It’s been an excellent start to Empire’s second season. After an intense season premiere, the show relaxed a little last week. This week, Fires of Heaven does a good job of balancing both approaches to deliver another really strong episode for network television’s biggest show.
Fires of Heaven has no sublime opening sequence like the premiere, no terrific split screen shots to kick things off like last week. Instead, we get some great storytelling as things unfold in some exciting ways. Oh, and Cookie is up to her usual out-of-the-box self. With Lucious out of prison, her plans to create her own company from scratch to take down Empire are even more important and even more difficult to achieve. By the end, one side makes a big powerplay that will shape the way this storyline is told for the next few episodes, at least. What transpires this week is certainly compelling to watch, and as usual, it is supported by the brilliance of Taraji P Henson and Terrence Howard, who has some particularly strong moments.
One of these is with son Andre, and it evokes a range of emotions in both characters and myself, ranging from joy to “gee, that’s just cold.” Trai Byers is, again, given some good material to work with and he delivers. For a character that just seemed utterly pointless at times last season, Empire has at least given Andre more to do and it’s great to see. Jamal, as - easily - the most likeable character on the show and one of the best, has some fascinating development this week, due to his father’s release. The signs of his transformation that we’ve seen over the past two episodes (and even going back to the season one finale) aren’t as prominent as he is more than happy to allow Lucious to take over once again. He just wants to get back into the studio, and how he attempts going about that is certainly fun to watch - with a very interesting conclusion.
Fires of Heaven also features Lucious attempting to make good on his promise to Frank Gathers and Cookie making a scene at dinner, in quite excellent fashion. Make sure to tune in on Wednesday 7th October at 9pm on FOX.
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