The Empire Season 1 Episode 1 Full Episode

[Marquez Feliciano]

Theopening section of the episode was very nicely handled; I liked the repetition of the mealtime scenes and the differences in attitudes to the saying of grace. It was a handy slice of forced formality which established the different ways the characters responded to having to behave nicely.

The Sopranos was the master and forefather of this kind of approach, taking time out from the season story arc to dedicate entire episodes to elaborate dream sequences, or, as in the legendary Pine Barrens episode, whisking two characters away from their normal surroundings to present us with a the equivalent of a Waiting For Godot-esque, two-man existential play. Mad Men and Breaking Bad, two of the most acclaimed dramas of recent years, have also done similar things to fantastic effect

In turn, shit hits the fan real quick. Freda grabs the gun off a security guard in a hastily planned act of revenge and makes to shoot at Lucious. Jamal steps in the way and is shot. Big props to Bryshere Y. Gray, Taraji P. Henson, Jussie Smollett and Terrence Howard who absolutely nailed the heartbreaking scene. Credit where credit is due.

Besides the fact that Jamal and Lucious were on hostile terms for a few episodes now, after Lucious caught Jamal and D-Major (who is still in the closet) getting hot and heavy, he flat out tells Jamal, with tears in his eyes, that he will celebrate the day Jamal contracts AIDS and dies.

Brooke Pawling Stennett is a college student pursuing a degree in Multimedia Journalism and Creative Non-Fiction in the old Windy City. She tends to lean toward the obsessive side of the tracks when it comes to books and music. She's an avid concert attendee (or at least she tries to!) and rambler. She'd like to travel the world and write about it, but in the only ways she knows how: sarcastically and full of internet jargon. Her opinions are her best ones, especially if they involve boy-bands and Netflix. . .even though she doesn't even have her own account. You can tweet her at @br_stennett and tell her how ridiculous (and totally great!) her opinions are.

In the end, more of the drama comes from the other Lyons, as Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) tries to keep Damon Cross (Wood Harris) from telling Lucious (Terrence Howard) about their history together, and Andre tries to make Jamal and Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) accept Kingsley (A.Z. Kelsey) as their brother.

Smollett was written out of the last two episodes of Season 5 after he was accused by Chicago police of orchestrating a staged assault against himself earlier this year. He was initially charged with 16 felony counts related to filing a false police report, but the charges were later dropped. His fate with the series, which has yet to be renewed for a sixth season at Fox, is still unclear.

Empire was never a show that was short on drama, but the Fox series' finale managed to get two episodes worth of action into one. After production was forced to close in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the decision was made to bring together what had already been filmed for the third- and second-to-last episodes of the series and turn it into the last episode. Though cast and crew are holding out hope that they will one day shoot a real finale for the series, for now fans are left with Season 6, Episode 18, as the end of Empire.

This reunion began at the start of the episode where they team up in their business lives to fire Pamplemousse employees Kelly (Pej Vahdat) and Giselle (Nicole Ari Parker) to regain control of the Lyon family music empire.

He is out of the hospital and plans to become a missionary in South America until his brother Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) persuades him to stay and build a relationship with his son. He agrees to stay and do this, but Fox viewers did not see him reunite with Walker, presumably because those scenes remain unfilmed.

Flashbacks throughout the episode seem to suggest that despite their many flaws, Lucious and Cookie are meant to be together. However, in order to allow that to happen, the show first had to get rid of Lucious' young musical protege Yana (Kiandra Richardson). In typical Empire style, the series finale did this by killing her off.

Yana realizes that Lucious' heart is still with Cookie and the pair break-up in amicable terms with a friendly hug. However, Yana's father Damon (Wood Harris) sees this hug and sees it as a sign that Lucious has been lying to him and is sleeping with his daughter.

After this shooting, Lucious tries to cancel the premiere of Hakeem's movie over safety fears, but the Lyons won't let him. This causes Lucious to act first and break into Damon's home. The pair fight and Damon nearly manages to kill his enemy before Lucious detaches his own prosthetic leg and uses it to kill Damon.

With the threat extinguished, the show ends with the family (except Jussie Smollett's character Jamal) settling down for a screening of Birth of an Empire, in what is (for now) the last ever scene of the Fox show.

