Lucifer season 5, episode 15 recap – what happened in “Is This Really How It’s Going to End?!”?

By Daniel Hart
Published: May 28, 2021
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Netflix series Lucifer season 5, episode 15 - Is This Really How It's Going to End
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Summary

Episode 15 catches the audience off guard as it rumbles a sequence of events that suggest war is coming. The audience’s patience has been rewarded — the penultimate chapter leads to a grand finale.

This recap of Netflix’s Lucifer season 5, episode 15, “Is This Really How It’s Going to End?!,” contains major spoilers. 

Read the recap of episode 14.

Well, the penultimate chapter was always going to be a rollercoaster, and this time, it seems it’s leading to an “all or nothing” finale.

To open the 15th chapter, Lucifer is attempting to secure a vote from one of the angels in the club — he offers the angel the finest vodka in the world. However, the angel is not sure about Lucifer being God. Lucifer fights his case and says the earth has changed him. This is going to be harder for the former King of Hell than he thought. Lucifer asks Chloe to cool her feet as he isn’t sure he can convince his siblings for the God job; however, Chloe believes in him.

Waterboarded with wine // retirement speech

New chapter and new crime, and this episode put the audience into a false sense of security — we believed this would be a simple case.

At a crime scene, Dan recommends to Ella that she goes on a date with his old cop partner Carol Corbett (he’s a guy). Ella is grateful for the offer, but she states she’s finally at peace with everything that has happened. Dan believes Ella deserves someone equally as great as she is. Anyway, the murder victim at the winery is oenophile Jonathan Donnelly, 53 years old — two gunshots to the chest. Ella tells Lucifer and Chloe that Jonathan was tied down and waterboarded with wine before being killed. Ella says the victim got a really mean text from Mo.

Chloe decides to tell her workforce that she’s retiring from the police — she gets emotional as she gives her speech. She thanks everyone and says it is not goodbye. Dan tells Ella that he knows what it’s about — Lucifer becoming God. Ella is angry at Chloe for retiring and wonders how she can solve crimes without her. She’s doubly angry when she learns Lucifer is leaving as well. She thinks they are off to Florida.

The psychic suspect

Lucifer and Chloe attend a psychic — the woman tells Lucifer that he’s stressed about a professional opportunity. She’s predicting everything, and she tells him he has to fight for his new job. She wants Lucifer to lean into his strengths. The psychic is actually a suspect in the murder case (Mo), and Chloe confronts her about it. She seems surprised that Jonathan is dead and is clearly a con artist — Chloe threatens to bring her down for fraud unless she tells the truth. Mo insists she is innocent. Mo tells Lucifer and Chloe that maybe one of the families Jonathan stole from may have been angry with him and killed the man.

Trying to lean in with his strengths 

Lucifer meets angel Sara and asks what he can do for the angels — he wants to offer her a favor; he brings in a famous chef that she adores. He’s arranged a full VIP experience for her with the chef. Sara asks Lucifer why he wants God so badly, and when he doesn’t give a convincing answer, Sara tells him she has to think about it.

Lucifer season 5, episode 15 proves that the devil is focusing on the wrong things to become God. He needs a genuine reason to fight for the mantle.

Back to the investigation

Chloe tells Lucifer that she will miss investigating together — Lucifer suggests that she doesn’t quit. They head into a house that belongs to a man called TJ. When TJ arrives, he proves to have super strength and kicks Lucifer over and runs off. Back at the station, Ella tells them that whoever killed Jonathan ransacked TJ’s place.

The Queen of Hell outfit // the last swing vote 

Maze shows Linda her Queen of Hell outfit. Linda wonders if Maze is worried about the soul she has now — Maze tells her that she’s going to allow her soul to suffocate and die. Linda says she nurtured her soul by creating relationships on earth. Maze is not interested in the therapy approach and tells her she needs to be the Queen of Hell. Lucifer arrives and speaks to Maze about TJ and wonders if he’s a demon — he tells her to keep an eye out on rogue demons, and he’ll handle the God election.

Lucifer meets his last swing vote and speaks to one more angel named Zadkiel — he explains that he’s changed and spent time on earth growing. However, despite his reasoning, Zadkiel refuses to give his vote. Lucifer then gives the real reason he wants to become God — he tells him he’s doing it for the love of a human; he wants to be worthy of Chloe. He storms out, but then Zadkiel asks if this woman is the gift made by their father. Lucifer admits he is doing it for the wrong reasons and will win, with or without his vote.

Kidnapped Dan 

And then Lucifer season 5, episode 15 quickly turns into an evolving tragic event, and the real reasons behind this crime are way more sinister than the characters imagined. The writers have juiced up the story really quickly.

