‘Lucifer’s Final Therapy Session Leads to a Major Breakthrough (RECAP)
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Lucifer Season 6 Episode 8 “Save the Devil, Save the World.”]
It’s time for Lucifer’s (Tom Ellis) final therapy session with Dr. Linda Martin (Rachael Harris) — and for everyone to find out about her book (and how she portrays them in it) — as we reach the drama’s final episodes. And just as he makes a decision about his future as God after failing to take the throne all season, his brother, the angel Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside), returns with news that will likely bring down his good mood.
Meanwhile, forensic scientist Ella Lopez (Aimee Garcia) is finally in on everything after figuring it all (and more) out herself, and she remains hurt that no one told her the truth. But some words from someone not in the know might be just what she needs to hear.
Another Problem as They Face the End of the World
Now that Ella has clued everyone in on the fact that the world is ending, Lucifer, Amenadiel, and Chloe Decker (Lauren German) join her in a conference room at the station to go over what she knows. As Amenadiel sees it, the solution is simple: “You need to become God now,” he tells Lucifer. (That, along with Chloe dying during the angel war, is just something else Ella realizes she doesn’t know.) The only problem? When Lucifer tries to fly up to Heaven, his wings refuse to come out. Amenadiel flies up instead to figure out what’s going on, while Lucifer must get his head on straight.
So it’s off to see Linda about his mental blockage. When she tries to check her book on him for answers, he sees it, and to her surprise, he’s happy she’s writing it. “Western literature has portrayed me in a terrible light for centuries, starting with that perennial best-seller that need not be named,” Lucifer explains.
Since it’s so long, he enlists help to read through it: Chloe, Ella, and even Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt), dressed for her wedding night (“You interrupt a demon on her wedding night, you get what you get”). Ella then learns Dan Espinoza’s (Kevin Alejandro) around, as a ghost humans can’t see, when the demon talks to him. Maybe Lucifer’s problem is constantly keeping secrets, she suggests.
The Truth Keeps Coming Out
What follows are humorous, caricatural descriptions of everyone, based on what Lucifer told Linda. It’s the first draft, she constantly reminds them. Ella also keeps learning more and more (like it was an angel’s feather, not an emu’s, Charlotte Richards was a goddess). “To play my advocate, I have always told you the truth,” Lucifer points out, reminding her she’s been such a good friend to celestials over the years. And so comes the truth about the ghost “Ray-ray” a.k.a. Azrael, the Angel of Death who’s “practically” her BFF.
Meanwhile, Maze tries to help Dan figure out what guilt is weighing him down since by taking him out of his hell loop, Lucifer kept him from figuring it out for himself. After a few misses, she suggests it’s that he didn’t tell Ella the truth when he could’ve supported her through it and reluctantly talks to her for him.
That backfires. Sure, it’s nice that she finds out that she helped save Linda and Amenadiel’s son Charlie, but Ella admits she thought she was part of the inner circle, only to find out she’s not. “You are the inner circle,” Dan insists (through Maze), but Ella doesn’t see it that way. If they really trusted her, they would’ve told her the truth.
Lucifer and Rory’s Revelations
Ella’s not the only one hurt by what she’s reading. Chloe’s reminded of every time Lucifer has left in the past and thinks he portrays her as “smart and beautiful and perfect” because he’s “never stuck around long enough to see [her] at [her] worst.” Every time they’ve had an emotional breakthrough, he’s disappeared. Now, he’s had the biggest one by telling her he loves her, and since their future daughter Rory (Brianna Hildebrand) has told them he’s about to leave, could he be following that up with his greatest disappearing act? “I would never choose to abandon you,” he promises.
Then Lucifer realizes there’s a problem with Linda’s book: She hasn’t given them the final pages. She argues it’s the first draft and the patient shouldn’t read her final insights, but he thinks it’s because his own therapist doesn’t believe he’ll become God.
Maybe he hasn’t changed, Lucifer worries, but Chloe assures him he has. Rory walks in as they’re discussing her wings, which Chloe worries are sharp because she grew up feeling she needed to protect herself. She assures her mom that she has them because they remind her of the person she admires the most (Chloe). She still refuses to see any good in Lucifer since, to her, he abandoned them, and the latest argument ends with Lucifer deciding to prove he cares about his daughter by making himself vulnerable to her … and having her shoot him. After all, he bled when Chloe shot him. Chloe protests, but Rory does it … and Lucifer bleeds. “You’re my daughter, and I love you,” he tells her.
Linda then returns with the rest of her manuscript, which is basically Lucifer becoming God and giving her all the credit. She wrote a fake ending to make herself feel better, she admits, because she feels she failed by not getting him ready to become God. But then she realizes that because he self-actualized vulnerability to prove his point to Rory, his conscious and subconscious minds are acting in concert. And with that, his wings come out. “I am ready to be God,” he says, retracting his wings, “but I’m choosing not to be.”
He may not know what his calling is, but he knows that’s not it. And speaking of knowing things, Rory now understands her parents’ love for each other after only hearing Chloe talk about how much she loved Lucifer. As for the world ending, Lucifer is certain Amenadiel will figure it out.
So, About the End of the World…
Ella has Detective Carol Corbett (Scott Porter) pick her up outside Lux and apologizes for ditching him at the wedding. She’s cautiously optimistic that the crisis will be averted, but she can’t tell him more. To her surprise, he’s fine with that. He knows who she is and her heart. It’s okay if they don’t know every little detail about one another.
And while Linda may still feel down, now for not realizing that her client of five years didn’t want to become God, Lucifer assures her she did help him — put others first, fix relationships that had been broken for millennia, and connect with the love of his life. “In our time together, you managed to do something not even God almighty was able to accomplish,” he says. “You’ve made me a better man.”
As for the world, Amenadiel returns, having figured out why it’s ending. “We need to talk,” he tells Lucifer. Uh-oh.
Lucifer, Complete Series, Streaming Now, Netflix