I confess, I am a new viewer of Empire. It was all the buzz last year, I know, but a gal only has so much time for guilty pleasures. I watched this season opener with optimism, given the good things I’ve heard from girlfriends. I was not disappointed by the spectacle. The sophomore drama is clearly feeling its oats after the smashing success of its first season.
The second season opener, “The Devils Are Here,” begins at an enormous “Free Lucious” concert. Let me explain a bit of this complicated backstory - Lucious is the patriarch of the family that owns Empire Records. He is currently serving time in a federal facility for murder. Cookie is his ex-wife and mother of their three sons. All of the sons have roles in the company. Like most families, they are a magnificent blend of multiple personalities. It’s what makes Thanksgiving so, um, interesting!
The company was started while Cookie was in prison on drug charges, the drug money was used to start Empire Records – a way out of the projects for the family. (An admirable goal except for the whole illegal aspect of it all.) Lucious divorced Cookie while she was in prison. Cookie is now attempting to take over the company and is hell-bent on getting revenge on her ex-husband for abandoning her in prison. You know, like your divorced girlfriends, without the prison part.
Back to the episode - the concert begins with an ape in a cage, then presto! the costume comes off and it’s revealed as Cookie. Cookie uses the ape in the cage to illustrate that in prison, black men are treated as animals, and goes on to rally the crowd for criminal justice reform. While Cookie speaks and the concert continues, images reminiscent of the Black Lives Matter movement fill the screen: signs proclaim “Officer, Don’t Shoot,” the camera pans to white police in riot gear, popular hashtag activism is represented by signs reading #FreeLucious, and a rap artist on stage sings “no justice, no peace” along with references to “hands up, don’t shoot.”
Bill Clinton is name checked (“He needs to be [here], if he wants his wife to get elected”), and we catch cameo appearances by the Rev. Al Sharpton, former Vogue American editor Andre Leon Talley, and CNN’s Don Lemon. During Lemon’s scene, Cookie makes a reference to his reporting from Ferguson, Mo., as well as his use of the n-word on television.
It’s the stuff for which cable news is known, all in a neat little scripted package:
-You see this crowd out here?
-Yeah, I see the crowd.
-They gonna have to give Dad a new bail hearing after this. Bill Clinton is out there.
-Yeah, he needs to be, if he wants his wife to get elected. Look, what you want, boy? I got stuff to do.
-I just felt... Felt bad and stupid for thinking that you could ever sell Dad out.
-I ain't no snitch.
-You need to go visit that man.
-Did y'all bother to tell him that to him that when I was rottin' away?
-All right, Ma.
Female stagehand: Mrs. Lyon, they're asking for you.
(Gorilla growling, grunting, hooting)
-How much longer? How much longer are they gonna treat us like animals? The American correctional system is built on the backs of our brothers, our fathers, and our sons. How much longer? It is a system that must be and will be dismantled, piece by piece, if we are to live up to those words that we recite with our hands on our hearts-- justice for all. Not justice for some. But justice for all! How much longer? Say it!
-How much longer? How much longer? How much longer? How much longer?
-Porsha, get me out of this thing. What's the head count?
-Uh, I don't know yet. Cookie, Andre needs to see you.
-Okay. Tell him I'll be there.
♪♪ I got my hands in the air Officer, don't shoot ♪♪ ♪♪ whoo! ♪♪ ♪♪ Told him I couldn't breathe, then he gave me the boot ♪♪ ♪♪ That's word♪♪ ♪♪ 'Cause they be giving the time but never gave me the loot ♪♪ ♪♪ Boss!♪♪ ♪♪ They got my back to the wall so what a brother gon' do... ♪♪
-I loved it, Cookie. I really loved it. Mass incarceration is such an important issue.
-I love you, Reverend Al Sharpton.
-Love you.
-Love you. Can you help me with Lucious?
-Lucious? Word in the street is he ain't right on this. I can't get involved in nothing wrong. He's not right...
-Thanks for coming, Al.
-Andre! Oh, my God, you made it. Miss Thing, what is this drag you have on?
-Tom Ford. Gucci. Last season. And you said Anna Wintour was coming.
-Shut up.
♪♪ Took a couple of L's, they say a try is a fail ♪♪ ♪♪ It's either put on a mask or throw the work on the scale ♪♪ ♪♪ Times done changed, but I can't even tell ♪♪ ♪♪ It's only two ways to go, it's gon' be freedom or jail... ♪♪
-Cookie?
-Uh, hold on. Excuse you.
-I want an interview with Cookie.
-No, I'm not feeling what you did out there in Peterson, so the short answer is no.
-Peterson? What are you talking about?
-It's Ferguson, brain-dead. I got this-- Don, I'm-a take care of you, but I have to look for my artists, okay?
-Thank you, Cookie.
-And you did good in Ferguson, brother.
-Thank you.
-He did all right.
-Yes, you did good.
-But he did mess up that "N" word...
The scenes are so familiar, you can be forgiven for thinking it's a real BLM event.
Later, in jail, Lucious is visited by the sexy new prosecutor and offered a deal if he pleads guilty. The prosecutor says with the help of Lucious, she can take down others in the industry, in order to clean it up. He scoffs and claims she just wants a political victory at the expense of hip-hop artists. Then he goes on to call her some of the worst things imaginable in the black community – a "Republican" and a "Clarence Thomas," aka an Uncle Tom.
-Vernon thinks that Bunkie's murder had to do with more than extortion. Plead guilty and then we can start talking about some of the other killers in your business. You help us take them down, I promise you won't die in here.
-So that's your campaign, huh? You're planning on running for attorney general, but as a Republican. And you think that being the black bitch in cheap shoes who took down hip-hop, that's your way to victory. Let me share something with you, Ms. Clarence Thomas. I don't care how many of us you lock behind bars. You ain't never gonna be nothing but a black bitch in cheap shoes to me.
-A black bitch in cheap shoes that'll jam them right up your yellow ass. Is that how you want it?
The cheap shots are predictable and overused. It is as though the writers go out of their way to beat a dead horse into the ground, painting police and prosecutors as the enemy.
But, outside of the social commentary, it’s a flashy bit of escape from reality, and that ain’t all bad.
