Cookie Is *Empire'*s Real O.G.

Another week of Empire, another chance for Taraji P. Henson to prove she is the Sun around which all other the people and plot developments revolve. Without Cookie, Empire is a song with no hook. You’d be kind of into it, but you might never intentionally put it on, and it would never get stuck in your head. And on last night’s episode she reminded the whole Lyon family—once again—that they're just a bunch of featured players and she is the chorus you can't stop singing. It was family dinner night at Chez Lucious (Terrence Howard) and while Andre (Trai Byers) tugged at his dad's pant leg and Jamal (Jussie Smollett) continued his transformation into Dumbest Character On The Show, Cookie just sat and let all of Lucious' Messianic complex mess roll off her shoulders. (Bryshere Y. Gray's Hakeem, obviously, was just chilling, because no one can rain on his hustle parade.) While he talks about learning from the few months he spent in prison, she knows her 17 years locked away taught her infinitely more about survival and resilience than he’ll ever understand. Thankfully for us, Lucious will always underestimate Cookie's ability to thrive in spite of him, because it means we'll keep getting more iconic lines like this.