Empire review: Collard greens and plot twists

EMPIRE: L-R: Terrence Howard, Trai Byers, Jussie Smollett and Bryshere Y. Gray in the “Treasons, Stratagems, and Spoils” episode of EMPIRE airing Wednesday, Nov. 14 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2018 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Chuck Hodes/FOX.

Overall, this episode was… a lot.

Obviously, the big reveal was that Kingsley is, indeed Lucious’ son and his takedown plan is really a revenge plot to get back at Lucious for abandoning him and his mother, who appears to have been in a vegetative state for a few years.

For me, the interesting part of all of this isn’t what Kingsley is going to do to Lucious. Honestly, all of the ominous music in the world won’t make Kingsley seem threatening to me–Lucious is right to not take him seriously. It’s what will happen when Cookie finds out. If my math is correct, Kingsley is younger than Andre, and possibly Jamal, but the same age as, or older than Hakeem, which means Lucious was still married to Cookie when he was conceived. Ride or Die or not, I doubt old Cook will take kindly to Lucious’ previous infidelities, especially after she made the ultimate sacrifice for him by going to prison for 17 years so he could start Empire.

Kingsley’s revelation and the way he’s leading Empire proves my point about him basically being Andre on steroids. Again, Andre is the only Lyon without a musical gift, but Lucious’ “fatherly” touch, and music-mindedness was always there to temper Andre’s by-the-numbers approach to running Empire. In Kingsley, we see what happens when Empire is run by someone who is missing not just the music, but the family connection–whether he’s biologically related to Lucious or not.

Beyond Kingsley’s bombshell, we once again get a new development in the “Cookie Savior Syndrome” b-plot, that’s been building all season. It’s fascinating how the more Cookie tries to help her friends and loved ones, the more she gets hurt, whether it’s physically or emotionally. And, despite your desire to root for Cookie, in every situation, whether it’s telling Mya who her real mother is, or calling the police on Candace’s mentally ill son, we’re never quite sure whether Cookie’s done the right thing or not. Cookie even acknowledges this during her live stream in the closing scene of the episode.

But, as several people have pointed out, Cookie wants to rescue everyone else, but still can’t fix her own family, and it’s only a matter of time before she is faced with the reality of just how broken her relationship with Lucious really is. At this point, I’ve given up on rooting for them. Every time it looks like Coocious is here to stay, something else comes out of the woodwork to remind viewers that this is and always will be a toxic couple with more turmoil than our current government — okay maybe not that much, but they’re not far off.