The episode opens up at a memorial for Camilla, where Hakeem announces that Rhonda will be the new style director for Anthony and Cleopatra. At the party, Dre apologizes to Rhonda for accusing her of cheating, and Rhonda comments that she's glad he's seen the doctor and is on new meds. Back in Hakeem's office, they find Lucious sitting in the chair behind the desk. Hakeem asks Lucious if he thought it would be that easy just because Camilla is gone, and Lucious responds by congratulating Hakeem for earning his CEO position by killing Camilla by sending the sex tape. Hakeem says Camilla death was not supposed to happen, but of course Lucious fails to mention his role in convincing Camilla to swallow the poison while pointing a gun at her. Cookie nips it in the bud by proclaiming it was held to be a murder-suicide so stop dry snitching, telling them to get back to work, and announcing she expects them all to be at her birthday dinner celebrating her first birthday outside of prison.
Meanwhile, on tour, Laura's group is doing extra songs and cutting into Tiana's time, and Tiana is not having it! Tiana and Becky both tell Laura she needs to watch her time and not add new songs, as she's the opening act, not the headliner. Becky returns to the office and tells Hakeem what's going on, with her and Jamal agreeing it's not in good form for the CEO to be sleeping with his artists. But you know Hakeem is unbothered by that point, but he does go to the D.C. stop on the tour to try to work it out. He gets Laura to stop going into Tiana's wardrobe and gets Tiana to let Laura do an extra song in smaller cities. When Tiana walks by Laura's dressing room and spots her and Hakeem kissing, she seems less than pleased. But the two performed together along with Hakeem after Tiana's set. Later, when Hakeem, Laura, and her family go into her dressing room, her family shares how proud they are of her, and they mention that her father was also a part of a musical act. Her father comments that it was nothing as big as Laura and where she is heading, adding it's a father's dream to see his child do better than he has done. Hakeem had a strange look on his face, and when they asked what was wrong, he shared that it's nice to see a family like theirs, because his father doesn't feel the same way. And at a later tour stop, Hakeem surprises Laura after the concert, and in front of fans, drops down on one knee and proposes to her, saying he wants to start a family like hers. Tiana walks out and sees this, and though she smiles at Hakeem, when he looks aways she once again seems less than pleased. It almost looks as though she's jealous of the relationship and might want Hakeem back, but given their history, it seems it's really just concern that Laura may get special treatment. She even mentioned to Hakeem that when they were dating she never got special treatment, when they were discussing Laura's behavior on the tour.
Back at Empire, Cookie is helping Lucious on his music video, and Hakeem is helping Jamal on his Black & White album. Hakeem and Jamal go to Freda's neighborhood to get her to join Jamal on his next song (a trip that leads to a cypher of sorts with one of the young boys in the neighborhood), but Freda tells them she's not getting in the middle of whatever beef they have with Lucious. She tells them he's like a father to her and they better go back to SoHo. But that all changes when Freda walks onto Lucious' video set, and discovers the concept has changed. And to her surprise, after saying she guesses she doesn't need to change her attire, Lucious informs her that she and her verse have actually been cut from the video! So Freda has a change of heart, for obvious reasons, and goes to the studio to record with Jamal. In a later scene, Cookie is in the studio when Freda comes to lay down her verse on Jamal's song. Cookie stops the recording when she hears Freda mention Frank Gathers. Cookie asks if she heard her say Frank Gathers, and Freda tells her Frank Gathers was her father. She says he was murdered in prison, they don't know who did it, and no one seems to care. Then she asks if Cookie knew him, and Cookie mumbles out yes and then walks out seeming distraught.
Frank Gathers actually came up earlier in the episode when Cookie and Lucious were working on his music video. The concept is now about who Lucious was before he became Lucious. He was set on starting when he was outside and decided to become Lucious, but Cookie insisted he share his full story, starting with what happened with his mother. Since Jamal is the one who revealed to the world Lucious changed his name, Cookie asked if he also knew anything about Lucious' mother. Jamal only knew whatever happened with his mother wasn't good. Cookie will later get Lucious to share what happened. Telling Lucious they needed to be cleansed, his mother held him under water in the bathtub for a long time until she came back to herself. Being upset with herself after realizing what she did to her son, she shoots herself in front of Lucious. Lucious is taken to a neighbor's home to wait on the arrival of protective services. Not wanting to go with protective services, Lucious ran away. He lived outside, under the lion statue, eating out of trash cans to survive. Until he met a then 16 year old Frank Gathers, who gave Lucious his first bag of drugs to sell. Cookie didn't know it was Frank who got Lucious into selling drugs, but Lucious confirmed he did, adding that Frank saved his life. Cookie responded by saying they did what they had to do, commenting on having Frank murdered, and Lucious agreed saying Frank would have killed Cookie twice over.
Shooting the video left Lucious in a trance at times, as he would get caught up in flashbacks. It was pretty hard on him to relive these scenes from his life. When they filmed the bathtub scene, Cookie had to ask people to leave and speak to the child playing young Lucious. She gave him a pep talk reminding him they were just pretending and that he is going to be a hero for so many people, obviously really saying this for Lucious to hear and take in.
For her birthday dinner, Cookie arrived at Lucious' house expecting a disappointing dinner for 2, given the strife between Lucious and their sons. Jamal confirmed he wasn't attending earlier that day when he gave her flowers and said he'd take her shopping the next day. When he heard the way she said she'd guess she'd end up with a dinner for two with Lucious, he commented on her falling for him again (and not in a good way). She denied it. At the birthday dinner she hears the piano start playing, and is surprised to find Jamal, Hakeem, Dre, and Rhonda in the other room! They came for her birthday after all. She decides to share the music video with them, though Lucious said it couldn't be ready, Cookie insisted it was. She had earlier told Jamal this may help him understand why his father is the way he is. But when the video shows Lucious' mother killing herself with the gun, Dre has a flashback to when he almost committed suicide, and he turned the video off. He then confronted Lucious about knowing that his grandmother was bipolar. The two went back and forth on it, with Lucious saying they didn't know it had a name back then. Dre told him he was a liar. When Rhonda suggested they leave, Dre told her to stay. He and Lucious had a final exchange of words, where Lucious told him he didn't mention his mother because he was embarrassed by her being a "nutcase" like he's embarrassed of Dre (throwing in he sent Dre to all those schools and LET him marry Rhonda thinking it would help him), to which Dre told him to go to hell and stormed out!
Yes, he left Rhonda there! Now in the next scene, Rhonda is walking and crying. Then a car pulls up to let her in, the camera zooms in on the gloves of the driver (I suppose referencing the gloves when she was pushed down the stairs), and as it zooms out we see it's Anika! Rhonda thanks Anika for driving all the way out there to get her (umm...so Cookie, Lucious, Jamal, nor Hakeem could drive her home?? It must have been Rhonda's choice not to let them drive her somewhere). She tells Anika she's been trying to help Dre for ten years and now she needs time for herself and not at that house (which she discussed moving from with Dre earlier in the episode). After telling her no need to go on about Lucious and his crazy family, Anika tells Rhonda she can stay with her! Hmmm...Rhonda shouldn't be much of a threat to Anika at this point, now that the baby is gone. If anything, Laura is the next threat. But maybe Rhonda is going to learn Anika is pregnant and/or that it was Anika who pushed her down the stairs, making her a threat to Anika once again. My first thought, the movie Misery.