Lucifer season 6’s central mystery is why Lucifer abandoned Rory so that she grew up without a father. When season 6 began, Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) was on the cusp of becoming God when the emergence of Lucifer’s daughter Rory (Brianna Hildebrand), a half-angel, totally sidetracked him. Lucifer became consumed with proving that he would never leave his daughter behind while the Rory Lucifer arc saw her working through her lifelong resentment of the Devil. Aurora “Rory” Morningstar first appeared in Hell at the start of Lucifer season 6.
Rory sought the aid of the two people who came the closest to killing the Devil: Lucifer’s evil twin brother Michael (Tom Ellis) and Dan Espinoza (Kevin Alejandro). Rory soon returned Dan to Los Angeles, albeit as a ghost, and she quickly confronted Lucifer himself. Rory also sought out her mother, Chloe Decker (Lauren German), and it became clear Rory was who she said she was: Lucifer and Chloe’s adult daughter who time-traveled back to before her birth. Since she is a half-celestial being, Rory could self-actualize like other angels. In her anguish over Chloe’s death in the future, which Lucifer didn’t appear for, Rory gained time travel abilities, further complicating things.
How Lucifer Abandoned Rory
Lucifer Returned To Work In Hell
The Devil realized his greater calling wasn’t to become God…
Rory jumped back to 2020 to confront Lucifer as to why he abandoned her and Chloe. Rory’s Lucifer abandonment happened because the Devil returned to Hell to redeem all the damned souls so that they can break their Hell loops and go to Heaven, which is why Lucifer missed being able to watch his daughter grow up.
In his quest to understand how to be God during season 6, Lucifer ended up helping some damned break their Hell loops and enter Heaven, including Dan. The Devil realized his greater calling wasn’t to become God but instead, Lucifer needed to go back to Hell, not as its jailer but as its healer.
The Devil chose to become the underworld’s therapist in order to help every soul become worthy of Heaven. Hence, Lucifer left Los Angeles and returned to Hell to fulfill his destiny and the Devil remained in the underworld for untold thousands of years. When Lucifer returned to Hell, he allowed his brother Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside) to ascend as the new God instead. As a result, he did what was best for Hell and Earth, and Lucifer had to abandon his child Rory to do so.
Lucifer Abandoned Rory Because Of The Timeline
He Had To Protect Her Existence
Lucifer wanted to ensure that his daughter didn’t damn herself and make the same mistakes…
Lucifer also left Rory behind to protect his daughter and her place in the timeline.
Rory’s time travel created a predestination paradox that would be undone if Lucifer remained in Los Angeles. The Devil and his daughter grew to love each other during Lucifer season 6, and if Lucifer didn’t abandon her according to how she remembered her life playing out, then he risked wiping the adult version of Rory out of the timeline entirely. Lucifer going back to Hell and leaving Rory and Chloe so that their daughter grew up without a father made certain that the adult Rory could return to her proper place in the future.
This would also mean the baby Rory would grow up to someday time travel back to 2020 and initiate her predestination paradox. Before Lucifer returned to Hell, he rescued Rory, who was kidnapped by Dan’s killer, Vincent Le Mec (Rob Benedict). Lucifer also crucially stopped Rory from killing Le Mec, which was an irrevocable act that would have earned Rory her own Devil face just like her father’s. Out of love for Rory, Lucifer wanted to ensure that his daughter didn’t damn herself and make the same mistakes the Devil did countless millennia ago.
The irony of Lucifer’s ultimate choice to leave Rory and Chloe at the end of Lucifer season 6 is that it also ensured that Rory grew up with an absent father, just as Lucifer felt God (Dennis Haysbert) was an absentee father who banished Lucifer to Hell for rebelling. But Lucifer came to understand and forgive God in season 5, and similarly, his love for Rory caused the Devil to sacrifice being able to raise her in order to guarantee his daughter’s continued existence in Lucifer season 6 and beyond.
Closing The Loop Was As Important For Rory As Lucifer
She Welcomed The New Version Of Lucifer
While Lucifer was initially punished for abandoning Rory, he had good reason to — and it’s not like she didn’t have some trade-offs either. Once she realized that her own presence in her father’s life and her anger towards him is what gave him cause to help close the Hell loops, she immediately backed off in favor of this new version of him.
Therefore, Rory returns to the future to see her dying mother once more for a final goodbye and for some much-needed space from Lucifer. This act of going back to the future proves that closing the Hell loop was just as important to Rory as it was to Lucifer.
While it was integral that she returned (or face being erased from existence), she could’ve chosen to live in her anger and continue to punish her father for his absence. However, once she saw the explanation behind her perceived abandonment in Lucifer, she mercifully bowed out to let her dad continue forward with his plans.
Lucifer Abandoning Rory Set Up The Ending
Abandonment Put Other Events In Motion
Everyone received a happy ending in Lucifer thanks to him abandoning Rory. First, the show revealed what Lucifer did after he abandoned Rory. He went to Hell and became a therapist for the damned souls there, healing Hell rather than serving as its jailer. This was actually a decision that showrunners Joe Henderson and Ildy Modrovich planned back in season 5. In an interview with Collider, Henderson said that Lucifer punished himself and the citizens of Hell. However, with his redemption, he needs to make it into something beautiful. Modrovich added to those thoughts.
“it never felt right for him to be God. And what felt right is for him to give back what he learned. What his unique perspective was. He knows what it’s like to be the fallen one. He knows what it’s like to self-hate and to not feel like he’s worthy, and that was his super power. If he could help others out.”
Furthermore, it sounds like after the final episode ended, there was an even happier ending for Lucifer, Chloe, and Rory. Rory went back to the future to say bye to her mother as she died, and that allowed her to wrap up her tragic storyline. However, she is a half-demon and half-angel, and she has the power to time travel.
According to Henderson and Madrovich, Rory also has the ability to travel between Heaven and Hell, and she takes advantage of that. “She has wings, and she’s an angel, and she could fly down anytime. We knew that was hopefully clear to everybody and [left] no doubt that she would be down there,” Modrovich revealed.
How Fans Reacted To Lucifer Abandoning Rory
Fans Hated This Lucifer Storyline
While no television series has completely universal appeal throughout its entire run because audiences have their own favorite characters and storylines, Lucifer is one of the rare instances in which the audience for the show almost universally disliked the time travel aspect of the season.
Fans on Reddit cited “bad writing” for the closed time loop created when Rory travels to the past, only to have it happen all over again. The biggest criticism of the storyline is that it doesn’t make sense for Lucifer to be okay with abandoning a child, no matter how he repaired his relationship with his own father.
Lucifer, after all, knows how it feels to be cast aside by his father. He spent millennia angry with his father and his siblings because he was cast out from his home for making a mistake. It took living among humans for Lucifer to begin to understand his role in the universe and the importance of family. His own abandonment issues made him not spending any time with Rory as she grew up something many Lucifer fans couldn’t understand.
