LCL Reviews

LCL Reviews recently had the privilege to interview Lucifer writer and co-executive producer Chris Rafferty. He’s worked on the series since season 1 and has written some of the most memorable episodes such as ‘A Priest Walks Into a Bar’, ‘A Good Day to Die’, and ‘Spoiler Alert’, to name a few. His latest episode, ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ hits you in the heart with it’s deep and emotional sequences between Father and son, but also has some fun lines that we appreciated like his angelic siblings have “more opinions than Twitter” and a great reference to the Lucifer comics when Gabriel says the centaurs from mum’s universe freak her out.

We had the opportunity to talk to him about his latest episode along with 5b in general and what to expect for Lucifer’s 6th and final season. Read on!

 
photo copyright Netflix

LCL: In your episode ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, God said “I love you” to Lucifer in one of the most tear worthy moments on the show but we noticed Lucifer doesn’t actually return the sentiment. Is there any particular reason why he didn’t say it back?

Chris: You want MORE in that long long looooong scene?? Haha. That behemoth is comprised of eight different sections and was a beast to balance. Originally, the consensus in the writers room was that we didn’t want God to say “I love you” or “I’m proud of you”, for fear of it being too sappy or cliche. But as I was writing the scene, every part of me was screaming to hear him say those words. If he knew it was his last chance and STILL didn’t tell his sons he loved them, it would have made him extremely cruel. And we didn’t want our God to be a cruel God. So, when turning in my script with those words you now hear onscreen, I included an impassioned letter to Joe & Ildy explaining why we needed to do this. They were immediately convinced. As for why Lucifer doesn’t say it back? He’s stunned, mostly. And, as you’ve seen, those aren’t words that come easily to him. So, with Dad, I just let Lucifer absorb what he so desperately needed to hear. Saving the big moment of him saying those words for the finale, when it’s to Chloe. That’s when it’s most powerful, and that’s when we knew the audience most wanted to hear it.

LCL: If God is “all the omnis” and knows what is to come, does that mean that he already knew about Lucifer arranging for Mum to come back? Did He know that Michael was manipulating Him? Will we ever find out how much of this was His plan?

Chris: That’s the tricky thing about a character like God – how do you write someone that already knows everything? If you pay close attention to the writing and Dennis’ performance, you’ll notice he’s keeping a lot of cards close to the chest. Answering with questions. Speaking elliptically. Intentionally making the kind of statements that can be interpreted in different ways. That’s God’s curse – he can’t just go ahead and TELL everyone everything. He has to let them live with their own limited perspective. Maybe God didn’t want to ruin Lucifer’s surprise. Maybe God needed Amenadiel to figure out Michael’s manipulations on his own, so he just played along. The truth is, especially now that God’s gone, we’ll never really know. Just like in real life. We don’t have, nor will we ever get, all the answers. What matters more is what you do with the questions. As for Season 6, we’re not quite done with God’s “Plan” yet, but it will be less about uncovering his answers, and more about the characters looking inside themselves for their own.

LCL: Following on from this, since Lucifer becomes God, does he therefore inherit all the omnis or is it not quite as simple as Lucifer initially thought?

Chris: Great question! When we pick up in Season 6, Lucifer immediately knows everything, there’s nothing that can surprise him anymore, and the show is basically over.

Kidding! Nothing’s ever that simple, is it? Remember, this situation is a FIRST. There’s never been a transition of God’s power to a new God before. In the Season 5 finale, you see a lot of confusion amongst all the angels as to how exactly it all works – no one really knows. So our characters still have a few things to figure out, including getting to the truth of what it is they truly desire.

LCL: We were delighted to see our favourite Goddess make an epic return and it was a fantastic surprise to see Tricia Helfer back again. Can you tell us how this came about and if it was planned from the beginning of the season to have Tricia appear in your episode?

Chris: We jump at every chance to have Tricia back on our show. So when we figured out that God would be saying goodbye, we knew it was our last chance to see Mom and Dad together. And there’s no WAY we were going to pass that up.

There was a period of time where we weren’t sure which episode it would happen in. But when we realized it would be best in my episode, I was over the moon. To say I love working with Tricia is an understatement. And I am SO happy everyone was surprised by her appearance – we worked really hard to pull that off.

LCL: Chloe’s decision to leave the LAPD to support Lucifer in his road to becoming God was a twist we didn’t see coming and is such a monumental and beautiful decision. How long had the writers planned on that happening and was there any back and forth discussion in the writers room debating if this was the right thing for her to do? We are very curious as to how her role as “future Mrs. G” and “consultant” fit in to the final season.

Chris: I’m so happy you enjoyed that turn. I love it, because I love change in stories. To be honest, I don’t remember when we decided to have Chloe leave the force. As we were breaking these episodes in the writers room, remember: we thought Season 5 was the end of the show. So we could entertain ideas for bigger changes and not worry about how that would affect future seasons. Because of this, I think all of us writers were pretty open to it, not much debate at all. Especially because we didn’t feel Chloe was sacrificing her identity — she was actually figuring out a new, bigger way to help even more people. A promotion, of sorts. We also liked the idea of making their partnership even more cooperative, taking turns being the lead, and Chloe acknowledging that Lucifer has really been helping her do HER work for the entire show. It felt like nice symmetry as we approached the end.

But when we were faced with doing one more season – uh oh! Chloe’s not a detective anymore! What do we do for cases of the week? Luckily, you can’t take the Detective out of Chloe, and we had no trouble finding the narrative drive for the stories in our final season arc. If anything, it pushed us to be more creative than ever. Our “cases” will be more personal than ever, allowing us to really focus on our main cast of characters as we approach the end.

