Empire Season 3, Episode 4 ("Cupid Kills") Recap

Nessa, Nessa, Nessa. So much of this episode was about Nessa. Lucious and Andre went to Shyne's studio to sign Nessa, but Shyne (who apparently isn't Nessa's biological brother, but rather someone entrusted to care for her by her deceased brother) had different plans. Several other labels were also at the studio, as Shyne was planning a bidding war for Nessa. When Dre offers to let Hakeem help him sign Nessa, Hakeem decides to live stream Shyne and Nessa at his home to announce she was signing to Empire. And of course Shyne says only if the number is right, adding if the number is right he'll sign right there. He convinces Hakeem to write down the amount Empire is offering on a napkin, but then he just takes the napkin and puts it up in front of the camera to tell the other labels they have to beat the $2.5 million Empire was offering for Nessa. Womp, womp! 

Later, Dre goes to see Nessa alone, where they discuss how she manages all of Shyne's money and is similar to Dre. This is also the scene where Dre discusses Nessa actual brother and her knowing her own value, which convinces her to sign. But they still need Shyne's signature. Having learned what Dre did, Shyne busts into Lucious' office and punches Dre. Dre stands back up and throws a few good punches of his own. But then Shyne goes for his gun and aims it at Dre, and then Lucious takes his bat to the back of  Shyne's knee. He then throws the contract down to Shyne on the floor for him to sign, but Shyne just spits (a bloody spit) on the contract. Then Lucious pulls a gun on him to get him to sign it. And no, Dre did not try to talk sense into Lucious like season 1 Dre would have. Rather, he stomps on Shyne after he signs. This of course leads to Shyne gathering up a number of men with very large guns to go after Lucious and Dre (guess we will see that next episode). And while Shyne is suiting up with those men, Nessa is visiting Dre without Shyne knowing. And as some of you probably know from social media, she and Dre hook-up (though she is unaware she's actually part of a threesome with Dre's hallucination of his deceased wife, Rhonda!).

Meanwhile, after waiting to hear from Angelo, Cookie is surprised by an elementary school musical trio. Angelo then appears to invite her to hear a friend of his sing. Unfortunately, Porsha confused the location with The Compound in Atlanta somehow, convincing Cookie it was a hip hop spot. After trying on everything, as any woman might do on her first date with a guy she really likes, Cookie finally chose what she thought was the perfect outfit. Unfortunately, Angelo had actually invited her to the opera, and all the other women were dressed in gowns. Cookie tried to leave, but Angelo told her she looked good and told her to stay. He introduced her to two Black women he grew up with (one a family friend, one from Jack and Jill growing up). They asked Cookie where she lived on the Vineyard (as in Martha's Vineyard), and though Angelo tried to do what he probably felt was the nice thing to do and try to help Cookie save face by saying she spends her summer working for her family's business, Cookie told them she stayed at the prison up there! Later, after being amazed by the singer (who was singing about loving two men), and jumping up and shouting about the singing (more r&b concert than opera), Cookie retreated to the bathroom after the performance. While in the stall, she overheard Angelo's friends talking about her being a hoodrat and him not staying with her for long. Cookie being Cookie, she came out of the stall to confront them before leaving without telling Angelo good bye. 

Cookie ignored all of Angelo's attempts to contact her, but Jamal invites him to the live stream of Tiana performing her new song. Since Tiana wasn't feeling the idea of putting out a diss track that essentially just made her the pawn two guys were fighting over, Cookie convinced her to use a new concept utilizing the opera singer she went to see with Angelo. Angelo tells Cookie he thinks they can make it work, and Cookie seems willing to give it a try despite Lucious' best efforts to not see it work. Earlier in the episode Lucious told Cookie Angelo put in a bid to be mayor and asked her if she thought he could do that with an ex-convict on his arm. At Tiana's performance, Lucious told Angelo the story about how Cookie got her name (which included Lucious telling her she was his Cookie from now on and then shortly thereafter beating up Cookie's then boyfriend Barry and telling him Cookie was his girl now). After the flashback scene, Lucious then told Angelo that's how it always works with them. He and Cookie always get back together. But Angelo tells him it may be different this time! And he could be right, especially with Cookie sharing flashbacks of her own. She told Porsha about how her father told her to stay away from Lucious and wanted her to go to college, become a doctor, and marry Barry who would lift her up instead of bring her down. She told Porsha that Angelo reminded her of Barry.

