Tuesday, October 17, 2017

My Review of Empire's 4x03: "Evil Manners"



Written by Matt Pyken & Carlito Rodriguez
Directed by Bille Woodruff

Diana (to Cookie): "It's time we put these hostilities behind us."

Big difference between what one says and what one does, huh, Diana? This week Diana seemed more determined to continue on her mission to take out the Lyon family while Angelo seemed to prefer to drink himself into a stupor and call Warren a whore and add nothing else of value to an otherwise enjoyable episode.

Diana got a minor victory at the start when her cousin the bank clerk guy was able to reject Cookie for money but she ended up having to save face when Cookie was able to charm those women at the photoshoot they all shared. I hope Cookie is smart enough to see through Diana's "let bygones be bygones" facade because Jamal is sinking further in Warren's clutches.

Jamal really had all the hit and miss material this week. On one hand, I loved that he was honest to Lucious about their past and I enjoyed all their scenes together but he was unable to stop Shyne from figuring out that Lucious has memory loss and he certainly was reckless in telling Warren about Lucious, which mean Diana has one more trump card she can now play with.

Of course when Jamal wasn't revealing things he shouldn't have, the episode gave us some interesting flashbacks to Cookie's time in prison where it seemed like the women were more keen on being her friend than an enemy. They tied in fair enough to her current situation at the photoshoot and again, I liked that Cookie was honest to Lucious about being in prison for seventeen years.

As for the rest of the episode, when Shyne wasn't vying for more albums and settling for five, Andre and Detective Rose seemed to be playing mind games with one another while Hakeem seemed determined to keep Anika away from Bella as best as possible with Tiana taking on a more neutral role. Both plots were decent enough but the best stuff was with Jamal, Cookie and Lucious this week.

- Who was that woman that Diana had to mess with Andre? By the way, Diana views Andre as the Scarecrow, Jamal as the Tin Man and Hakeem as the Cowardly Lion.
- No Claudia, Tory or Porscha this week.
- Standout music: Rantionale's Tethered, Hakeem's Shut Up and Jamal/Hakeem's Chase The Sky.
- Chronology: Not long from where the previous episode left.

I enjoyed the episode. Evil Manners certainly showed a lot of DuBois scheming and while Cookie managed to inadvertently get one on Diana, Jamal on the otherhand wasn't so quick to see through Warren though. Add some great music and bits of Lucious's memories trying to surface and this was a goodie.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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