Empire recap: 'The Devil Quotes Scripture'

Does Empire have a villain? The very title of “The Devil Quotes Scripture” implies that it might, but once again, the show’s proving to be simultaneously more clever and literal than you expect with its Shakespearean sources. Consider the quote the title riffs on:

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

An evil soul producing holy witness

Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,

A goodly apple rotten at the heart.

O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”

– Antonio, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene 3

If you take the most basic reading, Shakespeare’s just arguing that evil people mask their plots in good intentions, something Empire depicts well. Lucious killed Bunkie for the good of the company. Andre’s just making sure an actual businessman takes the helm. But if you take the quote in context, the meaning becomes devilishly complex. In the scene in question, Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, tries to explain why he lends money at interest—which Christians aren’t supposed to do—by citing the Bible. Antonio’s quote, then, is more an example of discrimination than clear thinking. The Christian merchant’s saying that no matter what Shylock says, he’ll always believe the Jewish moneylender has the worst intentions.

When Lucious and Jamal finally face each other at the end of “The Devil Quotes Scripture,” this is the sort of thinking that’s probably running through Lucious’ head. You can say all the right words, you can do all the right things, but if someone doesn’t trust you to be who you are, it’s no use—they’ll still see you as the devil. Jamal tries to communicate to Lucious in terms of love and family, but Lucious can’t see past his sexuality. As Jamal says about Lucious’ abuse, “You beat me because you hate me, and you always will, because I’m always gonna be who I am.”

So does that make Lucious the villain? I’m not sure. This week, Lucious did his fair share of shady deeds. In the episode’s first few minutes, he starts to push Hakeem toward a relationship with the now full-Rihanna “oh na na na na”-crooning Tianna. To do so, he foregrounds Tianna in Empire‘s latest shirtless-man soaked music video at the expense of her co-star, Veronika (you remember her from the pilot). This, in turn, makes Veronika’s manager threaten Lucious with violence through what sounds like gang connections, and Lucious then decides to deal with the threat rationally. He pulls the manager into his trailer and beats him up.

Lucious is a violent, often brutal man, but everything he does seems to be for the good of the label, which is to say for the good of appearances. After a confrontation with Cookie—who has decided, for once, not to make a scene—he recommits to planning Bunkie’s funeral. In order to make everything look right, he books Gladys Knight (yes, Empire has that power) to sing at the ceremony. And, also in order to make everything look right, he has Andre do some investigation into the eyewitness to Bunkie’s murder the police have just discovered. Meanwhile, there are other threats to the label. After Lucious dropped him last episode, Kid Fo-Fo signed with Creedmoor records. And Anika’s hired a private detective! The private detective took photos of Cookie and Agent Carter, and now Lucious is worried that his ex-wife is snitching about his involvement in her crimes to the feds.

Empire likes to saddle Lucious with all the crime plots, but “The Devil Quotes Scripture” started to clarify why all those little crimes matter. As Lucious reveals when he confronts Cookie over Bunkie’s body in the funeral parlor, he takes every act against his company as a larger betrayal of himself. Cookie would never snitch, but because she’s turned Jamal against him, Lucious has trouble trusting her. At Bunkie’s funeral in Philadelphia, we then move one megalomaniacal step further—from Lucious, the brand, to Lucious, the church. This celebration is as much about Empire Entertainment as it is about Bunkie, and Lucious’ lesson to the little boy he meets outside the church who wants to rap is like a parable from the Lyon bible. He hands the boy some money and offers up the only advice he understands: “Men don’t cry,” men don’t admit that life can be terrible, or look for support after making the wrong choices. Mid-memorial service, Lucious forgets his own advice, and tells the truth. “I feel responsible for my friend’s death,” he says. Of course, everyone thinks he’s speaking figuratively, so the confession goes unnoticed.

