The Lyons were always going to get back Empire.They will overcome every hurdle in their path and come out bigger and stronger.Everyone knew that.
Lee Daniels and his team are very extreme in their protection of the Lyons and prior to season 5,they had done a remarkable job of keeping us enthralled through the watch to an inevitable outcome.Always.
Eddie Barker dies early on but that doesn't mean the end of their troubles.We were going to have to endure a long wait before the Lyon clan got back what was theirs.But then in as much as the intention to make the protagonists suffer a little was meant to be a reinvigorating touch,some really blue portrayal of the Lyons; particularly Lucious doesn't make that count much.America's number one music family was made to look too ordinary.
In the desperation to depict Lucious and Cookie as having hit rock bottom,we are told an otherwise shrewd music mogul blew through his entire fortune in trying to get back his company and also that a highly revered Lucious Lyon had to beg to get an artiste played on radio.We didn't need that extra push to feel sorry for the Lyons.They always had our unalloyed support.
'Two years later' didn't feel like two years only because it was an ineffectual attempt at justifying the pathetic state of the Lyons.
Kingsley's public disclosure of Lucious being his father rounded up the fall episodes and in the Kingsley character lied a potential the producers could have better utilized.A little more intrigue and drama woven round he being a Lyon would have added some lustre and served as a viable sub-plot to the Lyons fighting him for Empire.
The 2nd lap was much better than the fall episodes.Despite what was for a large part,an unexciting ride through,the Lyons eventually got their company back after a few scenes in episode 10.But that aside,Wood Harris played a much enhanced role as Damon Cross and that as well as the added twist of the FBI trying to get key members of the Empire family to implicate him provided a more robust watch.
The Teri-Andre relationship was quite deservingly the centre-stage romance of Season 5 despite Jamal and Kai making up and getting married.Though looking more and more like a character to be sacrificed in the long run for any of the Lyons, Teri is quite endearing.
One thing we missed a lot was the spicy personal lives of the Empire artistes and that was back in place in the second part.Maya is looking like Hakeem's next love interest and the Tiana love circuit involving Blake,Carlito,Hakeem and maybe Devon albeit discontinuously was a fabulous touch.
Special credit must go to the writers for how Giselle (Nicole Ari-Parker),an ex-wife of Eddie Barker and a key part of Kingsley's Empire team now owning 20% of Lucious and Cookie's company was made to appear so adorable and disarming.
Andre was always going to get a new heart but no caution was taken in Luscious' getting one for him.The darling patriarch in playing the concerned and loving father appeared cold-blooded and desensitized in his haste to ferry the heart of a son he had come to be fond of in Kingsley to the hospital for Andre's use just after he shot himself.
Damon Cross has struck a deal with the Feds for Lucious apparently so he can make a strong push for Cookie and the season ended with her refusing to skip town with Lucious.
After all is said and done,the Lyons will overcome this challenge and in as much as we all can't wait for that,we just hope the story-telling is top notch up to that point.
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