Returning home for Thanksgiving is the definition of a love-hate relationship. You want to go home and finally get your hands on a home-cooked meal, finally break out of those four walls you’ve been living in for the past two and a half months and finally press pause on the work that’s been non-stop all semester.
However, returning home comes with your parents questioning you about your love life, your grades… the list goes on. But you’ll take that in stride until Thanksgiving Day when your Aunt Petunia continuously begs to hook you up with that guy you’ve been trying to curve for months, and that’s when you start wondering which is worse: being set up on a date with him or being single in the midst of cuffing season.
But nothing is compared to what a Thanksgiving dinner would be like at Lucious Lyon’s house from the tv series “Empire”… at the lion’s den.
Imagine… Lucious sitting at the head of the table with that cynical smile on his face, while Anika sits to his right looking fierce and deranged all wrapped up in red lipstick with the baby monitor nearby.
Cookie would be sitting opposite Lucious, downing wine like it’s water. And we all know she would be thinking, “Why the hell am I here when I could have that fine mayor waiting on me…”
Hakeem would be splayed out over his seat, dripping in gold in every place possible– being extra as always. He’s probably drinking Hennessey trying to be someone he’s not. And then there’s Jamal, and we all have to wonder whether or not he’s high on pain meds and alcohol. Hopefully he’ll be sober and just annoyed at the fact that he has to play nice with a family that has ostracized and belittled him at every chance they got.
Lastly, there will be the faithful mastermind Andre possibly throwing smug smiles at Hakeem over the fact that he “stole” Nessa from him. I mean, that’s only if you believe that they had something to begin with. And sadly Grandma Lyon was put to bed early by her aid– on Lucious’ orders, of course.
Now dinner would start out pleasant, or as pleasant as it could be when there are so many secret keepers and entangled webs of lies all at one table.
But we all know shortly enough, Cookie and Lucious’ love life will rear its heart throbbing head. Lucious will say something cute to get Cookie to reminisce. And she will fall for it because deep down, we know that Cookie will always love Lucious, but the fact that Anika has his ring on her finger is not something that she can handle. Honestly, it’s a serious wonder Anika is still breathing.
But their burning tension will come to a halt when Hakeem finally cracks. He’ll start throwing jabs at Andre about his dead wife and his mental health issues because it’s the only way he can make Andre hurt as much as he did when Nessa was taken from him. Or at least what Hakeem imagined as Nessa being taken from him, because we all know they had nothing special– it was just a vibe, Keem.
At this point we find out that Jamal is indeed hyped up on his drug cocktail because he blacks out (spoil alert!!) for the second time.
And that is when all hell breaks loose.
Cookie drops to the floor and grabs at Jamal’s face screaming, “Somebody call a medic!!” Anika tries to step in and help, but that’s just too much for Cookie– and they’re off. Cookie snaps out, “Get your Boo Boo Kitty self outta here, this is my family,” and then they’re off fighting for the umpteenth time. Meanwhile, Hakeem and Andre are arguing as Lucious is trying to break up Anika and Cookie. All the while, Anika throws sly jabs about how she’s the one wearing Lucious’ ring and sleeping in his bed.
And before any more of Pandora’s box can open, a baby’s cry can be heard and as the family turns to the entrance of the room, Grandma Lyon is seen holding baby Lyon as the screen fades to black.