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'Empire' Season 2, Episode 1: 'Devils Are Here' Recap

Noah Camarena |
September 24, 2015 | 6:07 p.m. PDT

Taraji P. Henson in "Empire" (Fox)
Taraji P. Henson in "Empire" (Fox)
“Empire” returned for season two with the same scheming drama and music from the first season that made it a breakout hit. The first episode of the season reminded the audience just how twisted the Lyon family is.

The episode started with Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) throwing a huge #FreeLucious concert just three months after Lucious (Terrence Howard) was thrown in jail for the murder of his friend Bunky. Cookie and the boys throw the concert to publicize Lucious’ wrongful imprisonment; he has not even been given a bail hearing.

The concert is definitely a good move by Cookie to keep the company relevant, but she has other plans in mind as well.

READ MORE: Emmys 2015: 8 Best Jokes Of The Night

As Cookie continues to try and complete a successful hostile takeover of Empire from Lucious, she invites potential investor Mimi Whiteman (Marisa Tomei) to the concert as she tries to impress her. Little does Cookie know, back in prison, Lucious is able to watch the concert and he gets suspicious when he sees Cookie getting very friendly with the mystery investor.

Lucious (being himself) is the king of the jail in the span of only three months, but that quickly changes when a familiar foe arrives.

Back when Lucious and Cookie were pushing drugs, they dealt with a man named Frank Gathers. Gathers is the same guy who Cookie ended up ratting out for a murder.

Frank Gathers (Chris Rock) arrives to the same jail as Lucious and the two decide they have no beef and go their separate ways.

This episode also gives the audience a look into how Jamal (Jussie Smollett) is running the company now that his father is behind bars. He has trouble dealing with simple tasks and is easily frustrated, mostly by his younger brother Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) who is still mad at everyone because his father is a murderer and did not choose him to run the company. Jamal is also trying to deal with the fact that his album did not debut as well as he would have liked and that the job has limited the time he can spend writing new music.

READ MORE: 'Empire' Season One Recap

Cookie continues to woo Mimi by throwing her a lavish party where the hostile takeover crew works together to impress her. Andre (Trai Byers) tries to speak business and Anika (Grace Gealey) is used mostly as a pawn because Mimi finds her attractive and Cookie forces Anika to dance and then sleep with Mimi.

Shortly after the party, Cookie reveals that Mimi is willing to invest in the company and help them overthrow Lucious. Cookie, Andre, Hakeem and Anika burst into a board meeting hosted by Jamal to announce the news. To their surprise, Mimi is already in the board meeting because she made a deal with Lucious after she met with him in jail. This not only keeps Lucious in charge of the company, but it also shows Jamal that his family was working behind his back to take the company from him.

To add to their problems, Cookie finds out that Gathers is after her and her family. Gathers found out that it was Cookie who snitched on him and he is out for the kill.

Cookie, understandably worried, meets with Lucious for the first time and tells him that he has to take care of it for the family.

Lucious meets with Gathers and they reconfim that they have no problems with one another, but Gathers says that Cookie must die. Lucious will not let that happen and now that Gathers sees a conflict between himself and Lucious, Gathers tells the other inmates to kill Lucious. To his surprise, the inmates no longer listen to him. Lucious helped them all with their financial troubles and they now listen to his orders. Lucious tells them to kill Gathers to solve the problem.

Cookie had sent her family to Lucious’ home for safety and she goes to retrieve them and tell them the good news. Once she tells them that they are safe, Jamal kicks the family out for betraying him. Cookie feels as if Jamal just does not understand the situation but he will not listen to her and she slaps him not once, but twice. The family leaves the house and Jamal slams the door in tears, probably because he is starting to see a lot of his father in himself.

Watch “Empire” Wednesdays at 9 on Fox.

Reach Staff Reporter Noah Camarena here. Follow him on Twitter here.



 

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