At times, Lucifer season 6 feels like a gift to Deckerstar fans. The season that we were never supposed to get, season 6, starting from Lucifer 6×01 “Nothing Ever Changes Around Here,” is full of intimate, emotional, domestic Deckerstar, the kind of OTP content we rarely get in canon, and that fans have always craved for. Don’t believe me? Go check out fanfic in general. The shows that do this effectively end up, inevitably, with much less fanfic of them just being soft with each other. The shows that utterly fail at it force fans to imagine happy, domestic scenes, even when those don’t seem possible.
If that history is to be believed, there will be almost no fanfic for Lucifer season 6 – okay, well, for most of the season. That ending does require fanfiction, we won’t deny that. And the number one reason why the relationship works as well as it does, is because we’re finally reaping the benefits of the five seasons of foundation. Lucifer and Chloe were, after all, partners for many years. Friends for many years. They’ve worked together effectively. They know each other well. And, for better or worse, they can communicate.
With Lucifer’s season 5 issues in the rearview mirror, now that communication they’ve always been pretty good at, can be used to strengthen their relationship. And boy, is it obvious from their first scene together in season 6, and it continues to be so as the season progresses. They have their ups and downs, of course, because relationships aren’t easy, and our coping mechanisms are our coping mechanisms, but overall season 6 is about Deckerstar facing their issues together.
Talking to each other – about the good, the bad, the kid from the future, all of it. Taking time to do stuff together – like, you know, beat up bad guys, go to family therapy with the aforementioned kid, go on dates. Having fears and doubts and yes, sometimes reacting badly, but never running away from each other. Never letting the other person’s fears, or their issues, affect the relationship. Season 6 does away with the Chloe storyline and the Lucifer storyline, to establish that their storylines are one and the same. Deckerstar is a unit, and what happens to one of them affects the other one. Period.
For fans, this feels obvious. This is the way it should be. This is, literally, the thing they want from a show. And yet TV constantly presumes to tell us what we want, and always, somehow, arrives at the conclusion that this just …isn’t. That we want tension, and problems, drama and issues, instead of, you know, two people making pancakes together in the kitchen and trading kisses while they cook (which, fine, this show couldn’t really do as Lucifer doesn’t have a kitchen).
But we do want that. The domesticity. The happiness. And Lucifer season 6 gives us that, it just gives us drama too. It gives us problems. Just the good kind of problems, if anything, because all the problems are external to the characters. They are not causing each other’s problems, instead, they’re working together to fix a problem that they both have. And talking about their issues as they do.
Lucifer has grown a lot in the time we’ve known him. So has Chloe. But there’s always been a barrier, unspoken but present. They let each other in, they loved each other, but they never fully trusted each other with their issues the way they do in season 6. And that’s the ultimate level of trust, not opening up to someone, loving them, but believing that you can truly be yourself with them and they will still love you. Always.
It’s the unconscious mind, as well as the conscious one. It’s a choice so profound that there’s no part of you that isn’t all in. And that’s basically what Lucifer and Chloe have achieved in season 6. That’s what allows them to make the decision they make near the end, together. It’s not about person’s sacrifice for the sake of the other, it’s not about making decisions that affect the people you love, without their say. It’s about a conscious choice made as a couple.
To live. To love. To let go. To trust.
The ending of Lucifer season 6, of the series, is a matter for another article, which I have already written. But perhaps the most important thing we can say about it is that, like it or not, the ending is firmly rooted in exactly the same thing the entire season has been about, Lucifer and Chloe communicating. Listening to each other. Putting their family first. Communication doesn’t solve all problems, that’s the sad truth. But it makes even the bad moments much easier to endure.
Going forward, TV can take note of what Lucifer did with Deckerstar in season 6. Study it. Learn from it. Not necessarily for the ending, I would still take something different from what we got, but the journey that took us there? Well, that was absolutely satisfying.
No, more than that. It was incredible. They are incredible. And I wouldn’t change it/them for the world.
Lucifer season 6 is available to stream on Netflix.
