
âSinned Againstâ continues the stunt-casting trend that has become such a distraction in Empireâs second season, but one of the episodeâs guest stars comes across more like synergy than a stunt. Alicia Keys joins the cast in the role of Skye Summers, a character formed in the singerâs own image, with the same penchant for playing piano while screaming like she burned her neck with a hot comb and stepped barefoot on a Lego at the exact same moment. By the second performance of âPowerful,â Skyeâs duet with Jamal, the logo had started to peel itself off my television. Not that I can blame it, because if Keys was that ear-splitting from the couch, it must have been like a My Bloody Valentine show that close to the screen. But in a way, Keys and her jet-engine belting work because Empire is essentially Alicia Keys as a television show. Itâs attractive, seems cool, and is teeming with potential, but the volume is always cranked up to 13, which drowns all the nuance. This show is on fire, but the kind that requires evacuation.
Empire continues to offer glimpses of the much better all-gas-no-brakes nighttime soap it could be. âSinned Againstâ has some of those glimpses, but they are mostly obscured by sloppy storytelling, inscrutable characterization, and the achievement of a new level of a camp for a show that already prides itself on excess. The sloppiness stars from the very beginning of the episode, when we learn that the well-executed cliffhanger from âMy Bad Partsâ yielded exactly nothing. Anika apparently dropped Laura off at home without incident, then, considering the wig was already paid for, did a bit of reconnaissance and discovered that Laura is living in poverty with her large family. Scandal! Listen: Anika is a stupid person, like extremely stupid. But I had no idea she was stupid enough to think this was the right play. It remains unclear why working her way back into the Lyon fold is important to Anika to begin with, but Rhonda mentioned Luciousâ excitement over their new baby, so why is Anika trying to reinvent the wheel? Why resort to pettiness and class warfare when youâre already armed with natureâs strongest leverage?
Letâs hit pause on Anika and turn to Cookie, who had an incredibly busy few days between driving to Philadelphia with Candace to track down the drug-addled Carol, keeping the trains running with Cookieâs Cookout, and learning the ugly truth about Laz. Iâm still not even sure what Cookieâs Cookout is and what it entailsâis Mirage A Trois, like, the headliner?âso the less said the better. Cookie and Candaceâs Philadelphia trip works better than anything else in the episode, mostly because of the performances by Taraji P. Henson, Tasha Smith, and Vivica A. Fox. They play off each other well and feel like actual people in those scenes. Rosie OâDonnell, one of the episodeâs random celebrity guests, fares better than any recognizable guest star this season as Pepper, a woman Cookie knew on the inside. Empire always becomes effective and emotional the instant Cookie mentions her prison stint, and this is no exception. Still, the Philadelphia trip feels like a totally aimless excursion for a season that already feels so thin. It gives Cookie a few nice character moments, particularly when she apologizes to Carol for getting her involved in the dangerous world she chose. But besides that, what was it all for?
Granted, thereâs the whole bit where Candace mentions a transgression from Carolâs past that would destroy Carolâs relationship with Cookie were it revealed. But while thatâs a wonderful and classically soapy choice, Empire simply canât be trusted with nice things. The reveal of the bull tattoo on Lazâs back, for example, was a brief moment of competence, but then nothing came of it. Laz staved off his crew, whose leader apparently goes by Big Heavy, then was revealed as a double agent to Cookie in a totally dissatisfying way. After briefly meeting Laz and expressing his disapproval, Lucious looks into Lazâs background and discovers his involvement with the gang responsible for kidnapping Hakeem. Cookie then asks Laz if he has the distinctive bull tattoo on his back and tears off his shirt to check. Now as I recall, Cookie and Laz have had a lot of sex. In fact, there was a honeymoon montage in which they were shown having sex all day, only stopping for food and to check email. Cookieâs never seen the enormous tattoo on his back? She has to ask him if itâs there, and sheâs shocked to find that it is? Just why, Empire? All of this is in service of a moment meant to imply that Lucious killed Laz, but this is the show that would have had Chris Rock gnawing a human calf if the visionless bean counters hadnât stepped in. Empire doesnât do subtle, and it would be stupid to assume an implied off-screen death means anything at all. The scene is not only the latest in Empireâs parade of anti-climaxes, it takes away Cookieâs agency and gives Lucious yet another opportunity to rescue her.
