This finale had me feeling like I was watching General Hospital or Young & the Restless on a Friday! #CliffhangerFriday #HalfBrothers #MarryingtheOtherWoman And it was a whopping 38% down in viewers between the ages of 18-49 as compared to Season 1's finale!
So here's what happened...Jamal is back home after 3 weeks, but informs his family he's done singing until they can end this cycle of violence and incarceration. Not even Hakeem wanting him to sing at his and Laura's wedding (with Dre officiating) could change his mind! But when Lucious goes to visit Freda behind bars (denying having anything to do with her father's murder) and gets her to record a song for Jamal, the song inspires Jamal to get back to the music. So he gets to work on a song for the wedding. D-major is with him as he works with the other singers on the song, and notes he tried to visit him while he was in the hospital but Lucious wouldn't let him go in.
Meanwhile, Anika goes to tell Lucious that the Feds questioned her and asked about someone named Shyne. Recall Shyne is part of the reason Lucious ended up murdering Bunkie. He knows some things the Lyons need him to keep to himself, so later in the episode Cookie meets with him to discuss why it's in everyone's interest for him not to talk to the Feds. He agrees on the condition Empire signs his nephew and he gets an invite to Hakeem's wedding. Later, at a dinner with Lucious, Cookie, Hakeem, Laura, and her parents, her father is less than pleased that Shyne will be attending.
Back to Anika telling Lucious and Cookie about the Feds, while she's in there Dre and Rhonda walk in. Dre here's the name Shyne and repeats it as if he's familiar with the name, but before he can say anything else Rhonda attacks Anika for pushing her down the stairs. But no one believes her, and they side with Anika who says Rhonda is crazy for thinking she would do that. Rhonda tries to get Dre to tell the family about his visions, but he plays it off and apologizes for Rhonda. And when they are outside the office he tells her his visions were part of his illness. Despite Dre no longer believing his vision, Rhonda tells him she expects him to do for her what she did with him with Vernon. But Dre clarifies that was self defense, and she ends up going to stay with a friend for a while in L.A. Though she does return for the wedding.
O...and there's a scene shortly after Anika reveals the Feds questioned her that Hakeem has to grab Cookie and Lucious, because Anika is sitting on the ledge preparing to jump all because she doesn't want to have to testify against Lucious. Cookie ends up being the one to talk her down by telling her she's carrying her grandson so she'll never be alone, and that she's a Lyon now like she always wanted. And Anika actually confirmed that's what she's always wanted to be. This is exactly why I never really liked her character. I just don't get why she's so dead set on becoming a Lyon.
Now at the wedding...actually, first let me mention that Lucious and Cookie had another one of those moments where Lucious tells her he can't do anything without her. This time adding that's why he never married anyone else.
Ok...so at the wedding...Shyne comes in making a scene being loud and with a couple of prostitutes on his arm. Which made the other 2 men who are a part of what Cookie deemed the "Circle of Silence" ready to leave. But Cookie and Lucious pull them into a separate room, to explain they needed to get Shyne on all of their good sides to make sure he didn't talk to the Feds jeopardizing all of their lives. So they agree to stay. Now as Laura was preparing to walk down the aisle, Anika is served papers to testify at a grand jury hearing! The server runs down the aisle to get out, and they yell for someone to stop her. In the commotion Shyne got involved and a fight ensued just as Laura and her parents walked in to begin going down the aisle! That was the last straw, and despite Hakeem saying he had it under the control, Laura said she can't live this life and could not marry him!!! Poor Hakeem.
But the family had even more pressing concerns! Anika has been subpoenaed to testify against Lucious. Thirsty confirms that the only way to prevent it is for Lucious and Anika to get married. Cookie was immediately hurt by the idea and didn't want it to happen. Lucious told her it's just paper and he needs her to be his ride or die on this one. She turned to her sons, tears falling down her face, and tells them that they know she loves them but she just can't do it. And she storms out.
And then Lucious marries his ex-fiance/mother of his future grandson. Which as someone pointed out, and I already thought of, would make him the unborn child's father and grandfather. Since they would be married when the baby is born. Jamal sees this as yet another continuation of the cycle he wants to end in the family. But anywho...after Dre marries his father and brother's baby mother, he tells his father he can kiss the bride. Though Anika seems to think she would at least get a peck on the lips, Lucious kisses her on the cheek. As they walk down the aisle (after Lucious and then Thirsty yell for Jamal to sing), Lucious tells Anika he knows she pushed Rhonda down the stairs. And Anika says she needs a minute and runs off to the side.
Everyone else, Lucious, Jamal, Hakeem, Dre, Thirsty, and Lucious' mother, Leah, are walking out the venue when they are stopped by Tariq. Let's take a moment to talk about what Leah has shared with the family in this episode up to this point. She shared that all of this is happening to the family, because Lucious' father was a criminal. Lucious told her not to talk about it and confirmed to his son that his father was a cop. She reveals to the boys that Lucious saw his father get murdered. O and if you were wondering about the end of the last episode, Lucious makes a comment in this episode that Thirsty got to Leah before she could reveal to the press she was Lucious' mother. Anywho...so throughout the episode we see flashbacks of Lucious seeing his father get murdered. Well when Tariq walks up to them, Leah asks Lucious what his half-brother is doing there!! Tariq then calls Lucious Dwight, and Lucious has a flashback to the night his father was murdered. Lucious' father had him hiding, and he asks the man if he wants to go down for shooting a cop (so indeed he was cop). He also brings up the man's son, to which the guy tells Lucious' father that he's the boy's father and that now that boy and Lucious won't have a father!! Then he kills him.
Tariq seems to know they are half-brothers, but soon realizes Lucious may not have known (though his flashback shows Lucious knew he had a half brother). Tariq goes on to say their father was a good cop but a bad man, and that they each got a part of him (implying Lucious got the bad man part, which Lucious' mother also suggested earlier in the episode going so far as to say one if not all of the boys have it in them too!). Lucious responds by saying his name is Lucious (not Dwight) and he has no family. Then he says let's go and tells Dre to go get his wife (Anika), as he and the rest of them walk past Tariq to leave.
Anika is outside on some type of bridge, when Rhonda comes out and attacks her again. The two fight over the edge, and when Rhonda tells Anika she wanted her child to be the only Lyon's heir, Anika confirms (thereby also admitting to pushing Rhonda down the stairs to kill Rhonda's unborn child). The fight continues, and Dre walks out and sees them fighting. He let's out a yell as we hear what sounds like at least one of them falling over the edge, but of course they don't show us who! I think it sounded like Rhonda, but them bringing Vernon back up makes me feel it may have been Anika and the two will have to cover up another murder together.
Now you see why it gave me the soap opera feel.
Until next season Empire!