Hakeem is having a press briefing. He’s seated on his ‘throne’ with Cookie standing to his left, Andre and Jamal to his right.
He informs the press that the business will still be kept in the family bloodline; Cookie is the new head of A and R for the whole of Empire and the sub-label, ‘Lyon’s Dynasty’. Andre remains Chief Financial officer and president of ‘Gutterlife records', Jamal will step aside as Vice Chairman to focus on his new album and his 7 ASA nominations.
When it’s time for questions, one of the reporters says he never mentioned ‘Lucious’. Hakeem goes, ‘Who’s Lucious?’ and Cookie comes to the rescue. She tells the reporters that Lucious is focusing on his music right now and also producing half of Jamal’s album then he is also making a video for his number 1 single, ‘Boom Boom Boom Boom’
The reporter asks if Empire will be involved in making the video for Lucious. Hakeem decides to apply some maturity (even with a lollipop in his mouth) and tact in answering this time. He tells her that Lucious is an important part of Empire and his song has been nominated for an ASA. The Company will help him in any way they can.
The reporter who was asking the Lucious-related questions at the press briefing is now with Lucious as he is preparing to shoot his video. Her name is Harper Scott from Q&A News. I feel we will be seeing a lot more of her.
Lucious is dressed in battle Armour, he tells her he will be portraying King Richard the 2nd. She looks at the costume and asks why he is trying to portray King Richard the 2nd who was a deposed king trying to take back his throne from a weak usurper.
She asks how he plans to get his Company back. He says he wouldn’t do anything but he predicts that in 3 months, they will come crawling back to him the same way Apple did Steve Jobs.
Thirsty, Lucious’ lawyer and right hand man, gives him the thumbs up for his answer.
Harper now asks about Mimi and her wife. Lucious says he will get them a birthday present and a couple of dildos.
Harper seems determined to get a rise out of Lucious, she says the way Camilla came for him seemed personal. Thirsty tells her she is trying to find a story where there is none.
Lucious who’s been trying to control his anger tells her he has to get back to work.
Harper doesn’t back down, she mocks him by saying he didn’t see the takeover coming.
At this point, Thirsty grabs her by the elbow and escorts her out while Lucious lets out all the bottled up anger, telling her he’s from South Philly and he sees everything coming from every direction.
Hakeem performs a song ‘Empire’ to an audience of Empire employees. at the end of his performance, he tells them he’s welcoming them to the dawn of a new Empire . He reveals the new logo and to my horror, he changed the face of Lucious in the coin to his! I love that logo with Lucious’ face and he just went and desecrated it by putting his face with his box head that couldn’t even fit into the coin properly.
Cookie and Andre, who are in the audience, look at one another. They had no prior notice of the logo change.
Andre tells Rhonda, who now walks with the aid of a cane, that he had a vision that her fall wasn’t just an accident. She doesn’t want to hear it. She says she just wants to get back to work.
She wants Andre to talk to Hakeem so he in turn can talk to Camilla about getting her a job in the fashion department at Empire.
Andre says he will do it on the condition that she goes to church with him to see the pastor.
Cookie goes to visit Lucious in his new office at Lyon’s Dynasty. She gives her opinion on the plans for his music video and he plays a new tune for her to listen to. She likes it.
Andre walks in talking like he’s having one of his fits. He eventually tells them that Camilla has cut the budget for Lucious’ video. Lucious calls Thirsty in anger like he’s about to go to Camilla and start a war but Cookie tells him to calm down and not do anything rash; she’s working with Hakeem to get enough dirt on Mimi then they can act.
Jamal and Becky just walked out of the Empire building when a gay man runs up to them. He congratulates Jamal on his ASA nominations then gives him a pair of flip flops to autograph. They are soon surrounded by a number of men from the LGBT community who hold different colours of flip flops.
The first man says they put Jamal where he is today so why did decide to.... The other men start to perform ‘Drip Drop’ but with their own lyrics. They say he let the team down and now he’s going ‘flip flop, flip flippity flop’. Hilarious! The gays don’t play o. You can’t just decide you want to be gay sometimes and straight the other.
Jamal goes to see Jameson, the gay producer. He says the entire gay community turned against him based on gossip and innuendo.
Jameson says it’s not gossip and innuendo when it’s his own father, Lucious, saying it. He says it was Lucious who told him about Jamal and Skye.
Jamal says Lucious did it on purpose because of the ASA nominations. He and Jamal have been nominated in the same category and he’s never won one before so he’s trying to sabotage jamal’s chances of winning.
Hakeem and Laura are in his office when Camilla walks in. He makes the introductions and Laura leaves.
Camilla confronts him about still being with Laura and Hakeem accuses her of being married. She says her wife will die soon (She has Cancer) and she will inherit her shares of Empire so Hakeem has to be nice to her.
Jamal interrupts Cookie, who is in a meeting and tells her ‘It was Lucious’.
They go to her office and he starts to vent about how his father betrayed him. He says he doesn’t want his father on his album anymore. Cookie tells him to calm down and she will work on getting the gays back on his side.
Andre comes in to tell them that Camilla is not approving Tiana’s upcoming tour.
