Empire review: Kingsley is more like the Lyons than we thought

EMPIRE: L-R: Bryshere Y. Gray, Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson and Jussie Smollett in the “Pay For Their Presumptions” Season Five episode of EMPIRE airing Wednesday, Oct. 3 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. @2018 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Chuck Hodes/FOX.

So… that’s the season finale. And frankly, despite all the twists, turns and misleading cliffhangers, we did get the answers to some questions. So to wrap up this round of Culturess recaps, I’ll do a review of some predictions I made to see how accurate they were.

#1: Lucious and Cookie were together when Kingsley was conceived/born — Doesn’t look like it

In “Had it From My Father,” we learn that Kingsley is older than Andre and was a product of Lucious’ drug dealing past. It also appears that for most of Kingsley’s life, Lucious didn’t even know he existed. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s hard to be mad at Lucious for this one. While he undoubtedly was a jerk to Tracy, this just seems more like a series of unfortunate events, rather than Lucious actively hiding something from his family.

#2: We still don’t know who’s in the casket — Not a clue

I wasn’t expecting for us to find that out during this half of the season, but we are much closer than we were in the season premiere. We now know that something catastrophic happens to Andre and that Damon Cross and Kingsley will likely play a part in it.

#3: Jamal and Kai live happily ever after — It doesn’t look good right now

Okay, I admit, I kind of set myself up for a loss on this one. But I just want Jamal (and all of the Lyons, really) to finally make peace with the world and with themselves and ride off into the sunset. And that double proposal scene was just so perfect!

#4: Andre finds peace — Almost, but no

While his relationship with Teri seems to be a step in the right direction, Andre’s loyalty to Lucious runs far too deep. Now, with Kingsley as an active threat against his family, Andre will likely feel he has no choice but to defend his mother, father and brothers. If the flash forward is any indication, this loyalty won’t end well for ‘Dre.

#5: Coocious forever — Ehh…

Lucious and Cookie seemed to have patched things up once the showcase went well. But Cookie’s disgusted “tell me this isn’t true” as Kingsley aired Lucious’ dirty laundry gives me the impression that that peace will be short-lived. As Cookie said earlier in the episode,  the Lyon family seems to always be taking five steps forward and 10 steps back. If that’s true then Cookie and Lucious seem to take two steps forward and 50 steps back. They just can’t catch a break. Lucious has put Cookie through a lot, and, by selling the condo,  Cookie has once again sacrificed everything for him. Even though it seems like Lucious genuinely didn’t know about Kingsley, I doubt that will do anything to calm Cookie down.

#6: Hakeem matures — maybe

Don’t get me wrong, Hakeem still has a lot of issues to work through, but he seems to really be trying to break the cycle his family has taught him. Bella getting her hands on that gun that Hakeem didn’t even need to have was probably a huge wakeup call and we as viewers can only hope that Hakeem continues his road to redemption during the next half of the season.

The small preview of the spring half of season 5 shows Kingsley throwing all of his energy into wreaking havoc in the Lyons’ lives, often, it seems, with devastating results. We may not know who lives, who dies or who has more stories (hey Hamilton reference, where’d you come from?) but one thing is certain, come next year, we’re in for a wild ride.