Empire: The Lyons Roar, Review

Man, Empire just keeps getting bigger – bigger ratings, bigger performances, bigger stories. This past episode raised the bar of crazy to new heights, and I loved almost every minute of it. The parts that were too ridiculous, I still loved unabashedly. Cookie had one-liners for days, Terrance Howard was just overdoing it in every scene, going from barking father to stoic CEO, embarrassed cheater, and horn dog schmoozer at the drop of a hat.

Cookie can bounce between comedy and drama so easily, and I still feel like I’m watching the same person, the same wrecking ball of ferocity. Lucious is a different person in almost every scene, but perhaps that’s a product of being in the business, where he’s had to invent multiple selves to forward his legacy.

That’s another large difference between the two characters; Lucious cares about his family leaving a legacy, but Cookie just cares about her family. She tries to improve her relationship with Hakeem, which admittedly was a bit of a goofy scene because the two patch things up after one simple explanation. That is, until Hakeem and Camilia go public, and Cookie calls her a cougar, says she looks like she has a good tongue to be a prison bitch, AND calls her Yoko. Can I use one hundred fire emojis in this review? Is there anyone more captivating on television right now?

As much as I absolutely love Cookie, Jamal has become equally my favorite character on the show. He’s really the most reasonable of the characters and has as much complexity in his relationship with the other Lyons as Cookie. Jamal comes out using one of his Dad’s old songs after they just had arguably their best father son moment! Lucious told Jamal to tell his truth through the music, and boy did he! The documentary maker is already an improvement over the last love interest, and who knows how this latest incident will affect his relationship with his father.

I loved how yet again, the episode lead up to and culminated at an Empire event. All the shit stirred up at the beginning of the episode only to be splattered all over at the White Party. Is the formula becoming repetitive? How can it be when the proceedings are so juicy?

Everyone kept dropping truth bombs on each other left and right! How about Andre’s wife commiserating about being whored out by Andre for business advantages? Scumbag Andre almost kills himself in an extremely dark scene after his father votes against him to be interim CEO in the event that anything happen to him. He suspects Andre of scheming, which he is, and then reveals that the minute Andre married a white woman, in a perceived attempt to be accepted by some WASPy elite, he knew he wasn’t a member of the family. In his only good scene, Andre says he knows he’s not accepted because he’s not talented.

On top of all of this, Anika is done with Lucious’ cheating and ends the episode meeting with Billy Baretti. At this point, every one except for Hakeem and Jamal, who had a beautiful scene after Jamal’s coming out, sort of seem like an island in the Lyons family. So much for legacy.