Warning: SPOILERS for Lucifer Season 6.
Lucifer season 6 features a special animated episode where Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) and Chloe Decker (Lauren German) are turned into cartoon characters but it turns out to be the weakest gimmick of the series. Lucifer's special episodes, like season 5's musical, are usually highlights of their seasons so it's disappointing that, despite vivid animation from the team behind HBO Max's Harley Quinn and strong voice-over work by Tom Ellis and Lauren German, Lucifer's cartoon gimmick ultimately underwhelms.
One episode often praised by viewers of Lucifer season 3 was "Once Upon a Time," which was narrated by God (Neil Gaiman, who created the Lucifer Morningstar character in DC Comics' The Sandman) and showed an alternate reality for Lucifer, Chloe, and their friends. Lucifer season 5 was split into two parts by Netflix, and the first half featured a black and white film noir episode titled "It Never Ends Well For The Chicken." Set in 1946, it details Lucifer's fateful encounter with Lilith (Lesley-Ann Brandt), the first wife of Adam and mother of Mazikeen. But perhaps the best gimmick episode of Lucifer's run is season 5B's "Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam," a spectacular musical episode that delved into the inner feelings of Lucifer's cast, including God (Dennis Haysbert) revealing He lost His powers, thanks to entertaining musical numbers performed by the actors.
In Lucifer season 6's animated episode, "Yabba Dabba Do Me," the Devil and Chloe Decker descend to Hell so Lucifer can help Jimmy Barnes (John Pankow), who was the first villain the duo fought in Lucifer's series premiere. But Jimmy's hell loop involves him being trapped in a cartoon that he watched as a child, and both Lucifer and Chloe are turned into 'toons when they enter Barnes' loop, complete with cartoon logic and the Devil becoming outraged that he has no genitalia when he's ink and paint. However, unlike, Lucifer's other gimmick episodes, the focus is really on Jimmy Barnes, who the Devil learns was abandoned by his mother as a child and took solace in his favorite cartoon, which led to him becoming a criminal. Lucifer and Chloe's animated sequences lack, for instance, the musical episode's intimate revelations about the main characters fans actually care about.
Even compared to a different type of gimmick episode, Lucifer season 5's "Dan Espinoza, Naked and Afraid," the animated episode comes up short. "Dan Espinoza, Naked and Afraid" was about a wildly entertaining and incredibly involved prank Lucifer played on Dan that the entire cast (minus Chloe) was in on. Indeed, it made Dan a more endearing character, and the Devil's insane practical joke also set up Espinoza's shocking death later in Lucifer season 5.
Meanwhile, the side stories in "Yabba Dabba Do Me," were far more engaging and consequential for Lucifer season 6. These involved Dan's dilemma of discovering he's a ghost after Rory Morningstar (Brianna Hildebrand), Lucifer's daughter who time-traveled from the future, freed him from Hell. Meanwhile, Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside) started his new job as a police officer, and Mazikeen (Lesley-Ann Brandt) immediately made life difficult for the noble angel. Ella Lopez (Aimee Garcia) began piecing together her theory that the world was ending and her realization that Lucifer really is the Devil and that her friends have been keeping the truth from her. Further, Dr. Linda Martin (Rachael Harris) began secretly writing a tell-all book about Lucifer and being the Devil's therapist.
With so much going on in Lucifer season 6's third episode, it felt like an unwelcome distraction for the A-plot to literally remove Lucifer and Chloe from the main action and turn them into a cartoon for the sake of a gimmick. Moreso, the comedy in the animated sequences sadly fell flat and generating sympathy for Jimmy Barnes, a character fans haven't thought about since Lucifer season 1, felt like the series was stalling how Lucifer was supposed to become God. After "Yabba Dabba Do Me," Lucifer meets Rory, and season 6's main storyline between the Devil and his daughter shifts into full gear so it's a shame the cartoon sections of Lucifer season 6's animated episode come off as empty eye candy.
Lucifer Season 6 is streaming on Netflix.