History Awesome / Empire

* Cookie going full MamaBear on her boyfriend promoter in "My Bad Parts" when he shoved Hakeem.

* Cookie, Hakeem and Lyon Dynasty making a big splash by hijacking Lucious' celebratory party and performing onstage with ''Timbaland''.

* Jamal standing up to the [[spoiler: the thugs who try to rob him at Ghetto Ass Records, while said thugs ''had a gun pulled on him.'']]

* Even though it wasn't exactly in the best interest for ''Empire Records,'' Anika [[spoiler:selling out to Barretti after Lucious cheats on her again with Cookie was pretty satisfying to do to a complete jerk like him.]]

* Malcolm [[spoiler:shooting Reggie straight in the head to save Cookie.]]

* [[spoiler: Cookie vs Anika. Extra point for the latter showing she's not as weak as the former thought.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Anika''': Who's Boo Boo Kitty now?!]]
* Rhonda [[spoiler:saving Andre from being attacked by Vernon. Yes, he did die, but still awesome on her account.]]

* [[spoiler: Lucious managing to put a single together while in prison, and having his lawyer leak it to the media.]]
** [[spoiler: Lucious getting out on bail. Not because his new lawyer managed to turn his case around, but because he found compromising pictures of the judge, with the silent threat that they would be leaked if Lucious didn't walk out of prison. It should be mentioned that all this was done ''in the courtroom itself, with the prosecutor standing literally ten feet away.'']]

** [[spoiler: Of course, Lucious gets his own back by buying up a controlling interest Apex Media, a company that owns nearly every major urban media outlet in the country. Meaning that any chance of an artist under Lyon Dynasty to get their music distributed just plummets to zero. And to add insult to injury, he steals Hakeem's lead singer from his girl group and signs her to Empire as a solo artist.]]
*** [[spoiler: And then Cookie, of course, strikes back. DA Ford has her arrested on some minor charges with the intent of getting her to snitch on Lucious. Cookie seems like she's having a breakdown at the prospect of going back to prison, sheds tears and calls the DA back to the interrogation room. But instead of giving the DA any real information, she makes up some vague but believable story about Bunkie's murder being related to Lucious's desire to purchase Apex Media. The DA buys it, which gets Cookie both her freedom and the halt to Lucious's purchase of Apex that she needs to get her music back on the radio.]]
* Cookie and her new promoter [[spoiler: pulling guns on the thugs apparently hired by Lucious to rob Lyon Dynasty of their masters.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Cookie''': You packing?]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Promoter''': I see you are, too.]]
* In "True Love Never," Andre [[spoiler:resisting the temptation to sleep with District Attorney Alvarez in order to help Empire, instead {{blackmail}}ing her into helping him]]. [[spoiler:The fact that he returns home and happily tells Rhonda what happened, leading to them kissing, tops it off.]]

** The Frida Gatz vs Hakeem Lyon rap battle ending in [[spoiler:Hakeem winning and denouncing his last name.]]

* "Sins of the Father" has [[BadassGay Jamal,]] [[RagsToRiches Rhonda,]] [[BreakoutCharacter Cookie]], and [[TheFashionista Camilla]] each giving their own TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Lucious. Rhonda bears particular mention since she ''finally'' laid into him for writing her off as some spoiled princess just because she's white, when in reality he knows nothing about her or her background: she got herself into Penn and built her own career as a fashion editor, knows enough about business to realize he cheated his sons out of their shares just to woo Cookie, and she has been Andre's wife for ten years and has been the only one to actually help him with his bipolar disorder rather than pretend it doesn't exist.

* In "Slave to Memory," the Lyons crash a high-society ball, having infiltrated the orchestra to play a rap tune. They then proceed to expose everything Diana has done. While she denies it, the Lyons bring up evidence and more and Diana is arrested before all her big-time "friends."

[[AC:Season 1]]

* In "Light in Darkness" Tariq gives everyone at dinner a "TheReasonYouSuck"Speech, and for the most part each individual either gives their own comeback or takes it in silence. When he gets around to try this on Cookie, not only do Jamal and Andre immediately start speaking in her defence, but Cookie tells them to calm down and tells off Tariq without once losing her cool.

-->[[spoiler: '''Promoter''': I see you are, too.]]

