So both Romeo Miller and Mariah Carey made their debut on the show, as Gram and Kitty. Gram is Tiana's new boyfriend! Tariq, who is stalking the Lyons to find new charges to press against Lucious because it's clearly personal, described Gram as a current or possibly former Uptown Mafia member turned rapper. Gram and Tiana gave a "Drake at Rihanna's concert" type of performance, to Hakeem's visible dismay. And he nearly lost it when they made out on stage! Being Lucious, and only being concerned with hitting 10 million subscribers to keep the Board from shutting down Xstream (which they do hit and then some by the end of the episode), Lucious tells Hakeem to channel his desire to physically assault Gram into a diss record. And so he does!
Hakeem goes in the studio with Shine and Nessa and proceeds to drop Ray-J "I Hit It First" type of lyrics. Nessa was not feeling the idea of doing the hook for a song disrespecting another woman like that, and when she made it known Shine let it be known his violent ways can be against his sister just as much as it can be to keep creepers away from her! YIKES! He grabbed her by her throat, and for a second I thought she was about to walk into the recording area. But I was happy to see she left the studio!! And Lucious being Lucious again, when Hakeem went to tell him what happened, Lucious told Hakeem it wasn't Hakeem's problem and he should take notes! Ugh! He then instructed him to go make the song happen with a woman on the hook. And Hakeem did it in a very creative way. He used clips of Tiana's songs on the diss record, as they are owned by Empire! Wow! SMH!
As for Kitty, she's brought into the picture by Cookie, who's trying to help Jamal get over his PTSD the best way she can think of (she's no doctor, so...yea). Jamal had actually visited a PTSD group, but seemed to not plan on returning. He also went to visit Freda, but every time she reached out towards him he had flashbacks and pulled away. Until he finally said she shot him, it ruined him, and it's her fault! I was shocked by the statements, because he's been pretty consistent about his stance that Freda is the victim in this situation. Any who, so Cookie connected Jamal with Kitty as an attempt to get him to perform again. Kitty is essentially Mariah in the Empire universe, from what I can gather right now. Kitty's initial offer was to have Jamal go on tour with her in South America, but he told her he can't perform right now. But after learning Kitty was willing to work on something with him for Xstream, which might finally get Lucious to let go of the idea of dropping Jamal's Black and White album, Jamal proposed an alternative to Kitty. He proposed they live stream the two of them recording a track together. And sure enough, upon learning about the arrangement, Lucious agrees to let go of the idea of releasing the Black and White album. After a failed attempt to sing initially, Jamal pops yet another pill, and puts on a show in the studio with Kitty. Lucious comments that it was good, but also noted that Jamal was very high (not in a concerned father type of way, though...in a joking way. SMH). Cookie didn't seem to notice, because she claimed he wasn't high (he most definitely was!) And then, unfortunately, Jamal later learns Lucious has decided to drop the Black album. After Jamal storms out, Cookie asks Lucious what the Black album is exactly. Well, it's the half of the Black and White album that Lucious produced! SMH! The two go back and forth with Cookie saying half of the company is hers and the Board is on her side, and Lucious basically igniting a war between him and Cookie!
Now before I get to the aftermath of where the last episode left off, I'll give a brief update on Cookie and Lucious' "love" life of sorts. After Lucious offers a recording deal to the young man in Angelo's program who freestyled for him but was heading to MIT, Angelo took it out on an unsuspecting Cookie and then asked her to step in and help. Cookie told him Lucious was doing it just to make Angelo upset with Cookie, and she's probably right. When she walks in on the young man about to sign the contract, she picks it up and rips it. She then gives him the same spill Angelo gave her, essentially about him aspiring to be more than just another rapper or athlete; especially with his gifts. Lucious tried to convince him to sign it anyway, but Cookie guaranteed him if he still wants to do music he can come back to Empire after he finishes college. Angelo later goes to thank Cookie, and Cookie let's him know he's not better than her just because they built themselves up from nothing with rap music (addressing some of the things he said to her when he thought she knew Lucious was trying to get the young man to sign the deal). Angelo apologizes and goes in for a kiss, but he gets curved! But from the looks of things, and Cookie's comment about lunch first, it looks like the pair may be heading on a date soon.
As for Mr. and Mrs. Lyon, Lucious and Anika, the pair exchanged some interesting moments. The moments being talking to the other from Lucious' desk in his home office, only to reveal after the other comments on their strange reaction that they were getting a "sexual favor" under the desk during the whole conversation! SMH. Lucious started it in the beginning of the episode with someone who used to report to Anika, but Anika finishes it later in the episode with a pretty attractive delivery man that was giving her the eye when he delivered a package to her. But that's not the only way Anika finished it. When Lucious told her that's not how she's going to behave as Mrs. Lyon in his home (throwing in his crazy mama will kill her...I'm telling you Leah and Anika are going to have a serious altercation before this season is up...in this episode alone she's asked Anika why she saw the housekeeper holding the baby instead of Anika), Anika made it real plain! She pointed out she only married him to help him out and because she knew if she talked to Tariq her baby would grow up without a mother, despite Lucious' assertion that she married him because she always wanted to be Mrs. Lucious Lyon! And with that she basically said she's going to get to do whatever she wants!!
Now to Andre. So Andre hired a friend he's known for a decade to be his attorney, a White man. As they walk out the jail to a sea of paparazzi, the attorney reminds Andre to remember what they discussed and not say anything or go all Black Lives Matter (that's when I knew this might not be the best attorney for him). Andre tries to ignore the pap until they begin to yell out questions asking if he's a gangster like Lucious now. So Andre finally responded by saying what happened to him is what's happening all over the country. And before he could answer the next question he sees a hallucination of Rhonda saying all of this wouldn't have happened if she was alive.
Later, when Andre goes to see Cookie and Lucious, they are all worked up (rightfully so) and ready to set Thirsty on the two officers. But Andre isn't having it and says something about him being a Wharton grad and CFO of a publicly traded company (I didn't see what that had to do with it). He also adds that having Thirsty do what Thirsty does isn't a good idea with the Feds watching them. Andre's response had them feeling like he didn't realize he was Black, and that led to Lucious picking his sons up from the courthouse (more on that in a bit) and driving them to their old neighborhood (Hakeem said they never lived there, but was corrected and told he was a baby at the time). Lucious then proceeded to give his three boys a speech about how him giving them a sheltered life may have led them to forget they are Black and will be treated as such in the real world (specifically saying their name might as well be Trayvon, Philando, or Freddie and they better get woke quick, because they are one moment away from becoming a hashtag). It was an interesting talk for sure, and probably the best version of such a conversation one could expect from a father like Lucious, but Andre was not feeling it at all. And he was done when Lucious brought Rhonda into it by saying White wives and lawyers won't change the fact that they are Black! At that point Andre gets out the van, and Jamal follows after him. Hakeem stays in the van and drives back to the studio to share with Lucious his diss record with Tiana songs interlaced in it.
Now about court. Andre and his attorney went in there ready to plead not guilty to the one count of criminal trespass (I mean he was moving out of HIS place), but the judge cut Andre's attorney off to read out additional charges: felony battery, aggravated assault, and assault against a police officer!! When they leave the courthouse, Andre's attorney says they should plead guilty and cut a deal for possibly just probation if its his first offense!! Really??! Andre and his brothers are not feeling the idea of him lying about being guilty just for going to his own house!!! And that's when Lucious rolls up with his van to take them to their old neighborhood. O...and at the end of the episode, Tariq confronts Andre and reveals that he's part of the reason why these fake charges are being trumped up against Andre. But Andre lets him know he's not going to give up his father just to get the fake charges dropped!