Empire - Love All, Trust A Few & The Depth of Grief - Double Review

This season of Empire is the year of changes and consequences and these two episodes are the perfect representation of these. Firstly, let’s summarize what happened in “Love All, Trust a Few” and “The Depth of Grief”.

In “Love All, Trust a Few”, finally Andre is released from prison. The Lyon family continues to work on their brand-new project. Cookie is still working full time along with Portia to attempt to recruit new artist as Devon who could be a key new artist. Once again, Andre tries to impress his father with his help on the business side of things. Jamal is in shock: not having heard from Kai, he goes back to the memory lane of his story with his British boyfriend. The episode has another shocking twist: Giselle and Diana Dubois form a dangerous alliance. I saw this coming but I’m interested in how they will deal with this new pair.

In "The Depth of Grief", Lucious and Cookie reflect on their new artist Devon: they are not sure if he’s ready for the upcoming pressure of his listening party. Hakeem wants to convince (ONCE AGAIN) Tiana that he's matured, but she doesn’t trust him after all the hard things they have been through as a couple. In emotional flashback, we find out that they lost their daughter Princess, the twin sister of Prince. In the end, as we all expected, Hakeem screws up. This storyline is becoming boring and repetitive.

Finally, Jamal has news about Kai: he is at the hospital. He goes there with Cookie and she learns about Kai's condition of being HIV positive. Clearly, she starts worrying about Jamal’s future, but finally, Empire is giving Jamal a sane love-interest: he convinces her that he will never hurt Jamal and both Jamal and Kai exchange engagement proposals. Meanwhile, Andre continues to try to get freedom for his innocent, inmate, Quincy.

I really enjoyed the second episode and I will tell you why: Empire’s 71 episodes have finally created a change and a maturation in these characters. Except for Hakeem, Lucious, for example, is different and less close-minded as we got to know him. I really loved how he showed support for Jamal when Cookie was lashing out about the Hiv-positive matter. He is becoming the great father he never was. Jamal and Andre are also heading in a new direction. The only one who is stuck with the old repetitive narrative outcomes is Hakeem. Give him a break, and let’s move on…please.

All in all, I’m enjoying this fifth season and I am eager to discover who is in the casket. And you? What do you think of “Love All, Trust a Few” and “The Depth of Grief?”