Cookie tries to convince the board that Lucious is fine, knowing Lucious won’t be held much longer in prison a plot is up to displace him from the company.
The first season of the wildly popular Fox dramarama was soapy in all the right ways, but, like the best soaps, teetered between being, like, the greatest and a big mess. This season walks the same precarious path.
The charisma of Henson's performance, which is not scenery-chewing so much as world-conquering, and co-creator Lee Daniels' devotion to the honest detail, however nasty, profane, or politically incorrect, are what make Empire feel so fun and so authentic.
Simultaneously refined and deliciously pulpy, Fox's mega-hit Empire roars back to life in its second year, with all the brand-specific viciousness and gasp-earning twists fans have come to expect from the Lyons.
If the premiere is any indication, we can look forward to the usual Empire fare: sexual intrigue, LGBTQ issues, fabulous wardrobe, slick pop tunes and rap hits, and - of course - a seemingly endless succession of double and triple crossings.
Empire remains a soap with no pretensions beyond the suds. But there's something melancholy, and forlorn, in its heart: Reach the mountaintop, and the view is still lousy, and worse, everyone wants to push you off.
