Warning: SPOILERS for Season 5, Part 1.
Lucifer season 5 introduced the archangel Michael, who is the villain the supernatural series has needed all along. Both Lucifer and Michael are portrayed by Tom Ellis, but he plays the identical twin angels with distinctly different personalities and accents. With Michael, Lucifer Morningstar finally has an opponent who intriguingly matches him and levels the playing field against the Devil.
Since Lucifer is essentially a procedural where nearly every episode sees him team with LAPD Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) to investigate grisly homicides, the series tends to lean into the villain-of-the-week formula in which the bad guy is whoever the killer in the episode is. Every season of Lucifer does tell a macro story and the series has introduced Big Bads each season: the main villain in Lucifer season 2 was the Goddess (Tricia Helfer), the former wife of God and Lucifer's mother, who inhabited the body of attorney Charlotte Richards. Lucifer season 3 featured the biblical Cain (Tom Welling) as the main antagonist, the Biblical first murderer, who was immortal and posed as LAPD Lieutenant Marcus Pierce. A renegade faction of the Catholic Church led by Father William Kinley (Graham McTavish) was the Big Bad of Lucifer season 4. Father Kinley was trying to use Chloe to prevent the fulfillment of a prophecy that foretold the Devil unleashing Hell on Earth.
Lucifer's core appeal is that it makes the Devil, who would otherwise be the adversary of the heroes, the protagonist of the series. Even better, Lucifer Morningstar is a charming, mischievous, and even misunderstood rogue worth rooting for. Admirably, the series never sacrifices Lucifer's sinful traits but instead makes them essential and even amusing aspects of his character. With such a well-rounded main character like Lucifer, coming up with a worthy opponent has been a challenge, which is why Michael is such a breath of fresh air. Since Lucifer season 5 has been split into two 8-episode sections by Netflix, fans have only seen a fraction of Michael's true villainy — but the Devil's doppelgänger is already a wing and a prayer above the other enemies Lucifer has faced throughout the series.
Michael Is Basically Lucifer's Joker
Michael may appear identical to Lucifer but the archangel is the true chaos-bringer of the series, not the Devil. In a way, Michael is behaving like the Joker in The Dark Knight; he's attempting to sow discord and lay waste to the life and friendships Lucifer has forged on Earth in order to prove some ill-defined point. Michael's plan was originally to pose as Lucifer while the Devil was back in Hell, and this included seducing Chloe Decker to gradually wreck their relationship while the Devil was helpless to do anything about it. However, Chloe sensed he was an imposter, so Michael had to immediately shift gears and ramp up his diabolical scheme.
Once Lucifer returned to Los Angeles, the Devil immediately bested Michael in a fight and scarred his face to prevent any further attempts for his brother to pose as Lucifer. Michael seemed to slink to the shadows but he stepped up targeting Lucifer's friends. From coaxing Mazikeen's (Lesley-Ann Brandt) loyalty with promises of garnering her a soul, to revealing to Dan Espinoza (Kevin Alejandro) that Lucifer is really the Devil, to trying to weaken Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside) by filling him with fear over his baby son Charlie, Michael went on an absolute tear in Lucifer season 5, part 1. Michael even kidnapped Chloe, although Lucifer and his friends rescued the detective before Michael's true purpose for abducting her could be revealed. At the midpoint of Lucifer season 5, it's still not clear what Michael's endgame is, but his calculated slash-and-burn attacks on Lucifer and his friends are what makes Michael so dangerous.
Cain And The Other Big Bads Weren't Lucifer's Equals
Prior to Michael, Tom Welling's Cain was arguably Lucifer's best villain but, in large part, this was because of Welling's physical presence and the novelty of seeing him play a black hat baddie after 10 years as the earnest Clark Kent on Smallville. In Lucifer season 3, Marcus Pierce was just the latest of Cain's human identities and the world's first murderer had become a nefarious serial killer and criminal mastermind known as the Sinnerman. However, although he was immortal, Cain was still human and he wasn't a physical match for Lucifer, a fact the Devil exploited in their physical confrontations. By contrast, Michael can actually fight Lucifer, although the Devil keeps getting the better of the archangel.
Lucifer's other Big Bads have lacked the ability to equal the Devil physically. The Goddess was actually far more powerful than Lucifer and he also didn't want to harm his mother. Father Kinley and his Christian soldiers were also merely human, and because they believed in the Biblical depiction of Lucifer, they didn't truly understand who and what the Devil is. However, Michael knows exactly who his twin brother is, perhaps better than anyone. Just the fact that Michael can get under Lucifer's skin by calling him "Samael" — his original name before he took on the flashier moniker "Lucifer Morningstar" — shows that the animosity between them goes all the way back to the beginning of time.
Michael Lets Tom Ellis Show Off His Talent
Tom Ellis has always been immensely talented and Lucifer has showcased his dramatic and comedic chops to maximum effect. The series has also given Ellis the chance to cut loose by highlighting his musical talents as a song and dance man. However, playing Michael literally showed the next level of Tom Ellis' abilities and, with the Devil's doppelgänger, the actor created a brand new character who has Lucifer's face but is a completely different being altogether.
From the way Ellis physically portrays Michael to have an injured shoulder, which affects his body movements and posture in ways that actually make Michael feel more nefarious, to the archangel's nasal American accent, Ellis' Lucifer season 5 performances are a tour de force. Ellis is able to seamlessly switch back-and-forth from Michael to Lucifer and convincingly play both in the same scene. Ellis also perfectly conveys Michael as Lucifer's fully-realized opposite number, and the end result is both mesmerizing and a little unnerving. Somehow, Tom Ellis created an angel who is much worse than the Devil, which is a masterful display of acting.
Did God Finally Appear Because of Michael?
Lucifer season 5, part 1 ended with the shocking cliffhanger of God's (Dennis Haysbert) arrival on Earth in human form, but it's possible this is also as a result of Michael's machinations. It was revealed that Michael had God's ear and sat at his right hand in the Silver City. Although Michael is a known liar, he may have been telling the truth when he told Lucifer that many of the Devil's pivotal choices, including leading the rebellion against God that resulted in Lucifer being cast down into Hell, were because of Michael's insidious whispers. Michael may ultimately prove to the author of Lucifer's pain if the archangel is being truthful.
God's physical presence in the world is a game-changer, but Lucifer may reveal that Michael had a hand in this as well, whether directly or indirectly. But overall, Michael is an enemy Lucifer can't easily dispatch and one who won't fall for the Devil's trickery. Lucifer has already killed one of his angelic siblings, Uriel (Michael Imperioli), but Michael is an entirely different story and it begs the question of how far the Devil will go to stop his own twin brother. In all, Michael embodies the most difficult adversary the Devil has faced thus far in Lucifer, and it will be fascinating to see how Lord Morningstar will best his twin brother — and what it will ultimately cost the Devil to stop his doppelgänger.
Lucifer is available to stream on Netflix.