Empire: Cast of “True Love Never”

Episode 8 of “Empire” (Season 2, 11-11-2015) was called “True Love Never,” part of a Shakespeare line in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (The course of true love never did run smooth ~ Lysander). Cookie shacked up with Laz (Adam Rodriguez) for three days. Then Laz met up with the sinister Big Heavy, played by Victor Almanzar. “You need to be taking care of business, not booty,” Big Heavy warned.

Laz told Heavy hands off Hakeem and outlined his plan to get 10x more money than they got for the kidnapping. He’s arranging a venue for Cookie’s jam, a cookout in Harlem, and he even talks Cookie into using Big Heavy and his boys for security. Hakeem is angry at first, especially when Laz is using his negotiating chair, but goes along with it, too. He tells Cookie to be careful because he doesn’t trust Laz. “You don’t know him,” Cookie observes. Well, neither do you, Sugar Cookie.

Maybe Lucious was telling the truth to Freda Gatz (Bre-Z) that he relates more to her than his sons as they both lost their parents early. Throughout the episode, there are flashbacks of young Lucious (Shannon Brown) with his suicidal mom (Kelly Rowland). He hid the bullets to her gun. She found some anyway and put a gun to her head in front of him. In the present, however, Freda will learn one day that it was Lucious who ordered the murder of her father in that prison.

Meantime, Lucious wants to get invited to one of the Living Room sessions of music exec, Huey Jarvis, played by Clarence Williams III. These invites are no joke. Everyone who got one collected a big music award. Jarvis listens to the Boom Boom Bang Bang track with Freda Gatz rapping. How the hell could he tell she was a girl on that? LOL!! Anyhow, he thinks Lucious is on to something but Jarvis wants to feel more. This is madd important to Lucious and he is really pissed when he learns that Jamal got an invite to the next Living Room session. Lucious plays it off though and even takes credit for Jamal’s big improvement to Jarvis, but you can clearly see on his face that he is hearing Smart Cookie’s influence on Jamal’s track.

Cookie Monster tried to make Hakeem replace Laura as the lead singer of Mirage a Trois with Carmen (Yani Marin), who grabbed her spot during a performance by elbowing Laura out of the way. Hakeem’s instincts said “NO” so he enlisted Tiana’s (Serayah) help in tuning up Laura’s self-confidence.

He also took Laura to Hudson Plaza to sing in public. “Make them listen,” he instructed. Laura jumped into Hakeem’s arms and kissed him passionately after she successfully sang “Sobreviviré,” the Spanish version of “I Will Survive” The next time the girls were on together, Laura put Carmen back in her place while Cookie gave it the thumbs up.

Lucious wants to be partners with Swiftstream in an effort to dominate music streaming. Lucious and Mimi paid a visit to Jago Locke, played by Patrick Mulvey. Swiftstream’s CEO is at a boxing gym and wants to spar with Lucious. Mimi has already advised him to let Jago win. But Jago says “I like your beats, I just find your lyrics kind of shallow,” so Lucious knocks him out. “Shallow that, punk ass.”

Later, they visit Jago in the hospital and pump some extra morphine into him to make him more amenable to striking a deal.

More Notes:

• Lucious instructed Andre to “deal with” Deputy Mayor Raquel Alvarez to get a gang injunction lifted that had something to do with Freda. What he meant was deal with Raquel’s overactive libido. Andre went to his pastor for help, not wishing to slip back to his old ways. Pastor Price reminds Andre that God has chosen him to be his warrior and sometimes warriors have to do things on the battlefield that would be repugnant in any other context. He makes it clear he doesn’t mean sex – that is sancrosanct between husband and wife only. So instead, Andre resorts to blackmail to win that war God chose him for. So, does that mean Pastor Price is really the one behind the Christian hip hop?
• After Lucious and Mimi flim-flammed Jago, they prepared to celebrate at a party that offered a woman willing to participate in a 3-way. That never happened, at least not with Lucious. Mimi got a phone call that upset her and Lucious seemed to think it was a girlfriend or wife. He did not hear Mimi say to the person on the other end that her “plan” was going to take a little more time. Looks like Cookie isn’t the only one who let the wolf in the door. In any event, a gun tattoo on the thigh of the willing woman sent Lucious off to embrace his pain. It’s all very disturbing, but the worst part is we will probably have to hear that Boom Boom song again.

The Stars of Empire:
Terrence Howard – Lucious Lyon
Taraji P. Henson – Cookie Lyon
Bryshere Y. Gray – Hakeem Lyon
Jussie Smollett – Jamal Lyon
Trai Byers – Andre Lyon

Also in this episode:
Kaitlin Doubleday – Rhonda Lyon
Marisa Tomei – Mimi Whiteman
Raquel Castro – Marisol
Charles Malik Whitfield – Rev. L.C. Price
Ta’Rhonda Jones – Porsha
Patrick Mulvey – Jago Locke
Tyler Ravelson- Tay-O
Sari Sanchez – Deputy Mayor Alvarez
Tiesheko – April