After last week’s breathless opener, Empire slowed the pace this week in order to let us absorb the reality of the new normal: Lucious is still incarcerated. Jamal is struggling to juggle his new power and family responsibility. Cookie is seeking to recapture her place as a pivotal player in the music industry. Anika is unmoored and still searching for a place to call home, and Andre is negotiating loyalties that align with his Ivy League temperament.
The season premiere pulled in 22.5 million viewers, which dwarfed other returning shows – Trevor Noah’s Daily Show managed 3.5 million, for example. Empire’s first episode spawned enough plot lines to fill a couple of seasons and gave us the promise of future appearances from Marisa Tomei’s Mimi Whiteman, as well as jabs at Don Lemon and Al Sharpton.
‘This could work, all we need is a dope name’
We start with Andre, Cookie and Hakeem, who are dealing with the fallout of last week’s failed coup. Rather than toasting their victory, they carry their belongings out of the Empire headquarters while picking over what went wrong. “This could work, all we need is a dope name,” says Hakeem, who really doesn’t grasp what’s needed for a successful corporate takeover. Not content with that, Hakeem goes one better, announcing that he wants to develop his own artists as well.
Andre and Hakeem quibble with their mother about whether to let Anika into the fold. But Cookie isn’t so keen and squashes the boys’ Boo Boo Kitty proposal.
Lucious Lyon, the CEO of a publicly traded record label, has been locked up for over three months without a bail hearing, which feels like a stretch. He’s in the jail’s infirmary, where he meets the doctor to get his weekly treatment for Myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease that affects his motor functions. Mysteriously, the paperwork approving this weekly regimen has gone missing from his medical file, and he returns to his cell ,where he has an inevitable flare-up. The takeaway: the Darwinian social order behind bars means he is vulnerable to threats even after seeing off Frank Gathers last week.
Jamal debuts Born to Love You, another mellow treat, before sitting down for a live TV interview. Cookie interrupts for a private word with Jamal, who keeps up appearances for the camera. Cookie asks Jamal to release little baby traitor’s – AKA Hakeem – album from Empire and Jamal seems open to the idea. In a classic bit of Cookie psychological warfare, she reminds her favorite child that he should be sympathetic to his brother, who has experienced their father’s cruelty. And, as the elevator door closes, she tells Jamal they’re starting their own company (mic drop).
‘My table. My newspaper. My everythang!’
In prison, Lucious and his crew are posted up in the yard, where they talk about a new track. Lucious lays down a few bars, which are supposed to be fire, but to be honest, they kinda whack. Like really whack, as in corny.
Lucious has a coughing fit while delivering his verse and that’s taken as a sign of weakness by the new guard McKnight (played by area code hoarder Ludacris). McKnight reads Lucious and his squad the riot act, provoking a skirmish that forces all of them back to their cells. Moments later, it is revealed it was no accident that the authorization for Lucious’s medication went missing: it was all McKnight, who is affiliated with the new prosecutor, Roxane Ford.
‘I’mma call them Rainbow Sensation!’
Hakeem hosts auditions for his girl group and is impressed by Valentina (played by Becky G). She’s not interested: “With or without you, I shine.” But poor Hakeem has caught feelings. Andre struggles with the chaos of working at their nascent startup label, while Cookie tries to calm his fears by using the example of Jay Z’s rise to the top.
Back in the visitor’s room, Jamal discusses giving back Hakeem’s album and Lucious bristles at the thought. Instead, he urges Jamal to persuade Hakeem to come back to Empire. A lawyer, Thurston “Thirsty” Rawlings (Andre Rojo), who attended a dubiously accredited law school, offers his services. Jamal is suspicious, but Rawlings apparently has the scoop on Roxane Ford’s tactics, which is enough to convince Lucious to have Jamal set up a meeting. Better call Saul, etc.
Back at the yet-to-be-named headquarters of the rebel Lyons label, Tianna (Serayah) rehearses with her trio. Hakeem floats the idea that Tianna join his girl group, which she isn’t too impressed with, before Cookie walks in and muzzles motormouth Hakeem.
‘Snitch bitch. Snitchin’ ass bitch’
Upon his next visit to the prison infirmary, Lucious discovers the invisible hand of Rawlings when a guard brings him his medication and leads him to a supply closet, where his crew is waiting with a makeshift recording set-up. They record his aptly named track Snitch Bitch. The party doesn’t last long, though, as they are interrupted by McKnight and other guards who drag all of them to solitary. With that, Snitch Bitch will likely never make its way to Datpiff.
Later, McKnight is confronted in the parking garage by two burly bros who beat him down and take the laptop with Lucious’s new single on it. The goons meet Rawlings, who gives them a nice roll of cash for their troubles.
‘You don’t worry enough, Cookie’
Back at the shadow Empire headquarters, the team discusses Hakeem’s girl group with Andre, who shows he’s done his market research by suggesting they opt for a Latina group. But Hakeem gonna Hakeem; he leaks his album online, further flummoxing Andre, who walks out on their new company, much to the chagrin of Cookie. Andre visits Lucious and seeks forgiveness and an invitation to return to Empire. Lucious spurns Andre’s begging: “Why do you hate me?” he asks and the question triggers a flashback about Lucious’s mother (played by Kelly Rowland), which gives us a bit of backstory about how an orphan became a man who makes rap songs in a prison closet.
In Jamal’s attempt to charm his baby brother back into the fold, he plays some new music, but boneheaded Hakeem rejects the invite and announces that he leaked his album online anyway. Cookie and Hakeem spruce up the new startup space while Snitch Bitch blasts out, which only adds to their determination to get the shop ready before Lucious gets out of jail.
Rawlings shows up late to Lucious’s bail hearing declaring he has “new evidence”, which turns out to be compromising photos of the presiding judge’s sexual proclivities. The judge grants Lucious $1m bail, to Ford’s surprise, and with that Lucious is back on the streets and on the radio.
Recommended reading
- “Is Empire crashing the party or is it a sleeper cell, exploding the mainstream from within?” Andy Greenwald on the logic of Empire’s chaos.
- A close study of the meaning of reluctant and unsexy twerking in the show so far by Grantland’s Dave Schilling.
- Finally, an NPR interview Empire writer Attica Locke on all things Cookie.
Notes and observations
- Thirsty Rawlings’s service will surely come with a hefty price for Lucious. A confrontation cometh …
- Hakeem is growing up inch by inch as he watches and learns from his mother how to build a label in several scrappy steps.
- Again, how does Ms Ford not know that the feds don’t know where Vernon is?
- No one knows what to do about Boo Boo Kitty – not even Boo Boo Kitty.
