Hakeem enjoys his new role as the CEO of Empire, as Cookie wants to know more about Lucious' past.
- Apr 7, 2016
AceShowbiz - "Empire" just killed off two characters and it's so unexpected. While it initially appeared that Camilla (Naomi Campbell), who returned in the midseason finale to take over Empire, would be the major antagonist in the second half of the season, [SPOILER ALERT!] she and her wife Mimi (Marisa Tomei) meet their demise in the April 6 episode.
It all happened after Mimi received a sex tape featuring Camilla and Hakeem that was secretly recorded by the latter. Losing control of Empire stock, Camilla lost it and poisoned her wife Mimi and left her to drown in the tub to make it look like a suicide.
But Lucious recorded the whole thing and then used it to threaten Camilla. He pointed a gun at her and told her to choose: going to prison for Mimi's murder or taking the same poison she gave Mimi. Camilla begged him to shoot her instead but when he declined, she drank the poison before the screen cut to black.
Explaining the shocking death, showrunner Ilene Chaiken tells The Hollywood Reporter, "It was definitely hard to say goodbye. It would have been great to be able to continue for longer, but it was time to say goodbye."
Of Lucious' surprising move, Chaiken says, "He does it because he's twisted, and because he can. Lucious Lyon wants to be able to say, 'I didn't do it. I didn't kill her,' and he knows it's much more satisfying to him to make her make that ultimate decision and fix the problem for him." Chaiken also confirms that Camilla's indeed dead. "She drank the poison," she says.
With Camilla gone now, Hakeem is the new CEO of Empire. "Lucious assumed that all he needed to do was get her out of the way, but Hakeem is still CEO," Chaiken says of the ongoing battle for the throne. "He certainly intends to remain CEO. He knows it's going to be a challenge and his hope is that by showing his family that he can fix this, that he did get rid of her and did get her out of their company, that they're going to respect him and give him a chance to run it."
In the next episode, Lucious appears to try to pin Camilla's death on his son Hakeem. The new CEO faces a new trouble because of his new love interest and Cookie wants to know more about Lucious' past that he has kept secret from her.
"The Tameness of a Wolf" airs Wednesday, April 13 at 9/8c on FOX. According to the official synopsis, "Tensions between Lucious and his sons continue to rise. Back at Lyon Dynasty, Lucious aims to direct his most emotional and honest music video yet and recreates a traumatic interaction with his mother for the new single. Meanwhile, on the Mirage a Trois tour, Tiana and Laura begin viciously fighting over the spotlight, forcing Hakeem to mediate between the two divas."
