Tuesday, December 06, 2016

My Review of Empire's 3x07: "What We May Be"


Written by Diane Ademu-John & Malcom Spellman
Directed by Kevin Bray

Cookie: "My daddy was my life until I met Lucious."

Ah, more Cookie backstory and yes, that is a good thing. I like that the show hasn't been obvious about the dynamic between Cookie and her father in the flashbacks so far and this episode added another facet to it as we went back to when she was thrown out of her home for getting involved with Lucious.

Okay, maybe that bit is a tad predictable but anyone hoping for a reason as to why Cookie, Candace and Carol all have difficulty getting along with each other for any lengthy period of time will probably be satisfied with this episode as we saw the fallout of Cookie being estranged from her father and the way it managed to tie into some present day stuff too.

Jamal in particular used some old movies from Cookie's childhood for his visual and when the latter freaked out, Jamal went to Carol to get some answers. Meanwhile Cookie herself went to Candace so she could slightly posh herself up in a bid to impress Angelo's mother. The first attempt saw Cookie miss out on a fundraiser. The second attempt was a dinner disaster.

Having Jamal showing up high, Hakeem with a screaming Bella, Andre skipping the whole thing altogether along with Lucious and Anika making themselves at home. However while Diana came across a bit of an ice queen, she was nowhere near as horrible to Cookie as I expected her to be, though there's still time for that I guess.

As for the rest of the episode, it seems that you've got DMajor and Philip as both love interests for Jamal and both of them with opposing attitudes towards Jamal's drug use as well. Right now, I guess Philip would be the better choice for Jamal romantically but the sooner this storyline concludes and Jamal really does get his shit back together.

Meanwhile, the episode seemed to further Andre's attraction with Nessa as he chose her event over Cookie's while at the same time managing to reach out to Freda. The latter I'm glad he did even though it seems like he's falling into Shyne's ongoing machinations against the Lyons though. Other that, I'm more than fine to see Nessa and Freda make more music together.

- Tiana seems to be giving Cookie the cold shoulder this week and Becky/Thirsty's scheming on Xavier took a backseat too.
- It looks like next week's episode has remembered Leah.
- Standout music: Nessa/Freda's Heart Of Stone and Jamal's Mama.
- Chronology: Not long from where Chimes Of Midnight left off.

A strong enough episode. I liked that What We May Be filled in some more gaps with Cookie's past and the music numbers were definitely some of the strongest we've had this season too. I do want Jamal's plot to wrap up though.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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