Everyone’s favorite TV dramas are back and better than ever—that’s right Wednesday nights and TGI Thursdays are back! The seasons of Empire, How to Get Away with Murder, and Scandal are going to be amazing if not the best yet. Here’s a recap of what went down this past week on the season premieres of these shows along with a few season predictions!
The oldest of the three dramas, Scandal, is bringing all kinds of new life to our televisions this fall. The lopsided, love-triangle drama of Fitz, Olivia, and the First Lady only gets messier this season.
Towards the end of episode 1, Olivia and Fitz’s “situationship” seems to be exposed by Sally Langston, the bitter ex-VP, on her talk show. This comes shortly after Fitz served Mellie divorce papers at her swearing in ceremony as senator. Olivia is usually always ready to fix a messy situation, but judging by the look on her face when Sally exposed her affair with President Grant, this is going to be one hard situation to come out of. Knowing Olivia and her team of Gladiators, I’m sure that she’ll figure out how to make the situation work in her favor. Who knows, maybe Olivia and Fitz could become an “official” couple and build towards that jam-making Vermont family that they always wanted.
Things ended pretty crazy for Annalise and her team on “How to Get Away with Murder” last season. For starters, we find out that Sam did have something to do with Lilah’s death, but it was Frank who actually committed the crime. Rebecca, who ended up being tied up in the basement of Annalise’s house, won’t get the chance to clear her name with her peers, because she ends up being murdered at the end of the season one finale. However, unlike the whodunit plot that surrounded Lila Stanguard and Sam Keating’s murder in season one, Rebecca’s murderer is revealed in the first episode! Annalise’s assistant, Bonnie, turns out to be her killer.
Annalise and her team are busy trying to put the murder of Sam (and Rebecca) behind them, but old secrets don’t die easily, and I’m sure these issues won’t stay buried for long. There’s a;so a creepy new murder for Professor Keating and her team to solve. Annalise recruits an old friend (and lover) named Eve to help her framed ex, Nate, and things get steamy. Then Annalise decides to go out and party with her students to…uh…celebrate “new beginnings”. There’s a weird love triangle that seems to be developing between Wes, Annalise and Eve. It will be interesting to see whether Wes or Eve are actually into Professor Keating, or whether they have some other agenda. Only time will tell, but I suspect that nothing is really as it seems with these new relationships.
Empire had a booming first season this past year and broke records with audience viewing. Hopefully, that winning streak will continue this fall with the show’s second season. We left off with Lucius Lyon being carted off to jail during his tribute show, while his sons (sans Jamal Lyon) looked on fervidly (possibly hinting that one of them had something to do with Lucius’s arrest?). Like clockwork, the Lyon boys and Cookie all jumped at the chance to run Empire in Lucius’s absence. However, the only loyal person that Lucius entrusted his company to was none other than Jamal—the gay son that he despised so much. In this season, we are seeing a new side of Jamal, as the company seems to be running him and not the other way around. Jamal begins to feel the pressure and the angst associated with being the head of Empire, all while dealing with his rather dysfunctional family and their plot to take over the company. Jamal visits his father in prison, seeking advice and giving updates to Lucius on the company and his family, while they both try to figure out who sent Lucius to jail in the first place. Cookie and Anika aka “BooBoo Kitty” are busy trying to butter up a wealthy power player in the music industry, so that they can complete their plan of removing Jamal as head of Empire and taking it over themselves.
Cookie and Lucius’s old drug lord, Frank Gathers conveniently ends up in prison with Lucius and is also trying to figure out who ratted him out. Frank finds out Cookie is behind his imprisonment and decides to send her a message. Despite thinking she set him up, Lucius comes to Cookie’s defense ,and lets Frank know that he is on her side. Frank orders his prison goons to take Lucius out, but much to his surprise, they turn on Frank instead. Proving that while Frank may have run the streets, Lucius clearly had way more influence, money and power than Frank Gathers ever did. In the last few minutes of the episode, we see Cookie, Hakeem and Andre Lyon, and Anika storm the boardroom where Jamal was holding his meeting to gleefully announce their taking over Empire, only to be blind-sided by the fact that their power player had switched teams and is now siding with Jamal and Lucius. We can all guess who was behind this major game changer. Lucius proved once again that he is a force to be reckoned with, and even from jail he won’t go quietly. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of Lucius despite his incarceration, and I doubt that he’ll be a jail bird for much longer. If Lucius has enough money and power to influence what happens both inside and outside of jail, I’m sure he will find a way to get out way sooner than what his sentence allows.
It’s going to be an exciting fall! We can’t wait to see what the writers and actors of our favorite Wednesday and Thursday night shows will bring us. Also, major congrats to the first black woman to win an Emmy for best actress in a drama and the leading lady of HTGAWM, Viola Davis. You deserved this win and many more to come!