There are many nasty villains in Supernatural but none of them integrate into so many storylines from start to finish as Lucifer. He is the villain everyone wanted and the one every fan hoped would be redeemed when Jack came onto the scene. Lucifer appears in the series when Sam breaks the last seal to open his cage in season 4.
His need for revenge against Lilith leads him to kill her, solidifying the fate that was intertwined with Lucifer’s all along. He starts out as God’s favorite son and his “childhood” leads him to an immortal lifetime of resentment. The number of details about his character is enormous but here are a few of the times Lucifer’s character was overrated, and several when he was seriously underrated.
Overrated: Lucifer’s First Appearance In Season 5
An ominous beam of angelic light is seen in the sky. It makes some weird things happen and Sam and Dean inexplicably end up on a random plane, but it’s also pretty underwhelming.
The Winchesters are led to believe that Lucifer escaping his cage would be the start of the apocalypse. A beam of light and then nothing after four seasons of buildup and centuries of planning by Lucifer’s minions? Some apocalypse.
Underrated: Sam’s First Attempt To Get Lucifer Back Into The Cage
There’s an entire season of Sam trying to build himself up to be sure he will be strong enough to beat Lucifer when the devil takes him as a vessel. He is determined to get Lucifer to jump into the cage and he thinks he can really do it.
He underestimates Lucifer’s power as an archangel, not realizing that he’s even stronger than archangels they’ve met in the past. He was one of the first created, after all. When Sam says “yes” to Lucifer taking him as a vessel, there’s not even a fight. Sam is gone within seconds.
Overrated: The Apocalyptic Fight With Michael
This was another “almost apocalypse” moment that led to nothing actually happening. Lucifer’s defeat of Sam when he first says “yes” is played off as the end-all, be-all moment, in which Lucifer wins and that’s that.
But when it comes down to the big prize fight, Lucifer is overrated and Sam throws Lucifer (and himself) into the pit to be sealed back up in the cage he escaped from mere months before.
Underrated: How Badly Lucifer Eviscerates Sam’s Soul
After Sam jumps into the pit with Lucifer, it seems like his character is down for the count. But when Sam gets his soul back, it is so entirely eviscerated that Death has to put up a wall to keep it from harming Sam’s conscious mind.
Despite the wall, it isn’t long before Lucifer breaks through and Sam is tortured by hallucinations that stuck with him after escaping the cage. The evisceration is so complete that Sam almost dies in a mental institution. He is only saved because Castiel takes on the insanity and, being an angel, it won’t kill him.
Overrated: Near Omniscient Power
Sam is the ultimate vessel for Lucifer but he’s not the only vessel. Before he can find Sam, Lucifer takes Nick as a vessel. First, he has to get Nick to willingly agree to host him. He is an all-powerful being full of celestial light, but he has to make a random widower see visions of his dead wife and child with the promise to avenge them if Nick says “yes.”
It takes far longer than it should and it shows Lucifer isn’t completely omniscient in all ways. With all the power he has, he still can’t force someone to abandon their free will.
Underrated: Crowley Holds Lucifer Captive
In season 12, one of Lucifer’s vessels is the President of the United States, Jack Kline. He is eventually found and exorcised and supposedly back to the cage in Hell. But Crowley manipulates the spell and uses it to capture Lucifer in revenge for Lucifer’s torture when he took Hell from Crowley before.
Crowley severely underestimates Lucifer’s influence on other demons and his power as an archangel. Despite all of Crowley’s precautions, Lucifer escapes and goes off to find his unborn child.
Overrated: Sending Sam Visions
After Amara is released by Rowena’s spell from the Book of the Damned, Lucifer’s cage is damaged enough to be able to send is consciousness out to the only soul to whom he is connected at the time: Sam. His visions are derivative of his brand of sarcasm and they are a seriously desperate attempt to do anything to get out of the cage.
The whole thing makes Lucifer seem weak and definitely overrated. Furthermore, he lets Sam believe they’re visions from God, the one person he hates most.
Underrated: Surviving Without All Of His Grace
Jack’s mother goes into labor and the awesome power of Jack coming into the world creates a rift to an alternate universe. It is revealed that Sam and Dean were never born in that world and the apocalypse that was stopped when Sam jumped into the pit happened and Michael defeated the Lucifer of that world. When Lucifer ends up trapped there, Michael captures him and uses his grace as an ingredient for a spell to get to the world Lucifer was kicked out of.
Lucifer does still have some of his grace, but he is knocked down a few pegs and still survives, is still a master manipulator, and still remains the perpetual villain of the story.
Overrated: Lucifer As The New God
Amara rains her darkness on everyone and the angels find out that they can’t get rid of her no matter how hard they smite. Castiel helps Lucifer get out of his cage by letting Lucifer use him as a vessel. Lucifer eventually takes back his Nick vessel and goes up to heaven to sit on the throne as the “new God.”
He doesn’t do much though and the angels soon realize that he can’t create new archangels, can’t add to their numbers, and can’t take care of Amara any better than they can. As God, he’s underwhelming, to say the least.
Underrated: Getting Jack To Believe He Cares As A Father
Michael wants to take over the earth where an apocalypse didn’t happen, seeing it as a place of paradise. After he takes a good amount of Lucifer’s grace, Lucifer begs Michael to let him have this son and then he can have everything else. Before this moment and all during Jack’s “childhood,” Lucifer wants to claim him. He wants him and pursues him to no end. Everything he does is about getting back to Jack.
The only person who sees right through that is Mary, who thinks he has no interest in taking care of a child. When Lucifer finally does get back to his son, instead of being a father, it is revealed that he only wanted Jack’s power for himself all along. It was the reason for Jack’s being and why Lucifer wanted him born in the first place. This plan is a big example of how Lucifer was underrated in this series.