The Lucifer creative team didn’t know that when they wrote the script to season three episode 24 it would be not only the season finale but also the series finale. Fox failed to renew the popular series and as of the finale air date (May 14, 2018), unfortunately no network has stepped up to save the show. Of course, there’s still time for a smart network to snatch it up (we’re looking at you The CW, Hulu, and Netflix!), and fans have been flooding social media with #SaveLucifer and #PickUpLucifer messages. Even actors from The CW’s Supernatural chimed in as did William Shatner, and the campaign to resurrect Lucifer using the hashtag #SaveLucifer began trending immediately after Fox’s announcement and remained strong heading into the season three finale.
It’s difficult to cross my fingers for a renewal and type up the series finale recap, but here we go…
The episode opens with Lucifer (Tom Ellis) and Chloe (Lauren German) still at the scene of Charlotte’s death. Lucifer assures Chloe she’ll get to see her in Heaven, but he won’t. Dan (Kevin Alejandro) is also at the scene trying to find some clue they’ve overlooked, as is Ella (Aimee Garcia). There’s nothing at the scene to provide any leads – no DNA or fingerprints.
Lt. Marcus Pierce (Tom Welling) gives orders at the scene and sends Dan home. He pulls Lucifer aside to ask if he’s spoken to Amenadiel. Lucifer shows off the feather from the scene and reveals that Amenadiel believed they held their fate in their own hands. Lucifer’s sure Amenadiel’s in Heaven but he doesn’t know if he’ll ever return.
Dan returns home, alone, and sees a cup with Charlotte’s lipstick. He smiles and then looks at his unmade bed. He struggles to keep it together and manages until he picks up the waffle iron. Overcome with emotion, he tosses it and shatters a table.
A folder that was on the table falls open when it lands on the floor. It exposes a photo of Pierce along with an investigation Charlotte was working on.
Pierce meets with an old associate who’s happy The Sinnerman is back in business. The man has a cigarette butt for Pierce to plant at the scene of Charlotte’s murder. As he’s leaving, Pierce says to keep Maze alive back at his place in case he still needs her.
Pierce’s associates think they have her under control, but they obviously don’t know Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt). She frees herself and fights off multiple bad guys before stumbling into a room with even more thugs.
Back at the station, Chloe expresses concern for Maze. She hasn’t heard from her and Maze was going to babysit Trixie.
Chloe and Lucifer are going over Charlotte’s cases searching for a clue when Dan rushes into the office. He’s nearly frantic as he explains that he believes Pierce killed Charlotte because she thought he was The Sinnerman. Chloe thinks this is just grief talking but then Lucifer reveals he’s known for months Pierce is, in fact, The Sinnerman. Chloe’s upset Lucifer never told her this and she almost married Pierce!
Pierce calls a meeting and tells everyone they’ve lost a valued member of the team and need to find her killer. Chloe knows Pierce is lying during his speech because he’s emotional and he never gets emotional. Dan and Lucifer agree with Chloe when she says she thinks Pierce killed Charlotte. She’s ready to figure out a way to take him down.
Lucifer, Dan, and Chloe get to work on how to take down Pierce. Lucifer reminds them it’ll be difficult given that Pierce is the world’s first serial killer, and she tells Lucifer to hold off on the weird metaphors for now.
Ella’s excited because new evidence was found at the scene on the site’s third search. The DNA from the cigarette butt belongs to Steve Chamberlain, a guy Charlotte was going to prosecute. When Pierce interrupts their meeting, Chloe is forced to act like they have a new viable suspect. When Pierce asks if Dan needs anything, Dan snarls and says all he wants is to catch the bastard who murdered Charlotte.
Chloe, Lucifer, and Dan head out to Steve Chamberlain’s place and they hope they can figure out how to tie him to someone in Pierce’s The Sinnerman orbit. They tell him about his DNA being at the scene of Charlotte’s murder and admit they believe he’s being framed. He wants to call his lawyer but if he does, Chloe tells him they can’t help him anymore. When he says the cigarette butt is flimsy evidence, they find a gun hidden in his drawer.
Any one of 100 people could have planted it because he’s hosting a party.
Over at Dr. Linda’s, Maze barges in bruised and bloody. After mistaking a patient for a potential killer, Maze is relieved to see Linda (Rachael Harris) is fine. Maze passes out after making sure her friend’s not in danger.
