‘Lucifer’ Fills Its Penultimate Episode With Heartfelt — and Heartbreaking — Goodbyes (RECAP)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Lucifer Season 6 Episode 9 “Goodbye, Lucifer.”]

The farewell tour is officially underway, with the day Lucifer (Tom Ellis) is set to disappear and leave Chloe Decker (Lauren German) and their future daughter Rory (Brianna Hildebrand) here in the drama’s aptly-titled penultimate episode. That sets the stage for on-screen goodbyes as well, ones that have us — and the characters — tearing up.

Meanwhile, Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside) returns from Heaven, having figured out why the world is ending: Angels are answering prayers but “making a mess of it.” For example, a death row inmate prays for his cat to join him, and his pet lion, Mr. Meowgi, is let loose in the prison. That ends up tying into Dan Espinoza’s (Kevin Alejandro) continued journey as a ghost trying to figure out what guilt is keeping him from heaven.

Lucifer needs to take the throne, Amenadiel tells his brother, only for the devil to share his revelation from the previous episode, that being God isn’t his calling. (After a conversation with Chloe, Amenadiel begins to seriously consider taking on the job himself, but doing it his own way, allowing him to spend time on Earth, too.) Lucifer may not know what his calling is, but will he have time to figure it out, with August 4 here?

Lucifer’s Goodbyes Begin

Lucifer wakes up in a good mood, crossing Become God and checking Prove I Love Rory off his To-Do List. (Also on the list: Start calling Dan “Casper,” Rewatch Bones, and Try Golden Gate with Chloe.) Chloe, on the other hand, is significantly less happy because it’s August 4. But there’s no reason to panic, they decide, making plans for the next day. While Chloe goes to sign her reinstatement forms at the precinct, “I’ll be here, not worrying about the future,” Lucifer tells her … then begins building a panic room.

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Rory doesn’t think it’ll matter, seeing her presence in the present as a sign they’re in a time loop. He still disappears because she still travels back in time. When she mocks the “king of debauchery” for spending his last day locked in a box, he decides to have some fun and invites her along — to buy one of everything in a bakery and jewelry store, sing karaoke, have a water balloon fight, and more.

Then comes time to watch what he considers “the best TV show you have ever seen: Bones.” She counters with the future spinoff from her time, More Bones. It’s “the perfect combination of procedure and banter. It’s about Booth and Bones’ cyborg daughter Borgie, who also works with the FBI, and her totally hot partner, Agent Andro, who’s this android who doesn’t even have bones!” Rory reveals, and Lucifer begins looking a bit sad as he watches her rave about the show because he knows his time with her is about to be cut too short.

Chloe refuses to buy into the time loop theory. “Why don’t you trust yourself to make the choice not to abandon us?” she asks, and yes, “us” includes baby Rory, because she is pregnant. As Lucifer explains to Dr. Linda Martin (Rachael Harris), however, he can’t discount it because he dismissed Rory before and doesn’t want to do it again. While Linda may not be able to give him an answer when it comes to fate vs. free will, she does offer some words of wisdom that set him on his path for the rest of the day: make sure those you love know how you feel about them. “Doctor, you do know how much I value you, right?” he checks. “As a person, Linda. I hope you know you truly are one of the most wonderful friends that the devil could ever have.”

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Lucifer then visits Ella (Aimee Garcia) and apologizes for keeping her out of the loop. But a conversation with Corbett (Scott Porter) now has her understanding that you don’t have to know everything to have trust. Still, Lucifer wanted her to realize how sorry he is in case he didn’t get another chance to tell her. He again holds back something from her — only vaguely telling her he may leave without notice — though to be fair, he hasn’t shared the few details he knows with anyone outside his family. He also reveals he’s opened a foundation in her name, the Miss Lopez STEM Initiative, to encourage young women to pursue careers in STEM.

Then comes his farewell with Amenadiel, who assumes it’s because Lucifer doesn’t think he’ll see him as much once he becomes “Amenagod.” Lucifer also makes Amenadiel joint owner of Lux, letting his brother think it’s because he wants to spend more time with his family. “I never told you this, brother, but of all our siblings, I am glad it’s you I spent all this time on Earth with,” Lucifer says. “Because you are my favorite brother, brother. And I will miss you.”

The devil’s final farewell is to his best friend, Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt), getting ready to set off on her honeymoon with Eve (Inbar Lavi). She immediately notices he’s acting weird when he asks for a hug, but he refuses to tell her anything. “I don’t want you to worry about me anymore,” he says. “You have been beholden to me and my needs for far too long and I am sorry I always made it about me.” But as she sees it, “this life, this family I found, I wouldn’t have any of it if it weren’t for you.” Still, “you are my best friend, Maze, and I just wish I’d always treated you that way before… now,” he says. She may not know what’s going on, but she still gives him a blade so he’ll “always have a piece” of her.

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Dan’s Goodbye

Thinking his killer, Vincent Le Mec (Rob Benedict), is the key to his guilt, Dan pays him a visit in prison … just as all hell breaks loose with the lion roaming free. He can only watch as the killer escapes since he can’t stop him as a ghost, so he follows Vincent to a convenience store. While Dan may want the clerk to notice the news bulletin about Vincent and call the cops, the clerk instead reaches for the gun under the counter. When he pulls it on the escaped killer, however, Vincent grabs it from him. Dan tries to grab the gun, angry, and ends up taking possession of Vincent’s body!

Dan immediately goes to Lucifer. (It only takes a “bracelet bros” for the devil to realize what’s going on.) Just jump out of him, Lucifer suggests, but Dan’s tried and it didn’t work. Plus, then he’d be setting a fugitive free, he points out. Lucifer tells him he’s truly sorry he can’t help him, that he was trapped in hell, about the ghost thing, and that he couldn’t help him get to heaven “where a good man like you belongs.” When he remarks neither of them has time to waste, Dan picks up on it and Lucifer explains everything.

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It’s off Lucifer repeating Linda’s remark about who you spend your time with that Dan (in Vincent’s body) heads to see his daughter Trixie (Scarlett Estevez) at camp, claiming to be her dad’s friend. (He easily proves it by answering her questions.) And so he gets to say his farewell to his daughter, letting her know her dad thought she was smart and kind and didn’t want to leave her. But when he says he’s sorry he left before he could be a good role model for her, Trixie gets angry, because to her, Dan was “the best dad ever, the best person ever,” and she’s proud of him. With that, Dan has gotten what he needed to go to heaven, and he leaves Vincent’s body, which means…Uh-oh.

Lucifer’s Final Hours

Lucifer takes his own advice and goes to see Chloe. “If there is any choice to be had at all, I will always choose us,” he tells her. “None of us can be certain of the future. But what we can control is what we do right now. So whether this is my last day or not, what I do know is I would like to spend it with the people I love most, my family.”

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They and Rory go to the beach together, and he makes sure his daughter knows that whatever makes him go could never be her fault. “I’m so sorry I left you. I need you to know I will do everything in my power to stay,” he says, and she believes him. She then leaves her parents to have time together, so she can remember Lucifer like this, not however he leaves.

Lucifer and Chloe wait out the final 45 minutes of the day in his panic room, and she refuses to let him say goodbye. “Just be with me,” she says, and that’s exactly what he does. At midnight, they step out, celebrate that the day is over…and then Vincent, on Rory’s phone, calls Lucifer to come get her where he’s holding her hostage…at 10th and Swanson, the place where Lucifer supposedly disappears.

Lucifer, Complete Series, Streaming Now, Netflix