| “ | Dad... do you love us?" "If you have to ask, then I truly have failed as a father |
„ |
| – Lucifer and God | ||
"Family Dinner" is the ninth episode of the fifth season of Lucifer.[1]
Summary[]
God (Dennis Haysbert) comes to Earth to settle the difference between his sons. Amenadiel (D. B. Woodside) has questions about Charlie.
Plot[]
God breaks up the battle between his sons, telling them He just wants them all to get along. Michael makes a show of trying to “hug it out” and although Amenadiel reluctantly accepts an embrace, Lucifer has nothing but contempt for the obvious ploy, “You've got to be joking. No! Hell, no!” God then turns his attention to Charlie and unfreezes time so He can properly say hello.
Lucifer has had enough of the family, and flees back to Lux, Chloe, meanwhile, comes back to awareness in an empty evidence room and no Lucifer. When she follows him to Lux, he is playing Footloose for his new hire, the dancing security guard from the previous episode, and drinking – a lot. Chloe asks what happened to him, and he tells her he had to get away. She assumes she pushed him, and he tries to apologize and tell it it wasn't her. She cuts him off and tells him to take some time before leaving a frustrated Lucifer behind.
At Linda's, she is freaking out about her Guest and keeps poking Him to see if He is real. God tells her, “You can poke all you want. Because I'm eternally grateful to you for this beautiful grandson.” When Amenadiel then tries to tell God that Lucifer was right and Michael is up to something, God assures him the day to day is unimportant. He then decides what they all need is a family dinner.
At the newest crime scene, Chloe advises Dan to take some time off, that learning the truth about Lucifer is difficult to process. He counters that she had just been kidnapped, and they both agree that they would rather be working. Ella is also back at work after having discovered her boyfriend was, in fact, a serial killer, both Dan and Chloe are fine with her not taking time off.
The victim is found at The Kingdom mini-golf course; Chris Peterson, the son of The Kingdom owner, was found burnt to a crisp. Chloe assumes Lucifer won't be showing up, but he does, watching her rather wistfully from afar, until his Father shows up and asks if he is going to say something romantic to her. Lucifer is nothing but seething anger around his Dad, and snarkily asks, “Why are You still here? Isn't the universe going to collapse with Your You-like powers on Earth?” God shrugs and says it's fine, adding to Lucifer's ire. He then asks his son to join them for a family dinner. Lucifer laughs in disbelief, “No! Pass. Hard pass.” God tell him He doesn't want to leave until they can talk, to which Lucifer replies, “Well, enjoy your eternity here, then, because there is absolutely no way I am sitting down for anything as absurd or torturous as a family dinner. I've already done my time in Hell. Remember?” He then storms away and tells Chloe he needs no space and where is the family since one of them is obviously the killer. Chloe then realizes his issues are not with her but with his family.
They then interrogate the victim's siblings and discover they all suspect a rival mini-golf course owner Juan Perez (Mark Adair-Rios) of Hole in Jaun. Juan has an alibi but tells them that Chris asked him for a job. Chris’s girlfriend Betty (Gabrielle Walsh), gives them a different story. She says that Chris hated his family, but loved the mini-golf business, but it makes sense if he went to Juan for a job, but she was unaware if he had. She said Chris would never go back to The Kingdom, he would rather burn it down.
Back at Linda's God has sent everyone else out as He waited for Maze to arrive. When she appeared he offered her her favorite drink. When she said it was not, He simply smiled and said “We'll see.” After tasting it, she could not drink it fast enough. She then asked for a soul, and He said He could not help her. She furiously storms out.
At the precinct, Amenadiel shows up and asks Lucifer to attend the dinner. Practicing his put, Lucifer refuses, and wonders at his brother returning to his role as the dutiful, obedient soldier after doing so well at becoming his own man, getting his brother to admit their Father had been an ass. Lucifer repeats his refusal to attend, “Our almighty, all-powerful Dad who will never admit to being anything other than perfect. Well, guess what, brother? He can kiss my imperfect, banished backside!”
Elsewhere, Ella is still dealing with the fact that she had been sleeping with a killer. Dan tries to help her by telling her, “Listen, I can't pretend to understand how you're feeling, but I did just go through an experience where someone I thought I knew wasn't who I thought he was.” When she scoffs and says it's hard to beat a secret serial killer he shrugged wryly, “You'd think.” He then tells her not to let it change her, that the world needs more people like her, not fewer.
The victim's father, Pete Peterson, then arrives at the station and confesses to the murder, spinning it as an accident. Chloe hands the man off to a uniform to get his statement. Lucifer tells her that hearing the confession felt great, and he now knows what he needs to do.
At Linda's the family is sitting down to dinner when Lucifer arrives. He moves his seat away from his twin, but does sit down with the family. Lucifer starts with, “You know, I have to compliment you, Michael. At first, I thought you exploiting poor Amenadiel's fears about Charlie's mortality was just a real shit move. And impersonating me, ravaging my life, convincing a friend to shoot me, and kidnapping my girlfriend, downright villainous.... I started to wonder, maybe there was an endgame. You create a mess big enough to bring God himself down, we all regress in Dad's presence, noble Amenadiel takes the blame, rebellious Lucifer runs off in a huff, leaving you looking like the perfect son. But now, I realize it was just to bring the family together for dinner.” He then asks his Father why Hell no longer needs a warden. God says he has a good reason, but doesn't elaborate, frustrating Lucifer. Michael bitterly comments that his brother got a kingdom for bad behavior, and Lucifer is stunned, “Is that how you see it? Being forced to torture souls for hundreds of thousands of years was an 'attaboy?' Sure, I was king of Hell, but I was still in Hell. If that's not a poisoned chalice, I don't know what is.” Michael counters that being the twin of the Light Bring meant he lived in the shadows. Lucifer told him he had no one to blame but himself for who he was, and as the argument escalates a storm grows outside until God shouted that was enough, and Lucifer snidely complimented Him on a display of Old Testament wrath.