Dan, Lucifer, and Chloe head into the party and Steve is of little help when asked who has a dark secret to hide. Steve’s party guests all appear to harbor horrible secrets. Chloe figures out that The Sinnerman would have cleaned up the person’s crimes, so the person they need to find has a clean record.
Dan jumps to the conclusion that it’s the chauffeur. Lucifer does his mind trick and the guy admits he wished he hadn’t sneezed. When he did, he hit a motorcyclist. He got a favor from The Sinnerman to make his record clean and the cyclist’s death go away. This morning, The Sinnerman called in his favor. He admits to passing on the cigarette to be placed at the crime scene as well as placing the gun in the drawer.
Dan meets in private with Ella and she gives him a huge hug. She wants him to go home and take care of himself, but Dan wants Ella to do him a favor. However, she must keep it a secret.
Ella paces outside Pierce’s office and then tells him that Dan gave her a phone and told her not to tell anyone he did it. He wanted her to examine it and then told her people might be listening. She sent him home and she’s really worried. Pierce assures her Dan won’t be in any trouble.
When she leaves, Pierce calls his associate and tells him one of his officers has figured things out. The officer needs to be taken care of.
Dan’s passed out at his place when the associate arrives to kill him. But, it’s a trick! Chloe’s also there and Dan’s wide awake, gun at the ready.
Meanwhile, Lucifer confronts Pierce. He informs Pierce he knows he killed Charlotte. Lucifer asks why he did it and reminds Pierce that he’s invulnerable since Chloe’s not around. Pierce admits he was trying to kill Amenadiel and accidentally killed Charlotte. He lies and says he wanted Amenadiel dead thinking it would bring back his mark.
Lucifer explains that he felt like a monster before he became one. He realizes he gave himself his Devil face. He also thinks he got his wings back because he’d done good deeds and deep down felt like he wasn’t a monster anymore. Lucifer then reveals that Pierce was willing to sacrifice something for the first time and having performed his first selfless act, his mark disappeared.
Pierce taunts Lucifer that he does have a weakness. Pierce then pretends that Lucifer attacked him, and the officers restrain Lucifer and let Pierce leave.
Back at Lucifer’s place, Dan and Chloe are angry Lucifer confronted Pierce. Ella shows up and she’s also pissed off, but at Pierce. She realized, after following Dan’s instructions to give Pierce the phone, that the look on Pierce’s face was pretty much an admission of guilt. She’s all in with the group.
They have Pierce’s associate still bound and gagged, but they don’t have much to go on. Chloe calls Pierce and says Lucifer told him he’s Cain and a bunch of other crazy stuff she doesn’t believe. She claims to be worried about him, but Pierce knows she’s with Lucifer, Dan, and Ella. Chloe admits it and asks if anything that happened between them was real. He says he’s staying alive for her. She warns him to turn himself in, but Pierce assures her the guy they have tied up won’t say a word because he can get to the guy’s sister.
Pierce enters the room where Maze was tied up and finds all his associates dead.
Maze comes to at Dr. Linda’s and admits that being around humans and their emotions makes her weak. Dr. Linda can’t believe Maze killed people and ran four miles just to save her. Linda assures Maze that emotions are hard, but they make you strong. “This is the strongest I’ve ever seen you,” says Linda.
Maze struggles to sit up and says, “I’m sorry.” Linda also apologizes and they hug. Linda then asks if there’s someone really trying to kill her, and Maze is sure everything will be fine.
Unfortunately, Maze left her demon blade behind when she escaped and Pierce found it.
Back at Lucifer’s, Ella can’t believe Charlotte’s gone and Pierce did it. She can’t figure out why God would allow this many bad things to happen. Lucifer, for once, takes his dad’s side. He says humans are the responsible parties. Ella looks to Heaven and tells God they’re on rocky ground.
Chloe assures the thug they can protect his sister, but he doesn’t believe them. Dan speaks to the guy alone and tells him Pierce referred to him as a corrupt cop when they first met. Dan then takes out the murder weapon and, admitting to what he did, says he’s ready to kill if necessary. The guy finally gives in and says he’ll tell them whatever they want if they protect his sister.
Dan gives Chloe and Lucifer the guy’s sister’s address. After she’s safe, the thug will spill the beans.
