‘Empire’ Season 6 Premiere ‘What Is Love’ Review: The Lyons Under Attack (Again!)

The return of FOX’s Empire leaves a lot to unpack. Similar to last season’s opener where we saw Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) standing over a coffin (which was later revealed to be his bastard son Kingsley) the season 6 premiere, titled “What Is Love,” opens with another ominous tease, this time dealing with the fate of Lucious himself.

The show also feels a bit like a soft reboot for some reason. Lucious turns into a hippie after running from the feds, Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) doesn’t want anything to do with Empire, Andre (Trai Byers) sits on the throne of the company, and Hakeem (Bryshere Gray) seems to be hidden from the spotlight (for this episode, at least). After the shocking events of season 5, the sixth and final season is taking things slow and easy this time. It’s a discernible change given the network’s decision not to bring in Jussie Smollett’s Jamal Lyon in light of his recent racism attack issue.

“What Is Love” is a conundrum of all sorts for the Empire family. With Lucious’ whereabouts unknown, Andre has to take the reins of the company as its permanent CEO. It’s a drastic shift in leadership seeing how the Lyonbrothers used to fight each other for Empire’s helm. Cookie, on the other hand, wants to purge herself from everything Lucious. After being offered a TV career last season, Cookie sets her eyes for a regular hosting spot on the daytime talk show, Tea Time. Meanwhile, the Black Girl Magic continues as Giselle (Nicole Ari Parker) and Becky (Gabourey Sibide) build their new label from the ground up.

Here’s everything that went down on the Season 6 premiere of Empire.

“What Is Love” opens nine months from the present events, where Lucious is back at home facing an unknown intruder. He’s in an aggressive stance here until he gets shot in the chest three times.

Cookie Builds a Strong Personal Brand

Cookie’s life took a dark turn last season when she got caught between Lucious’ shady affairs and Damon Cross (Wood Harris). Now, she’s dead set on rebuilding her life by concentrating on a fresh, new project outside Empire–a daytime talk show gig. It’s obvious that this is Cookie’s new jam as she blends well with the TV crowd, even crossing horns with one of her co-hosts Lizzie (Carisa Barreca).

Chuck Hodes/FOX

Tea Time‘s setup is similar to The View, with predominantly white main hosts. Cookie’s addition makes for a slight shift in the cohosts’ demeanor towards her, but Cookie doesn’t care. Even when Lucious’ past is uncovered and the cohosts pin the blame on Cookie, the Lyon Queen expertly throws back the shade at Lizzie for being an entitled white bitch. “When are we going to stop blaming women for the things that men do?” Cookie says. “I left my husband and the company we built together and it’s hard. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do and for you two to sit up here and slam me with his name every time you get doesn’t make it easier.”

But we all know that her heart is still tied to Empire. When Becky asks her for help in signing artists for their label Bossy Media, Cookie expertly shares an effective strategy. No matter how many times Cookie denies Empire, she’ll always be rooted in it.

Lucious Relives the Woodstock Culture

The former King of the Lyons is in hiding, and he’s doing it by way of spreading “peace and love!” Sporting sexy dreads and enjoying a peaceful life (somewhere in the Carribean?), Lucious is not the ruthless Lyon that we knew him to be in the past five seasons of Empire. He’s got a new, talented girl named Yana (Kiandra Richardson) now, and seems to always shout “peace, man!” to anyone he comes across. Now, I’m not really sure if this schtick will last–what with the harrowing opening scene of the episode–but this new version of Lucious Lyon is something worth exploring.

Chuck Hodes/FOX

Age of the New Empire

Things at Empire are looking bright with Andre at its leadership, despite Lucious’ absence. With an Empire film in the works, a new TV deal with FOX Sports on the table, Andre is riding the high of leading Empire to new heights. Teri (Meta Golding) is now well into the last trimester of her pregnancy. Cookie is taking care of her as any extra grandma would, and all is well.

However, the fun is cut short when the FBI strongarms Andre into giving up Lucious. Andre’s failure to comply will result in the feds going public on Lucious’ alleged crimes, endangering the movie’s production and the new deal with FOX Sports. A massive PR nightmare, to say the least. Adding to that problem is Tracy (Amanda Detmer), Kingsley’s mom and Lucious’ ex, who’s come to Empire after Cookie gave her percentage of shares in exchange for Kingsley’s heart.