* [[spoiler:Cookie vs Anika. Extra point for the latter showing she's not as weak as the former thought.
-->'''Anika''': Who's Boo Boo Kitty now?!]]

* Cookie and her new promoter [[spoiler: pulling guns on the thugs apparently hired by Lucious to rob Lyon Dynasty of their masters.
-->'''Cookie''': You packing?
-->'''Promoter''': I see you are, too.]]

* [[spoiler:Cookie vs Anika. Extra point for the latter showing she's not as weak as the former thought.]]

** [[spoiler: Of course, Lucious gets his own back by buying up a controlling interest in every major urban media outlet in the country. Meaning that any chance of an artist under Lyon Dynasty to get their music distributed just plummets to zero. And to add insult to injury, he steals Hakeem's lead singer from his girl group and signs her to Empire as a solo artist.]]

** [[spoiler: Of course, Lucious gets his own back by buying up a controlling interest in every major urban media outlet in the country. Meaning that any chance of an artist under Lyon Dynasty to get their music just plummets to zero. And to add insult to injury, he steals Hakeem's lead singer from his girl group and signs her to Empire as a solo artist.]]

* Cookie's act of spite when Lucious has dinner with his family as a FauxAffablyEvil gesture before plotting to take down Cookie and Hakeem's competing record label. She eats half her meal, promise to keep fighting, then gets up to leave...pulling the tablecloth behind her and dragging the [[FoodGorn expensive dinner spread straight to the floor]]. The family's reactions are mixed: the boys quietly shake their heads, Rhonda is utterly shocked and exasperated, but Lucious simply ''smirks''.

** [[spoiler: Lucious getting out on bail. Not because his new lawyer managed to turn his case around, but because he found compromising pictures of the judge, with the silent threat that they would be leaked if Lucious didn't walk out of prison. It should be mentioned that all this was done ''in the courtroom itself, with the prosecutor standing literally ten feet away?'']]

** [[spoiler: Lucious getting out on bail. Not because his new lawyer managed to turn his case around, but because he found compromising pictures of the judge, with the silent threat that they would be leaked if Lucious didn't walk out of prison. Did I mention that all this was done ''in the courtroom itself, with the prosecutor standing literally ten feet away?'']]

* How does Lucious manage to get Frank Gathers to not hurt Cookie? He couldn't convince Gathers himself, but he managed to buy off his bodyguards. Brutal? Yes. Manipulative. Yes. Awesome? ''Hell yeah''.

* Hakeem, during an open press of his musical duet with Snoop, changes his lyrics to diss his father.

* Rhonda [[spoiler:saving Andre from being attacked by Vernon. Yes, he did die, but still awesome on her account.]]

* "Sins of the Father" has [[BadassGay Jamal,]] [[RagsToRiches Rhonda,]] [[BreakoutCharacter Cookie]], and Camilla each giving their own TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Lucious. Rhonda bears particular mention since she ''finally'' laid into him for writing her off as some spoiled princess just because she's white, when in reality he knows nothing about her or her background: she got herself into Penn and built her own career as a fashion editor, knows enough about business to realize he cheated his sons out of their shares just to woo Cookie, and she has been Andre's wife for ten years and has been the only one to actually help him with his bipolar disorder rather than pretend it doesn't exist.

* "Sins of the Father" has [[BadassGay Jamal,]] [[RagsToRiches Rhonda,]] [[BreakoutCharacter Cookie]], and Camilla each giving their own TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Lucious. Rhonda bears particular mention since she ''finally'' laid into him for writing her off as some spoiled princess just because she's white, when in reality he knows nothing about her or her background: she got herself into Penn and built her own career as a fashion editor, and she has been Andre's wife for ten years and has been the only one to actually help him with his bipolar disorder rather than pretend it doesn't exist.

* "Sins of the Father" has [[BadassGay Jamal,]] [[RagsToRiches Rhonda,]] and [[BreakoutCharacter Cookie]] each giving their own TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Lucious.

* "Sins of the Father" has Jamal, Rhonda, and Cookie each giving their own TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Lucious.

* When Jamal makes his big coming out by performing at Lucious' annual white party and covering one of his father's songs...only to [[TakeThat change the lyrics to make it a gay love song]]. Everyone (except Lucious) is ecstatic.