Hakeem's kidnapping is over about twenty minutes into the episode. After putting him on a couch with his head covered, the kidnappers proceed to change clothes while commenting that they should have taken the more famous son. Hakeem manages to get the covering off his head in time to see the bare backs of the kidnappers as they are changing, observing a large longhorn brand on all of their backs. When he stands up and attempts to stand up for himself, one of the guys hits him in the eye with a gun knocking him back on the couch. Meanwhile, Cookie is trying to get in touch with Hakeem, because he's running late for rehearsal with the girl group. She finally gets a response back and it's a video of Hakeem with his mouth covered. She assumes Lucious is behind it, but when she busts into Lucious and Jamal's recording session Lucious tells her it wasn't him. He and Cookie go off to find out what the kidnappers want and get Hakeem back. They make a $40,000 drop and then go a few blocks away to get Hakeem, but he isn't in the van. It turns out he asked to be let out before the driver made it to the spot (not sure what the driver's plan was when arriving, and not sure why he would let Hakeem out at another destination...but guess that's not important). What is important is that Hakeem's first stop was to Anika's spot, who was heading home while talking on the phone with her mother saying she has no one and nothing. She's shocked to see a bloodied-eyed Hakeem at the door, and without saying anything he kisses her and we can assume they go in and hook up. Five hours later, he goes to Lucious' home, where Lucious, Cookie, Jamal, Andre, and a doctor attempt to fuss over him to his dismay. He finally agrees to let the doctor examine him, and as the doctor closes the door Cookie sees scratches on Hakeem's back as he removes his shirt. The doctor says everything is fine other than his eye, and Hakeem refuses to discuss what happened or how he feels. Later, at rehearsal, he's off but yells at and blames the girls.
Cookie talks to Lucious about Hakeem being hurt, and Lucious says she's just used to having the blanket of protection that is Empire. Cookie tells Lucious he just wants them to come back to Empire, but Lucious says he only wants Hakeem back at Empire. Later, Cookie meets with Laz, who suggests she hire Hakeem's kidnappers as security. She hesitantly goes for it, just like she moments later hesitantly allows Laz to kiss her. So she takes Hakeem with her to meet with his kidnappers about being security, but despite promising to be cool, Hakeem pulls a gun out on them. Cookie calms him by saying he'd have to shoot her, because she'd die before losing him again. She then takes the gun and walks up on the kidnappers and places it at the head of one of the kidnappers and proceeds to threaten them if they bother her or her family again.
Before the big show, Hakeem meets with Lucious, and Lucious plays him a beat he created for him. He tells Hakeem he can have the beat, no strings attached, and hands him a thumb drive. Hakeem tells Lucious with him there are always strings attached. He then says it's actually more like rope and a noose, and then he drops the thumb drive and walks away. Backstage at the concert, Lucious storms in on Cookie, Hakeem, and the girl group, and he yells at the girls to leave. He threatens Hakeem if he ever turns his back on him again and so on. Then Andre and Jamal walk in, and Andre asks both Lucious and Cookie to leave and let them talk to their brother. Andre and Jamal then tell Hakeem that if he wants to leave without performing they'll take him. Then they share a brotherly moment where they reassure him that not fighting back was smart, that they would do the same, and that nothing can bring them down because they have all survived being Lucious and Cookie's children (LOL). It was a a really touching scene between the brothers.
So Hakeem goes on to perform, but when he gets on stage he freezes. Laura improvises, and begins to sing a verse to Hakeem, and then he is able to come to and do his part. She definitely had his back on that, because the other two girls were just looking lost and unsure of what to do. He then has a low-key party at his place, where he thanks her. Then guess who knocks on the door...Anika. She says she has been calling him and just wanted to know if he was okay. He thanked her for being there for him when he needed her, but also told her now was not a good time. She shared a look with Laura who was looking from the couch, because yes, Hakeem didn't even invite Anika in the door!! Womp, womp. The three exchange looks that clearly indicate he is interested in Laura, and Anika probably feels just as alone as she did when she was on the phone with her mother when Hakeem was at her door. Then he just closes the door on her. A bit messed up, but I keep saying...Anika seems to be very intelligent and capable...can she go find something to do outside of the Lyons??
While all of this is going on, Jamal is trying to record a ballad with Lucious and setup a concert at the Staples Center. In the beginning, he's finding it hard to do the ballad, because he's not over Michael cheating on him. But Lucious tells him to channel that energy into the song. Something he will tell Jamal to do throughout the episode when Jamal is frustrated by something. Jamal also brings on Jameson to help him market himself outside of the niche "gay rapper" market Empire keeps putting him in, after feeling the Staples Center suggesting he couldn't fill the seats due to his narrow audience base was actually due to them categorizing him as a "gay rapper" (as opposed to a rapper who is gay, a logic I've heard in the past for rappers who are Christian but are often boxed into the label "Christian rapper"). Lucious is less than thrilled to see Jameson, even calling him a con. Jameson explains to Jamal that Lucious almost joined his label, but changed his mind when he found out Jameson was gay. Also, Jameson is apparently a full-time LGBT activist now, and not really in the music industry as much. Also he tells Lucious how thrilled he was to learn Lucious had a gay son.
Meanwhile, Andre has decided he wants to rebrand the Gutter label, including dropping artists, and proceeds to interview the rappers on the label. He learns J Poppa (who is actually introduced at the beginning of the episode as Becky's love interest) is a PGK (Preacher Grandkid who's first name is Job...like Job from the Bible). So Andre encourages him to use the Word in his music, which he does at a concert. Becky tells Lucious, in front of Andre, Andre is clearly confused about the philosophy of the label (which confused me..is philosophy really the appropriate word? Seems a bit strong...as it suggests Empire has a philosophy that is anti-Christian). Lucious asks Andre if telling J Poppa to use the Word in his music was a biblical or business decision, and Andre tells him it was business and that he didn't make J Poppa use the Bible verse in his performance.
After J Poppa performs, Freda Gatz goes on stage. She's killing it, but a guy keeps heckling her. Lucious tries to tell her to just keep going, but the guy just keeps on talking down to her. She ends up kicking him in the face and then running off. Andre tells Lucious that is why she is too big of a liability for a public company, but Lucious tells him he can drop any artist BUT Freda Gatz. He also tells him Freda Gatz is Lucious' artist, not the both of their artist. And finally, he has to remind Andre that he put Andre "in place" NOT "in charge." Later, Lucious goes to find Freda Gatz. She tells him she would understand if he didn't want her on the label, but he tells her she reminds him of himself and would be pulling her closer not pushing her away. In fact, he says he sees more of himself in her than in any of his three sons. He then gives her the song he originally tried to give to Hakeem. Now with Lucious having told Hakeem how much he wants Hakeem to learn tough lessons and be a man, part of me feels like Lucious also gave her the song to make Hakeem angry and jealous. On a kind of random note, I was so tense during the scene in the car when Lucious and Freda Gatz were listening to the song. The angle of the camera was similar to the angle used in gangster movies when people get shot in the head in the car, and I mean a couple of episodes ago she pulled a gun out on someone and then this episode she kicked someone in the face who knew where she was from (he shouted it out to her during his heckling). I was like, please don't kill this girl and please zoom out on the camera so I can relax and just enjoy her nice freestyle on the beat. #FilmBuffProblems
And then the final scene...Cookie goes to Laz' place and asks him, "So are we going to do this or what?" And yea...they do, but the important take away is that Laz has the same longhorn brand on his back as Hakeem's kidnappers!!! So is Laz behind all of this?? The kidnapping?? The purse snatching?? The attempted (and possibly faux) masters snatching??