Empire season 5 episode 2 review: The Lyons need to find a new den

Empire continues to set the stage for the Lyons’ resurrection and lift quotes, almost word-for-word, from famous moments in popular culture.

“Pay for Their Presumptions” opens once again with Lucious sitting in the church after the funeral for the unknown person. Becky sits beside him and holds his hand saying, “you couldn’t have known.”

Six months prior, Lucious and Cookie are putting the finishing touches on Treasure’s song and preparing to get it some airplay on the radio. Back at Empire, Giselle is sure that after working hard as interim CEO, she’s a shoo-in for the permanent job. Unfortunately, Giselle is in for a rude awakening as Jeff Kingsley, a Silicon Valley darling and her former lover, gets the gig. Giselle retreats angrily to her office and vows revenge.

Cookie and Lucious struggle to get Treasure’s song on the airwaves since most DJs, including Sway (in a cameo as himself), are more interested in the Lyons’ financial situation. Jarred by the momentary setback, Treasure considers giving up music and going back to her social work job, but Cookie uses her own story to talk some sense into her. Lucious finally gets a breakthrough by giving a radio station an exclusive interview about an old song he wrote about Cookie’s miscarriage in exchange for them playing Treasure’s song. Lucious’ plan works, and Treasure’s song becomes the hottest new track on the market.

But just as Lucious and Cookie are celebrating their victory, they get an ugly surprise when Giselle signs Treasure and steals her from them. Cookie begs Treasure to reconsider but she refuses, saying that aligning herself with Empire will help make her a star.

Kingsley seizes the opportunity to form an alliance with the Lyons and offers them honorary positions as chairwoman and chairman emeritus of Empire. Cookie and Lucious are initially skeptical of the offer, which would make them mere figureheads of the company they built, but after seeing the shape their family is in (more on that in a minute) they decide to accept.

Hakeem is still shaken and paranoid after the shooting and his failed award show performance. He retreats to Jamal’s apartment where he hosts booze-fueled kickbacks with his posse. He visits Andre in prison and confronts him for killing the mother of his child. He also harasses Tiana at Empire. Cookie and Lucious finally stage an intervention and invite Hakeem to stay with them to get his act together.

Jamal decides to stay in New York for a few more months to support his family and asks Kai to join him. Kai hesitantly agrees but becomes more enthusiastic after he receives a job offer from a fellow journalist and former boyfriend, Bryson, to work on a story about child trafficking in Mogadishu. Jamal is jealous of Kai’s eagerness to accept Bryson’s offer, but Kai says that Jamal needs to trust him.

After finding himself at odds with Gusto, a prison bully who’s taken to brutally beating and terrorizing another young inmate, Quincy, Andre decides to take matters into his own hands. After asking for help from a fellow inmate, Andre makes himself a makeshift stab-proof vest and picks a fight with Gusto’s right hand man. Andre gets apprehended and presumably punished by guards, but seems satisfied with his actions.

Back at Empire, Kingsley hosts a party where he plans to announce Lucious and Cookie as chairman and chairwoman. He also offers Giselle a position as his right hand.  Lucious is disgusted to hear how Kingsley trivializes and commodifies Empire’s artists, calling them spoiled babies and saying their only purpose is to help the company’s bottom line. Lucious questions why he’d work with Kingsley but Kingsley threatens to reveal that the Lyons are broke if Lucious refuses. Rather than take Kingsley’s disrespect lying down, Lucious and Cookie decide to get ahead of the situation by disclosing that their family lost everything trying to buy back Empire. Lucious then pulls a Suge Knight and encourages artists who don’t want to be managed by Kingsley to sign with the family’s new record label before walking out.

At the end of the episode, we flash forward six months, to Lucious preparing to leave the funeral. But just as he’s about to walk out of the church, FBI agents show up wanting to speak with him.

The Lyons build a new kingdom

At this point, quite a bit of what will happen in Empire‘s fifth season remains unclear. What is clear is that if the Lyons can’t run Empire, they want no part of it. While Treasure signing with Giselle may have proven to be a setback for the Lyons, Lucious’ moment of transparency at the party may endear him to artists who want to be more than just pawns in a business scheme.

Cookie and Lucious still have opposing views on what they value out of life. Cookie wants her family. Whatever they do, whether it’s fighting for Empire, starting something new or letting everything go, she wants them to do it together. Unfortunately, Lucious can only see the music and the perceived Lyon legacy, so family unity often takes a back seat. This has clearly taken a toll on both his wife and his sons.

This episode provided a really interesting look inside Hakeem’s head. Empire seems to always have what I like to call a “Black Sheep du Jour” among the three sons. Usually one of the sons has done something to isolate himself from his family, but this time, we saw how Hakeem was neglected by his family when he needed them most, as he was recovering from getting shot and grieving Anika’s death. Lucious and Cookie were trying to get Empire, Andre was in jail, and Jamal was overseas.  Hakeem went through what was arguably one of the most traumatic periods of his life almost completely alone. It’s easy to write Hakeem off as the spoiled baby who drinks too much, but this season is really showing how some of the issues his family has affected him in negative ways. Hopefully, the impact doesn’t become too severe.

We don’t get to see much of Andre in prison, but the parts we do see show a man who is learning to combine business and street smarts. Andre has always had a quiet edge to him, but his time behind bars seems to have made him more lethal and more subtly unhinged. Seeing his development both in prison and out, and how it helps or hurts his family, will definitely be a highlight this season. It’s also interesting that so far, we haven’t seen any indication that Andre has been taking his medication. We’ve seen how lethal Andre is when he’s off his meds, so that will also be something to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

Jamal’s love life, while seemingly not as high stakes as his last relationship, will still provide some interesting conflict for him. In London and Kai, Jamal has finally found a peaceful life away from his family and their drama. Now that he’s decided to stay and be there for them, old insecurities are creeping into his new relationship. While Kai doesn’t seem like the cheating, murderous or selling-you-out-to-your-family’s-archrival type, Jamal’s never had an easy go of it in the romance department, so, at the risk of sounding cynical, something is probably afoot.

What did you think of “Pay for Their Presumptions?”