“The Devils Are Here”: ‘Empire’ – Season 2, Episode 1

Empire is back—with a vengeance. The second season of Fox’s breakout hit series returned last night, and the premiere wasted no time delivering on all the melodrama promised by the show’s impressive first season. When we left them last, the Lyon family was in the midst of a characteristic shake-up of power and allegiance: Jamal (Jussie Smollett) was named heir to the Empire throne; Lucious (Terrence Howard) was arrested for murder; and in an unlikely alliance, Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), Anika (Grace Gealey), Andre (Trai Byers), and Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) were poised to launch a hostile takeover of the company.

Season 2 opens just a few months later. Lucious has been in prison for three months waiting for a bail hearing. In his absence, Jamal has been running the company, much to his own detriment, with his music career taking a backseat to the demands of being CEO. He hasn’t been in the studio in months, and his album is slipping in the charts without a tour to support it. More than that, the job has started to change his personality. The sensitive and proud musician seems to have hardened, becoming a shrewd and somewhat cruel businessman fashioned in Lucious’s likeness. “You’re becoming your father,” Cookie tearfully accuses him at one point.

If Jamal’s character has changed in the second season, everyone else is exactly who they always were. Lucious is as inscrutable as ever, playing the Machiavellian arch-villain one minute and the benevolent, protective patriarch the next. Andre and Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday) are still TV’s creepiest couple, and Hakeem remains Empire’s spoiled but charming boy king. It’s great to see the premiere giving more space for Gabourey Sidibe to really shine as Becky, who serves as one of the only voices of reason in Empire’s fantastic world. I hope that she keeps her prominence throughout Season 2, as last season’s relatively slim part seemed a waste of Sidibe’s exceptional talent.

But let’s be honest—of all the stars in the Empire firmament, Cookie shines the brightest. This episode is no exception, as we’re treated to Taraji P. Henson playing the range of her character to absolute perfection. It’s difficult to imagine another show that could open with its heroine in a gorilla suit and close with her tearful rejection without devolving into a complete farce, and no doubt Empire’s ability to sustain both comedic highs and emotional lows is made possible by Henson’s ability to play her character just a shade shy of unbelievable.

That fine line between what is believable and what is ludicrous is where Empire lives, though, and one of the show’s greatest feats is convincing its audience that the Empire universe is the one in which we live. Partly this is because its main characters are amalgamations of the pop icons that dominate our own cultural lives, but it’s also because the show makes such clever use of contemporary events and celebrities cameos to ground its fictions in our reality. The season premiere is the best instance of this yet, as it opens with a benefit concert (complete with hashtag #FreeLucious, which has since gone viral among the show’s fans) meant to bring awareness to Lucious’ imprisonment and the larger social realities of mass incarceration.

While a parade of celebrity cameos, from the Reverend Al Sharpton to CNN news anchor Don Lemon, bring a dose of levity to the show’s opening, Cookie’s rousing speech about racial injustice in America points beyond the frame of the show to the current political moment. Situating the premiere of such a hugely popular show within timely conversations about racial justice sends a strong message to the American mainstream: consumption of popular Black cultural products cannot be separated from the political needs of the Black community. There is no retreating from the reality of anti-blackness into mindless entertainment—at least not here.

If you’ve seen the premiere then you’ve likely noted my omission of the show’s most exciting (and, in my opinion, surprising) cameo. We are finally shown Frank Gathers, the incredibly dangerous criminal against whom Cookie testified in Season 1. His introduction is one of the most pleasurable moments in the episode, and so I won’t spoil that experience for anyone still needing to catch up. Let me just say that this particular celebrity cameo makes me think that Lee Daniels and company have some big tricks up their sleeve in the coming weeks. If the premiere is any indication, we can look forward to the usual Empire fare: sexual intrigue, LGBTQ issues, fabulous wardrobe, slick pop tunes and rap hits, and — of course — a seemingly endless succession of double and triple crossings. Anything goes in the Empire universe, and I expect that in Season 2, everything will.