Warning! The following contains spoilers for Empire. Read at your own risk!
Empire still has quite a few big scenes to explain before the end credits on this series roll, but it's only picking up speed and throwing more curveballs at fans as it gets there. This week brought more tension than ever, as the passive aggressive behavior between Cookie and Lucious finally reached a boiling point. At the end of the episode, Lucious decided to tell the sassy (and popular) Cookie the story behind how "their legacy" was really built.
For those who don't remember, the story Empire has told since its beginning is that Cookie was arrested and went to prison for drug dealing, and Lucious flipped the $400k to fund his music career, become a successful rapper, and eventually start Empire Entertainment. It was a story that was not public knowledge, until Cookie took the stage at her fundraiser and announced the story to all in attendance.
Later, as the two squabbled in the kitchen, Lucious revealed Cookie's story and the story Empire has told is a myth. In reality, Lucious said he was quickly hustled out of the $400k Cookie left behind, and had run through all the money in a few months. Broke and desperate to get his career off the ground so he could continue to care for his sons, Lucious soon learned that rival Philly Street had $1 million he got from robbing banks.
Lucious told Cookie that he ended up robbing Philly Street to get the rest of the money to fund his album, so no, everything he accomplished to this point didn't start with her. The story would explain the obligation Lucious feels to help Philly Street, who ended up murdering someone else that he thought stole the money from him. It's a nice story that ties together the plot of the current season in an interesting way, but is it legit?
Cookie had her doubts, and thought it was just Lucious trying to hurt her while simultaneously stroking his own ego. As she said in so many words afterward, he can't stand that he has to share the success with Cookie, so he has to diminish her importance in all of it. It's possible for both people to be right of course, but is it possible that Cookie is right and Lucious is actually telling a a falsehood? After all, why would she sign an NDA for a story that apparently wasn't all that significant?
After the fight, Cookie left her key on the table and left. With the episodes left in the series winding down and the two allegedly not long for this world, one has to wonder if this is the final split. We'll have to wait and see!
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Empire airs on Fox Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. Stick with CinemaBlend for more updates on the series and for the latest news on movies and television.
