Summary
Episode 10 brings the music, but it isn’t a filler chapter; it manages to bring context to how characters are feeling while progressing the story.
This recap of Netflix’s Lucifer season 5, episode 10, “Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam,” contains major spoilers.
Buffy fans that watch Lucifer will have warming memories of “Once More, With Feeling” as Lucifer gives audiences a musical episode.
Episode 10 opens with the clock ticking, and Lucifer wakes up in his red silky pajamas. He sits at the piano and sings “Wicked Game.” As he sings the song, he thinks of Chloe as the scenes flit to her, looking sad. They are at a crossroads after Lucifer’s latest admission — he will never truly love her. There’s plenty of sorrow between them as Lucifer warms up his vocals for the musical episode. After he finishes singing, Father tries to sing to him, but Lucifer is furious at him and asks him to stay away.
A new case // Chloe does not believe that Lucifer is incapable of love
There’s a new case — a referee has been murdered on a football pitch. Lucifer arrives at the crime scene. He’s surprised Chloe contacted him. Chloe tells him that all couples have disagreements, and she doesn’t believe that he is not capable of love. But, she still wants to work with him for now. Ella explains that the referee dropped dead on the fourth quarter of the football game — they thought it was a heart attack, but there was poison in his whistle. Suddenly, it becomes a dance routine, and Ella starts “Another One Bites the Dust.” Lucifer is confused before and after the song and wonders why people are singing and dancing. He’s then irked that his father is watching him. Finally, it’s revealed that Father is conjuring the singing and dancing.
Lucifer tells Chloe that his dad is at the football pitch, and she introduces herself to God. She calls him a terrible father and that he screwed up — she tries to say it as respectfully as possible as he is God after all. Father tells Chloe that he is happy to meet her, but then Chloe gets angry that she’s a “gift,” but Lucifer drags her away.
It’s always amusing to see how this series manages to make light of a situation — it’s almost a comedy.
The threatening email
Chloe and Lucifer question one of the players named JJ. He sent threatening messages to the coach. JJ and his mother claim that Steve Rockwell (the referee) made some insane calls and ruined JJ’s prospects. Suddenly, “I’ll Be Missing You” comes on, and the characters get into action. Lucifer is frustrated, but he bursts into his vocals. He knows his father will always be watching him always. Lucifer asks JJ what he wants to be, and he reveals he wants to be a pastry chef. Lucifer storms out, and the mother of JJ confesses that she sent the threatening email, but she didn’t kill Steve. Before the questioning ends, JJ gives more information about what he saw leading to the game.
Let Father in // Maze wants to be “bad” // therapy with Linda
It gets to the point in Lucifer season 5, episode 10, where Lucifer has to try a different approach with his father. Telling him to “go away” isn’t a feasible option.
Chloe wonders if Lucifer should relieve his resentment and live a normal life with loving relationships. Lucifer lets his father into his home and feels they should work on their relationship. He also shows Father his work. His father is confused as to why Lucifer does not have his own office or a desk. Soon after, Maze comes into the station with an arrested man with a Harley motherbike — but Ella tells her she isn’t “bad.” Maze says she is right and starts a routine with “Bad to the Bone,” and then Ella sings “No Scrubs.” Both of these women are struggling with their desires for bad men.
Then, Ella tells Chloe about a coach called Dale, and he’s linked to the evidence — a yellow truck. However, it does not make sense why he would want to kill the referee — there doesn’t seem any suggestion that he was wronged in a game. Meanwhile, Lucifer and his dad keep arguing, so they attend therapy with Linda; Father tells Linda that it’s impossible to make Lucifer happy. Linda tells them both how gifted they are, but they still squabble after all the time they’ve had to evolve — she thinks they are very much like humans. After Linda’s perception, Father sits closer to Lucifer and tells him to get ready to be supported, but then he takes his support too far — Lucifer is uncomfortable by it.
Approaching coach Dale
Chloe approaches coach Dale and asks about her issues with the referees. She wants to know why his fingerprints were on the poison. Lucifer asks what he desires, but he talks about cheerleaders and moving up the ranks. Coach Dale admits he gave the referee a bit off a pay-off, but he declined and threatened to turn him in. But he tells the detective that his truck was broken in, and his whistle was taken. Lucifer takes the coach’s keys off him, and Father tells him he looks all “firm and authoritative,” but Lucifer tells him to stop.
It was the wife, the chemistry teacher
And as usual, the investigation does not take too long — Lucifer season 5, episode 10 surfaces an uneasy, impatient relationship that resonates with Lucifer.
Chloe has a hunch about who killed the referee — they approach the wife and say the poison can be from the school chemistry lab. The wife gets emotional as Chloe talks about how much Dale was judgemental — as Chloe tries to arrest her, the wife attacks her with a bunsen burner, but Lucifer gets in the way of the flames. Lucifer tells Chloe that the wife makes the point — people do not change, and neither will his father. Chloe doesn’t believe change can happen overnight, but Lucifer feels he and his father are too far gone. Nevertheless, Chloe refuses to lose faith in him.
The ending
When Chloe returns home, her daughter starts singing “Smile”; Chloe sits there and remembers all the times she’d had with Lucifer. Her eyes well up, and she remembers the good times and the bad. As she reminisces all their times together, Father stands outside, and he wants to go inside, but he doesn’t. Father then speaks to Lucifer — he doesn’t seem his usual self, and it looks like he wants to say something. Lucifer explains how he had a good life and had a good thing before being King of Hell. He expresses that he felt something for Chloe, and then Father turned up and ruined it for him. Lucifer sings, “I Dreamed a Dream.” Father joins in this time.
Lucifer sobs, and his father comforts him. Father tells him he’s so full of light and that he understands that he’s angry at him — he apologizes. He explains that he cannot fix him. Lucifer is confused, saying that his father is God and that he needs to stop controlling him if he can’t fix him. Father cries and explains he’s not sure he can stop controlling him because he thinks he’s losing control of his powers. Lucifer looks at his Father and realizes something is genuinely wrong.
Lucifer season 5, episode 10 brings the music, but it isn’t a filler chapter; it manages to bring context to how characters are feeling while progressing the story.
Additional points
- Dan asks Amenadiel if a Goddess was inhabiting Charlotte while he was with her. Amenadiel says there would have been some overlap. Dan wonders if God will have any jealousy or rage. The scene turns into a musical as Dan laughs that he’s slept with God’s wife and now he will be going to Hell. He sings “Squirrel Nut Zippers.”
- Father gives Lucifer some coffee, and he’s impressed by it but pretends it’s “okay” before admitting that it is incredible. His dad explains he’s not trying to win, and he wants what is best for his son. Lucifer says he is right and apologizes — he wants his father not to join him at work for another day.
- While walking with her child in the pram, Linda sings “Just the Two of Us,” and then Amenadiel joins in with the rap.
- Amenaidiel tells Linda that their baby is human, but she thinks it is good news. However, Amenaidiel gives the impression that Angels are better than humans but because of their abilities.
