This week’s Empire was a collision of past and present for both mother and son. The arrival of the incomparable Phylicia Rashad as new beau Angelo’s mother forced Cookie under a large weight of pressure. If the Lyon matriarch is to move forward in her life, she has to make peace with her past choices. Little does she know that her son is also moving forward in his life, but may be walking down the same path she did.
Jamal is going down the rabbit hole fast. D-Major is not only enabling Jamal’s addiction, he is supplying him with more drugs that will supposedly “even things out”. Jamal addresses Philip’s concerns like they’re thin air. The only good thing we can say about this situation is that Jamal truly no longer cares about Lucious’s cracks over his low value in performances and streaming services. Jamal has opened himself up creatively to create a music video diary dedicated to Cookie. Cookie loves it until images of her father come on the screen. They throw her so off track that she misses an important fundraiser with Angelo’s mother Diana Dubois (played by beloved Cosby Show alum Phylicia Rashad). Jamal goes to Aunt Carol for answers. She complies as Cookie opens up to Angelo about her father at the same time. If Lucious had never come into her life, Cookie would have chosen someone like Angelo. That’s not the way life happened. Cookie met Lucious, who by that time was already hustling, and because her father couldn’t stop her or stomach watching his daughter’s decisions, he kicked her out of the house. Three days later Cookie’s father died of a heart attack. That’s why Cookie’s relationship with her sisters has never been the same, and why Cookie made Lucious her whole world.
Cookie has a chance to make different choices now. She older, wiser, and has paid a heavy price for the decisions she made in her youth. She may not have the remarkable history with Angelo that she has with Lucious, but Angelo respects her while giving her room to grow and be herself. Cookie still needs to make up for standing up Diana Dubois. She and Angelo make a plan to have a nice dinner with Diana and Cookie’s kids, which Cookie thinks will smooth things over. That is if she can get her boys to stop bickering long enough to go. When she finally gets her boys to agree to go, Lucious sabotages everything. He books out every possible venue so that Cookie can’t host Mrs. Dubois in a nice restaurant. Candace has to step up to help Cookie transform her apartment, style, and mannerisms into an environment that would impress Mrs. Dubois. It doesn’t matter. The dinner is sunk before any appetizers are served. Diana is allergic to all the seafood Cookie has ordered, Jamal shows up high, Hakeem shows up with a screaming Bella, which lures over Lucious and Anika to chastise Hakeem, and Andre doesn’t even show up. Honestly he probably couldn’t have saved anything once Lucious walked through the door.
As we’ve seen, Andre is out to take Empire for himself and take Nessa along for the ride. First he has to convince Shyne that putting him in charge of his own branch of the Empire was genuine. That’s hard to do when Shyne’s exclusive rights to Freda Gatz disintegrate since Freda wants nothing to do with Empire. Through the Lyon’s special brand of guilt and encouragement, Andre gets Freda to the party. This isn’t Freda’s home, but because Nessa and Shyne share her experiences and her passions they embrace her as family. Andre’s always showed up for his family, but this time he has the chance to join a new family with Nessa. Remember that Andre is the only one of his siblings who remembers life before Empire. For as much as they struggled, they were happy. Immersing himself in this environment again is both cathartic and dangerous for Andre.
Back at Cookie’s place, things begin to calm down over cobbler. No matter how insane her family is, Cookie loves them all. To that end Jamal sings his song to his Mama, which is so moving that it even shuts up Lucious. He approves of Jamal’s new direction, and it’s a painful reminder that he might need to let Cookie live her life without his interference. The one time Lucious puts Cookie first her eyes follow him out the door. After taking in the good, bad, and ugly of Cookie’s twisted family tree, Diana and Cookie bond on good terms. Her only request is that Cookie doesn’t hurt her only son.
Can Cookie really move on with Angelo now that Lucious seems to be letting up some of his control?
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