'Empire' Season One Finale Recap: Lucious Lyon Was Misdiagnosed, Cookie Almost Smothers Him

The first season of “Empire,” easily the most reliably shocking non-cable series this year, went out in a ratings busting blaze of glory.

The much hyped finale of the Fox drama earned an early overnight audience of 16.5 million viewers. And in the key 18-49 demographic, the Terrence Howard-starring series had a 6.4 rating, according to Deadline.

The utterly shocking revelations that occurred during the course of the show ensured that “Empire” fans were not let down.

In a two-hour finale, where Terrence Howard’s voice-over warns that even God can’t kill him, it is reveal that the the CEO of Empire Entertainment is not in fact dying.

The whole stark season was structured over the idea that Lucious Lyon, an utterly flawed entertainment titan, was preparing to leave his company behind once he succumbed to the progressive neurodegenerative disease ALS, according to NPR.

And, as it turns out, the man was misdiagnosed and will be okay.

Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), Lyon’s long-suffering and even longer plotting ex-wife, nearly smothers Lucious to death with a pillow when she hears him make a drug-induced confession that he is not dying and that he murdered Bunkie.

Vernon (Malik Yoba), Lucious’ right-hand man, gets out of rehab then gets bashed in the head by Rhonda Kaitlin (Janette Doubleday), who then reveals that she is pregnant.

A lot of worlds were shaken up in this show that resembles, with its excesses and family problems, an updated Hip Hop version of “Dynasty.”

The finale also had a good number of star cameos, bringing in big time names such as Snoop Dogg, Rita Ora, Patti LaBelle and Jennifer Hudson.

According to Deadline Hollywood, the online streaming service Hulu is ready to run with all the "Empire" action as it points users in its blog to the site’s available “Empire” hit songs.