Empire Season Finale Review: Die But Once / Sins of the Father

That awkward moment when you groom your sons to be like you and it works too well.

Last night’s double-episode season finale of Empire “Die But Once” and “Sins of the Father” changed everything and really left us hanging. Spoilers ahead.

Part 1 – “Die But Once”

“Cookie Lyon presents The Lucious Lyon Sound” is quickly approaching and Lucious is trying to write an epic song for it. He sees the concert as his last, and wants to leave the world with one final hit before he dies. The pressure is getting to him, though, and he’s got writer’s block. The best moment in this scene is when he snaps at Becky and she tells him “you use your inside voice when you talk to Becky.” Awesome.

Lucious doesn’t know it yet, but one by one, he is losing his family. The empire is crumbling.

But it’s also thriving. Snoop Dog (or isn’t his name Snoop Lion now? Is it Snoop Lyon? Was this planned??) shows up! He’s joined Empire! He performs!

During his performance, Snoop calls Hakeem on stage. Hakeem takes this opportunity to call out his dad and announce that he’s leaving Empire. One down, three to go.

Next up is Cookie. Lucious still has writer’s block and he needs Cookie’s help. Unfortunately, Cookie is off on a romantic getaway with Malcolm at some snowy cabin. The only real notable thing about this little rendezvous is that now Lucious isn’t the only man Cookie has ever been with.

When Lucious finds out about this little trip, he kicks Cookie out of the building and the company. Bad move, Lucious. Cookie promises revenge, and we know her word is good. “You gonna need Cookie” she tells him. Duh. Everyone needs Cookie. (Side note, Malcolm invites Cookie to move with him to D.C., but she turns him down. Empire is hers and she’s going to fight for it).

Next to turn his back on his father is Andre, who resigns from the company to focus on his relationship with God.

With no one left to turn to, Lucious has to try to mend things with Jamal. Surprisingly, Jamal says he’s ready to deal with Lucious, because he’s not ready to give up on Empire. His new album has just dropped and it’s getting major accolades. A magazine calls him the future of Empire. Lucious agrees, as long as Jamal can prove that he’s got “that monster inside.” To help Lucious get rid of his writer’s block, Jamal takes him back to their old home and pushes him by questioning his talent. In return, Lucious questions Jamal’s hardness and the two end of having quite the little jam session. As a final step to prove himself equipped to take over Empire, Lucious tasks Jamal with getting his masters back from Baretti (who has served Lucious with an injunction).

Jamal takes this task seriously and hangs Baretti over a balcony. This is a major turning point as up until now, Jamal has stayed out of the fray of his family’s, um, unconventional business practices.

I feel like this should make me love Jamal less, but it kinda doesn’t. I guess I’m still buying into the Lucious Lyon charm.

Lucious sees Jamal doing this and lets him. Moments later, he walks in on Hakeem and Anika!! This totally shocked me! I thought we were done with Anika!

But that’s nothing in comparison to the final bombshell of part 1.

It seems that Lucious has been having problems with double vision. An astute nurse notes that this isn’t typically a symptom of ALS. It turns out the doctor was wrong. Lucious doesn’t have ALS, he has MG (a much less serious chronic illness that is highly treatable).

Lucious isn’t dying!

Lucious isn’t dying.

You guys…

Seeing himself as a man who has risen from the ashes, Lucious goes to Andre’s church to ask him to stand with him when he rings the bell when they go public. There Lucious meets Michelle (Jennifer Hudson) and hears her sing. He realizes that she’s what’s keeping Andre focused on religion and says to him “let’s see who’s more powerful, God or your daddy.” Lucious does this by asking her to make a gospel album with him. She obviously accepts. I know Lucious is terrible, but he’s just so good at being terrible.

At the end of part 1, Lucious takes some sleeping pills and starts hallucinating that he’s talking to Bunky. Cookie overhears him and realizes that he killed Bunky. Lucious tells Bunky’s ghost that this isn’t his farewell concert, it’s his comeback. He’s a phoenix. He’s the messiah. Cookie disagrees. “It’s over” she whispers in his ear.

Part 2 – “Sins of the Father”

Part two opens with Lucious giving each of his boys a chicly wrapped gift. He tells them that he’s not dying and that he has a second chance at life. He’s aware (he says) of the harm he’s done and is ready to make things right. Each gift speaks to the issue he’s had with the recipient. He gives Hakeem wings to show that he is now free from being controlled, he gives Andre a cross to show he supports his new found faith, and he gives Jamal a gold lion’s head staff (where does one procure these things on such short notice, I wonder). He also gives Jamal Empire Records.

Jamal, of course, is on board, but everyone else isn’t so sure. Is Lucious for real? Has he really changed? I know I shouldn’t trust him, but I really, really want to.

