The guilty pleasure that is the Fox television series “Empire” certainly did not disappoint yesterday with it’s second run around the track. In the mad style of a truly great Hip Hop Opera, just when you’re thinking that they couldn’t possibly take it any further than going “there,” they go and show you that what you thought was “there” was just another bump in a much crazier and much more scandalous road trip. To that end, with a big spoiler alert warning, here were some of our favorite knocks in that episode 12, season 2 road:
- Jamal (Jussie Smollett) and Becky (Gabourey Sidibe) getting surrounded and read broadway theater style by male members of the gay community for Jamal’s flip flopping on the sexual tip with Skye Summers (Alicia Keys). This scene not only demonstrated great choreography and the best use of multicolored flip flops ever as a prop to deliver shade, but you had to love the lyrical rearrangement of Hakeem Lyon’s (Bryshere Y. Gray) hit “Drip Drop.” Poor Becky did her best to tell them that it wasn’t even Jamal’s song, but it was just too bad of a sneak attack burn to begin with. Ouch, b####… just ouch.
- Hakeem remaking the Empire Logo in his own image. Hakeem performs the penultimate Hip Hop song about power and then he figuratively drops the mike by unveiling his unique and artistic coup de grace on the Empire logo to the shell shocked reactions of Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), Andre (Trai Byers) and Jamal. Let’s not even start on how big daddy Lucious (Terrence Howard) will react when he gets the time to really savor this piece of work.
- Tiana’s (Serayah) number “I Just Came In Here To Dance”. Skin tight, barely there sparkly body suits, and all of that shaking and popping from Tiana and her all girl army gives even our lady Beyonce a good run for her money. Can you say “All The Single Ladies?” A lot of folks could after seeing this.
- Jamal letting it slip to the press that Lucious Lyon’s real name is anything but Lucious Lyon. Sometimes the worst cuts come from those who know us best. Be good to your kids or suffer that grassroots homegrown fury. Enough said.
- The all hands on deck machiavellian demise of Camilla Marks (Naomi Campbell) and Mimi Whiteman (Marisa Tomei). When it comes to all business Empire, the family that slays together stays together… or at least keeps it’s business firmly within the family bloodline. Mimi and Camila were slick, but they just had no chance when it came to the Slick Rick capabilities of the Lyon family. With Rhonda Lyon (Kaitlin Doubleday) getting in close to Camilla through Camilla’s fashion line at the behest of Cookie, Jamal and Andre, and then Hakeem sending a sex tape of himself and Camilla to Camilla’s jealous and ailing wife Mimi Whiteman, the stage was set for a simple business takeover, game, set and match. However, when Camilla then kills Mimi to regain the upper hand and is caught red handed by Lucious Lyon, who more than understands the cause and effect knee jerk reactions of power hungry people like himself and Ms. Marks, it’s only a little shove to get Camilla to kill herself rather than face jail coupled with complete and utter financial ruin.
“Empire” can be seen Wednesday nights at 9/8c on Fox.