Chuck Hodes/FOX

As he’s caught in dire straits, Andre pulls out the desperation card by forcing Cookie and Lucious to meet in a fake doctor’s appointment. The meeting turns into a shouting match as Cookie and Lucious defend themselves over the events of the past months. With no resolution between the King and Queen Lyon, Lucious offers Andre a bit of simple advice–you’re running things at Empire now, so do things the way I would before.

With fresh eyes, Andre faces the fallout of the feds’ live announcement. The FOX deal is in limbo, and they just lost their main star for the Empire film. Fueled by his father’s fire, Andre was able to convince the FOX board to retain the deal by volunteering to surrender Lucious himself and stressing that this is the new Empire.

During a live announcement, Andre victoriously reveals to the crowd that Empire will be pushing through with their FOX Sports deal and the upcoming film (despite losing their main star). In an effort to one-up his older brother, Hakeem steals the show by announcing that he’s going to play Lucious Lyon in the movie.

The Black Girl Magi–er–chaos

Giselle and Becky’s side of the music industry isn’t going as well as they thought it would. After establishing Bossy Media as Empire’s new sub-label, they’re now left with the tedious task of signing their first artist. After their initial negotiation with a major artist fails because of how “small” they are, Becky takes it upon herself to sign Lala, a promising YouTube artist who has 4 million followers. Despite Giselle’s qualms about Lala, Becky is optimistic–until Lala breaks down in front of them because apparently a girl with 4 million followers is only able to sing in the dark by herself. Useless, I tell you.

Andre Has a Mouse Problem

As Andre reaps the spoils of leading Empire to a brand new direction, his past comes back to haunt him–literally.

Remember the time when Andre took the fall for his father and got some serious jail time? Mouse (Anthony Irons), one of his colleagues from prison goes to Andre asking for a job at Empire. After all, Andre does owe Mouse after being his right-hand man in prison. But get this, though–Mouse is the type of person who just wants to have a job without actually having to do the job. Sensing this, Andre tells Mouse that it will take him some time to find something for him to do. At first, Mouse agrees but eventually loses patience.

He bugs Andre by coming to his home uninvited, with Teri forced to entertain him. Andre gets shocked by Mouse’s intrusion, so he orders him to leave. Later, after the announcement event, Mouse catches up to Andre at the parking lot ready to shank him for not paying his dues. Andre overpowers him, though, and chokes Mouse to death. A brief flash of Kingsley haunts Andre, an echo of when he had brief apparitions of Rhonda back in season 2.

But as Andre engages in a brawl with Mouse, Teri is back home writhing in pain. Something’s wrong with her baby, and it’s made all the more pressing when she collapses on the floor on a pool of blood.

The Shocking Reveal

With the peace in Lucious being disrupted by the latest events, he reveals his true identity to Yana. But plot twist–she already knows who he is and is aware of the fact that Lucious is running from the feds. And because she wants to help him out, she asks her rich father to give them money so they can escape elsewhere. As she calls her dad, it’s revealed to be none other than Damon Cross.

Chuck Hodes/FOX

Now, we all know that this isn’t going to play out well. For one, Damon doesn’t know Lucious is screwing his daughter. For two, Lucious has enough evidence to lead the feds to Damon’s crimes and divert attention away from him. But what Lucious also doesn’t know is that Damon is colluding with the feds so they can get to him.

What a shit show for team Lyon, huh?

‘Empire: What Is Love’ Overall Verdict

Despite losing Jamal and being forced to conclude the show with a final season, Empire remains at the top of its game with “What Is Love.” It’s not as strong as the previous premiere episodes, but it does tease a few big things coming before the final hoo-ha. The writing is still solid, with writers Diane Houston and Brett Mahoney crafting a compelling narrative that sets season 6 up for a grand finale. It’s a total shame that Jamal won’t be a fixture of the show from here on because he’s been at the heart of all the Lyon family drama from day one. But the way season 6 is structured leaves Jamal’s absence totally irrelevant–and that’s a good thing.

Season 6 is treading on stable ground. I can only wish that it remains the same before it finally bows out with its grand finale.

Empire continues next Tuesday, October 1st, with “Got On My Knees To Pray” at 9/8c on FOX.