Cookie goes to meet Tiana where she is recording a video and tells her the tour has to be put on hold. Tiana is upset and asks if Hakeem is putting his new girlfriend on tour in place of her. She goes on to say 'Mirage a' trois' is not even good enough to open for her on a tour and then she walks away.
This gives Cookie an idea.
Cookie goes to meet Camilla in her office (after making the sign of the cross) to talk about Tiana’s tour.
Camilla says the tour is too expensive and they need to cut back. Cookie tells her they will be sending ‘Mirage a trois’ along as the opening act so they will be getting 2 tours for the price of 1.
She knows Camilla will be happy to see Laura, who is the lead singer of ‘Mirage a’ trois', leave town and Hakeem for a while.
Camilla says she will push it through and she wants Cookie to keep Laura away for a long time. Cookie agrees.
Back in Hakeem’s office, he is not happy that Cookie made the decision to send Laura and the rest of ‘Mirage a’ trois‘ on a tour without consulting him first. He doesn’t want Laura to go on tour.
Cookie says she’s trying to protect him. She accuses him of bringing Camilla into their lives and now they need to get rid of her. They begin to argue but Laura ends it by saying she wants to go on the tour because it’s a huge opportunity.
Jamal performs a song at the club to an audience that includes Jameson and Cookie. He disses Lucious on the track. In the end he tells them that Lucious Lyon is not even his father’s real name.
Lucious sends for Harper Scott the reporter. He wants to give her an exclusive. She tells him she thought he and Jamal were close, Jamal called him inauthentic in his song and she wants to know if he will retaliate.
He says he won’t retaliate against his own son but will actually thank him. He exposed a family secret to Jamal and now the gist is out there he knows he no longer has to carry the burden.
The exclusive he has for her is the story of how a homeless orphan became Lucious Lyon.
Andre and Rhonda go to see his pastor. First thing Andre asks her is if she’s been cheating on him. She says she is not. He asks where she was last night and she says she was at work. He says he didn’t see her at work when he checked on her.
Rhonda tells the pastor that if he wants to help their marriage, he should get Andre to take his meds.
Rhonda and Andre join Cookie and Jamal in the office. Rhonda tells Cookie to tell Andre where she was last night. Cookie tells him Rhonda was with her in her office, snitching on Camilla.
Cookie says it was Andre’s idea for them to prove that the way Mimi and Camilla took over the company was illegal, Rhonda now knows that Mimi is in town for the weekend so they need to get Hakeem to make Camilla incriminate herself on tape.
Andre doubts that Hakeem will do it and Cookie says Hakeem is supposed to be at the meeting with them but he isn’t.
Jamal tells them Hakeem is in a marketing meeting and they should trust him to come through on the plan. He says he will talk to him.
Jamal meets Hakeem and tells him the plan. Hakeem asks who will get Empire if they get rid of Camilla. Jamal says the board won’t reinstate Lucious and Hakeem just has to prove himself to the rest of the family.
Hakeem says he will.
Hakeem meets up with Camilla and they make out. When she’s about to leave, she tells him she can’t see him this weekend because Mimi is in town. Hakeem tells her to come clean to Mimi but she says if she does that, they will lose everything.
Hakeem meets Cookie and Jamal and tells them he switched plans , he recorded their make-out session and also got Camilla saying she was basically using Mimi. He sent the tape to Mimi.
Andre walks in saying he doesn’t know what is happening but Mimi has dumped her Empire shares so he’s calling his stockbrokers to buy as many as he and the family can legally own.
Cookie and Jamal are proud of Hakeem. Cookie tells him he put his family first and that’s a step in the right direction.
Andre, still on the phone, tells the stock broker that he opened a trust in his son’s name and he should buy some shares in the name.
After the call, he starts to have one of his episodes. Cookie runs to him. Jamal and Hakeem tell him they have something for him.
They take him to the studio and play him a song they wrote for him. The song is basically asking why bad things happen to good people but also about hope.
Andre listens and he is able to release his emotions in a ‘normal’ manner, shedding tears quietly.
Cookie tells Lucious about how Hakeem framed Camilla. She says Mimi is probably getting rid of Camilla as they speak. Lucious says he will like to see that, he turns to leave and she tells him everything is done so he doesn’t need to do anything. He commends her for a job well done.
Mimi’s body has drowned in the Jacuzzi and Camilla is frantically cleaning any trace of her fingerprints from the faucet.
Lucious enters and tells her nobody will believe Mimi killed herself. He has his phone up, recording. He taunts her with questions about the stuff he saw her pour in the drain. He asks her if it was cyanide. She tells him Hakeem will never forgive him and he tells her it was Hakeem that made the sex tape and sent off to Mimi.
She is shocked and he continues to twist the knife, asking her how she feels that it was her precious Hakeem who betrayed her. He says if he was her, he would just kill himself instead of going to prison.
He points a gun in her face and paints a graphic picture of how horrible prison would be and that it would be easier for her to just take a swig of whatever it was she made Mimi drink.
She begs him to just shoot her and he says he owes her no favours after all she’s done to his family. She opens the little bottle and drinks.
He tells her to rot in hell as he walks out of the suite. Lucious eeeeh!
Mimi is dead but will Camilla die too?
*This Episode is titled 'A Rose by Any Other Name'
*Catch 'Empire' every Thursday on Fox (DSTV Channel 125) at 7pm
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