‘Empire’ Fans Divided Over Jussie Smollett’s Return: “All I Can Think About is Jussie Lying”

On Wednesday night, Empire returned from its Season 5 hiatus after a long three months away — and boy, were those three months eventful. Since the Fox drama aired its mid-season finale in early December, star Jussie Smollett was attacked in what he claimed to be a hate crime, but he was later arrested and charged with 16 counts of filing a false police report for allegedly staging the attack. Amid all this controversy, fans were naturally split over Smollett’s return to Empire, with some saying that Wednesday’s episode was overshadowed by “Jussie lying,” and others stepping in to support the actor.

According to TVLine’s recap, the episode, “My Fault Is Past,” included a few notable parallels between Smolett and his character, Jamal. “I don’t know if you’ve been reading the blogs, but it’s been kind of a tough week,” Jamal told the crowd after an impromptu performance. Of course, the show wasn’t referring to the actor’s personal drama — it referred to him finding out he has a long-lost half-brother and his rocky relationship with his fiancé.

But regardless of its intentions, many Empire fans found the line, as well as Smollett’s entire story arc, hard to ignore.”Jussie Smollett watching Empire right now,” one user Tweeted with a crying GIF. “All I can think about is Jussie lying,” wrote another.

But not everyone felt uncomfortable watching Empire‘s mid-season premiere. For every tweet side-eying Smollett, there’s one supporting him. “I’m happy to see Jussie Smollett!! Go Jussie!!” wrote one user. “Can’t deny the talent of Jussie tho,” wrote another.

No matter how you feel about Smollett’s Empire comeback, you won’t have to watch him for long: in late February, producers announced that Smollett will be removed from the final two episodes of Season 5.

“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us. Jussie has been an important member of our Empire family for the past five years and we care about him deeply,” wrote executive producers Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Brett Mahoney, Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo, and Dennie Hammer at the time. “While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out. We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.”

Watch Empire Season 5 Episode 10 "My Fault Is Past" on Hulu