Empire: Out, Damned Spot
February 12, 2015 10:54 AM - Season 1, Episode 6 - Subscribe
Cookie fights to represent Elle (Courtney Love), who she idolized while she was in prison, but now that girl has gone downhill. She also shows up in impressive lingerie to a family dinner only to find out that Lucious and BooBooKitty are engaged. Jamal's song is blowing up, but that's leading to his relationship going downhill. Hakeem rages against all dem bitches. Vernon finds out that Lucious killed Bunkie and despite being pissed, arranges a coverup anyway. Lucious gets a dubious "concierge doctor" to get him dubious drugs from Russia.
Team Cookie: For the record, NOTHING about last week's assassination comes up this week. Huh?
Cookie arrives for what she thinks is going to be a romantic dinner with Lucious--she's shown trying on different dresses in her leopard-print bedroom. Finally she arrives in a giant fur coat only to find the entire family there and Anika bragging about her engagement and That Ring. So Cookie is all "so what was that about that rose, then?", opens her fur to show the AMAZING lingerie she has on underneath (yes, with the kids there), and tells everyone off, including slapping her own ass.
Cookie continues to be a natural at promoting Jamal, including approaching Malcolm-Jamal Warner and his awesome hair in da club to tweet about "Keep The Money" (a.k.a. "Dollar Dollar Bill."). MJW is so amused at Cookie and Porsha in da club that he does it.
Cookie has her work cut out for her with Elle Dallas, who used to be a leading Empire artist but now is wasted all the time. She begs to represent her to keep Elle from being cut, and does her best with her, but I'm not sure there's much you can do with a woman who's shredded her singing voice. Ouch, Courtney Love.
Team Michael: Cookie, who has Been There And Done That, warns La Cucaracha that once Jamal's career takes off, he won't have much time for Jamal any more and he better get a life of his own. Michael is all, "I'm in cooking school!" (since when?) which Cookie privately doesn't think is so great, but doesn't say to his face. After that, Michael gets a complex about how he's going to get dumped, which might be... reasonable.
Team Jamal: After the tweet heard round the universe, Jamal gets some satellite interview, and he also performs a lovely love song. Then he's asked about a special lady in his life, which is...awkward and hedging. Jamal just says he's single. Michael closes his laptop in disgust. I'm wondering when someone's going to ask Jamal about that giant equal sign tat on his arm.
Oh yeah, and SOMEHOW Jamal has a child with Raven-Symone, who shows up at the end of the episode. Whaaaaaaaaat?!?
Team Hakeem: I'm so sick of "Drip Drop" that when Lucious had an ALS attack while hearing the song, I thought the song brought it on. Hakeem is refusing calls from Tiana and not hearing back from "sidepiece" Camilla. He gets high and a little mopey-eyed and asks Jamal for help with a song, which Jamal blows off in disgust. (There's also the lovely line from Lucious about his golden boy's current tune that even he doesn't like: "It's really nice for some Girl Scouts.") Next thing you know, Hakeem's using his rage to sing about how all dem bitches suck. Use that pain, Hakeem! Cookie says, "It makes you look like a little bitch," but Anika defends it. Ugh, Anika.
Team Vernon/Andre: Vernon finds out Lucious killed Bunkie and is ticked the hell off and grumbling to his sponsor about kinda wanting to quit. He also chokes out Andre in a rage for always covering for his dad, even if Andre has no idea what Dad did. Vernon arranges for some other punk to take the fall for Bunkie, knowing that Lucious Owes Him Big Time For That One. Oh yeah, and it looks like those two are in cahoots.
Also, there's this amusing exchange between Vernon and Andre in the can:
"I apologize for choking you out. Team Andre."
"Wash your hands first!"
Team Lucious: On the one hand, Lucious is now publicly engaged and not going to jail for the minute. On the other hand, he's hired a "concierge doctor" to drug him with experimental ALS drugs from Russia. I' m sure that won't be a problem At All. Lucious also hires an excellent security consultant for his holey security, who is already attracted to Cookie and vice versa.
Team Cookie: For the record, NOTHING about last week's assassination comes up this week. Huh?
Cookie arrives for what she thinks is going to be a romantic dinner with Lucious--she's shown trying on different dresses in her leopard-print bedroom. Finally she arrives in a giant fur coat only to find the entire family there and Anika bragging about her engagement and That Ring. So Cookie is all "so what was that about that rose, then?", opens her fur to show the AMAZING lingerie she has on underneath (yes, with the kids there), and tells everyone off, including slapping her own ass.
Cookie continues to be a natural at promoting Jamal, including approaching Malcolm-Jamal Warner and his awesome hair in da club to tweet about "Keep The Money" (a.k.a. "Dollar Dollar Bill."). MJW is so amused at Cookie and Porsha in da club that he does it.
Cookie has her work cut out for her with Elle Dallas, who used to be a leading Empire artist but now is wasted all the time. She begs to represent her to keep Elle from being cut, and does her best with her, but I'm not sure there's much you can do with a woman who's shredded her singing voice. Ouch, Courtney Love.
Team Michael: Cookie, who has Been There And Done That, warns La Cucaracha that once Jamal's career takes off, he won't have much time for Jamal any more and he better get a life of his own. Michael is all, "I'm in cooking school!" (since when?) which Cookie privately doesn't think is so great, but doesn't say to his face. After that, Michael gets a complex about how he's going to get dumped, which might be... reasonable.
Team Jamal: After the tweet heard round the universe, Jamal gets some satellite interview, and he also performs a lovely love song. Then he's asked about a special lady in his life, which is...awkward and hedging. Jamal just says he's single. Michael closes his laptop in disgust. I'm wondering when someone's going to ask Jamal about that giant equal sign tat on his arm.
