Season 4, Episode 9 – Hear the Lyons roar in a midseason finale that hits all the intoxicating notes of revenge.

Seasom 4, Episode 8 – Empire delivers its best twist yet, and nothing else.

Season 4, Episode 7 – Empire struggles to find its footing in a world where things just happen, messages get mixed, and nothing seems to matter.

Season 4, Episode 6 – The Empire strikes back! Not only is this a great episode of soap opera television and a return to form, but the Lyon family gets totally destroyed.

Season 4, Episode 5 – Empire decides it’s finally time to move on with this drawn out plot, but not without one last hurrah.

Season 4, Episode 4 – The war is confusing and it’s getting things away from what really matters this season.

Season 4, Episode 3 – “Empire” struggles to find meaning beyond Andre and a police detective stripping for each other between a city street and an 80 foot drop.

Season 4, Episode 2 – Empire is committed to this “Lucious-amnesia” plotline and at times it comes off as frustrating.

Season 4, Episode 1 – Lucious’s mind may be gone, but you can bet he won’t forget Cookie.

Season 3, Episode 17- Empire‘s finale has begun and boy is it a mess. But that doesn’t mean it’s not thoroughly entertaining. Alliances and destroyed, while some are made. Cookie tries to make her moves against Guisi, Lucious allies himself with his brother Tariq, Hakeem pulls himself from everything, and Andre finds himself in a bit of a relationship with Charlotte.

Season 3, Episode 16 – Empire introduces it’s penultimate episode until it’s two-part season finale. We begin to answer the question as to who took Bella, while also pushing a number of season-long plots forward. Andre seems to have a mental breakdown, Jamal reconciles with his father, Hakeem tries to be a good father and Cookie attempts to hold it all together.

Season 3, Episode 15 – Empire picks up from where it left off last episode, with the DuBois family posing as the main threat to the Lyons. Lucious and Cookie are forced to navigate through the DuBois’ “revenge” tactics, and might have to rely on the help of their sons to get through this. Andre decides to enact his plan with Shyne and Hakeem feels that it’s finally time he becomes the father to his daughter that he always should’ve been.

Season 3, Episode 14 – Empire decides to hit the reset button this episode and change course for the season. Major plotlines will unceremoniously end as old allies become dangerous villains. Lucious finds himself juggling a number of different major life changes as the business is making the moves towards Vegas and Cookie is making her moves towards Angelo. But not everything is as it seems.

Season 3, Episode 13 – Empire delivers one of the best scenes I can remember in TV. And although we need to have Lucious become a bedridden insane person in order to get there, I think it’s worth it. After a couple of duds, this episode shows that the wheels really seem to be turning at Empire as plots are being pushed forward and decisions are beginning to be made.

Season 3, Episode 9 – Empire’s midseason finale delivers one of the best episodes yet. When Cookie begins helping Angelo with his campaign, Diana is surprised to find her connecting so well to the people – and the polls are up. Jamal is determined to perform at the “Captain’s Ball,” now deemed, “People’s Ball.”

Season 3, Episode 8 – Empire struggles to deal with a mix of business and family drama. Andre feels like he has to reconcile with his mom, but that doesn’t mean he can’t also help Nessa further her career. Lucious is determined to take down Tariq, but can he trust his mother to do the same?