Lucifer - 5.09 - "Family Dinner"

**The following is a detailed recap and review of the episode, which means it's full of spoilers. Please don’t read any further until you’ve watched it. You can also check out my (almost) spoiler-free review for the second half of the season if you prefer**

Netflix finally dropped the anticipated conclusion to season five of its hit series Lucifer less than an hour ago. In the last episode, Lucifer (Tom Ellis) was about to tell Chloe (Lauren German) how he felt when Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside) accidentally stopped time, not in control of his powers. Lucifer’s twin, Michael (also Ellis), had got into Amenadiel’s head, revealing that his son, Charlie, was human. Leaving a frozen Chloe, Lucifer joined Amenadiel to battle his brother, as well as Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt), who had sided with Michael, believing that he could get her a soul. At the height of the battle, the brothers’ father, God (Dennis Haysbert), appeared, putting a stop to the fight. Season 5B picks up in that moment.

Following the recap is a review of the episode.

***The following review has slight spoilers for season 5B, though not really much more than the trailer***

Fans have been waiting with bated breath for today to arrive and Netflix to drop season 5B of the hit series Lucifer.

At the end of last season, Lucifer (Tom Ellis) was about to finally say those three little words to his girlfriend, Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren Graham), when Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside), accidentally stopped time after Lucifer's twin, Michael (also Ellis), got into his head and he lost control of his powers, crushingly to fans, halting Lucifer’s confession.

Leaving Chloe in the storage closet, Lucifer helped Amenadiel battle Michael, as well as Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt), who had once again sold out Lucifer to get what she wanted. In this case, Michael had agreed to give her an audience with his father, who she believed could give her a soul.

At the height of the battle, their father, God, showed up in the form of Dennis Haysbert to break up the fight.

The back half of the season, which focuses on God’s arrival and how it impacts his sons, picks up right at that moment, and what follows is an intense episode called “Family Dinner” that forces Lucifer to deal with a lot of his “Daddy issues.” It gets the show off to a fantastic start. Haysbert has great chemistry with Ellis and Woodside and it was really interesting to finally see that family dynamic. Ellis is so flawless I constantly forget that it’s him playing both twins. He makes it easy to differentiate between the two.

Today the fantasy adventure series Shadow and Bone premiered on Netflix. The series, which is based on Leigh Bardugo’s young adult novel trilogy, takes place in the war-torn world of Ravka and follows Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), a female mapmaker and soldier of the First Army, who is ostracized because of her Shu heritage. Back again with her best friend from the orphanage, Malyen “Mal” Oretsev (Archie Renaux), she is devastated when, as a tracker in the army, he is chosen to join a group of soldiers on a skiff across the Fold where her parents were killed. The Fold is an area of permanent darkness that separates East and West Ravka and is filled with killer flying creatures known as Volcra. Crossing it almost certainly means death. Unwilling to be separated, Alina burns the maps for the journey so the soldiers crossing require a cartographer and bring her along.

Things go horribly wrong when the skiff is attacked by the Volcra in the Fold. Many are killed; however, when the winged creature grabs and injures Mal, Alina gives off a great light that destroys it, and she and those left are spared.

When the general of the Second Army, Aleksander Kirigan (Ben Barnes), demands to see Alina, it is revealed that she is a Grisha, or can manipulate matter. She is a Sun Summoner and has the ability to create light, which could potentially destroy the Fold and reunite the country.