Another Empire Star Gets Married

Kaitlin Doubleday, who plays the role of Rhonda Lyon, in the hit TV series , 'Empire', married her fiance, Devin Lucien on Friday , May 6.
Just weeks ago, her TV husband, Trai Byers got married to another 'Empire' co-star, Grace Gealey,

 Kaitlin and Devin, an international renowned DJ, based in LA, got engaged in May 2015, in Paris.

The wedding took place in California and in front of 140 guests.


Continue to see a photo of the wedding..

Congratulations to the couple.

'Empire' Season 2 Episode 14 Recap: Aired - Thursday 21 April 2016

Do accept my apologies for not doing a recap last week, I will start with a quick one before going into this week's.

Season 2 Episode 13 Recap
Mimi and Camille are really dead. A funeral was held for Camille and at the reception, it was announced that Rhonda will take over as the head of the fashion department at 'Empire'.

Hakeem had to rush to meet Laura and Tiana on their tour because they were always at each other's throat and kept calling him to complain.
He managed to get a truce and he even performed with both of them on stage at the same time.
In the end he proposed to Laura in front of the press and fans.
Tiana saw them and looked quite hurt.

Cookie worked on the music video with Lucious. She helped to calm him down and get him through the process.
Lucious got emotional when he saw the lady who was to play his mum in the video and he froze when he wanted to help the child playing him prepare for the bathroom scene where his mother tried to drown him.
The casting was really good. The lady playing the mum looked like Kelly Rowland and the boy playing a young Lucious, looked like a young Jamal.


Cookie had her first birthday celebration outside of prison in 18 years. The family put aside their differences and gathered atLucious' house for dinner.
They watched the music video and André flipped when he discovered his grandmother was also bi-polar.
He confronted Lucious about it and accused him of making him feel like a freak all these years when he could have just told him it was in the family.
Lucious says he wanted André to be strong and fight it.
Needless to say, dinner ended up a disaster and Rhonda felt she had had enough of André's episodes so she runs to Anika to get away from it all.


Freda Gaths agreed to work on a track with Jamal for his new album and Cookie is shocked when she learns that Frank Gathers, the man she ordered Lucious to handle in prison and Lucious ordered his killing, is Freda's father.



Season 2 Episode 14 Recap

Lola, (Jamal's daughter we met in Season 1) is on a playground with some friends. Thirsty goes up to her and says “Hello” then he pulls some strands of her hair and leaves.

André comes to see Rhonda at Anika's place.
Rhonda asks if he's staying with the reverend.  He says he hasn't been going to church, he has been staying at a motel and he's not off his medication.
She asks why he hasn't been going to church and he says he's been dealing with some issues and he didn't think the reverend would understand.
He says he misses her and they were a team.
She says they haven't been for a long time and he asks what it would take.
She says they have to want the same things and they were happiest when they were excited about their future.

They hear Anika retching from the bathroom and rush to see her throwing up.
Rhonda asks her what is wrong and Anika says she doesn't want to say, especially not after what happened to them.
Rhonda asks if she's pregnant and André asks who the father is.
Anika says it Hakeem.


Lucious is mingling with some of the shareholders of Empire at a party he is hosting.
The shareholders sing his praises and say they want him back as CEO because nobody else can do what he does.
Cookie comes in as Lucious is escorting a female shareholder out the door.
When he comes back in, she tells him he crossed a line.
He asks her what she means and she says 'Freda Gaths', Lucious says she's not a problem and Cookie says he killed her father.
Lucious says he was nowhere near the man when he died and Cookie was bone deep with him.
Cookie says she doesn’t want the dangerous b...  around her boys.

Jamal and Freda are at the barber shop where she works. They are rehearsing the track they want to record.
A man comes in and sits on a chair. One of the barbers warns him not to sit on the chair as no one sits there out of respect for Frank Gathers.
The man refuses to get up, saying Frank is dead.
Freda and some of the men in the salon beat him up and throw him out.


Jamal plays the track he recorded with Freda for Cookie and some employees of Empire at a meeting.
He asks what Cookie thinks and she says he's trying to win over his dad at the ASAs but she doesn't know how he will do that with Freda Gaths.


