The Lucifer season finale shook things up in Los Angeles. “The Good, the Bad and the Crispy” awakened several characters to their own truths, while sending Mom off to start her own new adventure.
BuddyTV spoke with Executive Producer Joe Henderson about Linda’s situation, God’s place in the series, where Mom ended up, whether Tricia Helfer will return in Season 3, what happened to the Flaming Sword, and what’s next for Lucifer and his relationship with Chloe.
Lucifer Season 2 Finale Interview: EP Joe Henderson Teases “Mom is a Ticking Time Bomb” >>>
Let’s start by talking about Linda. I’m glad she didn’t die.
Henderson: To me a lot of Linda’s arc of Season 2 was learning about the divinity and the consequences that come with that. Early on when we were breaking stories, we decided that Linda should learn the truth about Lucifer and the first half that became a lot of fun. It was a toy– well, actually at first, it was terrifying for her and very much broke her.
What I liked was that it brought her and Maze even closer together. Even though, Lucifer’s the one who revealed the truth, Maze is the one who explained it, who translated it. She translated it through the relationship between those two women that friendship. That to me almost made it more worthwhile than the Lucifer-Linda moment itself. Then it became this fun toy of “Oh, she’s on the inside. She understands it. She knows who Mom is. She knows that God Johnson could actually be God.” But, then the next side of it that you know about the divinity, there’s dangers with that.
There’s another side of it. One of it was the potential consequences of bringing God Johnson out, but this other one is that you’ve been hanging out with angels and demons and a ticking time bomb of a goddess, and really getting a sense of when mortals play with gods, it can get dangerous. We love Dr. Linda, so as you saw she is recovering. What I also love about it is Dr. Linda knows that she went in with eyes open. She went in self-aware of what she was getting herself into. Now, the ramifications of what happened, we will still very much deal with in Season 3.
How does Dr. Linda’s self-reflection and taking responsibility for her own actions change her demeanor or relationships with these characters next season?
That’s funny. We went through a lot of different versions of how she reacted and that one felt just different. I’ve seen like “Oh, my God, what have I done? I wish I’d never known. I wish I’d done these things.” It was interesting to have her take ownership. But also, her taking ownership activate Lucifer and make him realize something about his relationship with Chloe.
I think what’s also interesting is that Linda’s a psychiatrist. She’s someone who’s always thinking about these things and always dealing with them. Lots of psychiatrists also don’t deal with their own stuff, so is this denial or is it actually what she’s processed. And those are the kinds of questions we’ll deal with next season as she realizes, “Okay, my eyes were open. I am involved in these. Have I really processed what happened and/or am I still processing what is happening.”
You brought up God Johnson. You teased God to the viewers and it wasn’t really God. Will God come back into play? Or was that your way to address him?
That was our God for now. If we have the right story, we will bring God down. What I liked about Season 2, in particular, was Mom was here. God wasn’t. It gives you a really nice simple dynamic of God never gives you answers. God is always manipulating. God’s always playing these games. Well, here’s your mom. She’s right in front of you. She’s now working in mysterious ways. She’s talking to you. She’s hugging you. She’s looking you in the eyes.
We never had any intention of bringing God down this season as actually himself because that dynamic defined the difference between the two parents. But having said that, Lucifer having a moment to think maybe he did see his dad and maybe he could have had that moment with him too was interesting to us because that tells us even more about Lucifer and what he really wants. It’s also heartbreaking. If you have a taste of something and then lose it, it’s almost worst than never having it at all.
Where is Mom now?
The idea behind this is really based upon the Lucifer book and Mike Carey’s run. In the very first book, Lucifer makes a cut in reality and starts his own world. He becomes his own god. I remember in Season 1, I gave interviews where I’m like, “We’ll never do anything like that because that’s too big of an idea.” Cut to two years later and we do exactly that, but it’s funny because our show has shifted and changed. Most importantly, it’s not anything Lucifer would do.
