Empire -- Who's in the Coffin?

I stopped blogging Empire for awhile, because I stopped watching it for awhile. It seems to be getting back to being good with the Lyons losing everything and having to start over again. It just felt wrong having any face but Lucious' on the Empire logo and that includes Cookie.

For the last two weeks we've been served with a killer of a cliffhanger. Lucious is at the funeral of someone and their death may be because of something he did. This episode opens to six months earlier. Cookie and Lucious have discovered a new star, Pleasure, and they're working to get her song played on the air. Meanwhile Giselle is ready to become the new head of Empire now she accidentally bumped off Eddie. Only things don't go as she expected, as she gets screwed out of the position by this little punk who knows nothing about the music business. She, in turn, screws over Cookie and Lucious by stealing their new artist out from under them.

Pleasure turns out to be no pleasure as the little backstabber dumps Cookie and Lucious to sign with Empire and that's after they got rid of this abusive manager this dumb bimbo had hooked herself up with. Then they get an offer they maybe should refuse to return to Empire that Cookie convinces Lucious they should take. However, at the party launching the back-stabbing Pleasure, where Lucious and Cookie are supposed to announce their return, Lucious finds out they're just being used for their rep by the new CEO and when Lucious balks about it the CEO threatens to reveal to the world that the Lyons are broke. Only this little punk doesn't get that you don't threaten Lucious Lyon.

When they start playing “Bang, bang, boom, boom” as Lucious heads to the stage, I know he's getting ready to rumble. He asked his entire family to come on stage with him and beats the little punk to the punch by revealing they're broke and they're done with Empire, since it's no longer the place they built. He also asks the artists to come with them where they'll be respected and not treated like cattle like the new CEO is planning to do.

Hakeem is still be an obnoxious jerk, but then he's been that for the entire run of the show. He's flopping at Jamal's and bringing all his trashy groupies there to party, which Jamal is having enough of. He's also carrying a gun with him. He shows up where Tiana is trying to restart her career and she has him thrown out, refusing to let him see their kids. Jamal takes Hakeem to see Andre and he's all you killed my baby mama and I wanted Andre to say your baby mama killed my wife and unborn baby so shut your yap.

I'm not sure what's going on with Andre in the big house. He seems to be having trouble with a fellow inmate and tried to protect a weaker inmate. Meanwhile, Jamal decides to stay for three months to help his family, instead of leaving with his new love as planned.

The episode ends with Becky by Lucious side and Thirsty asking which car Lucious wants to ride in, but he says he wants to ride alone and didn't know this would happen because of something he did. Just then the feds come in wanting to talk to Lucious about what happened.

The insinuation seems to be that Cookie, Andre, Jamal or Hakeem is in the coffin.

I don't think it's Cookie, because Cookie and Lucious are the show. They're the driving force of the show. It is possible Cookie has turned on Lucious IF one of their sons is dead because of something he did.

Andre is in prison and is having trouble with an inmate, so he could be killed in prison. Perhaps the actor doesn't want to work on the show now that his wife was killed off, but that's kind of stupid. Sorry, the character of Anika needed to pay for what she did to Andre's wife and child. If it is Andre it would be ashamed since of the three sons Andre has evolved the most. You can really see of all the sons he's the most like Lucious.

Jussie Smollett could also decide to leave because I imagine the show has helped to ignite his singing career and he got a lot of exposure co-hosting Live with Kelly before Ryan Seacrest was named host. Character-wise Jamal is kind of stagnating this season. He's not really doing much. He seems to be settled with his new love. Of course, if he's the son that dies, Cookie might never forgive Lucious because he's the son she's closest to and seems to love best. If it is Jamal it would explain Becky being at the funeral since she and Jamal are close.

Lastly, there's Hakeem. As I said earlier he's still a jerk and he's been a jerk the entire run of the show. Personally, I feel he's the weakest actor. I don't think the show would miss him much if he were gone. He's already bred two children, so the Hakeem character can live on through them. And he is going around carrying a gun wherever he goes. I doubt he even knows how to use it, so accidents could happen.

But would the show really kill off one of the Lyon sons? But if not one of the Lyons why would Lucious seem so upset?

I guess only time will tell...