Last Night's TV: Empire, Survivor, Criminal Minds, and More (SPOILERS!)

VIEW IN BROWSER THIS ISSUE: Empire, Survivor, Criminal Minds, Code Black, Nashville TOP MOMENT OF THE NIGHT Empire Branches Out ABC BECAUSE: Last week, Chris Rock -- this week, Ludacris and Kelly Rowland; last week, Empire -- this week, Lyon Dynasty Records, coming in to outsmart, out-sweat (if Hakeem's workout regimen has anything to do with it), and out-swag the former Head Label In Charge by any means necessary. Don't sleep on Empire... you might end up with your head in a box. READ OUR RECAP Survivor CBS WHAT HAPPENED: "Ring! Ring! Hello, Ms. Wiglesworth, this is your Survivor wake-up call. Welcome to the game." That's EW recapper Dalton Ross channeling crazy man Jeff Varner, contacting old school Kelly Wiglesworth. Ater last week's razor-thin edging out of Vytas over Abi, Varner tells the cameras that he wasn't truly flipping on his Old School alliance by voting Vytas, just trying to send them a message -- it's time to put a pause on collecting firewood and play the game. And no one has been playing the game more than Shirin and Spencer, so newly empowered Varner decides it's time for one of them to go... and as Abi's pendulum of unpredictability happens to swing in Varner's favor this week, Shirin is voted out after Spencer makes a more impassioned plea at Tribal Council. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Did you see that Next Week On??? Don't count Spencer out just yet, because not only did his promises to truly change in his (second) second chance seem genuine, but apparently, after just two Tribal Councils, it's time for Ta Keo and Bayon to drop their buffs! Next week, the remaining Second Chance contestants are getting... well, the opposite of a merge. They'll be split from their current two tribes into three new, smaller tribes. Probst-y himself teases to EW that, for some, "It will be a MAJOR setback ... tribe switches are one of the few parts of the game you can't control." But something tells us these returning players will do their very best to try and control it anyway. READ OUR RECAP Criminal Minds CBS WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Sure, it's annoying having to spin your weaknesses into strengths -- "Sometimes I care too much" -- but when was the last time you had to fend off a murder by pretending to be the murderer's next victim's wife on the phone during a job interview? With JJ on maternity leave (and JLH outie), the hunt is on for both a mute, face-painting unsub, and a new profiler in the Criminal Minds season 11 premiere. Hotch brings in Aisha Tyler as the first candidate among the waiting batch of potentials presumably not because she's the most model-esque and the only one the camera seems to linger on, but it probably didn't hurt. And hey, this newbie might just stick -- EW recapper Robyn Ross thought Tyler's Dr. Tare Lewis "was both refreshing and felt as though she had already been a seasoned member of the team." WHAT HAPPENED: Don't try to read too deeply into Criminal Minds -- unless, of course, it's into Garcia's fashion choices, in which case, by all means, dedicate entire blogs, twitter accounts, and cosplay events. As for the plot though, Buddy TV makes no bones: "The lesson that Criminal Minds season 11 premiere presents is simple: Don't hire a hit man. If you do hire a hit man, don't then hire a cheap hit man to take out the first hit man." Knit that on a pillow. READ OUR RECAP Code Black CBS WHAT HAPPENED: An average hospital goes into Code Black -- when there aren't enough existing resources to meet the current patient load -- five times a year; Angels Memorial Hospital in L.A. averages 300 Code Blacks a year. EW recapper Danielle Zhu points out that among the sexy medical dramas, and the night shift medical dramas, and the Chicago-based medical dramas, the only dramz missing in the TV medical world is perhaps something "that accurately depicts what a hospital is really like." And maybe Luis Guzman. The latter, Code Black is totally nailing, and the former... it has the potential to. Try not to roll your eyes when the E.R. goes silent just in time for Marcia Gay Harden to swivel her hardened eyes up to the naïve new residents and say, "We're going to kill him... to save him." But also try not to feel emotionally moved by a teenager whose father died the night before in the mayhem of a Code Black, taken to hear his heart beating inside the young girl's chest it saved. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: If you see enough blood hit the floor in an hour though, coupled with a cute enough kid, anything can make you cry -- USA Today says the theatrics of Code Black's "quick cuts, trick lighting and weirdly cropped shots that leave characters talking out of the frame" still aren't enough: "Listen to what they're saying, and you might as well be watching a repeat of Ben Casey." The A.V. Club, however, takes comfort in the formulaic approach of yesteryear CBS is so popular for: "Many people just want something to intently listen to and half-heartedly watch while they fold laundry. Code Black is one of those shows." Well, fold away, people -- there are people to (kill to) save! READ OUR RECAP One More Thing... Sweet, Sweet Nashville Sounds ABC ROCKIN' AND ROLLIN': Any Nashville episode with a vocal performance by Maddie and Daphne (a.k.a., the Stella sisters, Lennon and Maisy) is a Nashville episode worth watching. On Wednesday night, the girls played an acoustic cover of recently broken-up band Boulevard's song at their school talent show, leading Rayna to try and sign the lead singer to her label. Uh huh, uh huh, but where is our Maddie & Daphne record?! READ OUR RECAP Also Check Out... Recommended by Copyright © 2015 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved. WANT MORE? To subscribe to any of EW.com's email products, please click here. 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