Empire recap: The lion sleeps tonight

Without Empire Entertainment, what does Lucious have left?

A fallen Lyon.
(Image credit: Chuck Hodes/FOX)

In a pivotal moment in Empire's midseason finale, Cookie tells the crying Lucious to pull it together. He has just lost Empire Records — the source of all his confidence — and is spiraling into an identity crisis.

"You're a Lyon," she insists. But he isn't — not really. We learned several episodes ago that Lucious ascribed that name to himself, the way Shawn Carter chose Jay Z. The way Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. became Lil Wayne. The way Hakeem Lyon, Lucious' youngest son, dropped his surname in a fit of self-confidence to become, simply, Hakeem.

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Travis M. Andrews

Travis M. Andrews is writer and editor from New Orleans. He has written for Time, Esquire, The Atlantic, Mashable, The Washington Post, and The Times-Picayune. When he was younger, he wrote on his mother's walls. She was displeased. For more about Travis, please visit www.travismandrews.com or follow him on Twitter @travismandrews.