If you can’t tell by the title, I would have watched this week’s Empire for the guest stars alone! Nia Long, Eva Longoria, and Rumer Willis in the same room together? Only on Empire. The caliber of talent of the original cast is already high. To add the talents, including musical, of three powerful female stars in their own right? I’m just saying, if there is a winery owner who is a fan of the show, feel free to send the showrunners a case of your finest bottles for a job well done! Yet not one of these women is the real threat to the Lyons. That honor belongs to Phylicia Rashad, who made a statement that chilled right down to the bone.
Andre, Giuliana and Shyne move full steam ahead with their plans for a foothold in Las Vegas. Lucious is having none of it, going so far as to poach Tori (again) when she had agreed to write a song for Nessa to showcase to the head of the gaming commission. That’s not all he does though. Instead of shutting down Andre’s Vegas deal, Lucious takes over. Quite frankly he does a better job than Andre ever could have because it was a tougher sell than anticipated. Gaming Commissioner Charlotte Frost (Longoria) is all business, appreciating the technical aspects of Lucious’s presentation. It’s a good thing Lucious knows how to be a savvy businessman, much to Andre’s chagrin.
With so many lovely ladies circling Lucious, it’s hard to remember sometimes that Anika is one of them. Anika may not be respected in the Lyon family, but she’s going a long way to prove herself. She gets Tariq hook, line, and sinker on working a case illegally. I can’t even feel bad for the guy, and not just because I’m on Lucious’s side. It’s because Tariq fell into the same pitiful, pathetic trap so many others have. He let his obsession lead him, and fell deeper into the mud so he could never reach Lucious on the mountain top. Lucious isn’t totally heartless. He gave his half-brother an out in the form of cash to disappear before he was arrested by the FBI. I guess that was Lucious’s version of family loyalty.
In case it wasn’t obvious, or you’ve been living under a rock, Giuliana has some deep history with Lucious that no one knew about. Andre’s problem has always been that he thinks he knows better than Lucious, but you can never hope to beat the king of the pack if you haven’t walked in his pawprints, or know exactly every place they’ve been. When you see that Lucious recorded a song for Giuliana, that’s when we all should be sitting up in our chairs. Or standing at attention, considering Giuliana is bold enough to pull a gun on Lucious in his own office! I don’t know what she’s so upset about. In flashbacks we see that Lucious was very much in love with her, right before she betrayed him for her now late husband Rafael. Evidently she likes pulling guns on the men she claims to love. Lucious keeps her in on the deal, even letting Tori (beautifully!) cover the song he wrote for Giuliana. I can’t tell if he genuinely still cares for her, or if he’s playing the long game of treachery. Probably the latter.
Lucious is so wrapped up with Giuliana he doesn’t have the energy to protest Cookie’s impending engagement. He also knows that whatever Cookie has with Angelo doesn’t compare to their passion, so a piece of paper isn’t going to threaten him. This is exactly the point that Jamal discourages Angelo from thinking about, instead encouraging him to make a big gesture of proposing to Cookie. The good news is that you can tell how serious Angelo is by how nervous he was about proposing. When the moment finally comes, Cookie is the opposite of happy. I imagine that every memory of her time with Lucious, good and bad, flooded Cookie’s memory in that moment. After saying yes to Angelo’s very public proposal, Cookie admits to him privately that she still has feelings for Lucious. Or at least she thinks they are in private. Angelo’s microphone picks up every single sin he’s ever committed as he spews his anger at Cookie. It ruins him. Mama Dubois is having none of that. If there was any woman to be afraid of in this episode, it would be her. A woman doesn’t promise vengeance to an entire family unless she truly believes she can deliver it. Then of course that is the hour that Cookie discovers how deep Lucious and Giuliana’s bond is. I need ice now from smacking myself in the head so much from exasperation!
Is Lucious playing the long game with Giuliana? If there was a poll of our formidable female guest stars, who do you think is the biggest threat, and the biggest ally, to the Lyon family? And the biggest question of all: should Lucious bring back the cornrows?
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