Empire Season 6 Episode 14 Review: I Am Who I Am
Paul Dailly
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Well, that's quite a direction to take things.
Empire Season 6 Episode 14 zeroed in on Andre's dissociative identity disorder as the Kingsley personality increased its grip on his life and the people in his orbit.
There was some semblance of progression when Andre managed to break through to tell Teri to grab her belongings and run off with their son in the dead of night.
Teri has been suffering for a while now. She's realized there's more to Andre than meets the eye, and she's slowly piecing together the pieces of the puzzle.
She's smart, and meeting with Andre's doctor was a good move because she got the confirmation she needed that she needed to save herself and her son from her husband-to-be.
Given that Teri escaped the apartment with around one minute remaining in the episode, it was obvious Andre was going to be waiting to greet her in the hotel. It's hard to imagine Andre getting a good ending when you consider the things he's done over the years.
I don't want to have to deal with you like this for one more second.
Cookie
Teri needs to find a way to get help, or she runs the risk of being harmed. Andre's physical altercation with Devon was brutal. He wanted a fight, and he went above and beyond to get it.
The only good thing about this installment was that Lucious was in the office and caught Andre talking to the other personality taking up residence in his body.
Lucious has been at war with his son for much of Empire Season 6, but Lucious should be able to pick up on the way his son acts when he's not in the best shape mentally.
Lucious is self-absorbed, and trying to get Yana's career off the ground, but I would hope he steps in to save his son before it's too late.
Yana learning that she was seen as problematic in the industry was hardly surprising, but the way she was given free rein to do what she wanted was laughable in the first place.
Cookie: How did you get those damn drugs out? We TSA'd your ass before we left the house.
Candace: Did you hide those drugs in your...
Cookie: Uh-Uh, I don't need that visual.
Yana wanted to have a deep connection to the single, and that's why she wanted to write it herself. She's lucky Porsha was not working with her because Porsha would have probably combusted at the way Yana acts.
That's not to say she acts badly, she just acts like she knows the industry better than others who have been a part of it for longer.
What I like the most about her is that she has no filter. She won't sugar coat things, and if she thinks someone is messing with her, she will call them out.
There's a chemistry between her and Lucious that doesn't appear to be burning out. They want to work together and keep it all business, but they're struggling to keep their hands off each other.
Their tryst at the close of the episode seemed like it was going to be interrupted by Cookie, who learned the truth about what Carol and Candace did in the past.
Candace and Carol trying to get Lucious sent down instead of Lucious wasn't that surprising. There had to be some pay off after the revelation at the close of Empire Season 6 Episode 13.
Andre: This isn't a negotiation. Do as I say or you will be replaced.
Treasure: Andre, what happened to me is your fault.
Devon: Everybody relax, we all on the same team here.
Andre: When I want your opinion Romeo, I'll ask for it. Instead of worrying about Treaure, maybe you should focus on the other ladies of your life.
Instead, we picked up sometime later, as though we were supposed to believe Cookie let both sisters out of her sight after the bombshell dropped.
Cookie was too relaxed throughout much of "I Am Who I Am." She should have been searching for answers from the get-go because there's no way she would allow someone to drop such a bomb and walk away from it.
What the sisters did was bad, but they thought it was the only way to keep Cookie out of jail.
If you watch Empire online, you know these women always seem to find a way to help each other, even if they don't agree with it.
Now that Cookie knows the truth, it seems plausible for her to rush back to Lucious. All roads lead to her former lover, and she's going to ask him how to deal with it.
As for Carol, the flashbacks helped highlight just how affected she was by her mother's departure. Until now, there was a lack of intel on her past, beyond the fact that she couldn't pick the right man for herself.
Now it's clear that her mother's exit upended her entire life, and she was forced to grow up faster than she thought she would.
It's horrible to think that her life has been filled with such misery, and it certainly seems like she's not out of the woods yet.
Cookie has been keeping Carol going financially, and now the truth is out about the feds, there's a good chance Cookie will pull back her support.
Will the sisters be forced to confront their differences, or is something else about to happen? We know Cookie gets killed, so there's that.
"I Am Who I Am" was a slight improvement on Empire Season Season 6 Episode 13, but the series continues to be a shell of its former self.
Most of the reveals feel too late in the game and are buried among horrible storylines.
What did you think of the secret Cookie's sisters were holding? What will become of Andre?
Hit the comments below.
Empire continues Tuesdays at 9/8c on FOX.
Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