What a long, strange trip it's been. The chief complaint about this odd season of Boardwalk Empire has been its wandering. The journey has been uncertain both for the series and the characters within. There have been some absolutely fantastic small moments throughout, but on the whole, the series has had trouble defining itself this year. Making the choice it did to end the second season -- putting Nucky in the position of going Full Gangster -- has been difficult on viewers who appreciated the parts of the show that were more than a shoot-em-up. But "Two Impostors" handled the balance exceptionally well, culling down other stories to focus back on Nucky. Whether or not it's too late remains to be seen. Hit the jump for why, with all due respect Mr. Custer, this ain't no time for a last stand.

What angered me so intensely last week was that Boardwalk finally split in to two separate personalities. If you enjoyed last week, I'm guessing you weren't a huge fan of this week. The comments seemed pretty split -- those who believed the show had lost its way, and those who thought I was completely crazy for going on about it as I did. Friends debated it the same way, and I realized that Season Three's extreme unevenness finally drew a line in the sand. There are the languid, character-driven side-bar plots, and then there's the action. The two haven't mixed well. Until, perhaps, now.

Season Three has had trouble finding itself ever since Jimmy's demise, and the villanization of Nucky (besides his usual gangster role) has made me think that Owen's death was about more than just showing the violence of the world or sending a message. It's about how everything Nucky touches turns to shit, yes, but also that there can't be anyone who takes Nucky's place as an audience favorite. Nucky is the protagonist, we're supposed to root for him, but this season has made that all but impossible. By eliminating Owen, who often stole his scenes with Nucky (and indeed stole Nucky's place with Margaret), Nucky was able to have a redemptive episode that almost made him likable again. Almost.

"Two Impostors" was a great episode though, and suspenseful throughout. Nucky was left with the only people in the world he still has to rely upon -- Eddie, his faithful servant who he has taken for granted forever, and Chalky, who he alienated last week and in the past as well. Not exactly a rousing group. But Chalky still has plenty to offer Nucky, for the right price, and more Chalky is never a bad thing.

Nucky's moment in the back of Chalky's truck was the first time I've seen the man really feel in a long time. He felt fully the weight of the bodies he's put into harm's way, and the extent of his fall and possibly soon demise (it won't play out like that, which is good or bad depending on your personal feelings towards him). It brought Nucky back into the sympathetic fold before Eli, White Knight, rode in with Capone and the Chicago guns, ready to war with Masseria. It was necessary for Nucky to fall further before the war escalated in his favor, but I still don't believe he fell far enough.

Still, "Two Impostors" has set up one hell of a season finale where both sides (the cold and the emotional) will be wrapped up together in what looks like a whirlwind finish to this strange set of episodes. While Nucky's war has its most important battles on the horizon, Richard Harrow, the show's only remaining hope for happiness this year, sets out to do some damage of his own. What and to whom is debatable (I know what I would like to happen, anyway. Sidebar: I'm essentially hoping he shoots Gillian in the face. Yes, I who wrote of excessive violence last week. But that at least would have a point to the story. With Gyp, we already know he's a psycho, how much more spelling out do we friggin' need? If Harrow killed Gillian, which I doubt will happen, it would have so much emotional fallout and meaning it would be warranted).

This week's episode was mostly a set up to the finale, but it still had plenty to recommend it. Eli saving the day was fantastic, as was Capone's sudden appearance. The Chicago story has been very remote from the rest of the action, but now it has finally come together in a way that makes sense. Lucky Luciano, out on his own getting arrested, felt less certain. His story is important, historically, regarding the Masseria War, but probably not until (possibly) later seasons. As such, for now it feels like little more than a shoehorned plot point, even though it was interesting on its own.

But back to Nucky -- while Atlantic City and New York have turned their backs on him, Chicago comes to the rescue. The war will be brutal and bodies will stack up. Hopefully one of them will be Gyp's. But anyone who vies for attention other than Nucky better watch their back if they start getting screen time ... their episodes could be few (looking and you, Richard, may you live long and prosper).

This week's episode of Empire is an emotional doozy. Now we know why the Empire writers spent so much time developing the story behind Kai and Jamal's steamy relationship. And, we get to meet an artist, Devon (Mario) who brings out the real heart in Cookie and Lucious. We still don't know who's in the casket foreshadowed in episodes past, but now we do know a few things for certain. Here then are the major truths and accompanying ten-second synopsis of the "Love All, Trust A Few" episode which aired on Oct. 17, 2018. For those who want more detail, simply skip down for the blow-by-blow of the entire episode.

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