Ella Lopez has always been, if not my favorite Lucifer character, the one I related to the most. It was very easy to feel close to her, a small, nerdy Latina with a ton of feelings, and a bubbly personality. If it weren’t for the fact that she’s in STEM and I’m here writing, Ella and I would be the same person. This is why her journey during the last season of the show, and particularly, the way Lucifer season 6, starting with Lucifer 6×02 “Buckets of Baggage” handled not just her issues, but her hopes and dreams, was particularly emotional for me.
Hopefully this paints the picture of how I was feeling by the time I got my chance at what has become a ritual with every season, talking to Aimee Garcia, who plays Ella. There was so much I wanted to ask her, so much I wanted to tell her – starting with how much Ella has meant to me, and so many others, and how much I will miss both her and the character she brought to life. But first, we both got to geek out a little.
The first obligatory question, from her to me, not the other way around, was if I’d enjoyed the season. Then … “this season, I binged it! I stayed up till 3:30 in the morning watching the show. I know what happens and I still couldn’t stop watching.” She confessed. “Everyone just brought it. I think it’s some of the best performances I’ve seen from the cast.” And, to sentence. “It blew me away.”
It feels like an easy thing to say from the inside, but Aimee was clear that it wasn’t just about loving the show she’s on. “Even if I wasn’t part of the show, I would be such a fan of the show and I would be rooting for the characters. They’re all kind of underdogs in their own way, and they’re all trying to figure it out.” Like we are. And there’s a lot of emotion to seeing people try, or as Aimee said it best. “They don’t give up on each other, they don’t give up on love. It’s really heartwarming.”
At the core, this is what Lucifer is all about. Love. Family. And the growth those things can help you achieve. “It really is a ripple,” Aimee told us. “One little thing creates a movement of goodness.” And, for her, the clearest example was, well …our main character. Let’s take Lucifer – or “Chloe, she loves Lucifer, she does not give up on him, and she believes in him, really sees him. And he started to see himself differently because of it.”
“It’s just so beautiful, and universal. Sometimes you don’t have the strength to be better, but sometimes … someone else can give you that strength to see yourself at your best, and that’s unconditional love right there. That’s what I think our story is about.”
That’s a lot to process after watching the show, I know. That’s why I just put the quote there and let it do the damage. We’re all going through it in the emotional department right about now.
“I definitely want to say bring the tissues,” Garcia added, not that I could post this before the season aired, because most of the rest of our discussion was very spoiler heavy. Now that most of you have gotten to see it, though, you don’t have to worry about trying to dissect the meaning behind Aimee’s thoughts on the ending. Not that she was unequivocal at all.
I think they “nailed it. I think they just …it’s beautiful, it comes full circle in a way, (and) I think it satisfies what the fans have been craving for so long. I think it’s organic, so it doesn’t feel forced – it’s not like oh, all the sudden an alien spaceship comes and abducts everyone,” she told us, then added. “I can’t imagine an alternate ending for this show.”
Which brings us into the Ella part of the conversation – not just because it’s worth talking about Ella’s ending with the woman who embodied Ella, but because it’s worth bringing up how that ending was very much tied to who Ella has always been, and what fans have seen in her. “That was my once ask, before every season,” she told me, sharing that before everyone season, the writers would ask about the one thing she would like to see for her character. In this final season, Aimee had one particular desire.
“I just want to lean into Ella’s STEM,” was her ask. Ella “has become like this sort of representative of women in science, and I think that’s so important.” The writers honored that, which Aimee “thought that was so cool, because that doesn’t always happen.”
This ties into the ending for Ella, into what Lucifer – and the people around her – saw in her, and believed her capable of, but it wasn’t an easy road this season for Ella, not with Carol, her new love interest, or even with her found family. And as much as that journey was external, and it involved others, it was also a little internal. Because Ella feels left out by the fact that no one ever explicitly shared celestial issues with her, but does that make Ella any less part of the group?
Aimee doesn’t think so. “Some things don’t need to be told. You just know. At least she should,” she shared, and she, of course, wasn’t talking about the facts, but the feelings. And though, yes, she was hurt – and she had a right to be, for Aimee it was still beautiful to have the message be something along the lines of “just because we never came out and explicitly told you, that doesn’t mean that we didn’t care about you.”
Because, in the end, “that’s what family is.” Love that transcends anything. And that’s why “you forgive people when they hurt you,” particularly when you know they didn’t mean to. “You move on. That’s part of being a family.”
And as for the romantic choices Ella made this season – which, go Ella – maybe they can be an inspiration for people. Because Ella is “such a giver, and so good at helping other people, and being a good friend,” but so bad at believing she deserves the things she would like others to have. So, for Aimee “there was something so nice about her having the courage to put her heart on the line, without sabotaging it – that’s what guarded people do, we’ve all been there: I’m going to reject them before they reject me, and then it’s easier to digest because if you put your heart on the line, truly, both feet in, and then you get rejected …”
She didn’t have to finish the thought. We know how much that hurts.
In the end, perhaps, the most important message Ella Lopez leaves us isn’t just that women belong in STEM, or that you can be happy and huggy and emotional and still do your job, but a message of faith. Not in a higher power, or even in others, but in yourself. “she’s always talking about faith,” and this season we get to see her “trusting that she’s enough and trusting that she deserves love, and she doesn’t have to make bad choices just to play it safe.”
That feels like as important a message as all the others, doesn’t it?
Lucifer Season 6 is available to stream on Netflix.
