So far this season, Empire has seen a ratings drop as the audience has had to wrestle with a smattering of storylines with frayed edges. Some have argued that the show’s deep dive into exploring the complexities of sexuality has lost viewers. It’s true that its confrontation with issues such as mental health, homophobia, mass incarceration, racism, drug addiction and sexuality can leave the teleplay spiralling and uneven for the audience at moments. Sharp character transitions seem to lack a clear line of motivation between episodes: one must suspend reality in the Empire universe and embrace the ribald absurdity.
‘She fixed you’
It’s a big day for the Lyons: the American Sound Award (ASA) nominations, Lucious’ announcement of Empire’s acquisition of Swiftstream, and Cookie’s Lyon Dynasty concert showcase for the women incarcerated at Wallace, where she was imprisoned for 17 years. Excitement and tensions are high for nearly everyone.
Jamal lands the first of many of nominations throughout of the day. He and Skye Summers (Alicia Keys) speculate about his chances in winning a nomination for Song of the Year. The intimacy between the two is very easy, but Jamal is tense and attempts to clarify expectations and his status with Skye, but Lucious interrupts them. He trolls Jamal a little bit, asking “Are you hitting that?” But here Lucious is a proxy for some in the audience who are confused and Jamal reminds his father: “I’m still gay, alright?”
Later Mimi and Lucious discuss the Swiftstream deal, and finally a break in Mimi’s real intentions: she’s got a pen camera directed at Lucious, who’s just popping off about his frustrations with his bloodless board of directors. He reveals he has leveraged other assets of his publicly traded company without telling them. His trust of Mimi is so thick that he’s blind to the fact that he’s about to get got.
‘My business partner in crime’
Now that the chess pieces are in place, Mimi reveals she has been playing an entirely different game, a long one rooted in sins and humiliations sown from season one. When Mimi introduces her wife at a party for the Swiftstream announcement, Camilla Marks-Whiteman (Naomi Campbell) slinks through the crowd to the stage and Lucious legit doesn’t see it coming. “Remember me, Lucious?” she says coyly. Camilla is Hakeem’s ex-boo, and last season Lucious attempted to bribe her to stay away from Hakeem.
After the announcement, Mimi makes the play to remove Lucious as board chairman and CEO. She shows the board video of Lucious trashing them and drunk on power. They agree to an emergency board meeting vote to decide.
Later Camilla goes to see Hakeem, an “Anthony and Cleopatra, Hakeem”, she tells him: “I can take you to the next level.” Camilla implies that her marriage to Mimi is a sham, a sacrifice she’s made for him and her to seize Empire and superstardom, we suppose, for Hakeem. Hakeem isn’t completely convinced but quickly it’s clear she still has a hold on him.
‘Y’all are my real sisters. For life’
Cookie and Portia arrive at Wallace to set up for the concert. Cookie is emotional and anxious, and falters a bit. It has been over a year since she set foot in those doors. It is a huge moment for her to return to the block with the women she lived with, serving a 17-year prison term while her children grew up without her.
Hakeem gets to Wallace late, but when he takes the stage his heartfelt admission that he is nervous about the performance, his realization that his father had never brought him to visit his mother during the entire time of her incarceration, is meaningful on many levels to the women and children on the block. They know his story because it’s so many of theirs. The crowd is hyped when he and Laura perform their duet, Miracles.
Cookie finds her old friend Jezzy (Da Brat), who skipped the concert to talk. Jezzy is bitter that she hasn’t seen or heard from Cookie in over a year. Cookie tries to convince Jezzy that she hadn’t abandoned her or her promise to her that when she was released that she’d help Jezzy, who is purported to be a dope MC. Jezzy scoffs, points to Cookie’s “Free Lucious” Concert and questions that commitment: “Black male incarceration? What about all us women on lockdown, Cookie?” she asks. It is an incredibly valid point when we consider the larger cultural impact of the show’s themes this season. The discussion of mass incarceration and imbalances in the American criminal justice systems often centers on black male bodies. The exchange is significant in this context; Empire elevates this reality for the audience, who may be somewhat aware or know that this issue has been subordinate to the struggles black American males have faced for too long.
‘Anybody trying to steal that from us is our enemy’
Thirsty and Dre scramble to lobby board members to vote to keep Lucious in power. Dre finds Cookie and Hakeem at Wallace to alert them of Mimi and Camilla’s plan. Cookie gives over her proxy vote to Hakeem, reminding him that Lyon Dynasty is still their company but “Empire is our legacy,” which is to say, family always comes before business.
The board vote is swift, and Hakeem is the deciding vote for whether or not his father gets to hold on to his company. Hakeem’s memory is long. In a montage of flashbacks that is a smudge overwrought, Hakeem runs through every single crime, slight and humiliation wreaked upon him by his father. Cookie rushes to Empire headquarters knowing only as a mother knows her child that Hakeem may not vote in Lucious’ favor, and bangs on the glass doors outside the boardroom to get him to stop. Hakeem’s yes vote transfers the kingdom to Mimi Whiteman, who then announces that her wife, Camilla, will assume her responsibilities as board chair.
A devastated Lucious pops off a very large gun in his mansion and Cookie rushes in to tame the beast. He is broken, “All those years selling those CDs out the back of a car … the enormity of damage I’ve done to my soul?” Lucious, anti-hero and devil, still manages to break hearts in his despair. He acknowledges Cookie’s great sacrifice, the years she spent in prison that helped build the company that he now lost. It is a tender moment well played by Terrence Howard and Taraji Henson. Despite everything, Cookie and Lucious’s relationship is real, honest and vulnerable.
For the final nomination of the day, the coveted Song of the Year, Jamal and Lucious both receive nominations. Jamal’s elation is fleeting when he meets his father’s eyes and see competitive contempt brewing behind them. Lucious stares at Jamal and says “ain’t that a bitch.” And here again Lucious has to contend with the fact that his struggle to build a legacy is persistently at odds with his conflicts with his sons individual ambitions.
Reading list
Notes and observations
- Will Rhonda and the baby survive that nasty fall?
- Cookie can hurl a nasty ass loogie, y’all. Camilla probably used it as moisturizer.
- Anika’s crazy ex-girlfriend storyline is reductive. However, it makes some weird sense that she’d manifest her rage by attempting to terrorize and sabotage Dre and Rhonda’s happiness.
- Jamal’s Pepsi commercial was kind of fun. Love the cameo of the little lady who sat next to Jay Z when he took the train to Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center for his concert. The commercial’s concept is a nod to that moment.
- Skye and Jamal talk about their moment but she’s clear, mature and understands that their moment of intimacy doesn’t change his sexuality. They have what they have.
- Cameos on cameos on cameos. Empire keeps it dizzying: Jason Derulo, Questlove voice over, Da Brat, Charlemagne Tha God.
