Empire‘s mid-season 2 finale aired earlier this week leaving us with a few twists and forcing us to anticipate the back half of the season in 2016.
Showrunner Ilene Chaiken spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about Empire’s mid-season 2 finale and what we can look forward to in the upcoming year.
The mid-season 2 finale was titled, “Et Tu, Brute?” which is a Latin term translating to, “Even you, Brutus?” from the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. They were the last words Julius Caesar said and they were to his friend Marcus Brutus at the moment of his assassination. The term is commonly used to signify the utmost betrayal by someone close to you.
Doesn’t that sum up what Hakeem did to Lucious — and pretty much the entire family altogether — quite nicely? We thought so too.
Here are a few things we can look forward to based on Chaiken’s interview.
Lucious and Jamal’s relationship
On Lucious’ jealousy going up against Jamal in the song of the year category Chaiken says, “This clearly is going to put a big strain on that relationship. I think it would have been foolish ever to assume that that relationship would continue unchallenged.”
This makes sense to us because even though Lucious seemed to soften a bit with Jamal he hasn’t completely transformed. We were shown a glimpse of that when Lucious found out about Jamal and Skye’s kiss. When Lucious said, “She fixed you” to Jamal we all knew that there was more work to be done on Lucious’ part in their father-son relationship.
Rhonda and Andre’s relationship and unborn child
We were all devastated when Anika someone pushed Rhonda down the stairs in her new home while she was pregnant with her and Andre’s first child. We are still unsure if she or the baby will survive. But if Rhonda does survive what will happen with her relationship with Andre?
“Rhonda and Andre figuring out whether this was an accident, a cruel twist of fate, whether it was something that God meant to happen or that somebody did to them for some other nefarious reason is going to be a very big story for us.” Chaiken doesn’t give us much to work with, but if Rhonda does survive, and regardless of whether the baby does or not, it’ll definitely be a tough situation for everyone.
Camilla’s return and Lucious’ fall
Lucious is no angel, we all know that. We also know that Empire is his number one child. Hakeem taking that from him is probably the most devastating thing that’s ever happened to him.
Chaiken’s comments on this are, “Lucious has two sides: he can travel in the most elite circles and go to the White House and rub shoulders with other billionaires, but he also comes from the roughest and meanest [place]. I would venture that that’s a side of Lucious that’s going to come a little bit closer to the surface in light of these events.”
When we discovered that Mimi was married to Camilla we were all taken aback. Once it sunk in we immediately knew this was bad news for Lucious and that it’d be great television. “It was delicious in all the ways that we hope Empire is delicious. It was also one of the harshest things Lucious did in season one, and it felt like it deserved a comeback,” said Chaiken. And a deserved comeback it certainly was.
2016 is approaching fast and we can’t wait to see what happens to the Lyon family and its Empire.