While all of this is going on, Jamal is still meeting up with the guy he met at the PTSD support group in the last episode. He actually went with Jamal to see Freda again. Freda had been beaten up and her face looked really bad. She told Jamal he had some fans in there, implying she was beat up in retaliation for shooting Jamal. Jamal asked if her lawyer could help her get out, and she told him the lawyer Lucious sent was only concerned with her staying quiet about Lucious killing her father. So after speaking with Angelo about it, and Angelo pointing out if she had a history of mental issues she could possibly get out if she said she was having a mental break when she shot Jamal, Jamal paid off a doctor to say Freda had a history of mental issues. Her attorney said she was on meds and alcohol the night of the shooting, which caused her to be paranoid and not in her right state of mind. And sure enough it worked, and Freda got out on bail. Jamal later learns the entire thing was part of Lucious' plan, and that Freda was in on it (including letting someone beat her up)!! Lucious told Jamal he reminded him of himself by paying the doctor off without Lucious even having to ask him to. Also, with her mental stability now in question, Lucious said he will no longer have to worry about her trying to reveal he had anything to do with her father's death. SMH!

It should also be noted, after being warned it was a bad combo and pretending to change his mind, Jamal continued to take his meds with alcohol. Also, Becky didn't get the Senior A&R position at Empire. Cookie hired someone else who she described as being a Hip Hop encyclopedia (Becky described him as a Jewish guy, and Lucious described him as pretending to be Black). And though he did show he was knowledgeable on Hip Hop, he didn't seem to be knowledgeable on Empire artists, specifically Tiana. He was thinking about steering her more Nicki for her performance, but Cookie agreed with Becky's correction that she was more Rihanna. 

Empire Season 3, Episode 3 ("What Remains is Bestial") Recap

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!

Empire Season 3, Episode 2 ("Sin That Amends") Recap

Lucious is still trying to win Cookie back. He started by sending her lavish gifts, which she returned to him (except for the gold gun). Then he started playing on the day they first met. First by playing her a track for Jamal that was a play off of the Biz Markie hit "Just a Friend," the beat he was rapping over when they met. And when that didn't work, he surprised her by waking her up with Biz Markie performing "Just a Friend" in her living room! But Cookie is standing her ground. And Lucious further attempt at playing off the day they met by telling her he saw her earlier that day getting out Barry's car and knew he wanted to make her his despite it being a long shot, may actually lead Cookie into the arms of Angelo Dubois (Taye Diggs).

While doing a radio interview with Angelo Dubois about gun violence, Jamal found himself agreeing to attend Dubois' summit despite Cookie being against it. Cookie was not a fan of Dubois, who she felt was bougie and was not in the position to speak on the lives of underprivileged  youth. But Jamal stuck with the commitment, even inviting Dubois and his youth group to Empire. As Lucious was walking out, Jamal stopped him to introduce him to Dubois and the youth (one of which had a 3.8 GPA, was heading to MIT, and freestyled for Lucious). Lucious offered to host the summit at Empire, and when Dubois declined (noting they already had a venue), Lucious sweetened the deal by offering to have Empire be the underwriter of the entire summit. Dubois agreed, and Jamal whispered in Lucious ear inquiring why he was being so generous. Lucious revealed why when he told Dubois and the youth how great it would be to spread the word by showing the summit on Xstream!! Mystery solved! 

At the Summit, the youth performed, and Dubois spoke. He even told everyone how Cookie made him realize they weren't victims of their circumstances but survivors! When Lucious got up to speak, to prove his point to Cookie, he called Jamal up to come sing (he hadn't sung since the Xstream event). Jamal walked out and had another panic attack. He eventually told Cookie and Lucious that Lucious wanted him to admit he's scared and he is. He said he can't perform anymore, proving Lucious right. 