Hakeem and Jamal are having a meeting with a team at Empire. André walks in and Hakeem ends the meeting.
André tells Hakeem and Jamal that he is fine, he will be back at work in time for the shareholders' meeting and he will offer his support to Hakeem and Cookie.
He tells Hakeem that Lucious will be a problem for him.
Hakeem asks for help and André asks if there's any Pending deal he is working on.
Hakeem says he is working on the Fashion line Camille was working on.
André tells him Lucious will go after that.


In the middle of the night, Thirsty drives some men up to the warehouse where the clothes are stored, the men beat up security and steal all of the merchandise.


Hakeem barges into Lucious' house, accusing him of the stolen merchandise. He threatens to release the tape to the police if the goods are not returned.
Hakeem's phone rings and Lucious tells him to answer.
He answers and Laura complains to him that they have no equipment for their tour only wardrobe; the police searched the trucks and found drugs so they confiscated everything.
Hakeem ends the call and asks Lucious if he planted drugs on his trucks.
Lucious says what if he did; any half arse CEO should know how to clap back.


Cookie meets Jamal up in the recording studio. He plays the track for her and she acts like she likes it but he hears something else underlying her statement.
He asks her what it is and she says she set him up with a certain high profile celebrity Superstar MC.
He asks if she got Stacy Run Run.
They go out of the studio and it is indeed Stacy Run Run. Jamal is excited.
Stacy is with her manager and she talks about what they will on the track.
Jamal brings up Freda's name and it was like he dropped a bomb.
Stacey's manager looks at Cookie and says he thought they had covered that issue.
Cookie takes Jamal aside and tells him that Stacy has an exclusivity clause and if he is working with her on an album, he can't work with anyone else so he has to choose between Stacy and Freda but he knows who to choose if he really wants to beat his father at the ASAs.

Lucious takes André to his mother's grave and says he can say what he wants to say to her.
André talks to the grave and says medical science has made things easier for people like them and if she was still around now she'd have been able to live out her dreams.
Lucious says he knows some things he can use André’s help with.  Andre says he won't go against his brothers.
Lucious tells him he's not telling him to go against his Christian faith; he knows Andre and his brothers want what's best for the family which is for their Empire to be great and Andre knows he's the best man for the job.
Lucious sees he might be winning André over so he continues. He says being his mother's son gave him a lot of gifts but she also did a lot of damage to him and he knows him and Andre working together, they will fix a lot of the stuff.


Cookie, Jamal and a team of staff are preparing Hakeem for the shareholders' meeting.
They tell him he can't bring up the issue of profits because they don't have any.
Hakeem gets upset and Cookie tells the others to take 5 minutes.
She tells Hakeem she doesn't think Lucious had anything to do with the profits and he asks her whose side she's on. She says she's not on anyone's side, she just wants what's best for the family and that means he has to kill it at the shareholders' meeting. She finishes by telling him that he can't be getting emotional at meetings.


Jamal meets Freda in the studio. He tells her about recording with Stacy Run Run. Freda is excited for him until he tells her about the exclusivity clause.
Her face falls but she says it's cool.  He promises her that when he's done, they will pick up where they left off.
She tells him not to make promises.


The family is gathered at Lucious' house.  André tells everyone that he told his dad that he wanted them all to be better, they can rise above their past; there’s someone who has something to say.
He invites Rhonda in and Anika follows.
Cookie asks what the hell she's doing here and Lucious also complains but Andre tells them to just listen.
Anika says she's pregnant and it's Hakeem's. Cookie gets up in anger and confronts Hakeem. Hakeem asks how he can be sure the baby is his and Anika says he is the only one she has been with since Lucious; she'd be happy to take a paternity test.
Cookie asks Hakeem if he never heard of a condom then she smacks him on the back of his head.
Jamal asks Anika if she will keep it. Rhonda says she begged Anika to.
Cookie is not happy about it but Rhonda says the family already tragically lost an heir.
Jamal says if they're talking about heirs then they need to find Lola.
Lucious says they don't; he had a DNA test carried out and it turns out that Jamal is not the father.
Lucious asks Anika what she wants.
She says she wants something very valuable.
Cookie says Lucious should just write her a check.
Anika says she knows things haven't been great between them and she accepts responsibility for her role on that but she wants a family for her child. She wants them to think about it.


