones and less similar to well Supernatural.

Likely true, yes.

[shadowkat]

They do that a lot. Some stupid marketing person brings in a focus group. They make notes. The writer's struggle to change the show to fit whatever the focus group or marketing person thinks will work. There's a movie out there called The TV Set by Judd Apatow and David Duchovny that makes fun of the process.

I figured out that's what they were doing to Lucifer by the huge tonal shift towards work place and procedural. Mistake. Killed the show.