‘I’m gonna take all the Cookie’
Cookie and Laz hole up in bed for a couple of days getting familiar with each other as new couples do: lovemaking, chatting, plotting and dreaming power moves for their respective enterprises. Laz shows Cookie a flyer for a big show he’s promoting to entice her to put a few Lyon Dynasty artists on the roster, but she doesn’t bite. She dreams up her own summer jam showcase for her artists called Cookie’s Cookout.
Jamal pings her because he’s stuck writing a song since Lucious has abandoned him for his now adoptive child and protege, Freda Gatz. Laz is a complicated foil here, bearing the mark of the same goon squad that kidnapped Hakeem and extorted a modest tribute for his release.
His intentions towards Cookie are shady at best. Although he offers her smart advice about helping Jamal break through on a new song that he needs to get ready for award season, Laz leaves the oasis to confer with the head goon outside the apartment. The head goon is impatient but they hatch a plan to play it cool that they get paid as promoter and security. Cookie’s musical instincts as well as motherly charm help Jamal seize the potential of his new song, Heavy. This could be the reigniting of something.
‘You got to dig deeper’
It seems that the writers really want to convince us that Lucious is a rapper, so in this episode we get more of Lucious Lyon, rapping raspy and clunky bars over a surprisingly addictive beat. Lucious struggles with this song, which serves as the main theme of the episode, its beat intended to return Empire’s sound and aesthetic to its roots: back to the streets.
It’s a clever nod to the constant struggle record labels face, packaging hip-hop which derives its power from its authenticity, its sound of struggle and hardship, but which also needs to express its own success – all in the same breath. This is why Lucious is so invested in Freda. And Freda is easily the best MC on Empire right now. But she’s a wild card. She’s so volatile and her liquid-quick anger is second nature, because of where she comes from.
Lucious visits music industry royalty Huey Jarvis, hoping to secure an invite to one of his living room sessions to showcase his new work, Boom Boom Boom Boom, but is rebuffed. Jarvis tells him he wants to “hear more” and “I’m still wanting to hear that part of yourself that you keep locked up so tight.” Immediately, Lucious remembers when he was a boy, burying bullets in a garden. Lucious’s memories of his mother are everywhere in this episode and the trauma of that time is reaching a point he cannot evade and which he must confront.
‘What are you doing looking all walk of shame like and what not?’
Meanwhile, Cookie’s primping in her office for what we are lead to believe is a hot date. Later we see it’s no other than Jamal waiting for her at some fancy restaurant, at a discreet table. These two are meeting up with each other like secret lovers and it’s a far cry from the season premiere where Jamal closes the door in her face.
Jamal tells Cookie his big news: that he’s scored a coveted showcase spot with Huey Jarvis. Cookie and Jamal celebrate with champagne, but of course they get tipsy and run over to Lyon Dynasty offices. Jamal runs into the studio like a kid in the candy store, Cookie mans the controls until Hakeem interrupts. Cookie distracts Hakeem reminding him to tell Laura that Carmen will take over as lead of their group Ménage à Trois. Jamal rightly makes a break for it. To maintain the peace, this secret romance between mother and son must continue, as silly as it seems.
This is yet another mild but important kerfuffle for Hakeem and Cookie this week. Cookie and ’Keem clash this week as partners and family, but they level out quickly. But most importantly, Hakeem plants seeds of doubt about Laz after he busts up a meeting Laz sets up with the goon squad.
‘History in the making, Freda’
Lucious and Mimi literally get in the ring with a #techbro Jago, owner of a streaming company. During a sparring match #techbro says what many of us feel about Lucious’s rapping and gets a stiff jab, knocking him out cold. They both visit him later in the hospital. Would a TKO really warrant a hospital stay and morphine drip? And would #techbro then call his lawyer and draft a contract of partnership? But this is Empire universe, so suspend disbelief.
To celebrate Empire’s partnership, Mimi Whiteman relays the good news to Lucious at Leviticus and “gifts” him a woman of his choosing. Mimi and Lucious unwittingly pick the same woman for their carnal pleasure, and Lucious proposes that they share.
In the privacy of Lucious’s bedroom the steamy threesome turns sad. Mimi gets a call from someone she loves or it’s complicated, and she’s weeping. Lucious tries to make it better, but sees a tattoo of a gun on the inner thigh of the unnamed sex worker and loses it, leaving the room. He finds a locked box and pulls out an empty gun, identical to the tattoo. And here’s where these collection of flashbacks for this week lead to: his mother frantically searching for bullets in his childhood home, young Lucious hiding them, and his mother finding the bullet that he missed. His mother takes the bullet and loads a gun, then puts the gun to her head and pulls the trigger, Russian roulette style.
Later, it’s 4am in the studio. Lucious is summoned by Freda to record his verse on ‘Boom …’ and brings his mother’s gun inside. The click of the revolver was the missing ingredient all along. Finally, he puts his pain in the music.
Notes and observations
- Hakeem’s baby mogul instincts are proving quite valuable and saves Laura’s No 1 spot.
- Laura and Hakeem’s budding romance is a sweet kind of courtship but what will it do to the group?
- Lucious has long since needed a therapist and while the flashbacks to his mother’s suicide attempt haunt him, it’s unclear why that connection hasn’t been directly made to Andre. The audience knows, but it seems a bit unrealistic that Andre doesn’t.
- What exactly is Andre’s mission from God for Empire? Could his pastor be corruptible too?
- Rhonda is not pregnant.
- Hakeem and Freda will face off in a rap battle and it’s gonna be great. Let’s hope no one gets hurt.
