When will Hakeem ever learn? Empire’s resident bad boy has some growing up to do, and it might be so that he’s finally figuring that out. Or not. I dunno. Hakeem’s 21st birthday is here on Empire, and he’s celebrating the only way he knows how — but doing a bunch of club appearances with his grew and getting paid for it. Unfortunately, Hakeem’s Empire birthday went from partying to fighting, fast, and now Hakeem must pay the price for his youthful indiscretions.
I don’t know what it was about this episode or this show in general, but everyone is obsessed with live streaming. I get that Empire owns a streaming service, but no one streams everything (or do they and I’m just too old to understand). I would think watching Hakeem walk from club to club would be boring, but what do I know? Anyway, when one of the club owners tries to stiff Hakeem for his appearance fee, two guys who are not a part of the party threaten the owner, get the money for Hakeem, and take the guys’ watch, too. Hakeem kicked the security guys Andre appointed for him and took these guys instead. Was this a smart decision? No. They basically just held up a club owner for his watch, so definitely no.
Later, one of the vagrant partiers took a liking to Tiana’s friend, Kennedy, and when she wanted nothing to do with him, he sucker punched her in the face, starting a melee that involved the police arriving and all members of the Empire family fleeing. Hakeem doesn’t get that those guys are de facto Empire employees (he gave them some cash and the watch for helping him get his money), and Andre bans Hakeem from Empire’s streaming service and tells him to man up. He’s 21, and it’s time he started acting like an adult. Even Tiana is mad at him, since he is just whining about how this will effect him and not asking about her friend that got hurt. Boy, bye.
For some reason, Hakeem eventually sees the light and leaves to spend the rest of his birthday with “his girl.” This means Bella, his daughter, thankfully, and even though Lucious tells him some story about when he was born and how proud of him he is not, Hakeem does get some time in with his daughter, which is what he should have done in the first place. Does this mean Hakeem is on the road to responsibility? I’m not sure about that, but maybe this will be his first move.