As Barry continued to talk, Cookie softened on Dubois ( a nice change from her going off on him at the rehearsal). Cookie reflected on the guy she was dating the day Lucious saw her for the first time, Barry. Lucious called him a nerd when he recounted to Cookie earlier in the episode how he had seen her getting out of Barry's car hours before they actually met. Cookie recalled Barry being someone who wanted to change the world, someone more like Dubois and less like Lucious. So when they spoke after the summit, she was much nicer and even agreed to come speak to the youth. This of course led to Lucious being less friendly with Dubois. We will see where this goes.

Meanwhile, Hakeem and Nessa are working together in the studio and vibing very well off of each other. Something may be there, but when Shine knocks a dude out in the studio for eyeing his sister, Hakeem looks shooked. Which means he probably was starting to feel Nessa, but now he's probably scared to pursue anything with her. 

Back at Lucious' home Anika is struggling with being a mother and begins interviewing nannies, until Lucious shuts that down and tells her being a mother is her only job! Leah, who had been standing there looking on at the interviewing, took the opportunity to throw a jab by saying she took care of Lucious on her own. And when she offered to go get Bella who was crying, Anika yelled for her to stay away from Bella. 

Later, in yet another flashback scene, we see a young Tariq was also there the day Lucious and Cookie met. But his mother came and snatched him away, warning him not to talk about Lucious being his half-brother and to stay away from him. She also said Lucious and his crazy mother coming into their lives was the worst thing that happened to them. And what was Tariq doing while reminiscing, watching Lucious on the nanny cam he planted. But Anika comes into the nursery, and after laying Bella in her crib, goes to put the monitor up under the stuff animals. But she hears static, and some moving around helped her pinpoint the source of the static, the planted teddy bear. The static wakes up Lucious who quickly realizes what has happened. He walks over and acts loving towards Anika, who is holding the teddy bear, and says their daughter deserves stuff animals fitting of a princess not this teddy bear. He then grabs the eyes and pulls the wire out of the bear's head!!

Meanwhile, Andre is still struggling with Rhonda being gone. When Jamal walks in on him trying to speak to Rhonda, he admits to Jamal he was talking to Rhonda. But when Jamal asks him if Rhonda is there, he tells him no she's not. He then tells Jamal Rhonda handled his ever changing medication regimen, and he can't handle it. So Jamal offers to help him by creating a chart like he created for his pain meds (which he says he is struggling with himself). Later, Andre asks Cookie how she's survived so much loss in her life, noting how she's a fighter. She tells him he's a fighter like her! Andre takes that and pours it into his brothers, as they reflect on their issues together. Andre tells Jamal he will beat it and perform again, and he tells Hakeem he will be a good father to Bella. When they ask what about him, he says he will start by going to his and Rhonda's old place and packing up his stuff. 

Unfortunately, when he was putting a box into his truck, a White woman had called the police and they asked him if he knew anything about recent break-ins. He tried to explain multiple times he used to live there, but to no avail. Being frustrated with the questioning he turns to continue to put the box in the truck, and the police tackle him down to the ground. The episode ends with them pointing a gun to his head as he lays there!! Reminds me of the young man who was recently arrested while sitting on his mother's porch!! SMH!

Empire Season 3 Premiere ("Light in Darkness") Recap

Empire came back this week, and I was disappointed to see Rhonda fall on the top of the car! Yep, Anika is still alive, though she might not had survived Andre choking her if her water didn't break. At the hospital she gave birth to a girl, Bella. Hakeem had run off from the wedding, had some drinks, and ended up at Tiana's. So he missed Bella's birth, and Lucious took his place in the labor and delivery room. He told Anika to lie and say Rhonda jumped, called Anika out for lying about the sex of the baby, and put his name on Bella's birth certificate (since he and Anika are married). And being Lucious, you know he takes many opportunities to make Hakeem feel like Lucious is Bella's real daddy. SMH. 

Andre is of course having a hard time with the loss of his wife, no longer wanting anything to do with God or His plans. Jamal convinces him to come stay with him so he won't be alone. Which turns out to be a good thing when Jamal walks in on Andre talking to a hallucination of Rhonda who is agreeing with Andre's realization that he should have believed Rhonda. 