As they walk toward the sister’s place, Chloe blames herself for what’s happening. She’s also realized all the metaphors about angels and demons and immortal men are real to Lucifer. He reminds her he never lies. She thinks she shouldn’t have encouraged him when he spoke in riddles, and she wants him to stop talking about the Devil. She doesn’t see him that way. Lucifer agrees and then admits he doesn’t see himself that way recently either.
Over at Lucifer’s, Ella finds out that the thug is an only child. That means Chloe and Lucifer are walking into a trap.
Lucifer and Chloe look around the place and Chloe gets a bad feeling. She’s right – Pierce is there with lots of thugs for backup. Pierce pulls out a gun and is ready to kill Lucifer, knowing Lucifer will always hunt him. Both Lucifer and Pierce warn Chloe to step aside but she refuses. She gets in the way, certain he won’t shoot. However, Pierce says he now knows life is worth it and doesn’t want to die.
Chloe also doesn’t want to die, at least not without taking Pierce down. She draws her weapon and shoots at Pierce, and one of Pierce’s men fires and hits Chloe. Pierce glares at Lucifer and orders his men to finish the job. Lucifer screams no; his gorgeous wings unfurl and then fold around Chloe, enclosing her in a protective mass of angel wings.
They continue to shoot and Lucifer’s wings are blooded and ripped apart. However, Lucifer’s able to fly up out of the building to the roof. She’s wearing a bulletproof vest and wasn’t injured. Once Lucifer is sure she’s okay, he flies back into the building. His bloody but beautiful wings are spread out in all their glory as he takes down the thugs. Finally, it’s just Pierce and Lucifer left standing.
Lucifer folds his wings back into his body and rises, facing Pierce.
Up on the roof, Chloe gets a call from Dan warning her it’s a trap. She’s aware of that but has no idea how they survived. Then she admits she might have known all along. She hears shots and gets off the phone to help.
Inside the building, Pierce fires point black at Lucifer. The bullets don’t do any damage, so Pierce withdraws the demon blade and they begin fighting hand-to-hand. Lucifer is able to plunge the demon blade into Pierce’s chest. “I am a Devil of my word,” says Lucifer.
Pierce asks if Chloe’s okay as he’s dying. Pierce believes he’s going to Heaven, but Lucifer reminds him he killed Charlotte. Since he chose to kill her, he’s a monster and will be going to Hell. Lucifer’s demon eyes burn as he talks and his demon face returns. He taunts Pierce, telling him, “You can’t outrun what you’ve done, what you truly are.”
As Pierce is dying, he smiles and says, “And neither can you.” He grabs Lucifer’s arm and then passes away. Chloe arrives and Lucifer turns to face her. His Devil face is still visible and Chloe can only say, “It’s all true.”
And that, my fellow Lucifans, is the final scene of a series that was canceled far too soon. A huge thank you to the series’ writers, directors, and cast for delivering three incredibly entertaining seasons.
More on Lucifer Season 3:
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 1 “They’re Back, Aren’t They” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 2 “The One with the Baby Carrot” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 3 “Mr. and Mrs. Mazikeen Smith” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 4 “What Would Lucifer Do?” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 5 “Welcome Back, Charlotte Richards” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 6 “Vegas With Some Radish” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 7 “Off the Record” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 8 “Chloe Does Lucifer” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 9 “The Sinnerman” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 10 “The Sin Bin” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 11 “City of Angels?” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 12 “All About Her” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 13 “Til Death Do Us Part” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 14 “My Brother’s Keeper” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 15 “High School Poppycock” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 16 “Infernal Guinea Pig” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 17 “Let Pinhead Sing!” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 18 “The Last Heartbreak” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 19 “Orange is the New Maze” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 20 “Angel of San Bernardino” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 21 “Anything Pierce Can Do I Can Do Better” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Episode 23 “Quintessential Deckerstar” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Bonus Episode “Boo Normal” Recap
– Lucifer Season 3 Bonus Episode “Once Upon a Time” Recap
– Lucifer Season 4 Episode 1 “Everything’s Okay” Recap
– Lucifer Season 4 Episode 2 “Somebody’s Been Reading Dante’s Inferno” Recap
– Lucifer Season 4 Episode 3 “O, Ye of Little Faith, Father” Recap
– Lucifer Season 4 Episode 4 “All About Eve” Recap