NEXT: Mother issues and horse riding (but not at the same time)…

If Lucious is the god of the Church of Lyon, Andre’s the religion’s high priest. He fully commits to Lucious’ orders and goes off to get off Deputy Mayor Alvarez, his contact at City Hall, in exchange for information about the witness to Bunkie’s death. He and Deputy Mayor Alvarez have some very-clothed office sex, which seems like something Rhonda would not approve of. But Rhonda (gotta love her) is into her husband’s affairs, and she demands that Andre show her exactly how he got his *ahem* way with Deputy Mayor Alvarez. The two have some less-clothed mirror sex, during which Rhonda demands that Andre call him his mistress’ name. “Deputy Mayor Alvarez,” he responds, because a) titles are sexy, and b) Empire‘s writers haven’t given her a first name yet.

But Andre’s not the only Lyon son with a Freudian-level sex life. Everything looks good for the self-proclaimed prince of Empire: his single blew up after Leviticus and life with Tianna seems to be all parties and champagne. Heck, he’s even at the club and ignoring some girl named Camilla who keeps texting him. Unfortunately for Hakeem, it turns out that Camilla isn’t just some girl, she’s Naomi Campbell. And Camilla’s response to Hakeem’s text, “I miss ur legs wrapped around me” is simply “do you? Because they’re right behind you.” Yes, Hakeem had a secret year-long thing with an older woman and, yes, said older woman wants him back. A few scenes later, we see that Camilla gets her way. We also get a frightening look into their relationship dynamic. When Hakeem and Camilla are having pool-table sex, she asks, “who am I to you?” Hakeem says, “my momma.” Now, is that better or worse than “Deputy Mayor”?

Meanwhile, Cookie, per the usual, has yet another banner episode, as she does her best to pump some more ambition into Jamal, after he “bitched out” of his coming out announcement last week. She and Portia audition a few artists to write for Jamal, but nobody seems to work. Cookie, however, knows she has a songwriting ace in the hole, and at Bunkie’s funeral, she asks her sister’s advice on how to find Puma, an ex-associate. Her sister is not particularly helpful, and Cookie ends the conversation by saying, “Well I need his number. Work on that, Carol.” But Cookie finds a surprising ally in the FBI. Agent Carter obtains copies of Anika’s detective’s photos of her and Cookie together and worries that this will jeopardize their case on “Frank Gaddis,” so she and Cookie put on a show for Lucious to make it seem like she’s a parole officer, and not an FBI agent. In return, Carter helps Cookie by tracking down Puma’s whereabouts.

Puma turns out to be working at an equestrian center, saving at-risk youth through horse riding. Puma goes by Dwayne now, but more importantly, Puma is Cuba Gooding Jr. Does anyone say no to Lee Daniels? Anyway, Puma had a thing for Cookie back in the days when she and Lucious were dealing drugs and he hasn’t yet gotten over it. Puma’s not writing new stuff—now he seems more interested in building his flannel shirt collection—but he offers to send Cookie an old piece. Cookie shows the song to Jamal, who calls it “old school” but also probably senses this is a love song about his mom and isn’t comfortable with that (he’s not Hakeem). Still, he agrees to sing it at a family dinner Lucious is throwing to welcome Tianna into the Lyon household.

NEXT: In the spirit of Downton Abbey, Empire throws a dinner party…

At the Lucious’s dinner party, the new power player turns out to be Anika. At first, it seems as if Cookie runs the family. She demands to sit at the head of the table, and she demands to get to say grace, which ends with the pitch-perfect line: “And God, please do not withhold your blessings… even from hoes who hire skanks to spy on me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen, hallelujah!” But everything doesn’t go according to Cookie’s plans. Jamal sings Puma’s song perfectly, which makes Lucious a) think back to his floral hat-wearing and drug-dealing days b) remember he owns the rights to Puma’s song and that it might be a good fit for John Legend (seriously, who isn’t on contract with Empire?). Jamal gets mad and lashes out against his dad, trying to get him to see past his homophobia, but it doesn’t work.

