Over its six-season run, Lucifer was an emotional roller coaster ride, with moments so funny that’d they’d make you laugh until you cry, and others so devastating that they’d snap your heart into two. The whole series is a masterclass in balancing tones. It walked the line between silly comedy and serious drama with the finesse of a gymnast.
For the purpose of this list though, we’re going to focus on the series’ more emotional moments. Out of 93 episodes, choosing the most hard hitting moments is difficult, as the main thematic through line in the series is learning to manage the inherent pain that comes with being alive. As a result of this, characters in Lucifer face more trauma, loss, and hurt than the residents of Gotham City.
Lucifans, like their beloved characters, never once got to catch a break. Anytime something good happened, it’s almost as if the series had conditioned us to wait for the other shoe to drop. So, without any further delay, let’s dive into those heartbreaking moments that we’d much rather forget than remember.
5. Ella’s Dating A Serial Killer
Ms. Lopez just can’t catch a break huh?
Ella Lopez is kind, compassionate, understanding, and just generally a great person. Her only downfall is her taste in men. To put it bluntly, she likes bad boys.
By the season five episode “Spoiler Alert” she has tired of repeating the same mistakes, wanting a good guy instead of a bad one, something she gets in the form of Pete. At first everything is going great. Ella feels loved, appreciated, and respected. She has finally found someone who makes her feel good about herself… that is until it’s revealed that Pete is a serial killer.
What makes this revelation so heartbreaking is the way in which it affects Ella. She comes to question her very self-worth. To her, if the type of guys she attracts are pieces of garbage, then what does that say about her as a person? This level of pain and insecurity even transfers over to the next season, affecting a possible relationship with someone who by all means is actually good.
Ella feels as though she is underserving of love because of the men who are drawn to her, when instead the opposite is true. She is a good person, and bad guys flock to her hoping they can manipulate her good nature for their benefit. Pete was the same, with the only difference being that he got her to believe he wasn’t.
4. Charlotte’s Death
Charlotte Richards, like most of the characters in Lucifer, can’t necessarily be described as a good or bad person. She had committed her fair share of sins, but, also just like the other characters, was trying to be better.
In the season three episode “Quintessential Deckerstar” Charlotte takes a bullet for Amenadiel after Cain attempts to kill him and frame Lucifer for it. As she dies in Amenadiel’s arms, the former angel gets his wings back and flies her to the gates of Heaven.
While her selfless sacrifice redeemed her of her wrongdoings, the tragedy of it is that she still had so much potential for growth. If she had stuck around, who knows how far she could have come by the end of the show.
Her death was sad enough, but it’s the aftershock that helps seal the deal here. Charlotte’s death is felt throughout the entire rest of the series. It affects just about everyone, but it especially Dan.
Dan is quite literally never the same after this. His entire character arc is influenced by his grief and guilt over Charlotte’s death. Her dying fundamentally alters part of the narrative’s direction up until even the last season. When you think about it, that’s pretty darn crazy.
3. Lucifer And God Sing “I Dreamed A Dream”
Season five’s “Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam” is quite the fun episode, isn’t it? Everyone is singing and dancing, just having a great time. That is until that last scene.
Lucifer’s relationship with his father, God, is a complicated one to say the least. Lucifer resents him, or at least tells himself he does. Really though, he just feels unloved and wants to be heard. So, when Lucifer and God sing “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables, it felt like the culmination of everything their relationship had been building up to.
His father had always loved him, but Lucifer, up until this point, had been unable to see past his own hurt to recognize that. Yes, God made mistakes as a parent, but all parents do. There is no such thing as a perfect father, even when they’re almighty.
Seeing Lucifer have to face this reality, and, at the same time, have to face the reality that his father may be dying is just plain rough to watch. When Lucifer utters the word “Dad”, you can’t help but feel the palpable pang of grief hiding behind the word, because, at the end of the day, he’s just a scared kid desperate for his father’s love.
2. Maze Sings To Eve
There are few things more bittersweet than unrequited love.
We all now know that Maze and Eve eventually end up together by the end of the series. Season four though, well, that’s a completely different story.
In the season four episode “Save Lucifer” Maze professes her love for Eve with a rendition of the song Wonderwall. She has never been good at expressing her feelings in a healthy way, with this moment being one of the few times we see her completely emotionally exposed… and it totally backfires.
Maze is arguably the character that got it the hardest throughout the show. She was manipulated, betrayed, and used time and time again, even by those closest to her, which is exactly what makes this moment cut so deep.
In Maze’s attempt to tell Eve that she loves her, she inadvertently pushed her right back to Lucifer. The one time that she doesn’t hide her feelings out of fear of rejection, her fears are validated. She was made to feel unwanted by the one person she so very dearly wanted to want her.
While the two eventually get married and live happily ever after, this moment still hurts to watch.
1. Ella’s Wedding Speech
Ms. Lopez again? Someone get this woman a fruit basket.
Even the most trustworthy characters on Lucifer have their moments of selfishness, it’s pretty much the leading cause of most of the series’ conflict. Ella however stands out among the rest as someone who is truly to their core good. So, this begs the question: Why the hell did everyone keep everything from her?
If there is one person that could have been trusted to keep their mouth shut on the fact that literal cosmic deities walk among the Earth, it would have been Ella. Instead everybody, including Amenadiel, the one who you’d expect to be honest, lied to her time and time again, leading her to become an obsessive conspiracy theorist. Ella is smart, she knew something was up, and it drove her crazy.
All she wanted was to be let into the club, something she very much earned. But no, she was kept in the dark by all her friends. In the season six episode “My Best Friend’s Wedding”, when she breaks down crying at Maze and Eve’s wedding, you can feel it right in your heart. She deserved so much better than how she was treated by the people she considered her friends.
Source: whatculture.com