Empire 2×11, “Death Will Have His Day” started off right where we last left the Lyon Family.
The mid-season finale left us with so many questions just before the 2015 holiday season. What happened to Rhonda? Who pushed her? How’s the baby? How the hell could Hakeem pick Camilla over his family, no matter how much of a dirt bag his father is? Is Jamal gay? Or nah? Let’s dive into “Death Will Have His Day.”
Rhonda’s alive!
Okay, so I had a feeling that Rhonda would survive the fall and the Lyon heir would be the one to… well, not survive. It was so heartbreaking to see Andre’s freakout moment in the hospital. Also just as heartbreaking to hear Rhonda’s speech about there being no God.
She must have hit her head really hard to not remember being pushed down those stairs! And when Anika came by and said “Everything happens for a reason.” Girl. Stop. Just stop. Right there. That is the last thing I needed to hear from her mouth.
Thank goodness Rhonda had a look of recollection on her face as if she remembered she was pushed just as she was sitting on those same stairs. She better remember she was pushed, or remember Anika’s smell being there or something.
Camilla
At the start of the episode we see Camilla kick Lucious out of his own office, well I guess it isn’t necessarily his anymore. When Lucious and Camilla were face to face I could feel the tension, and knowing there were guns in the room, anything could have happened. Fortunately — and unfortunately — Becky comes in to give Lucious the news about Rhonda.
Camilla flawlessly eased her way right into Hakeem’s arms by telling him she can make him CEO of Empire. The one ultimatum she had for him was she wanted him to get rid of Lara. He confesses that he “thinks” he’s in love with her. I’ll get into this more later.
When Cookie confronts Camilla and Hakeem she tries to persuade Camilla to have Empire buy Lyon Dynasty for $20 million. Camilla tells her, “This company is not going be run like gangsters anymore. The answer is no.” Hmm how long do you think that lasted?
Jamal had the brilliant idea to bring to Camilla and Hakeem’s attention — after Hakeem was made CEO (siiiiigh) — the fact that Lyon Dynasty could release Jamal’s new album and not Empire. That would look terrible for a newly crowned CEO to lose his biggest star.
Against Camilla’s consent, Hakeem decided to add Lyon Dynasty to Empire and allow Cookie to have full autonomy with Lyon Dynasty under Empire as well as being head of Artists and Repertoire. Just like that Cookie got what she wanted. Boom.
Cookie – 1, Camilla – 0
Hakeem and Lara
After Camilla tells Hakeem to dump Lara he oh so quickly gets drunk and decides to barge into Lara’s group rehearsal. He tells her she’s being lazy and when she goes to leave he says, “I knew your lil’ virgin ass was gonna dip anyway.” Hold up. What? I admit I had to rewind that part because I had to make sure I heard it correctly. Yes, he said that. But thinking about it now, he obviously just wanted her to break up with him instead of the other way around.
That in NO way makes right what he said. But this is a drama so nasty things like this get said all too often. What makes it so unfortunate is that once Hakeem becomes CEO he goes to Lara’s house to apologize. She way too quickly accepts his apology and then does what she really shouldn’t do. She lets Hakeem take that virginity that he earlier threw in her face. Lara, whyyy?? It seems like she only complies after he promises to her that they’ll still be together after they sleep together.
I’m so over this.
But can we take a second to listen to Jamila Velazquez’s song “Crown” above? It’s pretty amazing.
Favorite moments
— Cookie beating Hakeem with the broom and her purse. Hands down best momemt.
— Camilla being called “Yoko.”
— Jamal’s sexual fluidity speech and his new song, “Freedom.”
