Poor Andre. Just when he thinks he's finally got a handle on his life, something happens to completely knock him for a loop. After Lucious gave her exclusive to another publication, Harper decided to hit back at him by bringing his biggest secret out into the open by confirming to Andre what we all suspected was true — that Lucious' mom is still alive on Empire . Obviously, this was a major shock to Andre and caused him to rush out of the bipolar disorder event that he'd helped create. And while we have to see how his interaction with his long lost grandmother will go, I think it's safe to say that Lucious won't be able to keep this secret quiet for much longer. But here's the thing that's puzzling me — why was this a secret in the first place and how is Leah Walker still alive?
We saw through Lucious' flashbacks that his younger self had seen her pull the trigger. We may have never seen an actual body, but the implications were very clear. So how did that situation play out differently, especially since it still seems to haunt Lucious so vividly even now? I know this guy can be a good liar when he needs to be, but his childhood trauma has always felt very real to me, so the idea that he completely made the whole thing up seems highly unlikely. So then how is she still in the land of the living?
One possibility is that she really did pull the trigger, but managed to somehow survive out of pure luck. Another option is that she was actually playing Russian Roulette like she'd done so many times in the past. That way, she could've really pulled the trigger just like how Lucious recalls, only there was no bullet to deliver a deadly blow. Or, there's always the chance that she never shot herself at all, but chose to run out on Lucious and never return. Perhaps the thought of his mother willingly abandoning him was a much worse thought than her killing herself, so he chose to remember the past incorrectly to help avoid the pain. Given all of his high-powered connections, he could've easily tracked her down later in life and kept her hidden, so that his legacy would remain in tact.
Look, I'm not saying that this is definitely how it all went down. Knowing Lucious Lyon, he could've lied about her death for many reasons. But regardless of the why or how, if he doesn't offer up a reasonable explanation for all this, his mother's surprise return could be the one thing that tears this family apart for good.
Image: Chuck Hodes/FOX
