This week’s Empire had a few people looking like fools at the end. And if they haven’t already been caught with their (figurative) pants down, it’s coming.
In an effort to convince the board that everything is on the up and up after TMZ gets the inside scoop about Lucious’ TBI, Cookie lets the press in on a recording session to see Lucious producing. Meanwhile, Hakeem takes desperate measures to keep Bella.
The episode starts with the Lyon family scrambling to build a case for Hakeem to keep Bella after being blindsided by Anika pursuing full custody. Yet another bombshell drops when TMZ gets the scoop about Lucious’ TBI.
The Lyon is out of the bag…
The Lyons all take the cake as the biggest fools in this situation because even though they’ve claimed to be trying to keep Lucious’ condition under wraps, quite a lot of people outside the family know what’s up. Tiana, Warren, and Uncle Eddie are all aware of what’s happening. And that’s assuming they haven’t told anyone else — but clearly, someone has been talking if TMZ found out.
Leave Bella alone!
Hakeem is now having to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to try to keep his daughter. As I’ve said in previous recaps, this season has the Lyons’ dysfunctional nature being laid out for the world to see in different ways. Unfortunately, even though this discord is normal for them, the rest of the world doesn’t think the Lyons are normal. Even though Hakeem has been a huge part of Bella’s life since Anika’s arrest, his impulsiveness, short temper and his family’s misdeeds may work against him in a court of law.
It goes without saying that Hakeem’s decision to leave the country was pretty dumb and not well thought out. But I love seeing how committed he is to keeping Bella — even if I have yet to see him really be a parent.
An officer and a guilty man
This episode also had Andre looking pretty dumb, too. He’s clearly forgotten himself around Pamela and is getting way too comfortable even as she continues to investigate Lucious’ car bombing. Once she switches up on him and lets him know that he is still not in the clear, his guilt starts eating away at him. At this point, my prediction is that Andre will probably come clean before she even has the chance to catch on.
Family ties
Jamal and Warren didn’t get a whole lot of screen time this episode. It looks like Warren will probably be the one who comes out the worst. Jamal has nothing to hide in this situation. He wasn’t involved in any of the drama his family is currently going through, and his only crime against the DuBois family is being Cookie’s son. Jamal will undoubtedly feel hurt when Warren finally reveals who he truly is, but Warren is clearly falling for Jamal, while doing dirt for the DuBois, so he will lose the most when his secret is revealed.
Goodbye, Nurse Claudia
But the person who probably takes the cake as the biggest fool of the episode is Nurse Claudia. The bewildered look on her face after Lucious’ memory comes back was priceless. I don’t know enough about memory or the brain to really understand what was happening as Lucious projected his memories of Cookie onto Nurse Claudia but it is clear that her plan to control Lucious rehabilitation and shape him into a new man failed.
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Oddly, the person who handled all of the twists and turns of this episode the best was Lucious. I’m not sure if it was because his old self started to re-surface, or if he has just gotten really good at navigating his condition, but Lucious seemed unfazed by everything that was going on around him and stayed in front of the reporter situation from beginning to end. I wonder if his musical abilities have returned with his memory, or if he’ll have to work at getting those back. Either way, old, conniving Lucious is back in the flesh and Empire is in for a wild ride as the season continues.