“I wasn’t afraid of you. I was afraid of losing you.”
Now that Lucifer has finally forgiven himself, his worries about Hell being unleashed on Earth are fading in the wind. But his fantasies about things going back to normal are knocked off track when a couple of demons from Hell realize their king has no intentions of returning to his throne.
In one of the most brilliantly fun intros in Lucifer history, “Who’s da New King of Hell?” starts off with a fantastically fun musical number that made me realize how much I want a Lucifer musical episode. Despite the pomp and cheerfulness, it’s not long before the episode’s humor is replaced by a much darker, more morose narrative.
It starts simple enough when Dromos, a demon, takes over the body of the now-deceased Father Kinley, in hopes of helping his king return to Hell. When Lucifer makes it clear he has no intention of returning to his throne and knowing that only an angel can wear the King of Hell honorific, Dromos and his partner Squee take a more devious approach to gaining what they want: kidnapping baby Charlie and molding him into their new ruler. For a pair of demons that aren’t considered too bright, it’s a deviously ingenious plan. Still, this makes for a good plot that takes up the bulk of the episode, working in symmetry with the seasonal character development arcs for our primary players.
The highlight of these moments is encompassed by Chloe and Lucifer interactions. For the first time, she openly admits to loving Lucifer. Her admission and various interactions with Lucifer display here more than ever Lauren German’s growth as an actor and fully embracing her character. In previous seasons, her fondness for Lucifer, while unmistakable, never seemed as if she could exude more than a surface attraction to the Morningstar. Her emotional vulnerability at the end of things, when she has to watch Lucifer return to Hell is a watershed moment for both German and her character as it pertains to the series. It also highlights another one of those lessons we humans can sometimes learn too late: the danger of opening up to those closest to us at the last moment when it becomes too late to follow through.
Yet Chloe is not alone in her emotional revelation. Eve, after being culpable in how events unfold, finally acknowledges the connection she and Maze share but also admits her own fallacies of being. Eve understands that her entire relationship with Lucifer—like the one she shared with Adam—was wrought with her losing sight of who she is. It would have been easy for her to fall into Mazikeen’s arms at the end but for Eve to walk away knowing she must find herself before taking that step says a lot about how the events of Season Four have seen her grow.
Thus, we are left with our favorite devil…Lucifer Morningstar. So often self-absorbed to a maddening degree, even by those of us who’ve enjoyed the show, watching him come to the realization that everything isn’t about him is the single greatest step any character has taken in this series. Even after banishing the demon horde back to Hell (after “deviling out”), Lucifer understands that his word won’t be enough. If his denizens realize that he has no intentions on returning, they will continue their migrations to Earth. They need a king to watch over them, to rule and control them.
More importantly for Lucifer, he knows that it’s not just the nameless billions he would put at risk by walking away from his throne, but those important to him; Linda, Amenadiel, Maze, baby Charlie, Eve, Trixie, Ella…and most importantly, Chloe herself. As he says—what most of us had surmised early on—Eve was never his first love. That honor has always been detective Chloe Decker. And sacrificing the chance at happiness with her is the only way he can reliably keep her safe.
The last image we see is of Lucifer, dressed to the nines, overlooking his Hell-scape of a kingdom, finally owning his responsibility as the keeper of Hell.
Nota Bene
- What a fantastic season! While this finale didn’t quite contain the magic some of the previous episodes had, it did a very respectable job wrapping up our character arcs in a most satisfactory way. Seeing Lucifer willfully accept the responsibility he never wanted was the highlight of him seeing the light, so to speak. Leaving us with the lasting moment between him and Chloe could act as a cliffhanger or, if the worst occurs and Lucifer doesn’t return for Season 5, a closure of their narrative. We don’t always get the happy endings we pine for, so if we can only lament for what could have been between these two, so be it.
- One pair that does receive their happy ending is Linda and Amenadiel. After nearly losing their child to demons, Amenadiel realizes that there’s no one—on Earth or in Heaven—that will do a better job protecting baby Charlie than he and Linda will. While that may be stretching things from a literal sense, not even a city of angels would showcase the naked determination these two parents would in keeping their child safe.
- As Eve came to terms with her mistakes, so too do Dan and Ella. Though we only get a few moments with these two having their own insights, Dan seems to be honing in on the closure that’s escaped him since losing Charlotte while Ella’s epiphany on God sees her reaffirming her faith in the “big guy”.
- This is one of the best finales I’ve seen as it’s strong as either the final goodbye to the series or a new beginning to usher in a Season 5. Though I’m really pulling for the latter, I must say, “Who’s da New King of Hell?” as a series finale, leaves me completely satisfied. That’s not something I can say for many finales.
