FoxOh no they didn't…did they?!
Empire is one of the juiciest nighttime soaps around—so we're going to take with a grain of salt the fact that the last we saw of the best character on the show in tonight's penultimate episode of season two, he was bleeding out on a red carpet after being freakin' SHOT.
And Jamal took the bullet for his homophobic, possibly sociopathic father, who had only a few scenes earlier said he hoped his middle son died from AIDS. Those are totally the words of a human garbage fire, not a father whose son should sacrifice his life for him.
Actually, to be honest, it seemed like Jamal tried to stop Freda from shooting Lucious (because he cares about her and didn't want her to make such a destructive decision) rather than trying to stop Lucious from being shot.
The whole reason Freda stormed toward the Lyon family was because she found out that Lucious is the one who killed her dad, Frank—imagine how upset she'll be when she finds out that Cookie is the one who snitched on Frank in the first place.
Before the shooting, Jamal had decided to sever ties with his family and shelf his album, but now the whole Lyon family is sitting in the hospital waiting for word about his fate. And, uh, so are we—and it looks like we'll have to wait for next week's season finale to find out what it'll be.
The teaser for the season two ender also featured a confrontation between Rhonda and Anika (now that Rhonda has realized Anika is the one who pushed her down the stairs), Anika seemingly jumping off a balcony (!!) and Lucious and Cookie tying the knot again. This show is nothing if not eventful!
And, by the way, Jamal seems to be the only one who recognizes how insane his family is right now, meaning he's the only tolerable Lyon at the moment. (Cookie's still amazing, but she's just as cray as Lucious. You of course want to be around her for all the fabulousness to rub off, but Jamal's the Lyon you'd probably want to be friends with.)
Empire airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Fox.