This episode was slow (for “Empire”), but it’s setting up major themes that will hopefully arc across the season.
‘Empire’
8 p.m., Wednesday, FOX
3 out of 4 stars
Three weeks into its second season, “Empire” finally had to take a breath. “Fires of Heaven” didn’t have as many OMG moments as the first two episodes of the season, but with Luscious out of prison, the show was able to get back to the bubbling soapy inter-family conflict that makes it half Shakespeare, half “Dynasty.”
The family is still split down the middle with Hakeem and Cookie at Lyon Dynasty and Lucious and Jamal at Empire—Andre is the poor, lost soul in between, rejected by his father and disinterested in his mother.
But this split among the four main players has revealed ties that were previously ignored. In Season 1, Jamal and Cookie were the empathetic artists, while Lucious and Hakeem were the spoiled, corporate sellouts. With the shifted alliances, we see new parallels between the generations. Cookie and Hakeem are impulsive but extremely talented, with an instinct for what will work and a connection to the rougher, street side of hip-hop. Lucious and Jamal are obsessed with legacy and fame, and it’s taking a toll on their music.
Though Lucious can’t escape this quality—he compares himself to a god twice in this episode, and enacts a weird Hitler-esque salute to his fans on the steps of the Empire—he’s fixated on becoming more street. He’s desperate to get Hakeem back at Empire because even Anika can see that Hakeem is “coming into his own” at Lyon Dynasty. What’s more is that he calls Frank Gatz’s “hoodrat” daughter Freda his musical everything, even as she’s pulling out guns mid rap-battle on the street. Lscious comes from the streets but seems to have lost touch with them completely, unlike Cookie, who incorporates that sensibility into his every move.
Lucious has deeper pockets and more influence, but if it’s a battle of the badasses, Cookie wins every time. If the writers are trying to establish Lucious as the anti-hero to root for in this show (along the lines of Walter White or Don Draper), they’ve already failed. Kelly Roland also plays Lucious’ bipolar mother in flashbacks to his childhood, as if that’s supposed to humanize him, but how can a viewer feel sorry for Lucious when we immediately jump back to him emotionally abusing Jamal and Andre?
By poaching Valentina, Lucious might have one up on Lyon Dynasty, but let’s not forget the partnership brewing between Cookie and Anika, the two women who made him what he is. Cookie produced him musically and Anika built up his business—an alliance between these two could really hit him where it hurts. And let’s all agree that the scene between them was by far the most dynamic of this episode.
Best lines of the week:
“I guess you missed that when you was up in here livin’ la vida loca.”
“You know why he didn’t stop me? Because he was in prison.”
“I do something dirty for you and you reward me?” / “You’ve always been a little dirty. Why not get a reward for it?”
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Lauren Chval is a RedEye special contributor.