To get at Hakeem, against Becky's advice, Lucious brings in bloggers and vloggers to hear Freda Gatz perform a song where she goes in on Hakeem (including saying she's taking his place as Lucioius' son). Hakeem finds out about the performance while spending time with Laura (who he learns is a virgin), and declares to the world that he's going to battle Freda for his last name! When he walks in on Laz and Cookie discussing the battle, he is more bothered that Laz is voicing an opinion on whether he should be doing a battle with Freda than with Cookie's less than 100% support of the battle. In fact, he and Laz end up in a bit of a scuffle. But as soon as Laz pushes Hakeem, Cookie slaps the taste out of his mouth and tells him not to hit her son. She checks Hakeem too, but ultimately backs him up in moving forward with the battle.
Meanwhile, Anika finds out she's pregnant and immediately calls Hakeem and leaves a message saying she has something to tell him. She runs into Rhonda later, where Rhonda tells her how much nicer Lucious has been to her since she's become pregnant. And later, when Anika goes to Hakeem's place, she's a little too touchy feely for him. And after trying to get her to just talk, he finally tells her (in the nicest way possible) that he thinks he's in love, but that she's still the homie. So she decides not to tell him about the pregnancy.
Back at Empire, Jamal is one of ten artists with the opportunity to be the new face of Pepsi. He has a week to put together a song for a chance to win the campaign. He continues to work with Cookie behind Lucious' back, though Hakeem catches them and threatens to tell Lucious if Cookie doesn't stay on point with Hakeem's stuff too. But after Lucious shares his own song with Jamal for the Pepsi campaign, Jamal decides to mesh both Cookie and Lucious' songs together into one song. He attempts to get them to work together by inviting them both to a neutral studio without them knowing the other one is coming, but it is very short-lived. They both leave, but not before making a bet. If Hakeem wins the battle Jamal's next album will be released under Lyons Dynasty, and if Freda wins Hakeem's next album will be released under Empire.
Jamal and Hakeem end up giving each other sound brotherly advice. Hakeem tells Jamal he's going to have to mesh Cookie and Lucious' sounds himself, instead of trying to get them to work together. And Jamal tells Hakeem he's going to have to use his performance and entertainer skills to beat Freda, who's a true battler.
Unbeknownst to Cookie and Lucious, who are each surprised to see the other at the Pepsi performance, expecting Jamal to perform their own song, Jamal created the perfect blend of the two sounds and ends up winning the Pepsi campaign! He also tells his parents that his upcoming album will be equal part Cookie and Lucious, and they will have to deal with it!
And Hakeem ends up winning the battle after going into performance mode during the final round (not really battling or even referencing Freda). He goes so far as to drop lines about dropping his last name and only going by Hakeem. Then he breaks the lights that said "Lyon" under "Hakeem." Lucious has a flashback to sleeping on the streets as a young boy under a lion statue, explaining where the Lyon last name came from. And ultimately, this reflects what Andre told Lucious earlier in the episode when Lucious was unconcerned about how he spoke to Mimi even if she is their top investor, as long as he wins (winning being, he wants to have ownership in the streaming business, despite Andre and Thirsty suggesting he let it go. But ultimately, he leverages for it and signs a deal with Mimi, who's still having a lot of personal issues). Andre told Lucious all of it is about winning with him, as opposed to helping his sons to learn and become better men. And Andre was dead on when he used Freda's performance for the bloggers as an example. Because of Lucious' desire to win, his own son has denounced his name!
Being in love, and wanting Laura's first time to be special, Hakeem sends Laura home in her own car after the battle. But Anika has clearly gone off the deep end, as she has a wig on and is pretending to be Laura's driver! Where is she taking this girl and what is she about to do? What are these writers doing to Anika???
Also, Vivica A. Fox made her entrance to the show as Cookie's sister, Candace. Candace is coming to Cookie, because their sister is on a bender. She left her kids with Candace and told Candace it's Cookie's fault. So Cookie tells Candace they have to go to Philly. O...and the backstory on Candace...Candace seems to look down on Cookie and the rest of the family and is supposedly married to a rich, White man.