'Empire' recap: Yup, everything is a lie and Lucious has some serious explaining to do
What's dead may never actually die on Empire.
Despite endless scenes and a grave site, it's been revealed that Lucious' mother has been alive all along.
All. Along.
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The very last moment of the episode sees Thirsty step into a nursing home to drop off money for Lucious' mother, who's rocking back and forth in a chair and humming "Mona Lisa" to herself, just like old times.
She also, um, has a much lighter complexion than Kelly Rowland, who plays the mother in the flashback scenes, but let's not get into that. TV magic!
The episode begins with Thirsty in St. Louis, tracking down Lola, Jamal's biological daughter. He plucks some hair out of her head so he can run a paternity test and it later turns out that ... he is NOT the father!
Meanwhile, Rhonda and Andre are staying over at Anika's place, when they hear her barfing up a storm in the bathroom. That's when she drops the bomb and reveals to them that she's pregnant.
Over at Empire, Hakeem is preparing for a shareholders meeting, because Lucious is sure to come and stir up drama. Lucious, obviously, is hungry for his CEO seat back and is hosting a party at his house for the shareholders. He also hatches a plan to have Thirsty and his cronies steal the Antony and Cleopatra clothing line from Lyon Dynasty, and plant drugs in Mirage a Trois' tour bus, halting the show from going on. This is a tough lesson for Hakeem, who's inadequately prepared for this level of attack.
"Any half-assed CEO should know how to clapback," Lucious gleefully retorts.
Hakeem preps extra hard for the shareholders meeting, but it's not enough. Lucious comes in and takes it over, making point after point and being so persuasive that the room starts chanting his name. Aaaaand barely a scene later, we find out that Hakeem was voted out of his position as CEO. Well, we knew it wouldn't last forever. We'll miss you, Hakeem-shaped logo.
The silver lining is that Cookie as CEO gains some traction, an idea that makes so much beautiful sense. Put Cookie in charge of all the things.
On to the next son: Jamal. He's still working on the Black and White album and is really connecting with Freda, who collaborates with him on two songs. They've got beautiful artistic chemistry and it looks like things are beginning to turn around -- then enter Stacy RunRun.
"The Nicki Minaj-esque rapper is a BFD and offers to do a song with Jamal."
The vintage Nicki Minaj-esque rapper is a BFD and offers to do a song with Jamal, but only if he agrees to make her the only female rapper on it. That means buh bye Freda, who's currently working in a barbershop to get by.
Jamal is into RunRun at first, though it pains him to betray Freda, but changes his mind once he realizes that RunRun is too busy to come to the studio. Instead, she sends her audio portions to the studio, which messes with Jamal, who much prefers the connection he had with Freda. He eventually goes back to the barbershop to beg for her forgiveness.
Now on to the next Lyon son: Andre. Now that there's no child on the way, he and Rhonda can get back to their old ways -- lying, making mischief and looking out only for themselves. Although, side note: there's a precious scene where he and Lucious go to his grandmother's grave and seemingly bury the hatchet. Naturally, the grave site that we realize later has been a front all along. Now, back to the scamming.
Andre and Rhonda plot their new schemes subtly, easing back into their former life. They also bring Anika back into the family fold so she can tell everyone, face to face, that she's pregnant with Hakeem's child.
"So you don't know how to use a condom, stupid?!" Cookie shouts at her son.
However, Anika doesn't want to extort the family. She just wants the baby to have a family and to be looked after. And she's willing to threaten Lucious later on in order to make it so, promising that after being with him for five years, she has enough dirt on him to do some serious damage.
Bring on the dirt, we say.
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Yohana Desta was the senior film reporter for Mashable. She is a Northern Virginia native and an American University grad. She enjoys carefully curating her Instagram account and can often be found reading books, going to concerts, watching movies and learning way too much about pop culture.