Dan meets Brooke Frier, a client of TJ Ross — he tells her that someone is after one of TJ’s stolen items. He says her life is under threat. Behind the door, a man is pointing a gun at Brooke. She tells Dan that she hasn’t seen anybody, so he departs. However, Dan knows there’s a home invasion and requests backup — however, he’s been caught out as the man holds him at gunpoint.

Dan is now kidnapped, and Brooke is dead. Lucifer, Ella, and Chloe investigate. Nearby in the flowers, they find Dan’s phone. There’s a clue Dan left behind in a drain nearby — it’s a dog tag — French Foreign Legion. This is linked to a man called Sayeed Faisal — he’s connected to a murderous mercenary group. Chloe is worried about Dan. Maze vows to find him. Lucifer reminds her that finding criminals means using criminals.

Tragic death of a major character

But episode 15 is way more serious than it sells itself as we lose a major character, and it is quite upsetting.

Dan is getting beaten by Sayeed and his acquaintance Vincent. They ask him who TJ is, and when he says he doesn’t know, they show him a grave and tell him that he’s lying. Meanwhile, Chloe, Maze, Lucifer, and Amenadiel plot together to find Dan. As they do that, Dan manages to fight his way out of his captivity, but then he’s shot in the chest by Vincent — more shots and piled into him, and he falls to the round. Chloe finds Dan, and it gets emotional — Dan tells her to tell Trixie that he loves her, but Chloe tells him not to give up. EMTs arrive as Chloe sobs.

In the hospital, everyone waits patiently, but it’s bad news — Dan is dead. There’s despair all around. Trixie turns up to make the situation worse — she asks where her father is. Trixie refuses to believe it and asks Lucifer to tell her it isn’t true. Knowing Lucifer can’t lie, she knows the truth. Lucifer tells Amenadiel that Dan’s last words were someone called Caleb. Suddenly, Amenadiel knows what this is about. Amenadiel visits Caleb’s grave — it’s been dug up.

Michael is involved 

Amenadiel tells Lucifer that Michael is involved — Caleb Mayfield was the boy who was killed, and Amenadiel tried to help him; Amenadiel explains that before Caleb was buried, he laid his necklace on his body and someone came looking for it. Lucifer suddenly realizes that Michael hired the mercenaries to find the necklace, but TJ has it, which explains the super strength. He believes Azrael’s blade is on Earth after sending Gabriel to the other universe, and he’s trying to assemble the Flaming Sword — he’s not trying to win an election, he’s trying to win a war.

Chloe learns the truth to why Lucifer wanted to be God

Lucifer season 5, episode 15 brings the most damning truth for Chloe so far, and it’s not a sweet one. Unfortunately, fans will be displeased that this romance hits another major roadblock.

Lucifer finds Chloe, and she’s blaming Dan’s death on herself. Lucifer tells her that it’s Michael’s fault, not hers. She wants Lucifer to tell her that this for something better and that he’s going to be God. Lucifer tells her he may have to go to war against Michael and that he hasn’t won a single swing vote. He admits to Chloe that he did all this to prove that he is worthy of her. Chloe is dismayed that Trixie lost her father because Lucifer cannot understand how she feels about him. She believes that his siblings are right and that he shouldn’t be God.

Funeral 

At the funeral, Carol introduces himself to Ella — he tells her that Dan was always looking out for him. Ella asks him to save her a seat for the funeral. Amenadiel tells Lucifer that Dan is not in Heaven, and they are in disbelief — they thought he handled his guilt. Lucifer thinks it isn’t fair that Dan ended up in Hell. Amenadiel delivers a rousing speech at the funeral and promises Dan that he will always try to do better. Maze turns up at the funeral and tells Lucifer that she found them.

The ending

Lucifer and Maze head to the group of mercenaries; Maze viciously kills them all. There’s emotion and anger as she gets through them all. Lucifer deals with the man that killed Dan himself. The scene then flits to Linda and Lucifer — Lucifer tells her that he made the people pay who killed Dan. Linda tells Lucifer that he’s grieving, so it’s important to what he is feeling. Lucifer doesn’t think pain should exist, but Linda tells him that pain is inveitable. Lucifer rages, as he doesn’t want to be counseled on pain and inevitability — he feels the system is broken and unjust. Linda tells Lucifer that he cannot change how the world changes.

Lucifer says that before, he wanted to be God for the wrong reasons, but now he has to be God — he announces that he is going to war. What an ending!

Lucifer season 5, episode 15 catches the audience off guard as it rumbles a sequence of events that suggest war is coming. The audience’s patience has been rewarded — the penultimate chapter leads to a grand finale.

Additional points 
  • Amenadiel tells Dan that he wants to be a cop, and Dan laughs at him because he’s an angel. He thinks there’s something better for his skillset. At the funeral, Ella tells Amenadiel that Dan processed his application for the police. Dan believed in him.

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