Empire review: The Lyons put their cards on the table

There are some safe bets in life, but the Lyons keeping things sane and drama-free for long is not, and will never be, one of them.

This episode of Empire opens with Hakeem holed up in the studio channeling his anger into his music —and not bathing, as evidenced by Cookie’s comments. Once again, we’re reminded that hygiene, self-care, and emotional health are no friends to the creative process in the Lyon household.

Cookie continues her two new jobs of learning everything there is to know about HIV and worrying about the company’s funds and lack of artists. She and Lucious wager a bet that whoever signs an artist first gets to, um, steer their nightly activities.

Lucious asks Thirsty to get him a seat at a high stakes poker game so he can get the attention of rapper Carlito’s manager and, hopefully, sign him. In order to rustle up the cash to afford the $500,000 buy-in for the game, Lucious sells yet another prized painting, which was also a wedding gift to Cookie. He plans to buy back the painting with his winnings and tells Thirsty not to worry about it.

Jamal is also holed up, but he seems to be having a much better time than Hakeem. Although Jamal is in post-engagement bliss, Becky feels neglected by her bestie and is angry when Jamal wants to cut their Insecure onesie watch party short to be with Kai. Jamal apologizes and they start their watch party, but things take a sour (er, high) turn when Jamal accidentally takes some of Becky’s edibles. Worried about relapsing and Kai finding out, Jamal confesses his mistake — but Kai is surprisingly accepting and takes an edible and even finds a onesie to put on. During a game of “truth or dare,” Becky is hurt when she finds out Jamal proposed to Kai without telling her. Jamal apologizes, and she finally accepts Kai’s place in Jamal’s life.

Cookie holds auditions in Harlem to find artists to sign. During the audition, we learn that Porsha can rap, and she gets an extremely rare two compliments from Cookie (that might be a show record). During the audition, Maya’s adoptive mother, Elizabeth, crashes the audition to let Cookie know that Maya’s gotten in with the wrong crowd since Pound Cake passed away.

Cookie goes to see her, but Maya’s unreceptive to her help and would rather be with her boyfriend, yet another rich “entrebroneur,” a club promoter named Evan. Cookie leaves her alone, but must come to her rescue again when she gets arrested after Evan turns out to be a drug dealer and Maya gets caught in a sting. Though she initially wants to leave him, she changes her mind and drags Cookie for trying to fix everyone when she can’t even fix her own family. Cookie takes these words to heart but decides to lean into her ability to notice a hit and find a star and commits to her plan to scour all five boroughs in New York City to find the next Lyon Family Management artist.

Andre finds Hakeem after his marathon recording session and tries to get him to shower and get something to eat. Hakeem refuses and rehashes his anger at Andre for killing Anika without thinking about what it would do to him and Bella. Andre apologizes for hurting Hakeem (but not for killing Anika) and promises that he will continue making it up to his little brother for the rest of his life. Hakeem seems to accept Andre’s apology and starts eating and showering regularly again, much to Cookie’s relief.

During the poker game, Lucious meets Damon Cross, a noted money launderer who also describes himself as a game changer. Fortunately, Lucious wins the poker game and the rapper Carlito from his manager. Just as he’s about to cash in, robbers raid the game and the players are held hostage while they make off with the cash. Lucious and Damon escape through a back door and appear to form an alliance. We then learn that Lucious staged the robbery to make off with all of the poker game’s loot: a cool $4 million. Unfortunately, everything doesn’t go according to plan, as he also finds out that the person who bought Cookie’s painting sold it. Thirsty gets a copy of the painting printed so Cookie won’t find out.

Back at Empire, Kingsley is continuing to make enemies of the recording artists. His latest target is Three Black Divas, the washed-up R&B trio that Lucious reluctantly included in Empire’s 20 for 20 push last year. Though Giselle continues going to bat for TBD, citing their recent touring success, Kingsley is unwilling to give an “old” group a chance and also doesn’t want to concede any victory to the Lyons, who would benefit from TBD releasing a new album. Giselle turns to Cookie and Lucious to help give TBD the fair shot they deserve.

At the episode’s close, we learn in another flash-forward, which is now only four and a half months into the future, that Damon Cross has something to do with whoever is in the white casket and the FBI investigating Lucious.

As we’ve learned over the last five seasons, Empire’s version of a filler episode usually involves bringing back storylines that seemed to have been dropped or resolved in previous seasons and using them to further the main storyline. In “What is Done,” we see this in the form of Maya, who gives Cookie yet another look at all of the sacrifices she’s made trying to help other people. Though Maya’s decision to stay with Evan was wrongheaded, and her words to Cookie were incredibly harsh, they ring true. Though it’s ironic to hear Cookie preaching to Maya that Evan doesn’t love her if he’s willing to let her go to jail for him, it’s hard to see her as being a hypocrite. Cookie truly wants a unified family and feels that being with Lucious, despite everything he’s put her through, is the way to achieve that. But as more people urge Cookie to put herself first, we may see her moving away from being Lucious’ “ride-or-die.”

We are officially 75 percent of the way through the first half of Empire season 5. Though almost every other character’s storyline in this episode got resolved with a relatively happy ending, we’ve learned over the years that in the Empire universe, a happy ending is usually the calm before the storm. It’s no accident that tonight’s episode is one half of the Shakespearean quote, “What is done, cannot be undone.”

We can only assume that although all is (reasonably) well, in the Lyon family, the actions of Lucious, Hakeem, Andre, Cookie and even Jamal, are setting the stage for an explosive ending to the season. At certain points during the series’ run, all of the Lyons were tapping into their inner ruthlessness, whether it was Jamal’s brief stint as Empire’s CEO, Andre’s quest to kill Lucious or Hakeem just being himself. These days, everyone, except Lucious, seems to be trying to settle down and just live a normal life — or at least as normal of a life as one can live when they’re part of such a powerful family. The only person ratcheting up their violence, is of course, Lucious — and it’s only a matter of time before his family gets caught in the crossfire.

But for now, let’s enjoy Cookie’s hitmaking prowess, Becky finally accepting Kai, and Andre and Hakeem’s truce.

What did you think of “What is Done?”