S01.E03: The Devil Quotes Scripture

[Milz]

This bothers me because I hate the concept that women need to fight over a man.  Anika is smart, beautiful, and competent - it is not necessary for her to stoop to such levels, and a TRUE debutante would not.  She needs to tell Lucius (not Cookie) bluntly, "I get it that you and Cookie have history and children between you, but I am not going to tolerate being her whipping board, nor accept ANY disrespect from ANYBODY in MY house.  If I am your woman, then act like it.  If Cookie is your woman, then I will leave."  That simple.  To quote Bill Withers,  "You're too much for one (wo)man, but not enough for two."  This business of some dude (usually not even worth all that fighting) watching two women degrade each other and embarrass themselves for his favor makes me sick!  End of rant, LOL.

 

I'm not sure if Cookie wants Luscious back: she wants Empire back and she wants her sons back, but Luscious.......I don't know. I think she also is pushing Annika's buttons, just to push them.  However, Annika is most definitely threatened by Cookie.

[DollEyes]

 

I am also a Black woman who had/has a Black father. If the purpose of this show is for Lee Daniels to blow the lid off of the Black community's homophobia, then he also needs to attack the church-which is the fuel behind a lot of homophobia. And your summation of Lucius actually proved my point-to many, he is just a moustache twirling villain-his amusement at Hakeem's whooping non-withstanding-and there is only one direction for his to go as a character. Since this one act is the foundation on which Lucius is built,and, as someone noted above, Jamal is written as sainted, then narratively I see them in a corner called "trite" with Lucius. But then again, this being a soap and all, maybe Lucius will die in a non-ALS manner and it will turn into a "Who shot JR?" thing. Again trite. I just hope not, because I enjoy not only the show in general but having a morally ambiguous character where you don't know immediately his motivations or his limitations.

 

  Again respectfully disagreeing. For one thing, it's early in the season, so Lee Daniels might take on church-based homophobia eventually but even if he doesn't, that doesn't mean he won't deal with it next season or even in another project. Your argument proves my point about Lucius-that the bad eclipses the good. My point also included a condition-that I won't care about Lucius unless he changes his attitude toward/about Jamal. The trash can incident isn't the worst and certainly not the only thing Lucius has ever done, but it's arguably the worst thing he's done to Jamal and it's the foundation on which their current relationship is based. Lucius is a complex character with positives and negatives but at this point, there are way more negatives than positives, the way I see it.

 

That would be nice and really great for Jamal. Which is why I'd bet money on it not happening.

Lucius is an ass and barely claims Jamal is it is, if Jamal was not biologically his no way would he still consider him a son. And if Cookie cheated on him and got pregnant, I doubt she would even think to blackmail Lucius.

Either way I doubt Cookie cheated, she seems extremely loyal.

Puma is a nice sweet good guy and he would def be my choice. I don't know about Cookie though. Puma seems like the type of guy that if Cookie told him the sky was purple with red stripes he be like okay baby you're right, the sky is purple with red stripes. That would probably bore Cookie.

 

  Not necessarily. Regarding Cookie, she could know something about Lucius that he doesn't know that she knows, hence the potential for blackmail if Lucius tried to hurt Jamal again or hold Jamal's paternity against him. As for Puma, he may still have feelings for Cookie, but that doesn't mean he's a wimp. Instead of wallowing in self-pity over losing Cookie, Puma chose to channel his energies not just into helping people, but helping kids. If Puma was still totally whipped by Cookie he wouldn't have sold "Up All Night" to Lucius. In some ways I think Puma's got way more guts than Lucius. For one thing, Puma doesn't seem like the type who would let Cookie take the rap for the crime(s) he committed, unlike Lucius. Being a thug doesn't make Lucius more of a man than Puma's not being one makes him less of one. If Cookie doesn't appreciate Puma, then it's her loss, not his, as far as I'm concerned.

Edited January 31, 2015 by DollEyes

[darkestboy]

I really liked this one too. Jamal standing up to Lucious was a great moment. More of that please in later episodes.

Cookie vs. Anika works because both characters are evenly matched. I actually think Anika is a pretty likeable character too.

Andre's roleplay with his wife was strange, right?

Hakeem and the older woman I didn't see coming. He's still into Tiana, right?

Can't see Lucious getting caught for Bunky's death just yet. I didn't expect Cookie nearly getting caught with Carter that quickly though.

Up All Night was the music highlight of the episode. Nice guest appearances from Cuba Gooding Jr and Naomi Campbell too.

Michael needs a little more to do though, 8/10