Empire review: Empire tackles sensitive topics in its own way and does fine

Someone gets a ring, someone gets dumped, and someone gets dunked on in this week’s Empire. Oh, and Kingsley is still an annoying startup bro.

Empire often gets flack for the soapy, heavy-handed way it addresses hot-button issues like police brutality, the stigma against the LGBTQ community, mental health and women’s issues. But they deserve credit for even touching on these topics on network television, and tonight we’re treated to a double dose of Empire’s version of the very special episode.

At the start of “The Depth of Grief,” Jamal gets a call that Kai has been found and rushes to the hospital to see him. After Kai tells Jamal and Cookie about how he was ambushed and escaped from captivity, a doctor comes in to examine Kai’s injuries. The doctor also reveals Kai’s HIV status, which causes Cookie to worry about Jamal. Jamal assures Cookie that he’s HIV negative and on PrEP.

We watch Cookie, who saw the impact of the AIDS epidemic while she was incarcerated, trying to come to grips with the news and educate herself on the disease. But her fears are reignited by sister Candace’s ignorant anecdotes about gay men on the down low who pass the disease on to Black women. Lucious tells Cookie the best thing for them to do is to stay out of it and let Jamal live his life. Seeing both Lucious and Cookie trying to work through some of the problematic narratives they were taught has been interesting. Both have grown tremendously, but they’re also living, breathing proof that becoming woke is often a slow, clumsy process.

Cookie’s fears for Jamal’s health still aren’t assuaged by the listening party later in the episode, and she confronts Kai. Kai once again assures Cookie that he’d never do anything to jeopardize Jamal’s health. Hearing Kai proudly declare that he is a Black, gay man who is HIV-positive, was one of my favorite scenes.

There was a time when HIV and AIDS were portrayed in media as death sentences and punishments. There is still work to do, and many people both on and off-screen still don’t realize that the disease is not condemnation for anything. To see Kai, a strong, brave character living his life, excelling in his career and finding love is a breath of fresh air. That night, after Jamal apologizes for Cookie’s ignorance, we’re treated to a double proposal as both Kai and Jamal get down on one knee to propose to each other. So Jamal has his happy ending, for now.

This week, Empire also explored the issue of Black women not receiving the medical attention they need because doctors don’t take their concerns seriously enough. As Hakeem tries to win Tiana back, flashbacks reveal that the couple was expecting twins. After a complicated delivery where Tiana’s health concerns weren’t taken seriously by her nurse, Tiana lost their daughter, who would have been named Princess. Tiana recalls this incident as she also tries to restart her music career but feels stifled by Empire’s management trying to control her.

Tiana hits a wall when Kingsley doesn’t like the song she did with Blake and wants her to instead focus on more positive buzzwords like her family. Tiana leaks the song against Kingsley and Blake’s wishes. Kingsley shelves her and Hakeem is furious that Blake recorded a song with his girlfriend. Hakeem punches Blake in the face twice at Devon’s listening party and gets dumped by Tiana, who still feels he hasn’t matured.

Watching Hakeem deal (or really not deal) with the trauma he’s experienced in the last few seasons has been painful. The saddest part of it all is that Hakeem, at his core, really and truly does want to do better. However, he’s unwilling to part with the people and coping mechanisms he’s relied on for most of his life, which means when something goes wrong, he almost always falls back to booze, women, violence or his no-good friends to make him feel better. Hakeem still hasn’t quite hit rock bottom, but it seems to be getting closer as he’s lost his music, his girl and his kids.

Andre is out of prison but he’s struggling to reintegrate with his old circles. After a dinner with his frat brothers where they callously refer to prison inmates as “animals,” and the realization that he no longer has the money or connections he once had, Andre becomes devoted to helping exonerate Quincy. Though Quincy’s mom Terri is initially appreciative of Andre’s help, she’s horrified when she learns that Andre really did kill Anika and isn’t remorseful. Terrie eventually relents and lets Andre help when he reminds her that killing someone also kept Quincy alive in prison.

Andre has wrestled with his more violent side for the better part of the series. We’ve seen him give completely into it to do some really awful things (like trying to murder Lucious) and we’ve seen him try to ignore it completely. Now, as he tries to save Quincy, Andre seems to be transitioning from a complex character to a full-on antihero who overall wants to do the right thing but will resort to unsavory measures to accomplish it.

Elsewhere, Lucious and Devon are working on Devon’s debut single but Devon isn’t digging deeply enough for Lucious’ liking. Lucious worries that Devon won’t be ready in time for the listening party he’s having for Devon where a known music mogul will decide whether to sign him or not.

During a pick-up basketball game, Lucious learns that Devon’s song is about his girlfriend who left him because he took a vow of celibacy to focus on his music and helping his family. Lucious encourages Devon to call on that experience to give his singing more depth and after an acoustic jam session, Devon finally taps into the soul we all knew was there. Devon is a hit at his listening party and starts getting offers from record labels.

This season seems to be showing viewers the two types of startups. In Lyon Family Management, Lucious and Cookie are taking the proverbial “built out of the garage” method and starting completely from scratch with limited resources.

On the flip side, Kingsley is trying to take Empire, an established company and apply startup-y principles to it–algorithms, buzzwords, analytics and cookie-cutter approaches to unique problems.

Even more interestingly, in previous seasons, we saw Andre as CFO, trying to run Empire according to what the numbers said. Lucious always reminded Andre that the music came first so the company’s core identity was never compromised, with Kingsley’s leadership, it’s almost like we’re getting to see what would have happened if Andre’s old mentality had won out–and the results aren’t pretty. But as more artists bristle at this approach, Kingsley may lose his grip on a company that, to be honest, was never really his, to begin with.

What did you think of “The Depth of Grief?” Let us know your thoughts in the comments.