Lightbringer is back in all his glory

Express News Service
Our favourite Devil is back, and oh god – God is here too. Part 2 of Lucifer picks up right where it left and so here’s a quick recap: Lucifer’s twin Michael creates nuisance while masquerading as Lucifer, and just as Lucy is about to confess his love to Detective Chloe Decker in the precinct, Amenadiel freezes time and Michael annoys everyone. Lucifer and Amenadiel are against Michael and our not-friendly-anymore demon Mazikeen, when they are interrupted by their father – God himself.

Much of the ninth episode (1st in Part 2) banks on Lucifer’s holy father issues that were well-established in four seasons. There are moments to provide levity and to learn where some characters are. For example, out of the blue, God decides to throw a family dinner and Linda says grace – in the presence of the god. Mazikeen, a demon, stands before God and pleads with him to give her a soul.

In the midst of it all, Chloe and Lucy get back to working on a homicide case, the result of which provides a revelation to Lucy on how to deal with a personal issue. A celestial story overarching some good detective narratives – all, a reminder of an engaging tone and structure that Lucifer has mastered all these years.

However, the celestials’ story isn’t flawless. The unimaginable has already happened – God is here. Throughout the season, he either plays golf, or dances at Lux and even organises a barbeque party. When he temporarily keeps aside his powers and becomes human, he gets sloshed, assists a sting operation and even gets smacked on the face. God seems like a cool dude. Moreover, God enjoys his time on earth by adding some music, dance and party. The show becomes an enjoyable musical all of a sudden from episode 10.

But for an almighty, he hardly seems godly – something that Lucy seems to have an issue with too, and the show does provide explanations here and there, but some things are hard to look past for us. Strangely, all results of such celestial activities seem restricted to the events in LA, heaven and hell – something that was okay with the show, until God happened. It was a massive opportunity to expand its territories, that the show seems to have missed.

At one point, it just becomes a fantasy family drama about angels and demons. The celestials of the show – who have lived for countless millennia – often behave like squabbling teenagers. And Lucifer still requires the support of Linda or Chloe, or a revelation from a perp/victim/witness of a case to see things that are literally in front of him. God too seems to struggle with issues, one too many – a silver lining being that even god gets an elaborate character arc. Who knew that the all-seeing almighty is flawed? Like his father, Lucifer is flawed as well. 

Throughout the fourth season, the show has set that Lucifer is a devil on the edge of becoming Castlevania’s Dracula, given his only strength and weakness is a human – Chloe. Season 5 part 2 handles this narrative well and gives a good twist to show how far Lucifer has come.

Moving to the human characters, Linda’s character arc is restricted to one episode about her long-lost biological daughter. Maybe season six will delve more into her feelings about Charlie being a human or an angel. Unlike Linda, other human characters have a well-written arc in just these eight episodes. Chloe deals with her relationship with Lucy in a much better way. However, Ella and Dan are easily the bests of the season. Apart from tremendous acting from Aimee Garcia and Kevin Alejandro, the character writing is commendable here. Ella and Dan have grounding, emotionally strong arcs. Their stories have a fair share of happiness and sobbing as well – enough to make angels and demons cry.

Lucy has grown a lot, and so does the show. Though episodes 11-13 have some of the aforementioned flaws, they still vital and high on entertainment. From episode 14, the writers embrace the temptation to let the celestials loose and the show runs amock spectacularly. Michael comes back to plot a plan and the show’s plot gets engrossing as the real conflict of the story emerges. No punches are pulled, there’s a sense of completeness, and Lucifer gratifies us with its bravado. Ever since Lucifer was picked up by Netflix, it has proved to be not just a fantasy-coated family drama mixed with Law And Order. 

Series: Lucifer Season 5 Part 2Creator: Tom KapinosCast: Tom Ellis, Lauren German, Leslie-Ann Brandt, DB WoodsideStreaming on: Netflix