‘Empire’ season 2, episode 8 review: Anika’s surprise; Hakeem and Freda’s rap battle

Through most of “Empire” season 2, one of our major concerns has been how in the world the show can keep things fresh. Tonight, we feel that they accomplished that with what may be our favorite episode of the season, stuffed full of content and powerful character moments.

Let’s start with what may be the biggest emotional dagger to Lucious: Hakeem completely destroying his protegee Freda, and then proclaiming in grand fashion that he was dropping “Lyon” from his last name. This brought us yet another traumatic flashback to his past. Clearly, the man is struggling with his identity. He’s at the top, but what does it mean? Is he really influencing anyone? He can at least take a little bit of credit for the fact that he and Cookie actually worked together on a song for Pepsi with Jamal, one that they want to take! This may be one of the biggest victories for Jamal on the show yet.

What Hakeem didn’t realize during his rap battle is that he and Anika may be having a baby together! She’s pregnant, but after hearing about his feelings for someone else she didn’t go through with telling him. With everyone going on with him this was a quiet episode for Andre, and other than a chilly ending we didn’t exactly know what to make with Cookie this time around save for the Jamal stuff. She seems to have some sisterly drama coming with Candace’s arrival.

Maybe what made this episode better than other recent ones is that to us, most of the music actually supplemented the story, and we got some great performances across the board. We sense Lucious’ struggle, and we’re at a place where it is easier to celebrate Jamal’s joy. Grade: B+.

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