‘Empire’ season 2, episode 3 review: Lucious causes chaos with Pitbull, Cookie, Hakeem

“Empire” ended last week with the potential release of Lucious Lyon from prison, and did you really think that he was going to waste that much time after being released before he started causing trouble? That is just not the dude’s way. He’s got a chance to cause some mayhem outside of the walls, and also get back at some who he felt abandoned him.

Take, for example, his latest scheme against Cookie Lyon. Clearly, he did not enjoy her and Hakeem trying to put together a girl group for the new Lyon Dynasty label. So what did he do instead? Give their lead singer Valentina a record deal of her own, and then purchase the radio show that was going to be introducing the group to the world in the first place. Serious burn. Cookie is a determined woman, and she claims that this is far from over … which we are fairly inclined to believe. This is Cookie, after all. She does tend to make good on some of what she plans.

Lucious was in true obnoxious form all episode, especially since it included throwing a party for himself that included a performance by Pitbull. Hooray guest stars! Meh.

The episode ended with Jamal and Lucious getting at least close on the same page again, and while there were many fun moments over the course of the hour (that dinner scene in particular was priceless), there is still a question we are wondering to ourselves: How much really happened in “Fires of Heaven” that we are going to remember? One-liners and power-jostling aside, we feel like the biggest thing that happened is just re-establishing equilibrium, and keeping the feud between the opposing sides of the family together. Grade: B-.

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