Empire review: No weapon formed against the Lyons shall prosper

As the Trust tour continues to stumble, the Lyons face an even bigger roadblock after finding out that Andre is sick in “Without All Remedy.”

Coocious lives, barely

When news of Andre’s illness reaches the rest of the family, Cookie and Lucious are at odds once again after Cookie catches Lucious with Treasure. Cookie’s had enough of Lucious testing the waters with other women and only being honest when it’s convenient telling him, “Your words aren’t enough.” But, after she finds out Lucious is really innocent, guilt over her tryst with Damon starts eating away at Cookie (even though we the audience also learn that very little happened between Cookie and Damon that night).

In typical fashion, Cookie deals with her emotions by going into full helicopter-mom mode. She attempts to invalidate Terri’s treatment plan for Andre with her own doctors and frets over Andre’s health. But this time, Andre sticks up for his woman and lets Cookie know that he has it covered. Cookie finally realizes that Andre has everything and everyone he needs and falls back, just in time for Andre to learn that his health is progressing and he’s made it to the next round of an experimental cancer treatment.

Lucious, who was also the first person to find out Andre was sick, attempts to throw himself into work, calling a meeting to figure out why Empire’s sales have gone down after the tour’s successful opening night in Philadelphia. But despite his efforts to tune everything out and get down to business, Lucious starts reminiscing on the first time Andre got really sick. As a new father, Lucious had to choose between caring for his toddler son, who was sick with croup, and an open mic night that would have helped his career. Though he initially ditched his family for music, Lucious ultimately returned home and figured out a way to treat Andre’s coughing. In a similar fashion, Lucious returns home to be by Andre’s side and tells Andre that just like when he was little, he needs him to get better.

Hakeem and Jamal show brotherly love in the City of Brotherly Love

Jamal takes a similar approach to his father, losing himself in putting out all of the fires on the tour: from Blake’s feud with Carlito, to potential power loss issues, to dancers complaining about their motels. Jamal’s dedication to making the tour a success seems to come at the detriment of his freshly rekindled relationship with Kai, until Kai shows up once again and this time, refuses to be intimidated by the chaos of Jamal’s life. Hakeem, on the other hand, seems less interested in loving on his big bro. That is until Jamal tells him that when Andre was in prison, he made it a point to call just to check on Hakeem. At the end of the episode, the two join together to perform an updated version of Bill Withers’ classic “Lean on Me.” The song is also a nod to season one when Jamal and Hakeem sang the song with Andre to calm him down during a manic episode in an elevator.

Analysis

“Without All Remedy” and Andre’s illness storyline both put the Lyons’ coping mechanisms front and center. With the exception of Hakeem, who hasn’t gotten much screen time so far, the common theme between the Lyons is that every time something difficult or tragic happens in the family, they each internalize the situation. Their thought process always seems to be, “what could ‘X’ have done to cause this, and what can ‘X’ do to fix it?” Though Jamal and Cookie seem to be working on not carrying the weight of every crisis, Lucious still hasn’t lost his desire to play God in his and others’ lives.

In “Without All Remedy,” Cookie seems to get better at seeing things from another person’s point of view and not making snap decisions out of anger. She puts her feelings aside and decides not to drop Treasure from the label, opting instead to put her in touch with a therapist.

Cookie also works through her feelings that Andre’s illness is some kind of punishment for her time with Damon. Interestingly, Damon himself has a role in Cookie’s reality check. “You’re not important enough to have caused any of this,” he tells her near the episode’s end. Through Damon, Cookie learns to just be supportive and let Andre do what’s best for him.

It’s not lost on me that as Cookie tries to separate herself from Damon, they now have one more thing to bond over since Damon has also dealt with having a child with cancer. It’s also apparent that Coocious isn’t quite the super couple they were pre-Kingsley. Though Cookie reaffirms her love for Lucious at the end of the episode, their bond feels hollow and it seems like the two are staying together simply because it’s all they know to do.

The preview for next week’s episode shows Lucious trying to rescue his family and make things right with the universe by doing right by Kingsley. But that might be easier said than done now that Kingsley is working with the FBI to take down Lucious.

What did you think of “Without All Remedy?”  Let us know in the comments.