This week’s episode title is a heavy hint that we’re finally confronting the missing Vernon issue with some Shakespearean flair. There are more pressing issues for the Lyon family: they have to set aside differences to survive pressure from state prosecutor Roxanne Ford, who is redoubling her efforts to bring them down. Last week’s shenanigans have left the family in knots: Lucious promised to make Jamal a global superstar, Hakeem is still seething from his father’s well-calculated play to neutralize his nascent label Lyon Dynasty, and Andre still wants to reconcile with his father. The stage is set for some more infinite jest.
‘Hi there, baby. Look wherever you like’
Roxanne Ford’s threat proves legitimate as FBI agents descend to raid Empire’s headquarters. A Rolling Stone reporter looks on while Jamal sings Battle Cry in the studio. Anika swings by Lyon Dynasty to make another impassioned appeal for Cookie to let her back in, and Thirsty wakes Lucious to prepare him for the impending arrival of Roxanne Ford and the feds. Over at the rival label, Cookie agrees to let Anika back in if she can land new talent Royalty, but before Hakeem and Cookie breathe a sigh of relief, Cookie opens their office door to discover the feds have also come to search their premises.
‘This isn’t when we hide. This is when we roar’
Mimi Whiteman returns amid the crisis to help allay the board of directors’ fear that the trouble from the feds will spread beyond Lucious’s individual crimes. “Well, it’s game time bitches!” Lucious bursts in, defiant and cocky. Whiteman pushes back against his bravado, but we’re reminded of the hard-knock school of hip-hop aesthetics – “Cops raid your house G, the feds raid your house, that makes you a G” – as Lucious tells the board they have nothing to fear. The Lyons meet at Leviticus to discuss next steps and realize the white-hot light of the prosecutor’s investigation extends beyond Lucious to each of them. Thirsty finally gets to meet the rest of the fam: “Damn, you even talk crooked.” Thirsty advises the family to call a truce and, for the sake of appearances, stand united in the face of Roxanne Ford.
‘Because you’re father of the year …’
Lucious and Cookie acknowledge – as loving, warring old couples do – their shared joy at becoming grandparents. As usual, Cookie gets the last word: “Tell me I’m a grandma with an ass like this.” Jamal is deep in a photoshoot with Rolling Stone, while Michael watches with worry and jealousy written all over his face. We get another goodie from Jamal, but I cringe at some of the backlighting and overexposed angles the photographer takes. He finally positions himself in the right spot to “get inside” Jamal’s head.
Lucious and Andre have another heart-to-heart, where he remembers his mother’s illness. Andre is at a loss as to why his father refuses to forgive him and let him back in Empire. Lucious shares his concern that their business relationship will affect their personal one, and Andre assures him that he will not prevent Lucious from seeing his grandchild. Andre hints to his father that he can produce Vernon and make the case against Lucious disappear. Lucious says he’d let Andre back in Empire if he can make the case go away. Lucious knows his son, and immediately senses something quite wicked in the state of Denmark.
‘If I die in police custody, I did not commit suicide’
“Dad stop hustling me,” Hakeem barks when Lucious greets his son in the production trailer on the video set, offering him a custom beat. Hakeem is loyal to Lyon Dynasty and assures his mother that he’s playing to win with her. Cookie sees Mimi Whiteman on set and demands that she leave, and Mimi is ready with quick-witted snaps: “Whitebitch in Greek means she who owns 20% of Empire.” Mimi’s got jokes. Hakeem and Jamal team up to shoot a very high-concept music video (post apocalyptic black panther fighting theme as imagined from the mind of their father) for their new duet, Ain’t About the Money, when local police snatch up Cookie on an arrest warrant. Cookie’s post-traumatic stress surfaces, a weakness Roxanne Ford exploits to get more goods on Lucious. Cookie throws Roxanne a bone and suggests Lucious and Bunkie fought over the Apex Radio deal. Ford is excited and agrees to release Cookie and block the acquisition.
Hakeem sees everyone fawning over an oversized Warholian portrait of Jamal, and is underwhelmed, frustrated offers a critique that, dare I say, I share: “It’s the most ugliest thing I ever seen in my life.” Hakeem loses it, takes a knife and punctures the print in the throat. Lucious struggles to contain his glee. The brothers continue filming their video and the set is tense. Hakeem and Jamal get into a fight that escalates to the point of bloody blows before they’re stopped.
‘You will rot in hell, you snitch’
Rhonda and Andre go to dig up Vernon but can’t remember where they buried him. They freak out when car headlights pierce the darkness and they hide in a ditch they just dug. “The devil himself, I want your soul,” it’s Lucious and Thirsty. As they emerge Lucious tells them he had Thirsty place a tracker on the car. Thirsty whips out his trusty human remains detector from his trunk and places it on the right spot of dirt and the four dig up the body. When they place it into Thirsty’s trunk, Andre offers a kind of eulogy for Vernon. Lucious’s parting words to Vernon, on the other hand, are: “You will rot in hell, you snitch.” Lucious embraces Andre and welcomes him back to the Empire. Warhol 2.0, Jamal and Michael take Jamal’s portrait to the streets and wheat paste it on construction walls, only compounding Michael’s discomfort about the shutterbug’s intentions toward Jamal. Cookie kicks Boo Boo Kitty to the curb even though Anika came through with bring Royalty into Lyon Dynasty fold. Ms Roxanne Ford advises her team to issue a press release of the FCC blocking Empire’s purchase of Apex Radio as she gets in her car and discovers the decomposing body of her star witness has been artfully placed in the passenger seat.
Reading list
- Anne Donahue praises the advent of the anti-hero in the spectacular form of Cookie Lyon.
- Empire is not too gay.
Notes and observations
- LOL again by the way that the club is called Leviticus. I see you Lee Daniels and Danny Strong!
- Timbaland’s imprint on the family Lyon sound is indelible, welcome and just lovely.
- More Mimi Whiteman!
- The writers still aren’t sure what to do with Boo Boo Kitty.
- The critique of the criminal justice system is as provocative as it curious and unevenly presented.
- Habeas Corpus is a really clever extended metaphor, Danny Strong. I see you beginning the show with a living, a very naked body and closing it out with a dead body for Roxanne Ford.
- The flashbacks between Young Lucious and his bipolar mother in every scene with Dre has peaked and are tedious. Let’s reveal more or have the flashbacks show up elsewhere. Everything should be a trigger.
- Speaking of triggering phrases, Cookie’s invocation of Sandra Bland’s words chills and bristles, to be frank. Empire thrives in its ability to be meta, and yet it might be too soon to invoke this rhetoric in the fictional universe of Empire. The investigation into Bland’s death has not yielded anything close to accounting for her death. However, the underlying theme of criminal justice reform as it unfolds in Empire universe is a point where art and activism intersects even if it is presented in a mainstream television network show. What better platform and the players are all on message. From Mimi Whiteman to Warhol 2.o to Cookie to the singles out Empire and Lyon Dynasty.
- Thirsty really is a resourceful goon.
