'Empire' Recap: Cookie and the Clawed Glove of Fate
Warning: This recap for the “Rise by Sin” episode of Empire contains spoilers.
Having a family is complicated. One minute you’re gathered around a grand piano singing a hot jam with your relatives, another minute your lawyer is locking your mentally ill grandma in a panic room at gunpoint, and the next you’re yelling at your drunken sister on the red carpet just before your son gets shot in front of an E! reporter. As Empire proves flawlessly every week, being in a family isn’t easy, and this is a truth we can all relate to.
“Rise by Sin” was what we in the biz call a “penultimate” episode. Next week’s the finale, so this one was all about setting up the shocking twists, revelations, and occasionally even satisfying closure that’ll keep us thinking about this series all summer. But never has Empire’s Season 2 fumble of slowing down its storytelling been more glaring. This episode’s final tease was almost laughably inconsequential, and its one shocking event — which has been built to all season— felt like a hollow threat at best. (Does anyone truly believe Jamal will be killed off?) That being said, this is Empire, and by that I mean, it’s the Cookie show. In that regard it has never been and will never be a disappointment. Let’s talk about it!
We began with a stirring sequence of creative inspiration and possible madness: Lucious Lyon waving a conductor’s baton at a handful of uncomfortable-looking musicians.
He was preparing them for the live performance of that family jam he’d plagiarized from his elderly, mentally ill mother, and he did NOT want it to sound anything less than world-changing. No pressure, folks!
Then Cookie showed up and did this with her sunglasses yet provided no explanation as to what exactly she was doing with her sunglasses. It was some Inspector Gadget type nonsense. Also, her main reason for showing up was to shame Lucious for not going home anymore on account of avoiding his mother. Which: yep! He admitted as much. That woman was crazy and nobody could tell him otherwise.
For her part, Elderly Kelly Rowland was sitting around being mean to the help and grumbling about how the world believed she’d committed suicide in front of a child, which she hadn’t. In fact, Lucious’s claim that she had TRIED to but had run out of bullets seemed to be false also, as she had simply just held the gun to her head and said “boom” aloud. Which, again, Lucious stole for the chorus of his “hit” song. Elderly Kelly Rowland could not have been more ticked and steamed about all these things, which considering she had actual mental problems, was not a good sign.
Carol showed up to Cookie’s office in her most elegant red dress and proclaimed her love for the dude she’d hung out with in a bar last week. Because Cookie’s no chump, she immediately deduced that the man couldn’t possibly be into Carol (a “crackhead” with “three illegitimate children”) and is almost certainly a cop or a Fed or something. Spoiler: Cookie was correct. Thirsty verified this within about 12 seconds. Oh, Carol, what have you gotten yourself into?
Freda and Jamal were still working on a duet together, which was great because nothing could possibly go wrong there. They were friends ‘til the end and had the big smiles to prove it. But Jamal’s relationship with the closeted music producer was getting weirder, as the dude insisted that Jamal fire Cookie as his producer and hire him instead. Uhhhh kay? That is moving a little quickly, guy.
Though Rhonda didn’t outright accuse Anika of having pushed her down the stairs that one time, she was behaving strangely (especially if that giant bow on top of her head was any indication). But Anika looked genuinely puzzled when Rhonda asked her about those red-soled shoes she’d been wearing, which again made it seem like maybe she didn’t do it? What would be the point of Empire keeping this mystery going so long if it didn’t intend to pay it off with a shocking twist? I don’t have an answer for that, I was just asking jeez.
I am absolutely baffled by the Hakeem and Laura engagement. For some unexplained reason he flat-out told her this week that he didn’t believe in her career, yet he still loved her and wanted to marry her. Uh, WHY? Isn’t supporting your loved one creatively kind of a fundamental element in a relationship? I guess I’m not here to judge, but still. What exactly was going on here?
So then Cookie sat down with the dude who’d been dating Carol and called him out for being a Fed. He insisted that he wasn’t investigating Empire or Lucious in any way, but Cookie wasn’t buying it. But I couldn’t decide what I liked more about this scene: Cookie’s elegant leather claw-glove, or “my sister has herpes, watch out.” It was truly just a great moment for all of us.
Carol was obviously not thrilled about the fact that Cookie had confronted her man, so she interrupted Cookie’s gift basket party (?) to shout at her a lil. But this infuriated Cookie, who at last check was feeding and housing Carol, so Cookie decided to kick her out right then and there. Sister or not, Carol was a no-good, bad-decision-making hussy and Cookie was DONE. And no, this situation was probably not going to be good for Carol’s sobriety either.
Later, Jamal and the closeted music producer guy were working on a hot jam when Lucious entered and the guy pretended that Jamal had been making inappropriate advances toward him. Shady! There was a brief moment after the guy left when Lucious had Jamal’s back, stating that as a con artist himself his gaydar was pretty spot-on (in not so many words).
