The episode starts in Philly, with Cookie and Candace searching for Carol over the span of a couple of days. With the help of a friend from prison (played by Rosie O'Donnell), Cookie and Candace are able to locate Carol. When the sisters give Carol a choice of which sister to go home with, Carol opts to go to New York with Cookie and leave her kids with Candace. When Cookie goes to the restroom, Candace asks Carol how sisterly Cookie would be if she knew what Carol did while Cookie was locked up. I suspect we'll learn more on that during next week's finale, or will they make us wait to find out next season? Later in the episode, Cookie tells Carol she has to go rehab, because she can't have her death on her heart. And throughout the scenes with her sister, they reiterate how it is all related to Jermel's death, and thus related to Frank Gathers and Cookie's testimony against him.
Meanwhile, Jamal is working with Sky Summers (Alicia Keys) on a new song. Sky asked to work with Lucious, because she wants to make an edgier song than her fans are used to. While Lucious tells her staying in her lane is what sells records, Jamal (who is a super fan) encourages her to be her true, authentic self as they work on the song together. The two create a song about Black pride and justice, something different from what she describes as her typical songs ("sorority break-up songs"). And it looks like Sky may be returning after this episode. Not only were there talks of signing her to Empire, but the episode ends with Jamal kissing her!
Jamal is also filming his Pepsi commercial, directed by Lee Daniels. Lucious is on a legend kick throughout the episode, and unsuccessfully tries to convince Lee Daniels to make him a part of the commercial. Lee Daniels informs him that he is the past and Jamal is the future. That coupled with other references in the episode to Lucious being legendary, which he takes to mean as being the past, drives Lucious to go with Andre's latest idea on how to buy the streaming music business he's been trying to acquire to make Empire the future of the music business. Andre's original plan B to sell future royalties to Lucious' old hits fell through, because Cookie refused to sign over her rights to the royalties. So Andre suggested Lucious sell off some of Empire's other assets (alcohol, sportswear, fashion) to acquire the streaming music business. Lucious was hesitant to start selling part of the empire to bring in a new arm of the empire, but after Lee Daniel's comments he told Andre to move forward with selling off the other assets to acquire the streaming music business, with plans to buy them back later.
His legacy kick also leads Lucious to buy Rhonda and Andre a new six-bedroom house. He really is goo-goo over his grandson, and he literally goo-goos over Rhonda's belly! He tells Andre he's proud of how strong his faith is making him, and he also points out how Hakeem dropping his last name has led him to focus on the next generation (his grandson). Later in the episode, Lucious tries to get Hakeem to come back to Empire by pointing out how successful Empire is going to be after acquiring the music streaming business. He tells Hakeem about the new home he bought Andre, but Hakeem tells him, "This son can't be bought."
Anika continues to get worse. She's looking at videos of Hakeem and Laura, cutting out newspaper clippings. And it doesn't help that when she visits Rhonda at the new home and reveals she is in love with an artist who's not Lucious (though she lies and says it's not someone Rhonda knows), Rhonda shares a story about sneaking into the dorm room of a girl who tried to get Andre in college and cutting off her ponytail! She tells Anika to fight for the man she loves. So Anika goes to a party at Hakeem's place and makes a slight scene by telling Laura the song she recently recorded with Hakeem was a song he wrote for Camilla (who will be back in next week's finale), and then called her a little girl and attempted to shame her by talking about where she lives. She then walks out telling Hakeem he can do better. Hakeem invites Anika back over the next day. She's convinced he's in love with her like she is with him, but he tells her he's not and goes on to say she will NEVER be one of them, a Lyon!
Meanwhile, Big Heavy went to Lyons Den to confront Laz about getting money out of them in other ways, but Laz still wanted to make money off of Cookie's Cookout (especially with the first one selling out and them preparing to add a second date). But the conversation doesn't go well and Laz ends up pulling a gun out on Big Heavy and his boys. They leave, but Hakeem wants to know why they were there in the first place. Laz asks Hakeem to trust him and then proceeds to try to convince Cookie to switch venues, but Cookie isn't having it. Now earlier, when Lucious came by to try to get Cookie to sign over her rights to the royalties, he met Laz. He did a little digging, and when he comes back into the office with two guys while Laz is trying to get Cookie and Hakeem to switch venues, he reveals who Laz really is. Hakeem asks Cookie if Laz has one of the bull tattoos on his back, and Cookie goes behind Laz' back, pulls out his gun and pulls down his shirt, revealing the tattoo. Laz tries to tell her it was a game when it started and he had no idea he was going to fall in love with her. She puts the gun to his chest, and he says he just needs more time to fix it. She tells Hakeem to leave with her, hands Lucious the gun, and walks out...leaving Laz in the office with Lucious and the two guys he brought with him.
We know Lucious has no qualms about killing someone, and Laz would be especially easy for him given what they did to Hakeem. But we don't hear a gunshot. With next week being the season finale, and three other responsible parties still out there, I suspect next episode will reveal Laz' fate and it'll be more than just a bullet hole.