Errol

Tarajis ecstasy face....damn and this was just riveting from start to finish. Loved Andres breakdown

Yup, her face was EVERYTHING. Andre's breakdown and the shower scene. So much said without uttering a single word. The episode itself was just non-stop from beginning to end, agree. I loved everything about it. Not a single scene was wasteful for me as a viewer.

YES! to all of this

It would be awesome if Cookie gets another baby out of this if the show actually goes through with killing off Lucious, which I highly doubt. He'll become another Magic Johnson and Robin Scorpio, IMO.

I wanted Cookie to see Anika's face and look her dead in the eyes as Luscious beat thang up.

I wanted the same thing, but I think it works best with neither knowing she saw. We know Anika won't be leaving anytime soon and she won't let them know she knows. It wouldn't work storywise.

Or maybe not. She tells him the next day, per clips.

And Cookie with her Lena Horne and Halle Berry comments in future episodes? LMAO. LOVE this show.

Yes, BABY! Wow, even though Anika pisses me off. I did feel for her in that moment. Good acting, I guess.

I've never seen Errol so excited about watching a soap. I think I'll have to check out "Empire" soon.

LMAO. I love my soaps, but I don't always get to watch them live. Empire, however, is JUST THE SOAP to watch live and talk about with others. You can't read recaps for this.

Damn you, Lucious! Like others said, you can't help but hate him and love him at the same time. Wow, that scene with Lucious and Cookie the way he's just taking her and she's all up into it. YES!

OMG, Anika!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, Anika. He loves him some Cookie! Ha ha.

Anika hook up Elle on drugs in the past too I believe. I wonder why she don't like Elle. & not because she's trying to make Cookie look bad. It seems like Elle & Anika got some kind of history. I wonder was Lucious start the Empire before hooking up with Anika.

Yeah, there's some history there. The way Elle and she talked in that brief moment showed some history there.

BTW, who would have thunk that it would take Empire for me to actually see what talent Courtney Love apparently always had. Her reputation in real life always clouded my judgement of her and I never gave her the chance to see what she could bring to the table. Kudos to producers and Love for bringing it!

Yes, it best be Cookie giving that speech. No one else, honey! lmao

ANIKA you BITCH!!!!

LOVE IT! Matthew McConaughey shilling the Lincoln MKC during commercial breaks as Jamal drives off with the Empire 4 license platted black Lincoln MKC during the show. Ha ha.

Lucious showing that despite not agreeing with his son's sexuality, he ultimately loves his son through and through. Character driven storylines on a soap, even one that airs one episode per week? 'I'm 'lovin it!

Ya'll don't live post? 17 minutes in and so much has happened. What's her face played by Raven apparently abandoned her daughter. Cookie set Lucious straight since he chose his side piece fiance over the ex-wife that gave him three kids and a company to fight for. Jamal lost his boo because he couldn't say he had a special someone in his life as what's his face packed up and left. the. ghetto.

Wow! Just, wow! Tonight's episode was epic. Welcome to Empire, Raven!

But what have Hakeem ever done to Jamal. I mean, Hakeem tried to walk away.

Jamal put his friends in danger. He's an employee of Empire, use their resources. In the End he still going to be getting paid my his daddy.

As far as Jamal knows the people that came and shot up his studio session were friends of Hakeem's, which is what Andre wanted him to think. Andre just didn't count on anyone getting hurt as he thought Hakeem's "thug friends" were just all talk and no action. Therefore, I totally understand where Jamal was coming from. Andre is playing his brothers in order to get ahead and look best in their father's eyes.

I don't see how Jamal put his friends in danger. He was in his own environment and Andre played up on that and created a situation where there was none. However, I do agree that whatever success Jamal has with whatever work he's doing right now it'll all be under the umbrella (ie. control) of Empire Records. But we should all remind ourselves he isn't concerned about daddy's Empire in the sense that he's ignoring that he still works for the company. He's thinking of his long-term goal of taking over the business now that Lucious has vowed to give it all to one of his sons. Jamal just wants it to be him at this point following all the disgusting and derogatory comments he's received from him over the years. Not to mention the lack of faith and respect.

I knew "Empire" would be good and that I would be covering it on Soap Opera Network, but I withheld doing so because I didn't want to be disappointed if the ratings came in terrible. So happy it didn't. Therefore, I watched the pilot and loved everything about it. Is it the best thing ever created? No. Did it flesh out the characters enough? Not really, but this isn't a big screen movie or a daily soap opera that has time to do so, but what it did do was flesh out very flawed characters and address stereotypes that I never would have expected on network TV. Even ethnic cable networks like BET or TVone would have ignored some of this.

Like many have said before, Cookie (Taraji) is EVERYTHING!

I believe it's one of those free magazines that are available as you exit the grocery store or Starbucks.

If it's free, I'd understand the poor quality. If not...OMG! Now, as for Starbucks...they sell something other than overpriced food and drinks?

Pretty sure it's a Lifetime movie. They make Lifetime movies about everything.

Well we haven't had one about soap opera message boards and the people with connections to terrorists who claim they ghost wrote some awful storyline plot point for a soap opera, while network executives tried to interfere and scrapped their work out of fear of retaliation. I mean, you can't make that ish up!

Honestly it looks more professional than SOD has in recent years. I see no random cursive scribbling.

Those are the worst! I've been meaning to tell Stephanie that. I'll tell her next time I see her. That feels like a Pixie! thing that was forced on them.

CHECK OUT OUR GIRL ON THE COVER OF CELEB PARENTS MAGAZINE W/HER LITTLE MINI ME!

This is a magazine? The cover (not the photo) looks amateurish. Seriously, is this a magazine?

Kelli McCarly formerly Beth Wallace on Passions and former Miss USA is now doing soft core adult movies...my how the mighty have fallen....lol

It's actually quite the lucrative industry. Some of our soap stars have done soft-core too. At least McCarty is getting paid and not out of work

Tracy Fans,

Congratulations on having the longest individual thread in the history of SON with over 1200 pages and 24,000 replies!

I love Holly J and Sav together, though don't understand how Holly J can make Sav believe he got a girl knocked up in one ep and then a few weeks later about to have sex with him in the music/dance room. Doesn't make sense. Riley needs to cut the mop, otherwise I like Zane. Drew totally could have been gay, but I do like him with Allie. Allie is my favorite character as I always side with the town bitch. Claire is a bore and Jenna is boring. I'll take a story with Drew/Allie/KC, thank you. Bianca is a cold hearted bitch, yes, but I don't like her that much, lol.

The new season looks intense. Can't wait.

The greatest thread on SON lives on nearly four years later.

I had to bump this thread, because I finally found a longer version of Stone's death theme.

It's from the ABC Afterschool Special Positive: A Journey Into AIDS, produced by Wendy Riche and Shelley Curtis. It detailed Kimberly McCullough and Michael Sutton finding out more about HIV/AIDS and the storyline at the time. The almost 3 minute version of the theme kicks in about the last 3 minutes of this clip, it starts at about the time Francesca James (then GH's Supervising Producer) is talking to Kimberly and Michael about their final scene together.

This score is simply AMAZING, and probably the best score I've ever heard on a soap.

ABC should return the After school specials as a message to teenagers if they want to really educate and capture that audience while providing them with "engaging" and "thoughtful" storytelling. The viewing of the Stone/Robin special was so moving to me and it was so well done. I am dreaming of a Wendy Riche return to ABC Daytime, whether through GH or an executive level.