But then the argument turned ugly again because I guess Lucious got a pop-up notification on his phone that it was time to have a nasty feud with one of his sons again, and it was Jamal’s turn. So then Jamal (and we) were subjected to another rant about how Lucious found Jamal disgusting, but then he outdid himself when he informed Jamal “when you die of AIDS, I’ll celebrate.” In my opinion, this is not a great thing for a father to tell his son, and you can quote me on that.
Jamal immediately went to Cookie to tell her about what Lucious had said, but Cookie became upset that Jamal was still recording songs with Freda, whom Cookie had explicitly tried to axe. As Cookie explained to Jamal, she’d once snitched on Frank Gathers (Freda’s father, a possible cannibal played by Chris Rock), and Frank was murdered in prison (by Lucious). So in other words, the Lyons had a lot to answer for when it came to Freda’s biggest tragedy, and this made her a powder keg threatening to explode at any minute. But personally I’m not sure that it’s a great idea to alienate and disgruntle someone that you are afraid might become violent, so Cookie’s insistence on firing Freda for no reason was probably not going to work.
Anyway, enough about all that, let’s get into Cookie’s outfit for the ASA ceremony. A gold net veil? Absolutely. A baby blue serpentine mink stole? You better believe it. A six-figure diamond bracelet gifted by her date, a newly romantic Lucious Lyon? Fine. Yes, they’re kind of a thing again, despite him openly welcoming the AIDS-related death of her son. Back in Season 1, it was very cute and affecting when Cookie and Lucious would flirt for old time’s sake, but this season it just makes Cookie look bad. Oh well. At least she has her ultra glam red carpet look to make up for it. Plus don’t forget the claw-glove.
In a truly weird subplot, Andre decided to take Elderly Kelly Rowland to the ASAs as his plus-one, but Lucious had Thirsty intercept them and force them both at gunpoint into the panic room where they were locked in for the night! (I’m not sure that’s how panic rooms work, but whatever.) On the upside, at least that panic room looked very chill and relaxing? Plus they could watch the awards from there, and that’s just going to be a better experience overall. I mean, look at this thing:
The ASAs seemed to be primarily just people standing around a tiny stage in a lobby somewhere with one sad DJ playing music from an iPod nearby. I’ve seen bigger, more glamorous spectacle at my local farmer’s market.
The various Lyons walked the red carpet and made bold proclamations: Cookie defended Lucious from haters, and Jamal announced that tonight’s performance would be his final duet with his family as he needed to focus on his own self after that. But then Carol showed up totally sloppy drunk and tried to get into the show. Cookie, obviously, wasn’t having it, and shamed her into leaving.
But then Carol ran into Freda, and when Freda didn’t seem interested in getting Carol inside, Carol busted out the trump card we’d all been waiting for: She told Freda that Lucious had killed her father. Freda didn’t take this well!
Next thing we knew, Freda stole a cop’s gun and CAME for Lucious! Unfortunately some boring guy in a pink coat got in the way of her bullet.
Freda shot Jamal! Right there on the red carpet! Very much a shame and a faux pas. Fashion Police were going to have a field day with this one.
I loved when Thirsty allowed Andre and Elderly Kelly Rowland to finally leave the panic room… AT GUNPOINT. Like, relax, Thirsty. He’s had a busy few days, so I guess we can cut him some slack for passing out drunk outside the panic room door, but maybe waving a gun around during an unrelated emergency was a little gauche.
Jamal was whisked into surgery where he promptly lost consciousness (don’t worry guys, I am pretty sure Jamal will not be killed off of Empire), and the family gathered around the waiting room TVs to find out if they’d won an ASA award that night (which were tastefully and affordably announced during a press conference rather than onstage). The answer was no, none of them won any ASA awards. Was it the biggest tragedy of the night? Debatable.
Lucious was feeling very guilty for having told Jamal he should die of AIDS, especially now that Jamal might actually be dying. But Cookie refused to let him pout about it too much, informing him that his trash-brain was the product of growing up in hell or whatever. I think she was letting him off the hook too easily, but oh well. Family is family and all that.
The final cliffhanger was almost shockingly lame. The camera work and editing made it seem like something MAJOR was about to go down, but then it was basically just an old lady walking outside to talk to reporters and then saying nothing. Would she inform the world that she was Lucious’s mother and she was still alive? Would the world honestly give a sh*t AT ALL if she did? That was the bigger question.
“Rise by Sin” ultimately paid off at least one huge season-long tease: Freda’s discovery of Lucious’s transgressions. But much like the ASA awards themselves, it was not really worth the wait. Jamal was shot! But c’mon, he is not going anywhere. Lucious’s mother might talk to reporters! Snooze. This episode even sort of managed to make Cookie look kind of bad by having her support Lucious unwaveringly despite his awfulness. I don’t know, guys. Next week’s finale would have to be pretty incredible to redeem this season. I don’t think it’s possible, but I’ll still be there to see it. Will you?
What did YOU think of “Rise by Sin”?
Empire airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Fox.
