Anika’s pregnancy (and Rhonda’s miscarriage) in Empire Season 2 hit the show like a ton of bricks, but during the Empire Season 3 premiere, viewers and the Lyon clan got to meet the show’s latest bundle of joy. Anika’s baby was born on Empire , and there's only one problem: it's a girl now named Bella, not the boy that Lucious was expecting. Woops.
Anika was pushed into unexpected labor after watching Rhonda fall over the side of a building and die (I would say that would do the same for me, too). Hakeem, who is the baby’s biological father, was too drunk to show up for the birth, so Lucious was there for her instead, considering he's now Anika’s husband so he can’t testify against her to the feds. This show gets so complicated. Lucious told Anika after the birth that she “lied to him” about the baby being a boy, and he was not happy that it was a girl. Why? I’m not really sure.
Lucious has three sons and seemed okay with the prospect of having a granddaughter (who was really his daughter) when Raven-Symoné came knocking with her daughter in Season 1. I think Lucious wanted a Lyon he could groom to be just like him. I mean, he thinks his sons are disappointments, mostly because he can’t program them like blind robots. Another son could carry on the Lyon name and do what Lucious says. Maybe even take over Empire Entertainment.
And what of Hakeem, who is really the new baby’s father? He didn’t show up to the hospital when Bella was born, so, as some sort of punishment, Lucious put his own name on Bella’s birth certificate as her father. This family, I cannot even. By the end of the Season 3 premiere, it seemed like Lucious had some around to the idea of a grand/daughter, cooing over her in her nursery — with FBI agent Tariq watching from the nanny cam.
Will Bella be Lucious’ undoing on Empire? No, probably not, since he’s made his own very numerous mistakes. However, I’m sure he’ll need someone to blame for them going forward, and I just hope Bella doesn't already start to suffer the way his sons have from his actions.
Images: Chuck Hodes/FOX; Giphy
