As the new CEO, Hakeem has gone so far as to change the logo to include his face instead of Lucious. He's made Cookie head of AR, and kept Dre as CFO (and still over Gutter Records). Jamal has stepped down as Vice Chair to focus on his album. When asked at a press conference about Lucious, Jamal's first response is to ask, "Who's Lucious?" But Cookie quickly chimes in to say Lucious is focusing on his music and working on his video, in light of his ASA nomination. When Hakeem is asked again about Lucious, this time he says Lucious was a big part of Empire and Empire will always support him, noting his ASA nomination.
Meanwhile, Lucious is at Lyons Dynasty working on his video concept. He plans an expensive video concept about a king taking back his kingdom. While Cookie is giving him some pointers on what to include and not include, Dre comes in with the bad news that Camilla is slashing Lucious' budget! And later they find out Camille has also cut the entire budget for Tiana's tour (who seems to be giving us more Bey than Rih this season!). And when Cookie shares the news with Tiana, emphasizing it's only temporary, Tiana is done with Empire. Luckily, Cookie comes up with a clever idea to get Camilla to push the tour through when Tiana goes off thinking her tour was cancelled because Hakeem wanted to give it to Laura. This gives Cookie the idea to tell Camilla that Laura's group could go on tour with Tiana, something Camilla went for likely due to her walking in on Hakeem and Laura in his office. Hakeem doesn't want to go with the plan, but Laura tells him the group thinks it would be a good opportunity.
Jamal finds himself surrounded by a flash mob of gay men performing a "flip flop" rendition of "Drip Drop," with actual flip flops, clearly referencing his situation with Skye. A conversation with Jameson reveals that it was Lucious who told Jameson about Jamal and Skye, bragging about it even. Jamal knew what it really was, Lucious was sabotaging his brand in order to beat him at the ASAs. Not taking kindly to being played by Lucious, Jameson decides to help Jamal get his fans back. And at his next performance, Jamal performed a song about his dad where he drops a line saying Lucious Lyon is not his real name. When asked by someone recording him in the crowd, whether he's saying Lucious is inauthentic, Jamal basically agreed with the statement. Surprisingly, Lucious response was not revenge, but rather he called back in a reporter, Harper, for a story. Earlier in the episode Harper was at Lyons Dynasty under the pretense that she was doing a story on Lucious' video, but she was really there to learn about the fallout at Empire. But when Lucious told her he's going to take Jamal's revelation as an opportunity to tell a story he's never told, the Dwight Walker story (how he went from homeless orphan to Lucious Lyon), she was all in!
Back at Empire, Andre and Rhonda are both back at work, after Rhonda gets Andre to talk to Hakeem about letting her work on the Anthony and Cleopatra clothing line in exchange for going to church with Andre (despite her proclaiming there is no God in the last episode after her prayer to save the baby was unanswered). Everyone is concerned that Dre may have returned to work too soon, and Rhonda is noticing signs of him having another break (including having visions - he has a vision from God that someone caused Rhonda to fall, and being paranoid when he accuses her of having an affair when they meet with the pastor, who wasn't much help).
Despite having some issue with the fact that if he helps his family get rid of Camilla he may lose his seat as CEO, Hakeem ends up setting up Camilla. Rhonda shares with Cookie that she overheard Camilla on the phone with Mimi, who to Camilla's dismay was coming to New York to see her. As you probably already know, Camilla is not in love with her wife, and still wants Hakeem. Which is why in an earlier scene she reveals her plan to Hakeem, get all of Mimi's stock when she succumbs to her illness (which she says won't be much longer) to keep Hakeem as CEO. So the Lyons (minus Lucious) plot their move against Mimi and Camilla, but Hakeem ends up taking it into his own hands.
Hakeem invites Camilla over, and the pair make a sex tape. But Camilla had no idea she was being recorded, and if she did she probably wouldn't have said the things she said about Mimi (including patiently waiting for her to die, and I suppose she wouldn't have had sex with Hakeem either). What did Hakeem do with the tape? He sent it to Mimi's hotel room!! While he's telling Cookie and Jamal how he took the situation into his own hands, Dre comes in and tells them Mimi has sold all of her shares of Empire!!! Hakeem's plan worked!! But while Dre is on the phone trying to buy up the stock, he ends up having to use the money in the trust fund for the baby they lost, and he has a minor break afterwards and throws his phone. So Jamal and Hakeem take him down to the studio to share with him a song they created for him during this hard time.
Later, after hearing the news about Mimi and Camilla from Cookie, Lucious leaves to go celebrate alone at home (or so he says). He actually goes to Mimi's hotel, where he somehow manages to record Camilla trying to cover up her murder of Mimi by staging it as a suicide. How did she not hear him come in? How did she not see him? But okay...let's continue... So it turns out Camilla poisoned Mimi by putting something in her drink, and then she put her in the bathtub to make it look like a suicide. She also apparently thought it was Lucious who sent the tape to Mimi. Lucious corrects her and tells her it was Hakeem who sent the tape! He then convinces her to swallow the poison she gave Mimi, after refusing to shoot her as she requested!!