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Here's a Closer Look at Empire's Major "Who Pushed Rhonda" Spoiler

Are the red bottoms a red herring?

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Malcolm Venable

We still have two episodes until the Empireseason finale, in which Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday) will confront the person who pushed her down the stairs and killed her unborn baby. But Wednesday night's episode may have given us the final clue that Anika (Grace Gealey) is in fact the killer when we got a close up of the shoes the perp wore that fateful night.

Who can forget that dreadful scene from earlier this season, when somebody crept up into Rhonda and Andre's (Trai Byers) house, triggered the alarm and then pushed her down the steps? When the pusher walked away, we saw this:

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Some theorized online that the pusher was wearing heels, but no. No, friends. These are flats. Christian Louboutin Anjalina Studded Red Sole Flats, to be precise, available at fine retailers for about $695.

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While it was in the realm of possibility that the person wearing these was a man (Louboutin does offer red bottom loafers for men) the triangular point on the shoes the pusher wore is a near exact match. See?

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Of course, Anika was always the prime suspect. As the only other woman carrying the heir to the Empire throne in her belly -- and extreme levels of thirst to be a Lyon in her heart -- Anika had a motive. You've noticed all season long how she's been too gentle, too nice, and too cozy with Rhonda, as if she was covering her tracks. Let's not forget that time she put on a blonde wig and kidnapped Hakeem's (Bryshere Y. Gray) then-girlfriend/now fiancee Laura (Jamila Velazquez) either. She's crazy, and in Wednesday's episode, when Rhonda (who finally recalls being pushed after an unexpected shove causes a flashback) and Anika are having wine, the long-awaited shoe shot occurs.

Then again, maybe it wasn't Anika. Many a girl rocks a red bottom after all; both Doubleday and Gealey have said in interviews we'll be "surprised" when we learn the identity and hinted that Anika isn't as crazy as we're being led to believe. And now that more characters are being reshuffled into the mix, including Cookie's sisters Candace (Vivica A. Fox) and Carol (Tasha Smith), who we saw again Wednesday for the first time in a while, who knows? Maybe it was somebody we least suspected. Actually, let's hope so, becuase if it's Anika, all this set up will make for the least climactic reveal ever. One thing we're pretty sure of though: it wasn't Cookie (Taraji P. Henson). She'd never wear flats.

Do you think Anika did it?

Empire continues Wednesdays at 9/8c on FOX.