Amenadiel apologies to Linda, that they were the most dysfunctional family ever. She says they are reassuringly normal. That she saw sons who just wanted their Father's love and don’t feel like they’re getting it. Lucifer says he doesn’t want Dad’s love, he just wants Dad to admit that he’s a bad Father. If all of the apples are bad, maybe it’s the tree that’s the problem. He finishes with one simple question for one simple answer. Does God love his children? God says if He has to tell them, then He really has failed as a father. Lucifer takes that as a no, even as Amenadiel protests. Lucifer's conclusion is that his Father is incapable of love, and he leaves.
Lucifer goes back to work, only to find Chloe and Ella watching surveillance footage at Hole in Juan. The gas sample they found doesn’t match the gas in the shed at The Kingdom. It matches the gas at Hole in Juan. The footage shows the night that Chris applied for a job there, Betty was with Chris. She had lied. Peter Peterson's house arrest ankle bracelet then indicates that he has fled and is heading for the train station. Chloe and Lucifer pursue, and find Peterson chasing Betty. Peterson holds her at gunpoint and says he went to check on Betty as she was skipping town. He put the pieces together and figured out that she killed his son. Betty admits that she wanted to burn down The Kingdom to help Chris get away from his family. But Chris caught her, and they struggled. He fell and hit his head on the concrete. The fire already had started and she couldn’t stop it – Chris' death was an accident. Pete realizes that Chris died protecting The Kingdom. Lucifer points out that self-sacrifice runs in the family. Chloe arrests Betty.
At Lux, Michael says goodbye to Maze, he’s sorry that she didn’t get what she wanted. Maze says she sorry he didn't either, but Michael says that it ain’t over until it’s over...for either of them.
That evening, Chloe checks up on Lucifer, “So it turns out our killer was an overbearing girlfriend trying to change her boyfriend because he couldn't deal with his family issues. So, you know, no parallel.” He assures her that she had been nothing but wonderful, and says she deserves to hear those three words from him, but he will never be able to say them. He believes he is his Father’s son, that he is incapable of love, and if he said those three words they would be a lie.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar and Michael
- Lauren German as Chloe Decker
- Kevin Alejandro as Dan Espinoza
- D.B. Woodside as Amenadiel
- Lesley-Ann Brandt as Mazikeen
- Aimee Garcia as Ella Lopez
- Rachael Harris as Linda Martin
Guest Starring[]
- Dennis Haysbert as God
- John Glover as Peter Peterson
- Mark Adair-Rios as Juan Perez
- Gabrielle Walsh as Betty
Co-Starring[]
- Darion Basco as Froy
- Eddie Flake as Uni
- Genevieve Gauss as Officer Cacuzza
- Dieterich Gray as Ted Peterson
- Danielle Hoetmer as April Peterson
- Mike Horton as Larry Peterson
- Phil Kruse as Lucifer/Michael Acting Double
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The episode title is said by God to Lucifer.
- The official show writer Twitter account previously given an image of production board, with a title "Trixie Killed" cut after the word Killed, as they thought that it was "super spoiler". Later, they revealed the official script of the episode, title as "Family Dinner". This meaning that they either change the title due to spoiler issue, or the board is just a hint to distract the fans.
- We see once again Maze's demon face.
- Lucifer recognizes the ZX3 as being used for street racing and "other purposes." This is a reference to "A Good Day to Die" where ZX3 was a part of the antidote for Chloe's poisoning.
- Lucifer and Michael have more in common that they want to admit.
- Lucifer reveals Michael changed his name, or at least how to pronounce it. Just like Lucifer changed Samael to Lucifer.
- He also reveals that Michael's crooked shoulder is because Michael view himself as broken compared to Lucifer and as a result, he self actualise his shoulder to be crooked. Lucifer even describe it as a massive chip in Michael's shoulder. Just like Lucifer got his Devil face.
- Amenadiel talks to God about Charlie's mortality. God is purposely vague in his answers. God uses phrasing like "It seems so" and "That would follow from the fact that he is mortal" which neither confirms nor denies whether Charlie is truly mortal.
- This episode picks up right after the end scene of Spoiler Alert.
- John Glover previously played Lionel Luthor in the 2001-2011 tv show Smallville, a character that contrasts Peter Peterson in how they treat their children. He also played Jason Woodrue/Floronic Man in the 1997 film Batman & Robin and Mr Sivana in the 2019 film Shazam!.
- Tom Welling, the actor who portrayed Cain, also appeared in Smallville as the main protagonist, Superman. Ironically, the actors personalities contrast the other from their Smallville counterparts.
Errors[]
- When Dan Espinoza is trying to comfort Ella Lopez over being fooled by Pete Daily, he tells her that even he fell for his manipulations. However, in the three episodes Pete was in, Dan had no time to interact with him on or off screen. In "BlueBallz", Dan spent the entire episode helping Amenadiel and Lucifer Morningstar take care of Charlie; "Our Mojo", Dan took a sick day from work to process the revelation that Lucifer was the Devil; and "Spoiler Alert" had Dan getting drunk at a bar the entire time they were investigating Chloe Decker's kidnapping that led them to Pete.