Empire season 4 episode 2 preview: Terrence Howard’s Lucious looks ahead

When Empire season 4 episode 2 airs on Fox October 4, one of the big questions at the heart of the story is simple. How can Lucious Lyon start to plan ahead the next phase of his life when he doesn’t quite remember the part from his past? The character is stuck now in what is a near-constant paradox of now knowing enough to be satisfied but knowing enough for the sake of his sanity. If he was to find out more, just imagine the sort of pain and frustration that it would cause him. It’s understanding that you are a terrible person, but not being able to find the correlation between that person and yourself.

This upcoming episode entitled “Full Circle” will feature Terrence Howard’s often-terrifying character going through that, and there are some other problems that he is going to encounter, as well — including Lucious taking off and running into a longtime family friend.

Empire season 4 episode 2 synopsis – “With Leah still insisting that he is a monster, Lucious sneaks away in hopes of finding out what type of person he was before the explosion. Cookie panics that Lucious has gone missing on Claudia’s watch, until she realizes he found his way to Uncle Eddie (guest star Forest Whitaker), a music icon who has since become family to the Lyons. Meanwhile, with Anika still behind bars, Hakeem and Tiana grow more comfortable as a family, and Becky makes a rash decision regarding Jamal’s new song.”

The appearance of Whitaker is the part of this that leaves us the most excited. It’s one thing to get a big-name guest star to stop by, but it’s something different altogether when this big-name guest is one of the most accomplished people in their craft out there. All signs point towards him bringing a lot to the table during his time with Howard and the rest of the cast.

Here’s one other interesting tidbit regarding this episode: It’s the 50th one for the show! We know that nobody really celebrates this milestone as much as they do 100th episodes, and in general there is going to be a challenge for the show to get there just because it has naturally shorter runs than the majority of the other broadcast series that are out there. It should be happy to make it this far given that many shows in this era do not.

As for the promo below … this gives you a pretty good sense of some of the events that are coming all season, and that includes Lucious struggling to find himself.

What do you want to see moving into Empire season 4 episode 2? Be sure to share some of your initial thoughts and hopes below!

Meanwhile, take a look now at the link here in the event you do want to score some additional insight when it comes to the series’ future. Also, visit our CarterMatt Facebook for more TV updates! (Photo: Fox.)