Oh yeah, and SOMEHOW Jamal has a child with Raven-Symone, who shows up at the end of the episode. Whaaaaaaaaat?!?
Team Hakeem: I'm so sick of "Drip Drop" that when Lucious had an ALS attack while hearing the song, I thought the song brought it on. Hakeem is refusing calls from Tiana and not hearing back from "sidepiece" Camilla. He gets high and a little mopey-eyed and asks Jamal for help with a song, which Jamal blows off in disgust. (There's also the lovely line from Lucious about his golden boy's current tune that even he doesn't like: "It's really nice for some Girl Scouts.") Next thing you know, Hakeem's using his rage to sing about how all dem bitches suck. Use that pain, Hakeem! Cookie says, "It makes you look like a little bitch," but Anika defends it. Ugh, Anika.
Team Vernon/Andre: Vernon finds out Lucious killed Bunkie and is ticked the hell off and grumbling to his sponsor about kinda wanting to quit. He also chokes out Andre in a rage for always covering for his dad, even if Andre has no idea what Dad did. Vernon arranges for some other punk to take the fall for Bunkie, knowing that Lucious Owes Him Big Time For That One. Oh yeah, and it looks like those two are in cahoots.
Also, there's this amusing exchange between Vernon and Andre in the can:
"I apologize for choking you out. Team Andre."
"Wash your hands first!"
Team Lucious: On the one hand, Lucious is now publicly engaged and not going to jail for the minute. On the other hand, he's hired a "concierge doctor" to drug him with experimental ALS drugs from Russia. I' m sure that won't be a problem At All. Lucious also hires an excellent security consultant for his holey security, who is already attracted to Cookie and vice versa.
Oooh, thanks you guys! This is really cool. There's a new article about Cookie up too.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:50 PM on February 13, 2015
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:50 PM on February 13, 2015
Just the one me so far! I'm sure that of the 12 million people watching this show, a couple more of them have got to be Mefites, I hope they show up soon.
Who do you think the anonymous source is in the Lucious article? The words "Cookie" and "anonymous" don't seem to go together for me, although it seems like something she might say. I'm wondering if it's supposed to be Vernon.
Thanks for the recap, I re-watched this episode the other day (the first time was on an exercise bike with a TV and the quality was lousy) and I was laughing when Lucious was watching "Drip Drop," remembering your line about how it probably brought on his attack. (God help me but I've got that song stuck in my head now.)
I've been thinking about Tiana getting caught with her girlfriend and what a thoughtless move it was. I'm wondering if it was calculated too, though? She knows Hakeem has a girlfriend, and if I was her I wouldn't place any great faith in his ability to keep that secret, so in a week, a month, who knows when, that news will be out there and she'll be cast as the betrayed girlfriend. Maybe she'd rather be the bad girl than the wronged girl and keep the upper hand and the media attention that way. I'm probably overthinking it, but hey, that's what Metafilter is for...
I hope they bring back Becky next week, isn't she supposed to be shadowing Lucious?
posted by shirobara at 2:07 PM on February 15, 2015
Who do you think the anonymous source is in the Lucious article? The words "Cookie" and "anonymous" don't seem to go together for me, although it seems like something she might say. I'm wondering if it's supposed to be Vernon.
Thanks for the recap, I re-watched this episode the other day (the first time was on an exercise bike with a TV and the quality was lousy) and I was laughing when Lucious was watching "Drip Drop," remembering your line about how it probably brought on his attack. (God help me but I've got that song stuck in my head now.)
I've been thinking about Tiana getting caught with her girlfriend and what a thoughtless move it was. I'm wondering if it was calculated too, though? She knows Hakeem has a girlfriend, and if I was her I wouldn't place any great faith in his ability to keep that secret, so in a week, a month, who knows when, that news will be out there and she'll be cast as the betrayed girlfriend. Maybe she'd rather be the bad girl than the wronged girl and keep the upper hand and the media attention that way. I'm probably overthinking it, but hey, that's what Metafilter is for...
I hope they bring back Becky next week, isn't she supposed to be shadowing Lucious?
posted by shirobara at 2:07 PM on February 15, 2015
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That engagement party was an amazing scene, but the more I think about it the more it seems really dark. Lucious knows Cookie and Anika are both smart women, and he's known Cookie long enough to know he can't flirt with her one night then declare his devotion to someone else the next night without comment. I think he invited her knowing that she'd make a scene because he gets off on having the two of them fighting over him, and because he feels confident enough in his own magnetism and power that he thinks he can keep the triangle going indefinitely. Cookie and Anika can both do better than such a manipulative guy who hasn't been loyal to either of them. (New security guy? Yes please)
Now, have you read the articles on Welcome To The Lyon's Den? I think they add an interesting angle to what we know about the characters, particularly for Jamal, Andre and Rhonda.
For one thing, I didn't realize that Jamal already released an album ten years ago, so while we're all Team Jamal out here, in-universe being Team Jamal means being Team Privileged Son Who Whiffed A Great Opportunity and Noodled Around For A Decade. The line in the article about how critics thought the album didn't deliver "his most authentic self," paired with the show's theme of great music only being created through painful honesty and vulnerability, makes me think that Jamal will only be successful enough to inherit the throne once he comes out and navigates all of the conflict that will bring.
Then there's the article about the golden couple. I'm interested in them because of their private lives, so I like to see what's being presented as their public lives. No mention, of course, of Andre's mental illness, the playfully manipulative sex life they share or their plotting. It's also interesting that Rhonda comes from what seems to be a pretty humble background, too. I like them as a couple, they seem really solid together.
posted by shirobara at 7:33 AM on February 13, 2015