#skye summers

Skye Summers : what can I say, I love her ! Of course, because her appearance as a guest star was announced in advance only for a few episodes there was never any really suspense about the possibility for her to be a long-term love interest for Jamal. That’s maybe the drawback of having such a huge star as a guest star, we can kind of guess if the story will last or not.

But let’s talk about the storyline : I really thought it was an interesting one. I understood the writers’ interest in bringing that bisexual storyline and all the sexual fluidity speech by Jamal. Not everyone liked it, obviously, but that was expected.

                                        ♭ Thank you for seeing me. 

The show's willingness to take on subjects with a degree of difficulty high enough that even so-called "prestige" dramas tend to steer clear remains impressive. Case in point: Following their rousing duet "Powerful" — a Black Lives Matter protest anthem mixed with "Roar"-style empowerment pop — inveterate morning-DJ troublemaker Charlamagne tha God, appearing as himself, bluntly interrogates the pair about their identities. "You black now?" he asks Skye, accusing her of "singing about a race she never really claimed." Without realizing that he's struck a nerve, he asks Jamal how people would react if, despite being gay, he suddenly started dating a woman. You can see every possible shade of these sentiments expressed across social media anytime a celebrity's statements on race or sexuality make the national news. A quickie photoshop of Skye with "a Rachel Dolezal wig" adds even more authentic viral-politics flavor to the mix.

All of this was in service of last week's shocking smooch — maybe the single soapiest moment in the show's history, at least until that staircase tumble tonight. The series could have coasted off the sensationalism of that moment for as long as it wanted; instead, it choose to dig into the sociopolitical subtext. (Showrunner mindreading attempts are always ill-advised, but it's not tough to imagine it's because this shit matters to them.) Not that any of it felt like getting lectured, of course. It wouldn't be Empireif even sensitive topics weren't turned into "oh shit!" moments, whether that's the shock of Charlamagne's Q&A or the heartbreaking bigotry ofLucious when, with tears of joy in his eyes, he tells Jamal, "She fixed you!"