Empire: The Devil Quotes Scripture
I know, I know. I am a day late and a dollar short with this Empire recap. Don’t hold that against me, I’m here now!
Let’s just get straight to it, shall we?
Last night’s episode was a bit Jamal-centric. We see that Cookie is trying to light a match under Jamal and find him a hit record after he “bitched out” on his coming out party last week. She is auditioning a few artists to write said song but no one is working out. Jamal is not a fan of having someone else write a song for him but with Cookie as his mother he was left with very little choice.
To find this hit, Cookie visits her old friend, Puma, played by Cuba Gooding Jr.
She finds Puma working an equestrian center helping at risk youth. Long story short, Puma used to have a thing for Cookie back in the day when she and Lucious were hot and heavy and he never really got over it. So we assume that she would use this to her advantage though surprisingly she really doesn’t. Puma tells her that he’s not currently writing anything new though he has a song that he thinks she will love.
Turns out, he was right. It was an old song that Lucious initially was going to record but couldn’t for a number of reasons but mainly because Puma wrote it about Cookie. Jamal isn’t comfortable playing this song especially after he senses its true origins but still agrees to sing it at a family dinner Lucious is throwing to welcome Hakeem’s new ‘girlfriend’ into the Lyon family.
Jamal rearranges and sings Puma’s song perfectly and everyone, including Lucious, seemed to like it though Lucious didn’t let that moment linger for too long. He suddenly recalled that he owned the rights to Puma’s song and with the new arrangement feels it would be a good fit for John Legend. Of course, Jamal feels insulted and lashes out to his father while trying to get him to see past his homophobia but we all know that didn’t work.
Later on that evening, after the dinner fiasco and having being caught by Cookie struggling with his medication, Lucious decides to visit Jamal at his apartment, In his misguided way, I think he was trying to make another attempt to connect with him but it went south fairly quickly. Of course he gives his talk about how he doesn’t understand Jamal and how he didn’t raise any girls. This scene seemed to spark something within Jamal as we see him put his foot done with his most powerful line of the night. He proceeds to tell his father that “my obedience is no longer for sale.”
Lucious arrogantly believes that in the end Jamal will bend to his will. He quickly reminds his son that he is paying for the lifestyle that he comfortable with. So what does Jamal do? He tells his boyfriend to pack his stuff because they are leaving.
Jamal takes a stand and leaves the financial carrot that Lucious has been dangling over his head for the longest. It seems as if he is tired of making a compromise which honestly hasn’t been a compromise at all.
As the episode ends, Jamal vows to go after his father’s empire.
Elsewhere in the episode:
Remember last week’s episode when Cookie was seen in the limo with the FBI? Well Anika hired a P.I. to follow Cookie’s whereabouts so she was aware of this meeting too. After bringing the pictures to Lucious attention, he confronted Cookie and accused her of snitching on him to get out early. We ultimately find out that Cookie is helping Agent Carter and the FBI with their case on “Frank Gaddis”. We had never heard of that name before last night so I’m sure we’ll start finding out a few details soon. To get Lucious off of her back, Agent Carter and Cookie put on a show for him to make it seem like she’s a parole officer.
Now while I talked about Jamal, I would be remiss not to discuss Cookie’s other two sons and their shenanigans.
Let’s start with Andre. After Lucious hears that the police may have a a lead on Bunkie’s murder, he sends Andre to find out what they know. He uses the guise of wanting to make sure the detectives do their job as a way to not raise suspicion from Andre. In order to get this, Andre must see his contact at City Hall, Deputy Mayor Alvarez. The only way to get this information from Deputy Mayor is to give her something in return. They have sex in her office and at this point the audience believes that he is having an affair unbeknownst to his wife, Rhonda.
Oh no, honey. Apparently, Rhonda is very much into her husband’s affairs and later that night, she demands that Andre show her exactly how he got his way with Deputy Mayor Alvarez. The two have some mirror sex, during which Rhonda demands that Andre call her his mistress’ name.
Rhonda is officially doing way too much and I can’t get a read on her. This enjoying being called the mistress’ name is an interesting tidbit about her personality. I am curious to see what else we will learn about her because I have lots of questions!
Hakeem has mommy issues. Yes I know that we have been aware of this since the pilot but that was reinforced for sure in this episode. We see that he has been having a relationship with Camilla, played by Naomi Campbell. Yes, he is having an affair with an older woman and based on what unfolds we are led to believe that Camilla is fairly clingy. A few scenes after we are first introduced to her, we see Camilla and Hakeem in his home having sex. She asks him, “who am I to you?” to which he replies, “my momma.”
Wait, what! If Hakeem doesn’t cut it out.
I can’t deal, let me just wait on next week’s episode.
What did you all think of this week’s Empire episode? Let me know below!
P.S. Empire has already been renewed for a second season!!
Natalya is the author of All The Things I Never Said, a soul-stirring collection of short stories, prose and love letters for the soulful wanderers, the brokenhearted and the hopeless romantics.
You can follow her rantings and occasional sparks of brilliance on Twitter @NatalyaMuncuff.
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