Getting drunk or high isn’t exactly easy for Lucifer,
but he sure knows how to seduce anyone he wants. Well, almost
anyone. He may be powerful on earth, but just wait to see what he can do in hell.
When we first meet Lucifer Morningstar – played by Tom Ellis – he's grown tired of ruling Hell,
and he’s left his kingdom for Earth. He becomes the hedonistic owner of the Los Angeles nightclub
Lux, where he spends most of his time indulging in every conceivable desire. Only a few glimpses
of his powers are initially shown, and most of those are telekinetic or telepathic in nature.
You know it's a sign of how vast Lucifer's powers are that one of his minor abilities is considered
a peak superhuman power by everyone else. But he uses his telekinesis as more of a parlor
trick than anything significant. Although he's started vehicle engines and nearby machinery with
the wave of a hand, he mostly uses the power subconsciously while he's deep in thought.
This is shown earlier in the series when Lucifer regularly levitates
his Pentecostal Coin — basically, a one-way bus token to or from Hell — while brooding.
But also typical of an archangel, Lucifer has a supernatural physiology.
His basic traits are what you'd expect to find in any comic book hero or villain – superhuman speed,
strength, dexterity, and durability. However, he isn't just an archangel,
but the archangel, and therefore has powers that outclass almost every other angel.
Lucifer can easily throw someone across a room with the flick of a wrist, rip doors off hinges,
and hold back a 3-ton, fully accelerating SUV with one hand to protect Chloe Decker – portrayed
by Lauren German. His brother Amenadiel – played by D.B. Woodside – admits that Lucifer
is the most powerful of their kind, which is proven when Lucifer challenges and defeats
God's right hand — his twin brother Michael. Lucifer may prefer a laugh,
but that doesn't mean he's not terrifying when roused to anger.
That's only if the situation is dangerous enough for him to take anyone else seriously.
With humans, Lucifer is like a cat playing with a mouse. He barely puts forward any effort outside
of batting away punches and using his enemies' moves against them. It's always clear that he
could crush them at any time but chooses not to. True to form, Lucifer would much rather
talk, manipulate, or seduce his way out of a jam rather than get in a physical fight.
But even when celestial beings and other supernaturally powered creatures get involved,
Lucifer is still dominant. On top of beating Amenadiel and Michael — two
of the most powerful angels in existence — Lucifer also easily overpowers Maze,
one of Hell's most skilled and ruthless demons — portrayed by Lesley-Ann Brandt.
The fight only ended because Lucifer had decided he was finished.
It's honestly impossible to say how old Lucifer is. He existed even before the creation of the
universe, and his lifespan is infinite. This is one of the many reasons he tried to fill
his endless life with every perceivable pleasure before he met Chloe and made some real friends. Of
course, he is immune to everything that kills humans: aging, negative physical conditions,
genetic and contractible illnesses, and poisons and toxins. They simply don't affect him.
Lucifer's immunity to poisons and toxins has an interesting side-effect – it's almost
impossible for him to get drunk or be affected by mind-altering substances. Though it's not for
lack of trying. As the owner of Lux, Lucifer regularly drinks and is known for mixing a
mean cocktail. But he drinks more for the camaraderie and the taste than the effects.
While he can be affected by mind-altering substances,
his angel physiology burns it out of him so quickly he requires superhuman amounts to just
catch a buzz. What humans might see as a gift, however, Lucifer often mourns:
"Are you drunk?" "I wish.
Pesky supernatural metabolism keeps getting in the way. Still, never stopped me trying, eh?"
Along with his immunity, he is virtually indestructible. He is able to physically withstand
any amount of damage a human or other creature could inflict.
Multiple times throughout the series, Lucifer received bullet and stab wounds
that would easily kill anyone else. He casually tells a group of gunmen in the pilot episode:
"Yes well don't waste your munitions. I'm immortal."
It should be noted that for a few seasons, Chloe was basically Lucifer's kryptonite, and physical
proximity to her would render him vulnerable to attack — and more prone to being impaired.
However, after this was resolved, the only known objects that could actually kill him
were the Flaming Sword – a divine weapon powerful enough to kill
any being in the universe – and Demon Daggers, which are forged in Hell.
During his time on Earth, Lucifer prefers to use his beautiful "human" face, for obvious reasons.
Not only is he deeply vain, but he’s trying to pass for human, so he has to look the part.
While in this form, it can be easy to forget he's a fallen angel and the King of Hell,
but Lucifer has the ability to shapeshift into multiple versions of his terrifying "demon form."
This can range from simply turning his eyes into fiery orbs, revealing his scarred demonic face,
or becoming his final form as the King of Hell — complete with leathery, clawed wings.
When Lucifer doesn't physically change shape, he can still manage to push a
mental image of his demon form into any human's mind to terrify them.
While Lucifer is mostly in control of his physical appearance, it is also linked
directly to his psychological state. His scarred and twisted visage
is an outer reflection of his inner turmoil and reveals how he feels about himself.
Despite his devil-may-care attitude, Lucifer actually suffers from an enormous amount of guilt
over the things he's done and the torture he's forced to inflict as Hell's ruler.
This is also reflected in his complicated love-hate relationship with his wings.
Lucifer retained his angelic feathered wings when he fell from Heaven, but as the millennia passed,
he grew more furious with his father. When he finally arrived on Earth, determined to live as
a human, the first thing he did was cut off his wings. His defiance persisted until he awoke one
day to find his wings were back — and while he cut them off again, they continued to return.
Ultimately, just as with Lucifer's demon face, his wings are tied to his self-perception.
