Episode 10 of Empire aired last night, and boy was it juicy!
“We? You mean me. This is mine. I built this.” — Lucious Lyon
This line coming from Lucious came up very consistently throughout the entire episode, whether it be splitting his money between his family, or speaking to Vernon about the business. But one thing is very clear: Lucious isn’t a good person, but because he is the head of his family and founder of the “Empire” business, it shows even more examples into why he is the king of it all. In “Sins of the Father,” a new character Reg, who is a shifty character, comes into play and shakes up the foundation of the family, leading to a confession that no one saw coming.
Last night’s episode opens up with the Lyon family gathered at the medical clinic to help Andre get better from his last psychological break down in last week’s episode. A team of therapists, including Michelle White (played by Jennifer Hudson) speaks to the family about how they can help Andre’s bipolar disorder. But one person is missing from the family, and that’s Lucious. The scene takes us to a flashback, and we see that Lucious valued his career singing with Mary J. Blige more than his son’s mental health when his son had his first break down in college. Lucious even at that point refused to accept the fact that his son had a mental illness that needed to be professionally treated.
While sitting down with the therapist, Cookie is frantic, and doesn’t understand what the disorder is, and calls it “white people problems” instead of being open minded about it. During the flashback, we saw the verbal abuse Ronda and Andre faced in their younger years, so it becomes clearer as to why they are so dysfunctional and are so obsessed with running the company. During one of Andre’s music therapy sessions, Michelle decides to get up close and personal and ask Andre to pray with her. He tells her that he doesn’t pray, but Michelle is confident and asks him to at least try it.
Back at the office, Vernon and Lucious are divvying the shares of the company between each family member. He is planning on doing right by Cookie and giving her more control of the company, and in exchange expects her to get back with him. Little does he know that Cookie is not interested in Lucious at all, but instead has developed real feelings (or should we say lust) for Malcolm, who is Empire’s head of security. In a scene where Cookie and Malcolm are alone in her office, he says “I’ve been disloyal to my commander by falling for his wife.”
Meanwhile with Hakeem and Camilla, they are working on revamping his image. While at the Lyon mansion, Hakeem takes the time out to perform one of his new songs for Lucious and Cookie, “Nothing But a Number,” an ode to dating older women. After the performance, Lucious corners Camilla in his office and attempts to buy her away from Hakeem. Camilla refuses Lucious’ money, but he still has Malcolm escort her away from the premises and tells Hakeem that she did take his bribe. He has yet again sabatoged another relationship for his son on the premises that “father knows best.”
Jamal, on the other hand, is making the same choices in a different way. While in the studio with his director boyfriend Ryan, Jamal confesses his love for his daughter by writing and performing a song just for her. This doesn’t sit right with Ryan and a wedge grows in their relationship because Jamal wants to step up and be the father he needs to be for his daughter.
Remember Lola’s mother Olivia? Well she’s back, and not by her own will. Her abusive boyfriend Reg found her and wants her to get Lola so they can move on with their lives. He manipulates her into getting a meeting with Vernon to get to the house so that she can take Lola away. Earlier in the episode, Jamal tells Lola that he wants her to live with him and she tells him that she is afraid of the “scary bird.” While at the Lyons’, Cookie speaks to Reg and notices a scary drawing of a crow on his arm. Jamal speculates that Reg isn’t as good as he acts to be and asks Olivia if he hurts Lola. Olivia nods and Jamal becomes furious leading to the dramatic moment when Reg pulls out a gun.
The dramatic scene gets even deeper when Lucious, under pressure, confesses that he is in fact Lola’s dad. He goes into explaining that he paid Olivia to marry Jamal, while he was sleeping with her. This news has everyone looking at Reg to actually shoot Lucious instead of Jamal, but Malcolm comes to the rescue and shoots Reg clear through the head.
The next day, everyone, including Andre who is returning from his treatment, says good bye to Lola and Olivia. Olivia reveals that she left Lola with Jamal because she couldn’t think of anywhere else that she would be safe. Lucious tries to convince Cookie to get back together with him, but she’s less interested in him after the previous events the night before. Lucious tries to play the father card with her but Cookie is much smarter than that and replies “You just don’t wanna die alone” and walks away. After leaving Lucious’ office, Cookie heads straight for Malcolm and tells hims she wants to be alone with him.
This episode was packed with lots of twist and turns. One thing is clear, we can all say we are glad to see that Andre is getting better and working on him instead of putting his work before his health. But ladies, we are definitely jealous of Cookie right about now, don’t you agree?
-Bri Christian (@brirezy)
