Last week's episode of Empire disappointed. The slump was blessedly short-lived.
In Wednesday's third episode of season two, with Lucious sprung from his prison cell, Empire quickly returned to the high-stakes absurdity that has made it the highest-rated show on network television. My concerns over last week's quiet episode were quelled by this week's Lyons' roar, as Cookie and Lucious finally faced off. Great villains and heroes both need worthy adversaries, and Empire has wisely paired them again. But here's the key question raised by this week's "Fires of Heaven": Who's the hero and who's the villain?
The terms of Lucious' bail don't actually allow him inside the Empire Records building, and Cookie's not particularly welcome there either. But whatever tensions exist, they're still a family, and that means sitting down for a family dinner — even if every single one of them has, at some point, betrayed another.
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Why get together at all? "To keep our enemies close," says Cookie, before dragging the tablecloth to the floor.
"I want you guys to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we war," says Lucious.
As usual, Empire gets better as it gets soapier.
Take Anika, who can't find a job in the recording industry. (Perhaps it has something to do with breaking off her engagement to her boss, Lucious; starting a new label with his ex-wife; and then immediately exiting — partially because she's sleeping with potential investors and the son of her ex-fiancé.) With her options rapidly narrowing, Anika accepts a meeting with Lucious at his nightclub. There, Lucious asks Anika to sabotage Cookie — but like the college-educated, street-stupid girl she is, she immediately brings the plan to Cookie, who bleeds her of the details and (presumably) casts her aside.
Anika's intel sets the stage for a more immediate hostile takeover. That night, Cookie and Hakeem crash Lucious' welcome home party and put on a show of their own, in which Hakeem raps a brave line to his father: "I'm the lion. You're the cub."
Meanwhile, Valentina — Hakeem's bedmate and the lead member of his unrecorded girl group, which has been rechristened Ménage à Trois — is ready for her big debut. The young "mogul" promises Sway Calloway, the voice for rap news, that he'll have the group perform on his radio show later that week.
As time comes for the girl group to perform, Lucious walks calmly into the radio station to pour himself a glass of orange juice. On Andre's advice, he has purchased the entire APEX radio broadcasting company, meaning he owns "every urban outlet in every major market in the country." As a bonus, he signed Valentina, who will be performing — solo — on his radio show. "When I crash a venue, I own it," he boasts to Cookie.
It's a big move, and one that seems to put Lucious back on top. But whatever this self-proclaimed god might say, "Fires of Heaven" also highlights his weakness: his refusal to trust anything he doesn't understand.
If Lucious were a smarter businessman, he'd invest more heavily in his son Andre, who enabled him to roadblock Lyon Dynasty. But even that isn't enough for Andre to regain his position in the company, and Empire finally reveals why: his father's discomfort with his son's bipolar disorder.
When Andre reveals he has a child on the way, Lucious coldly asks, "Aren't you worried … [about] the child's mental health?"
Andre explains that it doesn't run in the family, but Lucious isn't convinced. The moment prompts a flashback that offers some new context about why Lucious seems to love Andre less than his other two sons: a scene of Lucious' mother in the midst of a manic episode.
Lucious hates anything he perceives as weakness — and he perceives anything he doesn't understand as weakness. This deep-seated fear is the most interesting dynamic in the show.
And it might turn out to be the kingpin's downfall. The only reason Lucious managed to keep Jamal as both son and heir was putting his money before his homophobia. Will he be able to do the same with mental illness? After all, the entire crux of the episode — stopping the premiere of Ménage à Trois by buying Apex Records on the day of their big premiere — was Andre's idea.
Cookie, on the other hand, embraces her children for everything that they are. Though Andre left her company to rejoin Empire Records, she's still happy to welcome him with open arms. Where Lucious sees weakness, she sees humanity — and in the long run, it isn't hard to guess which side might win out.
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