Every time I think Cookie is a good mother on Empire, she does something that makes me reconsider calling her wholly "good." Granted, Cookie has been through a lot, and she sacrificed 17 years of her life for her children. But when she’s beating Hakeem with a broomstick, I want to be like, “girl, what?” That happened again in the Season 3 winter finale, but that's not even the most important part. Cookie staged an intervention for Jamal on Empire — but not before giving him the pills that were the problem in the first place.
Let me explain. Cookie is dating a rich mayoral candidate named Angelo Dubois, and the fact that she is attached to this man who is wealthy and definitely not relatable to common folk is helping him in the polls. Call it the “Cookie effect,” because that’s what his mother calls it. During a press conference to pump up Angelo’s mayoral campaign, the people watching became restless and said that Angelo has no idea what it’s like to be a regular person. Naturally, Cookie jumped up and defended him, saying that she was just an “around-the-way girl from North Philly,” and that the Captain’s Ball they were originally planning would be a People’s Ball instead, and everyone could come.
Part of the People’s Ball plan was that Jamal would perform. The problem is that Jamal has become increasingly addicted to pills for the PTSD he developed after being shot by Freda Gatz. Cookie dumped them all down the sink and told him to get right, that she couldn’t have an addict for a son. Good parenting, right? Well, not for long.
The day of the People’s Ball, Cookie found Jamal going through withdrawals and saying he couldn’t perform. Rather than excusing him from the concert, because Angelo’s name needed to be boosted by this display, Cookie took apart the sink (“I’m a plumber’s daughter,” she said) and retrieved some of Jamal’s pills from the trap. She then proceeded to give them to him. No, really.
Jamal was able to sing with the help of his meds, and, as he got off stage, Cookie and the whole Lyon clan were there for his intervention. She led the charge in telling him that he had to go to rehab for his addiction. But, damn, Cookie. You just fed your own son’s addiction as a means to get something you wanted. You fixed it, broke it, and now you’re trying to fix it again? At least Lucious is consistently evil.
While getting clean is the most important thing Jamal can do right now, Cookie has done her son wrong here. I hope she makes up for it in the back half of the season.
Images: Chuck Hodes/FOX; Giphy (2)