Jamal goes to Lucious to try to get Cookie back into the company (poor Jamal just wants both of his parents to like him at one time), but Lucious tells him that she tried to kill him, and then plays survalence video of Cookie almost suffocating him in his sleep. Cookie tries to explain that she was upset because Lucious may have killed Bunky. Poor Jamal doesn’t know what to think anymore.

Then the Feds are back and they want Cookie to give them details about Bunky. Even though she’s furious with Lucious, she doesn’t tell them what she heard. Cookie is the best.

Meanwhile, Anika is trying to get Hakeem to come to the dark side. Except this time, the dark side isn’t Creedmore Records (or hooking up with her), it’s a hostile takeover of Empire. Luckily Hakeem has read Machiavelli, so he’s on board.

At a press conference across town, Lucious is announcing that Jamal is VP when an Empire artist, Black Rambo, interrupts to announce that he’s not going to be on a label that has a gay VP. Lucious seems to really have had a shift in his attitude, because he defends Jamal and lets Black Rambo go. Later, in a totally fantastic move, Jamal rap battles (sing battles? he didn’t really rap) Black Rambo. The crowd goes wild. God, I love Jamal. (Irrelevant question: can sing battles become a thing? I’d like to see famous singers battling each other. That would be great TV).

Desperate for a way back into the industry, Cookie goes to Hakeem to ask him to start a label with her. But Hakeem can do her one better. He lets her in on the hostile takeover plan.

Speaking of, when Rhonda announces that she is leaving Andre because he emotionally cheated with Michelle (which he totally did, by the way. Their relationship is weird) he decides he wants to be a part of the hostile takeover. Andre and Anika propose bringing in a wealthy man who is fantastic at hostile takeovers (what a thing to be known for!). He’s only got one catch. His grandson gets to be a rapper (obviously, his grandson is not actually good at rapping), but the team takes the deal. He tells them that the best way to get the board to go for a hostile takeover is to catch Lucious in a scandal. That shouldn’t be too difficult.

And then things start getting really crazy.

Vernon goes to make amends with Andre, but they get into a fight instead. Rhonda walks in on Vernon seemingly trying to kill Andre and she hits him over the head with a candlestick. Oops. He’s dead. Andre and Rhonda almost call the police, but then Rhonda announces that she’s pregnant. They can’t afford to go to jail now. So instead of calling the police, they head to the NYSE to meet up with Lucious and Jamal to ring the bell and make Empire officially a public traded company.

The best part of this being a season finale? We get lots of performances. First (at the after party) Jamal and Hakeem take the stage. Next up, Michelle performs in a dress that doesn’t, like, scream gospel singer. She’s also not singing a gospel song, so I guess she just wants to be famous now. Either way, all of the performances are pretty fantastic.

Backstage, Lucious and Jamal have probably the most moving conversation of the entire season. Lucious tells Jamal that his real name is Dwight and that he changed it to sound tough. No one knows this. Not even Cookie. He tells Jamal that he loves him, and that his bigotry was motivated by his fear that he would have a hard life. It’s pretty touching, and I feel like maybe Jamal and Lucious can have a good relationship after all. Maybe Lucious really is a good person somewhere under there (I know. I’m delusional).

But you know Season 1 of Empire isn’t going to end like that.

Just as it’s getting really sweet, the cops show up and arrest Lucious for the murder of Bunky. He thinks Cookie turned him in, but she swears she didn’t. Lucious asks Jamal to perform his new song for him. It’s nice to see Jamal finally feeling like he’s connected with his father, but it’s also sad to see him hardening himself against Cookie. I just want everyone to love each other! Jamal performs for Lucious and he, of course, rocks it. Can Jamal be a real musician? He’s so talented.

Oh and Pattie Labelle joins him on stage. She’s pretty talented too.

As Lucious is being taken away to jail, he sees Andre and Hakeem watching and realizes what really happened. The cops also realize that they lost their star witness (Vernon), so it’s unclear if Lucious will actually stay in jail.

The season ends with Lucious in full lion form, behind bars. He promises that he will return.

“Game time, bitches” he says to the screen.

You guys. How am I supposed to wait to see what happens next? Will Lucious ever be able to have a relationship with Hakeem and Andre again? Will Jamal find out that Cookie isn’t to blame for Lucious getting arrested? Will the hostile take over work? I love that this season ended on such a big cliffhanger. I can’t wait for season two. I just don’t know what I’m going to do until then.

Here’s a gratuitous Cookie in a fabulous dress photo to help tide us over:

I’m not even going to pretend like these episodes deserve less than five stars. Empire is the best show on TV.

What did you think of the Season 1 finale of Empire? Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Empire returns this Fall on FOX.