My Review of Empire's 4x07: "The Lady Doth Protest"

Written by Matt Pyken & Eric Haywood
Directed by Karen Gaviola

Cookie (to Diana): "We coming for you, bitch!"

At this rate, Cookie, you might want to get a move on with that. Sure, Jamal gave Warren something of a savage beat down when he realised the latter was Diana's nephew and working to destroy his family but that only played into Diana's hands after the failed attempt of getting Jamal to partake in a threesome.

I did feel for Warren in this episode. Okay, he was a little crass with the way he was trying to initiate a threesome (first a hot bartender, then another hot guy off a cruising app) but over the last few episodes, it's been clear that his feelings for Jamal have been genuine, so Diana ended up screwing him over as much as the Lyons with her latest stunt to boot.

Right now, the next episode needs to give us some kind of a victory for the Lyons because we've had more than enough of Diana actually getting the best of them that it's going to lose a bit of momentum soon. I do however find it interesting that although Lucious is essentially his old self that he wasn't able to step in this week, though Cookie should be able to handle Diana herself.

When we weren't having this particular reveal displayed out so publicly, Andre also had a freak out of his own when he thought that Pamela might have been dead. Instead she later turned up alive and also panicked that she staged another person's death, which seemed to intrigue Andre. I'm finding this relationship pretty interesting to watch but I'm also waiting for the shoe to drop and have Pamela have some connection with the DuBois family at this point.

As for the rest of the episode, Porscha finally stood up to Cookie when Eddie's recording methods basically alienated everyone at Empire. I thought this plot was actually pretty decent and it was nice to see Porscha make a stand but it was also resolved a little too quickly as well, even if Cookie did finally treat Porscha with some basic respect.

- We had more flashbacks of Cookie's time in prison where she helped her rival Poundcake with her pregnancy when she wasn't getting divorce papers from Lucious.
- The writers are so setting up Anika and Angelo as a couple, aren't they?
- Standout music: Jamal  and Tory's versions of Light It All Up.
- Chronology: Not long from where the previous episode left off.

The Lady Doth Protest isn't the strongest episode we've had but it had it's moments. It's a shame that Jamal and Warren's relationship has come to the messy end that it did but it was inevitably going to go bad. I did like the Cookie flashbacks in this one though.

Rating: 6 out of 10