Empire season 2, episode 15, “More Than Kin,” showed us some redeemable and not so redeemable moments from the Lyon family. Read on for our top five moments!
Where do I begin? “More Than Kin” turned out to be more than just a filler episode. With only two episodes left after this until the season finale, we’re on the home stretch. Instead of doing an in-depth step-by-step review, I decided to pick my five favorite moments.
There were quite a few to choose from so if one of yours didn’t make my list, feel free to let me know what yours was in the comments!
1) Andre the spokesperson
When Cookie decides to put on a huge event to show a united front between every member of the Lyon Family, Andre comes up with a brilliant idea to tie in the fundraiser with The National Alliance of Bipolar Disorder.
Andre thinks it’s time he finally goes public about having the disorder and becoming the spokesperson for the fundraiser. Cookie was hesitant on the idea but then realized it would make Lucious look like “more of a hero.” Lucious and hero do not deserve to go in the same sentence.
In the end, Andre was unable to make his speech at the fundraiser, the reason listed at #4 below.
2)Lara slapping Hakeem
Hakeem is all in a funk about not being CEO anymore. He put on a “pop-up” show in a strip club with strippers and his friends in attendance. Chicken (Hakeem’s friend) tells him that Lara’s been blowing up his phone, but he doesn’t care.
Lara then storms in saying there are videos everywhere of this pop-up performance and fans are blowing her up on social media. She tells Hakeem that if he’s feeling down then he needs to come to her and let her know. He then drops the bomb that Anika is pregnant with his child and Lara slaps him.
In Hakeem’s defense he did tell her that it happened before he and Lara got together, but Hakeem’s delivery of the information deserved a good slap in the face.
Hakeem and Lara had their ups and downs this episode, engaged, not engaged, and engaged again. Who knew Lucious would be the one to call Lara and let her know what a respectable man Hakeem was being by caring for Anika after her panic attack.
3) Jamal and Michael’s mini-date
Everyone deserves a second chance, right? I did think that Jamal dropped Michael really quickly after that… mishap at the house. I couldn’t help but smile just seeing them together. Could this be a new start for them?
Let’s be real, though. The real reason this made my list was because of that amazing performance by Jussie Smollett and Negrito of “Lost in a Crowd.” I watched it three times before moving on with the episode. Can we get more of these? And we did when they performed “Good Enough” at the end of the episode! Purely amazing.
Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
4) Harper’s bomb
Harper was dissed and dismissed after playing cat and mouse with Lucious these last couple of episodes. She was supposed to do a huge profile article on Lucious in her magazine and Lucious told her he’d give her an “exclusive.”
I’m not sure if exclusive means the same to them as it does to me, but during that exclusive they started to get down with the “demons” or whatever Lucious was talking about in there. Cookie started blowing up his phone and that pissed Harper off, which completely turned Lucious off as well.
Cookie gets Lucious a front page profile deal with another publisher, which infuriated Harper. She left Lucious at the fundraiser and walked straight up to Andre. She handed him an envelope with photos. Photos of Leah Walker, his not-so-dead grandmother.
Andre was just about to make his presentation at the fundraiser but had to step out instead. I get that she was trying to get back at Lucious, but damn! To Andre? This poor kid can’t catch a break!
5) Co-CEOs
After all the work the Lyon family put in to get Lucious back on the throne, the shareholders decided to have Cookie and Lucious be CO-CEOs! YES! The only better move would have been to make Cookie the only CEO, but I’ll take what I can get.
While Cookie was hesitant at first — only because she wasn’t sure how Lucious would react — she was completely okay with it once he gave his okay. Cookie, girl. You gotta fight for your rights! Come on, you deserve it. You’ve been able to hold this family together even after being in prison for decades. You got this!
Well, I hope she’s got this. Did you all see the look on Lucious’ face when he was hugging her? Creepy AF.