Last night’s Empire Season 2 Episode 8 was not the most over the top installment – last week set the new high water mark there – but it had its moments.
Hakeem battled Freda in a rap throwdown for the ages, but that was merely the subplot for so many broader developments across the Lyon landscape …
Perhaps the biggest bombshell is that Anika is knocked up … by Hakeem! Rather than staging a scandalous reveal, however, there is no reveal.
Rather, she spends the bulk of Empire Season 2 Episode 8 trying to tell him, only to be rebuffed, and told that “he’s in love” with his protege Laura!
It was an interesting night for Hakeem overall, as he continued to voice his disapproval of Laz, leading to a shoving match between the two dudes.
One that ends with Cookie slapping Laz and instructing him never to lay a hand on her sons. Romance is one thing, but this mom looks out for #1.
As for dad, he did not go Full Lucious Lyon like he has at some points this season, although he was pretty adamant to get the Slipstream deal done.
He’s also passionate about his protege Freda, to the point where he’s calling out his own son in public (a great PR maneuver if ever there were one).
Yet when he finds out Cookie and Jamal are secretly working together on the track that Pepsi wants Jamal to record, he seems only mildly annoyed.
When Jamal suggests his parents combine efforts for this one project, he’s mostly alright with it. For one reason or another, Lucious went soft here.
Perhaps he just felt he had the other hand and humored her as the stakes were high; Cookie and Lucious wagered on who would win the battle.
If Hakeem won, Lyon Dynasty would release Jamal’s album, while if Freda won, Empire gets Hakeem back. The rap battle lived up to its billing, too.
You’ll have to watch Empire online to truly appreciate it, but Hakeem was declared the winner and again, Lucious sort of rolled with it fairly calmly.
What’s his endgame? No one knows, but Hakeem says he’s dropping the Lyon from his name. Just Hakeem. We’ll see how dad feels about that.
Finally, the cliffhanger found Anika in disguised as a car driver taking Laura home. Do we have another abduction on our hands? Until next week …
