The Lyon family matriarch's new hookup isn't all that he seems.
Cookie Lyon is trying to keep her family safe, but her latest hookup might be the Lyons' biggest danger yet.
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On Wednesday’s Empire, the matriarch of the Lyon family (and head of Lyon Dynasty) finally hooked up with concert promoter Laz Delgado (Adam Rodriguez), who won her over by swearing to keep her and her family safe, but is actually working with the kidnappers who took her son Hakeem.
"The audience is gonna go nuts when they see Laz is on the bad guy’s side," Taraji P. Henson previews in the clip from next week’s episode, "True Love Never," debuting exclusively on ETonline. It’s the second time Henson and Rodriguez have played romantic counterparts, the two starred together in Tyler Perry’s 2009 film I Can Do Bad All by Myself.
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"Cookie, she’s oblivious," Henson says of her character. "And I like that, because we are like that. Love will make you do dumb things."
But not everyone in Cookie’s life is so blind to the threat Laz poses. Sons Jamal and Hakeem don’t like the guy from the get-go. Hakeem, in particular, warns his mother to "be careful."
"Hakeem doesn’t trust Laz," Empire star Bryshere Y. Gray says. "He has this vibe, this type of energy from Laz that he doesn’t like, so he’s got a little side-eye to him."