Still, Cookie gets one last word in before she leaves the Lyon mansion. She notices Lucious slipping pills in a side room, and confronts him about all his erratic behavior. Sure, Cookie says, you’re on top now, but “you know you can’t hide from me.”

Something gets through to Lucious, because he decides to go to Jamal’s apartment and make another attempt to connect with him while wearing a cloak-like outfit that can only be described as seminary chic. Jamal tries to explain how he arranged Puma’s song for Lucious, but Lucious can’t connect. He gives his whole spiel about how he doesn’t understand Jamal, and Jamal counters with the fiercest line in their relationship so far. He announces that he’s giving up the apartment, and that “my obedience is no longer for sale.” In Lucious’ mind, everything has a price—fame, family, power—and Jamal’s announcement marks one of the few times a character thinks outside that framework. So, to answer the question we started out with, the villain in Empire isn’t really Lucious (or Anika or even Andre) it’s the way they think about the world—the habit of always compromising and always selling out.

In a certain sense, that’s the mind-set that seems to underpin Lucious’ homophobia. He literally tries to buy his son out of being gay. Lucious thinks Jamal’s for sale. But as much as Lucious has sold everything about himself to the world in order to secure his celebrity, Jamal wants to do something different. He might not follow through (Michael already seems bummed about losing that nice apartment), but his decision to stop reciting the scripture of the church and brand of Lucious Lyon—so to speak—marks a new, exciting stand.

Wait, how was the music?

We had fewer songs than usual this week. First, there was Tianna and Veronika’s sultry, sexy team up, which was cut short by a collision between two stars. Then, we got a few brief samples of terrible songwriting that Cookie hated. After that, Gladys Knight did brief-but-great funeral crooning. Finally, we had Puma and Jamal’s versions of Puma’s song about Cookie. The clear winner is Jamal’s take on Puma’s song, in which Jussie Smollett continues to channel Drake and Frank Ocean while also applying a character-specific sense of urgency.

Notes, quotes, and observations:

— The Cookie outfit rankings: 6) Her casual, animal print and striped blouse and the sunglasses she dons while auditioning songwriters. 5) The dyed weave and giant hoops she sports in flashbacks. 4) The black top, giant belt, black shawl (!) and animal print skirt she wears to visit Puma. 3) Her all-black funeral gear, giant hat, and giant sunglasses (all the better to cry under). 2) A massive fur coat and heels (a.k.a. the Bette Davis look). 1) The black one-shoulder dress she wears to dinner, with its appropriately Lady Macbeth-like green accents.

— Back to the crime sub-plot: The eyewitness to Bunkie’s murder is a homeless man whom everyone unfortunately calls “Old Salty.” He speaks in nonsense to Andre and the two detectives when they first visit, but when the police detective goes back, Salty mumbles about a lion (or Lyon) in the streets. The detective pulls out a photo of Lucious, and Salty seems to recognize the mogul.

— This week in Becky: Becky only appeared in the background of a few shots, saying and doing pretty much nothing. Justice for Becky!

— Fun fact! Some Shakespeare scholars argue that Antonio, the guy in The Merchant of Venice who says “the devil can cite Scripture,” is meant to be gay (or attracted primarily to men, as “gay” wasn’t a term Shakespeare would understand).

— Cookie continues to deliver Empire’s most off-color language, calling Jamal’s boyfriend “your pin-up girl Michelle” and attempting to speak to the Jorgensens, a pair of Northern European hit makers in the vein of Max Martin, in their native language, “Stag-a blag-a! I’ll talk to you all later, okay?”

— Anika is learning to fight back. In subtitles, she tells the Jorgensens that Cookie, “is visiting from… prison.” And after dinner at Lucious’ place, she explains her classy background, “Do you even know what a debutante is?” Cookie: “A bougie ho with a lot of money?” Anika: “A ho who can slice your throat without disturbing your pearls.”

Share your debutante party invitations and other thoughts with me on Twitter at @McHenryJD or sound off in the comments.