Empire Season 5 Episode 14 Review: Without All Remedy
Paul Dailly
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It's amazing how quickly a divided family can be brought back together.
Empire Season 5 Episode 14 was all about family in the aftermath of the truth coming out about Andre's Stage IV Lymphoma diagnosis, and it resulted in one of the show's best episodes in years.
The wild installment picked up mere moments after Empire Season 5 Episode 13 ended with Lucious inside an alley with the corpse of Treasure's manager.
Lucious hasn't learned from his past mistakes. His decision to kill Treasure's manager was fueled by rage after learning about Andre's diagnosis, and what happened with Treasure while on the Trust Tour.
The flashbacks on Empire have felt disjointed of late, but I loved that we went all the way back to when Andre was sick as a child. On the surface, it seemed like Lucious felt guilty for not always being there for his son.
Stage IV Lymphoma never sounds good, but thanks to Terri, I'm on an aggressive cycle of doxorubicin. Anthracycline antibiotics can have aggressive side effects. But so far, my symptoms are all within the range of what Dr. Swain expected.
Andre
As we learned more, Lucious chose his family over his career, and that's something I never thought Lucious was capable of. Maybe it helped the present-day Lucious realize that above all, family is everything and that they need to stick together to help their son through this harrowing ordeal.
Cookie really struggled throughout "Without All Remedy." I don't doubt that she wanted to sleep with Damon Cross. There's been an attraction between them ever since that first meeting.
It was almost like Cookie was looking for a reason to show up at his hotel room in the dead of night. The flashbacks, for the most part, implied that she did sleep with her husband's rival.
Cookie liked the idea of getting close to Damon, but she realized that Lucious was the one for her when she kept thinking about being with her husband when she was with Damon.
In Cookie's defense, this seems to be the first time that Lucious has actually told her the truth, so it's not like she had any reason to believe him.
It's my fault. I was disloyal to my family and now my son has to pay.
Cookie
The most surprising part of it was the way Treasure showed up and accepted all responsibility. Sure, there was a fire under her because she had been fired from Empire for inappropriate behavior, but it was a different direction to what I expected the show to go in.
Treasure knew the Lyons had tried to make a star out of her and her feelings were clouded by the way her ex-manager had treated her. She thought she had to repay Lucious with sexual favors to keep her recording contract.
Related: Jussie Smollett: Returning to Empire, According to Co-Star
The only issue I had with Cookie is that she did not tell Lucious everything. She had ample opportunity, and now Lucious is going to cause holy hell because the secret is not going to stay buried for long.
It's easy for Cookie to hold her hands up and admit she went to that hotel room with the intention of having sex with Damon, but she's going to lose a lot of trust from Lucious when he learns about it.
Even though the family is going through a nightmare right now, I don't think Lucious would take too kindly to what Cookie has to say on the matter.
The good news is that Andre's treatment is working, and I loved that Terri and Cookie went to war. Those two have shared little scenes to date, so we never knew anything about their dynamic.
Cookie thought that the best doctors in the world would be able to save her son, and it's only natural for a mother to want to give her child the best chance at staying alive. Terri felt cast to the side because the person she got to help was not up to the standard Cookie expected.
I appreciated that they bickered over this because it highlighted that they each had Andre's best interests at heart. They need to put on a united front to keep Andre's spirits up. He's got a long road ahead of him.
The musical number from Hakeem and Jamal about their brother while on tour was beautiful. The photos in the background of the family worked really well, but it did make me feel like it was something that would have been better placed if Andre died.
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Jamal and Kai getting back together was predictable. Kai has long worried about getting in too deep with the Lyons, but he confirmed he was willing to make some sacrifices by returning to try and get closer to his fiancé again.
Jamal was mature about the whole thing. He was stressed trying to keep the Trust Tour going while wrestling with his brother's illness. In short, he did not have time to have a romantic relationship with Kai.
That being said, Kai confirmed that he was willing to work with Jamal to find a balance, and that's about the best we could have expected.
It was only a matter of time before Kingsley popped back up, and now that he's working with the FBI, there's a good chance he will be the Lyon that falls.
For most viewers, this will not be a satisfying conclusion to this wild arc, but it would be far too easy to rule Andre as the dying one, especially now that he is moving on to another phase of the clinical trial.
Kingsley is technically a Lyon, and the pickings are really slim for who else could be in that casket. Jussie Smollett is not going to be in the final two episodes of Empire Season 5, so it's likely not going to be Jamal.
Hakeem would be the big surprise here. He's not been given a lot to do throughout the back half of the season. It could be him.
"Without All Remedy" was excellent. It raised the stakes for the family, and united them in a way I did not think was possible.
What did you think of it?
Hit the comments below.
Remember you can watch Empire online right here via TV Fanatic.
Empire airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Fox.
Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
