‘Empire’ season 2, episode 11 review: Hakeem makes his move; does he take Lucious down?

Lucious Lyon has long been considered the king of the jungle on “Empire“; however, what he may be starting to realize at this point is that the tides are clearly turning in many big ways.

Professionally, he’s lost his company, and to make matters worse he realized that Hakeen, the same person who took away control of Empire from him thanks to one simple vote, is now angling to be in charge there after Mimi gave control over to Camilla. You know that this is is going to be chaotic, and it already was when Lucious challenged him and tried to even convince him to fire a bullet in his direction. That didn’t happen; instead, Lucious warned him that he would be coming after him if he was to ever seen him alive again.

In getting back to Lucious’ other problems, there is also the struggle to keep his face in the spotlight while bearing witness to Jamal’s rise. Jamal is also going to struggle with that in his own right, but since this is Lucious’ story first and foremost in our mind, he’s going to have to find ways to contend with this. Ironically one of the people now most firmly in his corner is Cookie, who has had more bad blood with him than almost anyone.

Elsewhere tonight, we learned the truth that Rhonda had lost her baby, and that this could cause both her and Andre to struggle in some other ways. She has seemingly renounced her fate, and we got a sense that her attacker was sporting a red heel. Obviously, Anika is a candidate, but who else could it be? Nothing ever seems to be that obvious when it comes to this show.

Overall, we’d say that this midseason premiere is a step up from some others we’ve seen over time. While not perfect across the board, it focused in on precisely what “Empire” is about: The Lyon family more so than any supporting character or musical number. That’s worthy of some praise. Grade: B+.

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