Why Did Rhonda & Andre Kill Vernon On 'Empire'? Season 2 Finds Them Dealing With The Consequences

May 22, 2024

Another day, another drama in Empire world. The Lyon family is never very far from scandal, and that goes for Lucious’ son, Andre, and his wife, Rhonda, too. In the Season 1 finale, this married couple got themselves into quite a pickle — they killed Vernon, Lucious’ trusted advisor and employee. But why did Andre and Rhonda kill Vernon on Empire? Well, it really all comes back to Lucious (as most things on the show do).

If you don’t remember how it all went down, it goes a little something like this: At the end of Season 1, Lucious is sent to prison because he killed Bunkie (and he assumes that Cookie ratted him out). Vernon, Lucious’ most trusted confidant, is basically the only person who can corroborate or dismiss the charges against him, but, unfortunately, Vernon decides to make a stop at Andre’s house before he can do anything else. Andre, bitter and angry at the fact that he thinks Vernon stabbed him in the back during an attempted takeover at Empire, attacked Vernon, but Vernon quickly gained the upper hand in the fight. Luckily for Andre, at least, Rhonda swooped in when Vernon was about to murder Andre. Candlestick + Rhonda + Vernon’s head = one dead Vernon. Oops.

To be fair, the blow to Vernon was a defensive strike, because Andre would have died had Rhonda not intervened. As Vernon is on the floor bleeding out, Rhonda stopped Andre from calling the police, telling him that she is pregnant with their first child and thus cannot go to jail (even though I really don’t think she would have). Bye, Vernon — you were the star witness for Agent Carter’s case against Lucious, and now you’re gone.

But now what happens? The way I see it, this storyline with Rhonda, Andre, and dead Vernon can go one of a few ways:

Andre, Consumed By Guilt, Rats On Rhonda

Andre really loves his wife, and man, does she have a hell of a grip on him, but I’m thinking that maybe his newfound religious fervor will force him to become a more moral man. Andre could send Rhonda up the river and raise their baby alone.

Vernon Is Not Actually Dead

Stranger things have happened on television. Vernon could pop up as a star witness against Lucious somewhere. And Rhonda, too.

Rhonda Flips On Her Husband & Tells The Police He Murdered Vernon

This is the most likely scenario, because Rhonda is a total master manipulator. She has been making moves on her husband’s career for years, and she’s not going to let anything stand in her way. She’ll take that baby (that she’ll get millions in child support for) and run. Rhonda and Cookie are really cut from the same cloth — it’s too bad they don’t really love each other.

Andre & Rhonda Get Away With Murder (Literally)

While I’m always satisfied when particularly evil or stupid characters on television shows get their comeuppance, it would be satisfying for nothing to happen to Andre and Rhonda because it changes the Empire game so much. Vernon’s dead. Just dead. No one knows why and he was the star witness against Lucious, so Lucious gets released. And then this whole hostile takeover thing is pretty much voided, because you know when Lucious gets back, he’s not messing around. Amazing how one decision can change the direction of a whole show, right?

So what happens to Andre and Rhonda now? They’re having a baby, and that’s about all we know. We’ll just have to tune into Empire to find out. And if you forgot anything else that happened in Season 1, check out the drunk recap video below.

Images: Chuck Hodes/FOX; Giphy (5)

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