Lucifer season 6’s central mystery is why the Devil abandoned his daughter, 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 that 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 because of her lifelong resentment of her father. Rory jumped back to 2020 to confront Lucifer as to why she abandoned her and Chloe.
The Rory 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 the father missed being able to watch Lucifer’s 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 isn’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.
Lucifer Abandoned Rory Because Of The Timeline
The titular character also left the Rory Lucifer relationship 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 Lucifer’s 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
While Lucifer was initially punished for abandoning Rory, he had good reason to — and it’s not like she didn’t have some tradeoffs 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.
