So Dre went to get the documents, while Rhonda was laid out on the floor of their home bleeding out after the fall down the stairs! Rhonda turned her head and saw someone walking out the door, with what seem to be Louboutin flats. Based on the frame of the body, I still think it was Anika, who in a later scene at the hospital tells Rhonda she believes everything happens for a reason. And when Rhonda said she felt guilty and felt like she let Dre down by losing the family heir, Anika told her she's sure there will be another heir. Side eye. Y'all know Anika did it!! But at the hospital, Rhonda doesn't seem to remember being pushed by someone. However, after she returns home and lays against the steps when she's unable to make it all the way up, she seems to remember something when she looks at the door.
Anywho, returning home after voting his father out of the CEO position, Hakeem finds Cookie waiting for him with a broom across her lap (made me think of season 1), and she is not happy. She tells him they are going to call another meeting where he is going to change his vote. But he tells her he's not going to change his vote, though he also says he didn't know he was going to vote that way until that moment. Well Cookie apparently thought she was going to beat him into changing his vote, because she proceeded to hit him repeatedly with the broom. He will later use this against her when she goes to speak to him at his home again and he's there with Camilla. Cookie asks if he's really going to side with Camilla when he doesn't go for her idea to buy Lyons Den, and he says at least Camilla doesn't hit him with purses.
Now, I want to rewind a little bit to the first scene in the hospital. So after the police came, Lucious was still refusing to leave, until Becky told him Rhonda was in the hospital and might not make it. When he got to the hospital, he found Cookie and Jamal already there. When Hakeem arrived, Cookie told him to stay away, because no one wants to see him. Wow! I was a bit shocked by that. Seemed a bit harsh even for Cookie. I mean at a time like that you'd think they would be reminded of how much more important family is over business. But anyway, then Dre arrives, and he has no idea what's going on and thinks something is wrong with Rhonda. They tell him Rhonda is okay, and with tears falling, Lucious tells him she lost the baby!! And wow!! Dre's breakdown, and the reaction by Cookie, Lucious, and Jamal as they had to hold him down and keep him from going to see Rhonda in that condition was devastating. I really felt their pain and nearly cried myself!!
Now, on a lighter note, Camilla has essentially given Hakeem an ultimatum to choose Laura (who he told Camilla he's in love with) or being made the CEO. When Jamal visits Hakeem, and Hakeem is unbothered by what he is doing to Lucious and Jamal's negative experience as CEO, Hakeem says he has something bigger to worry about than Lucious trying to get back at him...the ultimatum Camilla gave him. Jamal asks Hakeem if he really wanted Empire, given he's finding it difficult to choose between Empire and a girl. Hakeem explains to Jamal that Laura is different from the other girls, and that he's never felt that way. But later, it seems he made his choice, when he bursts into the girl group's rehearsal and proceeds to insult Laura's dancing and work ethic, even calling her a bitch! Laura tells him she refuses to be treated that way (that's right Laura) and she leaves.
Later, Lucious and Thirsty gather some goons that have recently been released from prison, and tell them to do anything except murder to get the CEO candidate, Jugo, and the board members to not vote in any CEOs. Well a car explosion, hung cat, and beating of Jugo himself, did the trick. Jugo told the board he wanted nothing to do with Empire, which he said was going down hill with or without Lucious. Then when Camilla asked if there were any other nominations, Hakeem jumped on the table and proclaimed his self nomination and birthright as the youngest son (ummm...that's not how birthright usually works...but anyway). So he's voted CEO. Later in the episode, after becoming CEO, he goes to see Laura, and he explains he had to treat her that way to become CEO. Despite saying she didn't understand, she still let him in. And the two made love for what was Laura's first time, and exchanged "I love you's."
Meanwhile, Cookie, Jamal, and Dre setup a plan to take Camilla out of Empire by getting Cookie on the inside. This time Jamal had an idea he stole from his baby bro. The trio approached Hakeem in the CEO office with Camilla. They made the same offer Cookie made earlier, for Empire to buy Lyons Den. Camilla continued to tell Hakeem to reject the offer, but this time Jamal used Hakeem's own antics against him. Hakeem pointed out that Jamal should be worried about him, because as CEO he controls when Jamal's album is released. PAUSE...
Speaking of Jamal's album, Jameson is less than thrilled with what took place between Jamal and Skye, because he thinks it feeds into the position some people hold that being gay is a choice. While Jamal thinks it's his business and not the world's (though he does tell both Jameson and Cookie he is still gay), Cookie later tells him if he wants to be legendary he has to beat his father in the ASA award category they are both in, and he needs to be on Jameson's good side to win. Well, Jamal may have smiled and grinned seemingly in agreement, but when he performed for an ASA show in front of Jameson, he announced he would be performing a new song instead of a nominated song. He then proceeded to sing a song about having the freedom to be with whoever he wants, as both a man and a woman danced with him. BLOOP!
NOW WHERE WERE WE... So after Hakeem basically said he has control over when Jamal's album is released, Jamal, Cookie, and Dre let him know that the "Black and White" album was actually worked on collaboratively by Lyons Den and Empire, with no stipulation on which label could or could not release the album. In other words, Lyons Den could release it first. Camilla gave her same tired response from earlier in the episode, where she threatened Cookie with litigation that would leave her with an insurmountable amount of legal fees. Well, here's where Jamal's use of Hakeem's antics comes into play. Jamal shares what he learned from his baby brother, and noted just as much, when he tells Hakeem that they would just leak it on the internet!! To which Dre noted the Empire stock would plummet, but be okay in say a year or two. Ha! Despite Camilla still telling Hakeem that he should hold out, Hakeem goes ahead and accepts the offer to buy Lyons Den (and Cookie threw in make her the head of AR), under the notion they could come together as a family (without Lucious of course). While I'm glad he fell for it...why must Hakeem be so slow...or I suppose naive. They are planning to do just what Camilla warned Hakeem they would do, take him out of the CEO position.
Now the episode ends with Hakeem meeting Lucious where Lucious killed Bunkie. Lucious has a gun in hand and tells Hakeem this is where he killed Bunkie and that that represents the fact that he would do anything to keep Empire. Then he gives Hakeem the gun and essentially tells him if Hakeem wants to be the king he better take his father out before his father does to him what he did to Bunkie. But ultimately, Hakeem, after holding the gun up against Lucious' head, throws the gun down and tells Lucious he doesn't have to do what Lucious wants. I was proud of him in that moment, though he's always seemed pretty good at not falling into Lucious' mental traps.