The shareholders' meeting is on. Tiana performs and after her performance, Cookie introduces the CEO, Hakeem Lyon.
.

Anika opens the door to her apartment and sees Lucious sitting on her couch. He tells her that he has an offer for her, have the baby, give to Hakeem and he will write her a cheque for 10million dollars.
She says she doesn't want the money.
He says she betrayed him, slept with his baby boy. He tells her to take the offer and not make him get ugly. He starts to leave but she says the baby, "he" is making her believe in herself again. Hearing "He" made Lucious stop and turn around.
She says if he doesn't understand then she may also need to do what she has to do; when the FBI was coming for Lucious she didn't snitch on him but she knows a lot, having spent 5 years with him.
Lucious tells her he would be very careful because a lot of women do not survive childbirth.
With that he leaves.


Hakeem finishes his presentation to the shareholders.
It is now time for questions and answers.
He takes one from two ladies and gives them an answer they seem satisfied with.
The next person to ask a question is none other than Lucious Lyon.
Lucious asks Hakeem what he thinks are the 5 biggest challenges facing the music industry for the next 10 years.
Hakeem hesitates and looks lost for a second but it turns out he was just messing with Lucious and the audience because he states the challenges rather eloquently.
The crowd cheers.

Lucious says it's funny Hakeem mentioned ‘live shows’ as one of his points but didn’t Empire just scrap a whole tour under his expert leadership.
Hakeem begins to get emotional. He starts his response with "my father" but Cookie gives him a sign to stop.
Lucious goes on to make his point. He mentions the security issues at the warehouse and the app that was supposed to be released but met with a hitch. He looks straight at André when he talks about the app which makes Rhonda ask André if he had anything to do with it.
He tells her "that's how we get back to us" and gives her a kiss.

Hakeem's tells Lucious it’s just a temporary delay. Lucious tells him the shareholders don't need that.
 He pulls a lady out of the crowd and asks her what she needs, she says they need Lucious and the  crowd starts to chant 'Lucious'.
He tries to be modest and says that's not what he means.
Cookie gets on stage and takes the microphone from Hakeem and addresses the shareholders.
She says both men love the company so much that they would kill for it. She calls Lucious a legend but also says Hakeem helped her build Lyon's Dynasty from nothing and he deserves their respect.
She tells Hakeem and Lucious that they need to show the shareholders that they won't fight with one another but will fight together to make the company great.
Lucious gets on stage and shakes hands with Hakeem. Hakeem is not smiling.


The shareholders vote Hakeem out.
He goes out to tell Cookie and Lucious. Cookie gives him a hug and tells him she is proud of him and he did the best he could.
Lucious tells him he should be proud because he can tell his kids that he ran Empire for 10 minutes.
Hakeem walks away and Cookie confronts Lucious.
He tells her that she always says she wanted their family back together and she knows what will happen now. She says she knows they will come back to him to grovel.


Jamal gets to the studio to record with Stacy but he meets only Cookie and a producer.
Cookie tells him that Stacy sent in her verse and she's in Tokyo.
Jamal doesn't like it but he gets in the booth and tries to record but he is doing a shoddy job.
He tells his mum he can't work like this, he doesn't need Stacy because he was already doing well with Freda Gaths.


Jamal meets Freda at the barber shop and tells her he wants her on the album and not Stacy.
Freda listens to him but her face doesn't give anything away.
He asks if they can record tonight and she says she will think about it.


Thirsty enters a retirement home and meets the lady in charge. He asks if everything is fine and she answers in the affirmative.
She asks if he wants to see ' Mrs W'.
He says he doesn't need to, as long as everything is fine.
He hands her an envelope filled with money then takes a looks at a lady sitting in a rocking chair and singing. Lucious' mother!

*This Episode is titled 'Time Shall Unfold'

*Catch 'Empire' every Thursday on Fox (DSTV Channel 125) at 7pm

'Empire' Season 2 Episode 12 Recap - Aired: Thursday 7 April 2016

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