Cookie and Lucious may have parted ways, but they will be in each other’s lives forever.
The divorce papers were signed on Empire Season 6 Episode 11, and it played out as amicably as you would expect, given that the series has been trading in high drama for ridiculous storytelling.
Tracy’s plan to take out Lucious in a murder-suicide was out there, even for Empire, but it was over too soon. Leaving us hanging over a cliff for three months only to resolve the cliffhanger in the first act of the midseason premiere sucked all the fun out of it.
The only positive is that it didn’t drive Cookie and Lucious together. Instead, it set off a ripple effect that forced Cookie to confront something she thought she would never have to.
Killing Carol’s lover in cold blood might have successfully introduced another contender in the tired mystery of who kills Cookie and Lucious, but it destroyed years of character development for Cookie.
Killing someone who is defenseless, or killing someone at all, is not in Cookie’s skillset. Those types of calls came from Lucious, but there has to be a point in their relationship in which she felt the need to carry out a slaying.
There’s more to the story, but based on the way Carol said the person who killed him was a coward, it certainly seemed like her sister knew the truth.
Mine is going to be the last voice you ever hear.
Tracy
It’s a bit of a stretch to pit Cookie’s sisters against her all over again, but it seems the producers want to drum home that the past always comes back to haunt you.
I’m not buying Kingsley taking over Andre’s body whenever he feels like it. It means that Andre could kill his parents while under the influence of his long lost half-brother.
Empire Season 6 has continued to show more suspects than answers, bringing multiple characters back for small arcs. Murder mysteries work better when everyone fits into the story naturally.
Empire is struggling to craft a compelling storyline because the writing is simply not what it once was. Empire Season 5 managed to breathe new life into the series, but it appears the series is going to limp to the finish line.
Andre has done some horrible things over the years, but there is a good man in there somewhere. With Kingsley calling the shots, he’s going to find himself in trouble.
The final scene with Andre staring at his family as they danced certainly threw Andre into the suspect pool, but whether he will be under the influence of Kingsley, we don’t know.
Kingsley is not going to be good for Terri. He will continue to threaten her life if Andre steps out of line. It’s like a storyline ripped directly from Days of Our Lives, and it’s a real drag.
Even Hakeem is getting minimal screen time because of all these plots that are not going anywhere. I know Bryshere Y. Gray was scaling back his duties during the first half of Empire Season 6, but we’re on to the second half, and his plot has been worthless.
Doctor: Is he here now?
Kingsley: Tell Doc I like that color on him.
Hakeem is in the upcoming movie based on the early years of Lucious, but do we really need his sole plot away from that to focus on his relationship with Tiana?
They’re like Lucious and Cookie the sheer number of times they split up and get back together.
There’s no depth to the relationship, and the blame falls on the way the writers have treated the characters.
The best-written character right now is Yana, someone who is new to the show this season. Unlike every other character on the show, Yana doesn’t want to make money by turning to a life of crime.
The way she cut off her father when she understood what he did for a living was iconic. She didn’t care about losingluxuries because she wanted to carve her own path, which involved supporting herself.
Turning to Lucious for help was not her best move, but it allowed her to get into meetings she didn’t think would exist.
Lucious is never going to change, and I hope that Cookie’s claims about that allow Yana to understand and move on.
“Can’t Truss ‘Em” was Empire at its worst. You would think with ten episodes left, we would have been treated to a midseason return that lived up to the hype.
But it seems the only way to enjoy Empire these days is to go in with zero expectations. As someone who has been an Empire Fanatic since day one, it’s difficult to care about the direction the show is traveling.
This could harken back to the Jussie Smollett of it all. The writers were forced into an unimaginable situation when they had to write him off the series.
Maybe if the scandal didn’t occur, the show would still be watchable.
What are your thoughts on Cookie’s murderous past? Do you think Carol kills her? What do you think will become of Andre?
Hit the comments!
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Empire airs Tuesdays on FOX at 9/8c.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.