From its inception Empire has gone for the jugular when it comes to midseason and season finales. For the series’s third midseason finale, the punch to the gut was much more subdued, but no less of an emotional blow. The hour forced several characters to face the truths they had been hiding from, with consequences which will take them away from the public eye for a while to come. Though most of Empire‘s midseason finale focused on letting the truth be told, it’s the brewing lies slowly churning which will threaten Lucious Lyon when the show returns in March.
Thus far the love match of Angelo Dubois and Cookie Lyon has been a surprisingly beautiful and beneficial one. Cookie and Angelo present a united front before the final push of his Mayoral campaign. The only downside is that in order to appease the people, Cookie has to restructure Diana Dubois’s Captain’s Ball into the People’s Ball rather quickly. What Cookie and Angelo don’t know is that Diana and Lucious are in cahoots in regards to Angelo’s campaign. Lucious is actually supportive of a black mayor in office, and if Diana can split Angelo and Cookie apart as a favor that works just fine for the new Power Players. Diana just needs Lucious to squash a story which could taint Angelo’s campaign. Once he does, Diana backs out of her end of the deal because Cookie’s presence is actually helping the campaign. No one breaks a deal with Lucious and gets away with it.
Tariq has enough circumstantial evidence against Lucious for Frank Gathers’s murder that he is able to freeze Empire’s assets. Luckily this isn’t the first time Lucious has dealt with the FBI. Tariq made a dangerous mistake by not informing his superiors that the man he was going after was his brother. Lucious is able to use this to his advantage with a well-constructed visit to FBI headquarters where he plays the loving brother, disappointed on behalf of their mutual father. Tariq can’t even count on Shyne to help him end Lucious because Shyne has carefully played both sides. He liquidated the right amount of assets to be able to bail out Empire, and Tariq can’t do anything about it because of Shyne’s immunity.
Jamal is nowhere near ready for a public performance, especially not with the stakes so high. Though Lucious is the one who set Jamal up to fail with his 3 strikes ultimatum, he is genuinely worried that Jamal’s performance at the People’s Ball could put him over the edge. Lucious and Cookie know their son is in trouble, but taking away all of Jamal’s pills right before the event isn’t the way to go about helping him. Never mind the implications for Jamal’s career; it is dangerous for an addict to go off his addiction cold turkey without the supervision of a medical professional. To get her son through the night, Cookie goes against her own judgment and fishes her son’s pills from the drainpipe. Jamal has a stellar performance at the People’s Ball which won’t soon be forgotten. Then his parents send him to rehab. This is the one time Lucious isn’t making cracks about Jamal’s addiction or capabilities. Jamal did his job, now all Lucious wants is for his son to be healthy again. Don’t get too excited about Lucious’s softer side. Five minutes later he’s outed Angelo on a nearly 30 year-old DUI charge which left his passenger dead.
Once again while his family claws among themselves, Andre deals with something alone. Though Nessa cares deeply for Andre, she is not going to care for him the way Rhonda did. She’s right that Andre needs to learn to pick himself up on his own, and the people who love him will be there if he is really in danger of falling too far (maybe, since we’re still talking about the Lyons, not the Brady Bunch). First Andre has to say goodbye to Rhonda. Andre’s beloved late wife makes one final appearance to wish Andre well on their mission, which includes making Anika pay for murdering Rhonda and her baby. Except Andre has a very specific idea of how he’s going to get to the top. First things first: Blackmail Shyne into a partnership to take the Empire from Lucious. It’s anyone’s guess if Andre means to kill his father in the figurative sense, or literally.
How worried should we be about a Shyne/Andre pairing?
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