Entertainment

Anika Is On The Run On 'Empire'

Chuck Hodes/FOX

My biggest problem with Anika on Empire is that she keeps associating with these stupid people. The Lyons are criminals and liars — Lucious especially — and she is smart and beautiful and classy and need not even deal with anyone in that family! I mean, I know she is now married to Lucious and had a baby with Hakeem, but girl, love yourself. She doesn’t love herself enough, clearly, and that’s why she’s in the predicament she’s in now. Where is Anika on Empire? She hopped on a bus, and now she’s on the run.

Anika married Lucious in order to not have to testify against him to the FBI (because you can’t testify against your spouse). In return, she demanded Lucious give her something back, and that something was being appointed to the A&R Head position she wanted at Empire Enterprises. An eye for an eye, clearly. But Tariq, FBI agent extraordinaire, knows that taking down the women in Lucious’ life is the only way that he’s going to take down his half-brother (that’s Lucious. This is complicated). And so, prodded by Lucious’ mom, who hates Anika, Tariq told Anika that she was being subpoenaed to testify against Lucious and the minute that Lucious saw that subpoena he would have her murdered. Tariq is right – Lucious is the guy who kills someone because someone smudged his Puma sneaker, so he would definitely make Anika disappear to protect himself. Tariq told Anika to put up and enter witness protection or take her chances.

Anika opted to drop her daughter off with Hakeem and jump on a bus to…somewhere. If you want to be inconspicuous, maybe you don’t jump on a Bolt bus with your Olivia Pope wardrobe, but fine. The previews for next week show Anika, Cookie, and Lucious in conversation, so maybe she didn’t go far. Maybe they hunted her down. Either way, Anika needs to have a plan, and she needs to come up with one fast, lest she disappear for reals.