So it’s not necessarily anything Lucifer wants to do, but what’s great is that Mom never got a chance to build in the way God got to. And, so giving her a chance to start anew, to redefine herself, there is a moment in Episode 9 when Linda is talking to Mom and says something along the lines of “You’re God’s wife.” And, she’s like, “I prefer not to be defined by him.” And the funny thing is that she has defined herself by him. She’s allowed herself to be defined by him. And so this is her opportunity to create her own definition and step out. That was a big realization for us.
Where do you send her? What do you do with a character like this? The answer is to give her her fresh start. There’s a lot of nice divorce metaphors and restarting your life metaphors that cut to the quip of the show which is the family drama. Well, Mom just needs to start anew and finally live the life she’s always wanted and figure out what that is.
Will we see her again?
The only thing I’ll say is Charlotte Richards is breathing at the end [of the finale]. When it comes to Mom, we’ll see. She’s a great character and archetype. The question just becomes as we figure things out what story we have, right now, she’s off in her own world and building her own things. I’m sure it’s something we’ll probably come back to at some point.
What about Charlotte?
Tricia Helfer is an amazing actress and we adore her. It’s not the last we’ll see of her. She’s in our cast for Season 3. She’s awesome. We adore her. She brought so much energy and life to the character of Mom, as well as, to the show. We can’t wait to see what varying different things we do with her in Season 3.
It’s interesting because Charlotte will have different effects on each character and having a lawyer available as she has been this season would be intriguing too.
That opportunity to explore both that side of the world as well as the moral quandaries that come from it. I feel that’s where our show lives so much dealing with morality, dealing with right or wrong, and that’s a side of the world which very much dips into it.
Will there be ramifications for Lucifer having thrown the sword into this new world?
That’s a good question. Right now, the ramifications are to us the Flaming Sword will never exist again because it is separated unless Mom ever returns. We wanted a very finite, like this is an incredibly powerful weapon. Lucifer recognizes that so by throwing it in there to him, that allows him to separate it so it can’t be built.
I think there’s some interesting psychological questions because he had the most powerful sword of all time, why didn’t he hold on to it? Did he not trust himself? Did he not want to responsibility? To me, I think Lucifer’s just like, “Ugh, this thing is annoying, I’m getting rid of it.” For now, the Flaming Sword is gone, but should Mom return, that thing could come with it.
At the very end, Lucifer wakes up in a hot, desert place with angel wings. Where is Lucifer? What happened to him?
From the very beginning of Season 2, that was the end we wanted to build to. Sometimes seasons change or the end of seasons change, but [Executive Producer] Idly [Modrovich] and I agreed on it really early on. This was the true north of Season 3, which is if Season 2 is all about Mom, Season 3 is about identity. About who Lucifer is. Is he angel? Is he devil? And how do his wings growing back affect that? And why have they grown back? Who has done this to him? And what kind of plot is happening?
The relationship between Lucifer and Chloe is special. Where will they be when it picks back up? Will his wings growing back change things?
At the very end, Lucifer is making a phone call saying, “I’m gonna tell you the truth. I’m going to tell you everything.” There’s where we’ll pick up at the top of Season 3. Part of the question is: How long has Lucifer been in that desert? What’s been going on? Is he going to still tell her the same thing? What changes between in the moment he gets back to Chloe and what decisions has he made?
Most importantly, the Lucifer/Chloe relationship is the linchpin of the entire show and how do we both grown that, but also how do we keep going deeper on their relationship while also throwing speed bumps in the way, because Lucifer is the eternal teenager. Speed bumps will be partially of his own making because that’s what we did when we were teenage boys who loved a girl and maybe couldn’t admit it. Or loved a girl, but didn’t know how to show it.
Similarly, Chloe is incredibly hurt and still dealing with those things and emotionally moving on, but at the same time, they’ve got a connection that she can’t deny. All of that will play into Season 3 and we’re going to expand upon it like crazy. It’s fun.
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(Image courtesy of FOX)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Contributing Editor and Writer for Collider, BuddyTV, TV Fanatic, CliqueClack, and other publications. TV criticism, reviews, interviews with actors and producers, and other related content. Founder of TV Diehard.
