Empire - Absent Child - Review

The third season is coming to an end: there are just a few episodes left and I wanted Absent Child to be as juicy and interesting as the previous one. Sadly, it wasn’t. I didn’t enjoy it so much, let’s understand why.

This season has been focused on Andre and his breakdown after his terrible losses: his baby and his wife both caused by Anika. I really appreciated how they dealt with this grief: Rhonda’s goodbye scene was impressive but then as Empire usually does, nothing concrete happened. This episode tries to evolve the situation but in the end, Andre is always at the same place. He breaks up with Nessa, he attacks Anika but he doesn’t have the power to change his own situation. I don’t like how they are portraying this character, I totally preferred his characterization in season 2.
I believe that Rhonda’s loss is not helping the story. Their choice of killing her off is not giving the expected results.

The episode was also focused on Bella’s “kidnap”. The authorities refuse to reveal who is behind this terrible event and the Lyons decide to take extreme measures: they kidnap Angelo and they torture him, but in the end, he is innocent and he doesn’t have anything to do with this situation. I was pleasantly surprised by this narrative development, but the ending turns once again the table. 
Bella is in the custody of the Dubois’s family and Angelo’s mother had a key-role in the matter. It’s a juicy plot twist, but it doesn’t add anything new to the story: we all know that they will take her back somehow and it can be considered a little bit predictable. I hope they will deal with this story smartly.

Lucious is acting as a jerk: Cookie wants her family to be together again and even if she doesn’t explicitly reveal her feelings, she is clear with her ex-husband. His response is abysmal: he is stick with Giuliana. This couple must always face so many obstacles, but does Lucious deserve a woman like Cookie?

The answer is no, but we’ll see what the writers have in mind. All in all, the episode was plain and a little bit slow. And you? What do you think of  Absent Child ?