“I decided something. I’m quitting the LAPD.” (photo copyright Netflix)

LCL: Ella’s darkness has been brought up a few times since it was first introduced way back in season 2. Why does Ella feel like she has more darkness than other people and how did you feel about diving deeper into that storyline this season?

Chris: As we saw in her therapy session with Linda, and at most crime scenes as she hovers over dead bodies with sheer delight, Ella has some pret-ty morbid thoughts. Made extra vivid by her active imagination. She thinks that sets her apart from most people, even her coworkers. And she’s watched enough episodes of Dexter — maybe even saw herself in one of the characters 😉 — to know what those kinds of thoughts might mean. Add to that the connection she felt with an actual serial killer? Oof. Poor Ella. It breaks my heart to see her suffer. But so incredibly fun and rewarding to write.

Getting comforting words from the Big Guy himself, whether she fully realizes who he was or not, helped Ella in a big way. I think she’s found some self-acceptance and is ready to move on to what awaits her in Season 6.

“the darker the darkness, the brighter the light.” (photo copyright Netflix)

LCL: In season 4, Remiel sensed a new celestial, a baby, which brought her down to Earth. In season 5 it’s said that Charlie is mortal. Could Remiel be sensing someone or something else and will this be further explored in season 6?

Chris: You just want to know EVERYTHING that happens in Season 6, don’t you? Haha, you’re asking the wroooong person. I’m notorious for wanting the audience to know as little as possible going in. As a huge TV viewer myself, I always prefer to experience the story as I’m IN it, not beforehand and out of context. What I will say about Remiel and Charlie is that our final season will not focus on these two – one is dead and the other is a baby, so, not a whole lot of potential for scenes there. We only have 10 episodes left, and we’re going to spend our time focusing on our main cast of characters. They deserve it. Also, at the risk of disappointing any theorists out there, a mortal Charlie doesn’t mean he has ZERO celestial in him.

LCL: We know that the writers had to adapt the season arc when season 5 got expanded from 10 episodes to 16 and then you got the last minute surprise of a 10-episode season 6! We assume that was quite the rollercoaster to make these adjustments! Is there anything you would’ve done differently with 5B if you had known from the beginning that you were getting a season 6?

Chris: Quite the rollercoaster indeed! Had we known Season 5 was not our last, I don’t think we would have brought God down to Earth. It’s pretty hard to top the Almighty. But I’m glad we did Season 5 the way we did it – it turned out more epic than a penultimate season has any right to be. And, lucky for us, blowing our God Wad early forced us to come up with something unexpected for our final 10 episodes. Which us writers only agreed to do once we found a story we thought was worthy of telling. We discovered that Lucifer had a few more steps to take in order for his emotional journey to be complete, and I’m so happy we get to see this side of him. Now I can’t imagine it any other way.

LCL: The second half of season 5 was epic, action packed, and emotionally intense leading to a triumphant conclusion. It also answered a lot of our burning questions but there is still a good few things left unsolved that fans are eagerly awaiting. What should we expect from the sixth and final season?

Chris: In Season 6, you’ll be getting some answers to questions you have, and to questions you didn’t even know you had. Lucifer will come to understand himself better than ever before, Chloe will face their past, and Dan’s story isn’t over yet. You’re going to see a little less cop stuff, and some wilder things — stuff that I never thought we’d do on our show, stuff the huge genre fan that I am is really excited about. It’s a different kind of season in many ways. Not just because we had to shoot under Covid restrictions, but also because we really wanted to focus on giving each character the proper ending they deserved. I like to think of the whole season as a series of endings, not just the final episodes.

photo copyright Netflix

LCL: You’ve written some of the most iconic episodes of Lucifer over the years from A Priest Walks into a Bar to A Good Day to Die and so many more. Which of the episodes that you’ve written are you most proud of? Additionally, who is your favourite character to write and which character is the most challenging for you to write?

Chris: Thank you so much for saying that. I put everything I have into everything I do, so it means a lot to be seen. I can’t wait for everyone to see my Season 6 episode, “Goodbye, Lucifer”. Joe likes to call it “the most Chris episode ever”. And I think everyone will know what he means when they see it.

As for the characters, I loved writing ALL of them. But if I had to pick a favorite, I would annoy you by saying “it kept changing all the time”. I put an insane amount of work into crafting Father Frank for “A Priest Walks Into A Bar”, so even though he’s just a one-time guest character, he’s my standout that first season. Season 2, I reveled in writing Dr. Linda — having so much fun with her big turning point in “Monster”, seeing her out of the office for the hospital mission in “A Good Day To Die”, and her story with Reese in “Off The Record” (which aired in Season 3, but I and my co-writers Mike & Jen wrote & filmed at the tail end of Season 2). Having absolutely loved writing for Tricia in Season 2, getting to introducing Charlotte in her big Season 3 episode was a huge highlight for me. Same with Inbar and Eve in Season 4. I don’t know what it says about me, but writing our most villainy villain Michael and putting ray of sunshine Ella through the wringer in Season 5 was where I found my happy. And Season 6… I got to write a different kind of Lucifer in Part 1 of the 2-part finale. Him near the finish line. The episode has an extra-meta quality to it, and it really provided ME with a lot of catharsis and closure. As I hope it will for the audience as well. It’s honestly been THE most perfect way for me to end this incredible 6-season journey, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Are you excited for season 6 yet, like we are? LCL would like to thank Chris Rafferty again for taking the time to answer our questions. Seasons 1-5 of Lucifer are now streaming on Netflix.