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More than that, the reveal of Lazâs tattoo makes Cookie look like an idiot. And nothing Iâve seen about Cookie prior to now suggests that sheâs an idiot. I could see a story where Cookie starts having her suspicions about Laz but ignores them against her better judgment because her emotions are involved or the sex is too good. But for Cookie to be completely blindsided based on her failure to notice a tattoo that spans a third of the guyâs back, thatâs something that happens to a stupid person. Thatâs something that happens to Anika. But maybe Anika isnât stupid anymore. Maybe now Anikaâs thing is being Hollywood crazy, complete with a collage of clippings that sheâs scrawled all over as if sheâs the serial killer in some 1993 thriller starring Jennifer Jason Leigh. Never mind that she was supposed to be a competent, sought after record executive all of 17 minutes ago. Now Anika is psychotic, and to the extent she was willing to ignore her malicious impulses, hereâs her new best friend Rhonda, who comes just shy of saying âYou should kill Laura so you can have Hakeem, because I owe my fabulous life to committing a violent act against a would-be female interloper.â
Almost no character on Empire is written consistently. Cookieâs stupid when it serves the story, or Anikaâs crazy-pants, or Lucious has a weakness for babies. I still canât make heads or tails of how Andre went from being the spitting image of Luciousâ suicidal mother to being the most valuable Lyon heir. Sure, thereâs the matter of Vernonâs exhumation, which somehow cleared Lucious of all the charges against him and restored his trust in Andre. And perhaps Lucious is feeling vulnerable after watching Hakeem publicly disown him, though itâs a pretty reasonable response considering Lucious sicced Freda on him in the hopes of embarrassing him and ruining his career. But I need Empire to stop with this âLucious is baby crazyâ nonsense. He was excited about Lola, but not so excited that weâve seen a glimpse of her or heard her name mentioned before Rhonda needed to make a point, and letâs not forget that Lola is Luciousâ biological child. Not to mention that Andre tried to play the grandson card while Lucious was still locked up, and not only did Lucious refuse the bait, he took offense to Andreâs attempt to manipulate him. But that was back when flashbacks of Luciousâ mother were a thing, but those arenât important now, and Lucious canât stop cooing into Rhondaâs pregnant belly. This is not a version of Lucious that weâve seen before, and I donât mind making the guy a doting grandfather, but I do mind how sloppily this show spackles its holes.
Jamal is now the only character who has been written with some kind of consistency, but thatâs probably because he doesnât really have a storyline anymore. Heâs no longer the head of the label and is working full time on his album, which is now titled The Black And White Album, which Iâd like to think is a callback to the Michael Jackson-lite alleyway routine he did in season one. The Michael and Chase One triangle seemed like it was supposed to go somewhere, then vanished almost immediately. Now itâs all about Jamalâs kiss with Skye, which is about as sexy as a timeshare presentation. I canât figure out why this was the âcliffhangerâ before the winter finale. Itâs not like Jamal hasnât been with a woman before, or like heâs cheating on Michael, or like Skye would be unaware of his sexuality, so what exactly is the point of this story? And when will I be able to start talking about Empire instead of just asking questions about it?
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Stray observations
- Empire has always flirted with camp, but the Lee Daniels cameo takes it way over the edge. That entire scene took me out of a show Iâm never completely into to begin with. I just donât know who that was for other than Daniels himself. It did nothing to help the scene or the story.
- Jussie Smollett is starting to irk me a little, which is something I never thought Iâd say. I donât know if itâs the performance or the character but the Jamal and Skye scenes was interminable.
- That âPowerfulâ song isnât good.
- What happened to the William Fichtner character Jamal was supposed to be working with? Has that just vanished too?
- Also Iâm going to assume Anika doesnât know how to use the internet, because she didnât have to give Laura a ride home to find out her address.
- Iâm still shocked that this was the penultimate episode of the year. I canât believe how tepid this season is.
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