Fires of Heaven
Empire is starting to heat up. This week Lucious sets out to get payback on everyone who went against his Empire while he was locked up. Lucious gets released from prison and the prosecutor is livid. She knows Lucious will get himself in trouble again and she can’t wait for that day.
Cookie goes to get Jamal for his interview with radio personality, Sway, and sees none other than his girl group lead singer, Valentina, in his room, half-naked. On Sway’s show, Hakeem goes against what his mother said and tells away he will have his girl group, Mirage à Trois, performing on air live in less than a week.
The family has dinner together and Cookie wonders why they were even invited in the first place. As Andre continues to beg for his father’s forgiveness, Cookie tells him to stop. Lucious warns his backstabbing side of the family that they won’t eat without him. Cookie makes a dramatic exit, grabbing the tablecloth with most of the food and drinks on it and dragging it on to the floor.
I want you all to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow, we war.
Anika goes to meet up with Lucious and he lets her know that he is planning a huge party to celebrate his release from prison. He offers Anika a chance to get back with Empire, and viewers thought she would take it. She ends up meeting with Cookie and telling Cookie everything she knows about Lucious’ party.
Cookie puts on her dancing coach hat and whips Hakeem’s girl group into shape. They only have a few days before they go live on Sway, so they have to do great for the sake of the Lyon Dynasty.
Jamal informs his father that Freda, Frank Gather’s daughter, is at Empire and Lucious tells him to do whatever he can to sign her. Lucious’ words make Jamal think about what he even means to this company.
She means everything to me, musically.
As Lucious’ welcome home party begins, Jamal and rape Pitbull perform their new song together and the crowd is loving it. Cookie and Hakeem make a surprise entrance and Hakeem performs a diss track to his father with rapper, Timbaland. Pitbull gives props to Cookie about Hakeem’s performance.
Andre tells Cookie that she will soon be a grandmother and she is elated with the news. She tells Andre that this could be his ticket back into Empire. Andre meets with his father in hopes that the news of him becoming a grandfather will help get him back into Empire. Lucious becomes concerned that the child will be born with bi-polar disorder but Andre says the disorder doesn’t run in the family. Here, Lucious has a flashback to a time when his mother, played by Kelly Rowland, who also had bi-polar disorder, went out and bought gifts for his birthday early leaving them with no money. Andre doesn’t know that his grandmother had bi-polar disorder as well. Lucious tells Andre to leave.
Freda has a rap battle in the hood and her opponent said some things about her father’s death. She pulls out a gun and right before she was about to shoot him Lucious steps in and prevents her from doing so. As they leave the scene, they run into the prosecutor who seems to be flirting with him.
Lucious catches Jamal trying to pay a visit to Cookie and invited him into his car for a conversation. He tells Jamal that he doesn’t need Cookie.
As Hakeem, Cookie, and 2/3 of his girl group wait for Valentina to show up for their performance on Sway’s show, they get an unpleasant surprise. Lucious walks in and let’s them know that he signed Valentina that morning. Lucious gets payback on everyone who went against him. Cookie let’s him know that he can never keep her down. He extends his forgiveness to his son Hakeem one last time, and Hakeem walked away.
Lucious thinks he’s on top now but I’m sure we will see his downfall in the upcoming episodes of this season. You can catch Empire on FOX every Wednesday at 9 p.m eastern.