They only returned after he started forgiving himself for his sins.
As Lucifer begrudgingly learns to use his wings again, they grant him even more immense power.
He can fly, as would be expected. But he can also do this at the speed of light — or faster,
if he wishes. It appears as teleportation to the human eye, such as in the episode
"A Devil of My Word," where he flies with Chloe to protect her from gunfire.
But, despite being a fallen angel and the King of Hell, Lucifer's wings give
him quite a few unlikely powers — the most significant of which are healing and
resurrection. While banished from Heaven, Lucifer still possesses the ability to channel
divine energy. He can heal humans and other celestial beings. An example is when the demon
Maze used a feather from Lucifer's wings on Amenadiel to fully heal a fatal wound.
But Lucifer also has the power to raise the dead.
There are some limitations — he can't just snap his fingers and the death is undone.
His wings afford him the ability to travel and communicate between the dimensions of Earth,
Hell, and Heaven. So, to return the dead to life, he has to fly to Hell and transport
the soul back to Earth. Even then, there is another caveat: Lucifer requires a fresh body
ready and waiting, or else the resurrected soul will just wind up in the nearest newly deceased.
For someone who retained so many angelic powers, one would think Lucifer would have figured out
by now that he's not a monster who is beyond redemption. Sure, he's the wayward son and
often clashes with the other archangels, but their exasperation with him is not so obvious.
While Lucifer himself isn’t too concerned about playing hooky from running Hell, the natural order
has been upended. So obviously, there's some tension. But Lucifer is still able to contact
his siblings whenever he wishes, opening up a channel of celestial communication by praying to
a particular sibling. With that said, his closest connection remains with Amenadiel. He regularly
uses this ability to contact him — even when his big brother is patrolling Hell to cover for him.
Lucifer can also modify this ability to communicate with the spirits of the dead, and he
uses it to conveniently discover details at crime scenes. However, unlike his ability to tap into
the celestial communication highway, his powers to communicate with human spirits are more limited:
"So, you had a conversation with a dead guy?"
"Oh, no, he wasn't quite dead. His soul hadn't crossed the threshold."
But as the King of Hell, he has some demonic powers to balance out the angelic.
Sure, Lucifer may have some angelic powers and is actually a good guy at heart, but
make no mistake — he's still, well … Satan. He hasn’t been the Great
Tempter for millennia for nothing, and for Lucifer, his favorite form of temptation
is carnal. It's hard to deny he oozes sex appeal, and he uses his heightened sexuality
to tempt and arouse people. Naturally, he often employs it to his advantage when making a deal or
trying to ferret information out of someone. He's an equal opportunity tempter, though;
he mostly uses this power on women, but he's just as happy to seduce men when he feels like it.
He has discovered an exceptionally small list of people who are immune
to his sexual allure — just Chloe Decker and her ex-husband Dan, played by Kevin Alejandro.
Though Lucifer has never attempted to seduce Dan thanks to their endless rivalry,
the fact that Lucifer's closest friends aren't overwhelmed by his power seems to suggest that
the closer he is with someone, the more his power lessens. This could, however,
also be Lucifer subconsciously tamping it down, as he doesn't want to manipulate those he genuinely
respects and cares about. But what he may restrain around his friends, he unleashes on others.
"What do you desire? Tell me and it's yours."
This is the line Lucifer fans have grown familiar with. He says it virtually every episode. Of all
his powers, Desire Exhibition is his most useful tool when it comes to getting information out of
suspects or witnesses. With this power, he is able to draw someone's deepest desires and wishes out
of them and get them to verbalize them aloud. It's not quite mind control — Lucifer doesn't take over
their mind and force it out of them — but it operates more like hypnosis, with only Chloe
managing to stay immune. When Lucifer turns up the intensity, he can draw out shameful secrets,
dark sins, or unpleasant truths, though it's rare that he pushes hard to obtain this information.
Lucifer must maintain eye contact in order for this power to work, and once it's broken,
so is his spell. Interestingly, when he was slowly turning into his full demon form,
the power grew stronger and he no longer needed eye contact to accomplish it. This lends credence
to the idea that when he's more human, he subconsciously holds himself back from prying
into someone's innermost secrets. Even though he says of himself in the episode, "Our Mojo:"
"I am, and always will be, master of the mojo.
King of desire. Sultan of humans' innermost wishes."
And indeed, he is. But more than just a king of desire, he's also the King of Hell.
Lucifer may spend 99% of his time on Earth, but despite the fact that he's grown bored
and miserable ruling over Hell, he's still lord of all demons, and that won't change.
Even after years away from Hell, Lucifer still maintains total control over the infernal realm.
In Season 4, when mid-level demons break free of Hell and infest Earth in a coup against Lucifer,
they see his handsome human face and perfectly tailored suit as proof that his time on Earth
has made him soft. In the season finale, Lucifer fully transforms into the King of Hell
and compels over 100 demons to kneel before him, then immediately banishes them back to Hell;
he's an alpha wolf forcing the rest of the pack to bare their bellies.
While his abilities on Earth are impressive and shocking, Lucifer is even more powerful
when deep in Hell. He can literally shape Hell's reality to his will — creating illusions and
endless punishment cycles known as "hell loops." He can even stop time entirely.
Whatever infernal powers he has on Earth are increased there, a hundredfold. This also
extends to controlling the bodies and minds of demons, both individually and en masse.
In essence, no matter what Lucifer tries, he excels as both
the King of Hell and God's former favorite son, the Light-Bringer.
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