Dan's Ending On 'Lucifer' Was Heartbreaking & Satisfying All At Once

- Lucifer -
Dan's Ending On 'Lucifer' Was Heartbreaking & Satisfying All At Once

Warning: Spoilers to come for all of Lucifer Season 6.

Lucifer might be over, but Detective Douche will live forever. Well, not technically, Dan did physically die at the end of Lucifer Season 5. Thankfully, nobody's ever really gone on Lucifer, and Dan was able to get the ending he deserved in Lucifer Season 6.

I'm not ashamed to say that few things on TV have made me cry more than Dan's death in Season 5B. And the fact that his soul didn't even go to Heaven was just salt in the wound. People go to Hell if they have unresolved guilt, so how could Dan — sweet, goofy, ridiculous Dan — be in Hell? Sure, there was that season he was a corrupt cop, and he did work with Lucifer's evil twin brother to try to kill him, resulting in the kidnapping of his own ex-wife, but I thought we were past all that! And so did he. So why was he still in Hell, and how can he get out?

Early promos for Season 6 teased Dan's return to land of the living, though it was unclear whether or not he was actually brought back to life thanks to a Lucifer/God miracle. Turns out, he wasn't (damnit Lucifer!), but he was brought back as a spirit.

Image: Netflix

The good news: he gets to be included in the final season not just in flashbacks or Hell Loops. The bad news: as a spirit brought to Earth, he's stuck without being able to communicate with any mortals, cursed to watch his daughter grow up without him. His only hope is to resolve his guilt and move on, but, thanks to a misguided attempt by Lucifer to shield him from eternal torture, he's never seen his Hell Loop, so he has no idea what his unresolved guilt is about.

Finally, after nearly an entire season of trying to figure it out, he finally realizes what it is: Trixie. Even though he didn't choose to leave her without a father, he feels guilty for dying without being able to say goodbye. So, when he accidentally finds himself in the body of the French mercenary who killed him, he goes to talk to her. Trixie doesn't know it's him, but the conversation gives him the opportunity to tell her how much her father loved her and to hear how much she loved him. All this time, he worried that she would think he was imperfect or disappointing, but she remembers him as being the best dad a girl could ask for. And that's what he needed to hear before he could move on.

Season 6 ended with Dan in Heaven, eating lunch with Charlotte in the afterlife. It's not necessarily the ending I wanted for him (*cue me crying just thinking about Trixie growing up without her dad*), but it's better than him playing ping pong in hell forever. And I'm choosing to take comfort in the fact that he'll see Trixie again one day. Can someone please pass me the tissues?

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Image: John P. Fleenor/Netflix

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