The 1st episode of Empire‘s highly anticipated 2nd season aired last night and viewers were glued to televisions nationwide.

We were finally reunited with the Lyons as they fight for the ‘Empire,’ while their leader is serving time for murder.? With Lucious (Terrence P. Howard) in prison, Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) seizes the chance to take over Empire Records with or without her sons’ help.

While the son’s all clamor for the throne, we are treated with a slew of surprise cameos including, Andr? Leon Talley, Al Sharpton, Chris Rock, Marisa Tomei, CNN’s Don Lemon, and more.

Miss Lawrence from Fashion Queens even got a chance to show off his pipes!

[Sidebar: For Those of You Who Forgot Lawrence Could Sing, CLICK HERE to check out his Closet Freak performance]

The lines are being drawn and BooBoo Kitty has even joined ‘Team Cookie’ for the hostile takeover…

Whatever the case, team ‘takeover’ and Lucious’ jailhouse rivals (including Chris Rock) have clearly underestimated him because we all know Lucious will come out on top.

Revisit the full episode below…

VIDEO: Empire Season 2 – Episode 1 (FULL)

What did you think of the EMPIRE Season 2 Premiere?

Was it everything you thought it would be??