Having to prove their marriage isn't fake after Anika discharges herself and Bella from the hospital unbeknownst to Lucious, Lucious has to have his security intercept Anika before she goes home from the hospital to move her into his house. There, Anika encounters Lucious' mother, who doesn't hold back when she tells Anika she doesn't know why Lucious would marry someone like Anika. She even threw in that she knew Anika was trying to poison her! And this is all while walking closer and closer to Anika with a knife pointing towards her! Hmmm...these two may have it out by the end of the season. My bet is on Leah!

Meanwhile, Hakeem is working on a new song with Shyne, who kinda bulldozed/blackmailed himself and his artist, Nessa, into Empire. He produced the beat for Hakeem's new song and got Lucious to agree to have Nessa sing background and the bridge for Jamal's performance at the concert launching Empire's streaming service (which Baby and French Montana declined to give exclusive rights to their catalogues to...that whole attempt to win them over over a game of poker made me of course think of Jay and Tidal and the millions of dollars it's losing...will Empire's streaming company have the same fate??). 

Jamal practiced a song Lucious didn't approve, opting for the ask for forgiveness instead of permission route. Why? Well because in addition to the song being about gun violence and Black lives that have been taken (even naming some by name!), it was also about "Free Freda!" And it was that "Free Freda" part that Jamal didn't want his father to find out about before the show. Freda's trial was stalled, and her attorneys weren't doing anything about it. And though Freda shot Jamal, he felt his father was ultimately to blame for the entire thing.

The thing is, Jamal is still not fully recuperated from being shot and is in some pain and on pain meds. And the night of the show, as the music starts up, Jamal is overcome by flashbacks to the night of the shooting and likely physical pain, as well. He's escorted off the stage by Hakeem as he has a panic attack, with Hakeem telling the band to keep playing. They keep playing for a minute, but Jamal is still not able to regain his composure. And before you know it, as the music continues to play to a confused audience who only sees a band and Nessa, Nessa eventually steps up to the main mic and begins to sing the song. And it was great!! So great Shyne tells Lucious they have some business to handle as partners. So great Lucious is upset with Jamal, because now Nessa is the face of their streaming company, and he let his anger be known. So great I think I spied Tiana giving Nessa some side eye from the balcony during the performance!

At home, Cookie found herself having to deal with her two sisters trying to get her to talk with Tariq, which she of course doesn't, and feeling hurt by Lucious marrying Anika. She tells Lucious he's ruined it and anything they had is now dead. But it looks like Lucious hasn't completely given up on them. And Tariq hasn't completely given up on taking down Lucious either. Lucious ultimately invites Tariq to a family dinner, he is after all Lucious' half-brother. The whole family was there, and Tariq took stabs at each and every one of them pointing out how Lucious has wronged them. The family stood strong though, with Cookie eventually asking Tariq to leave after he went in on her and Lucious' relationship causing the boys to stand up for their mother. But I suspect at some point during their family dinner Tariq got up to the nursery, perhaps to see his niece/great-neice. Either that or he had someone planted when they set up that nursery, because he has a nanny cam in the nursery!! 

Empire Season 2 Finale ("Past is Prologue") Recap

This finale had me feeling like I was watching General Hospital or Young & the Restless on a Friday!  #CliffhangerFriday #HalfBrothers #MarryingtheOtherWoman And it was a whopping 38% down in viewers between the ages of 18-49 as compared to Season 1's finale! 

So here's what happened...Jamal is back home after 3 weeks, but informs his family he's done singing until they can end this cycle of violence and incarceration. Not even Hakeem wanting him to sing at his and Laura's wedding (with Dre officiating) could change his mind! But when Lucious goes to visit Freda behind bars (denying having anything to do with her father's murder) and gets her to record a song for Jamal, the song inspires Jamal to get back to the music. So he gets to work on a song for the wedding. D-major is with him as he works with the other singers on the song, and notes he tried to visit him while he was in the hospital but Lucious wouldn't let him go in. 

Meanwhile, Anika goes to tell Lucious  that the Feds questioned her and asked about someone named Shyne. Recall Shyne is part of the reason Lucious ended up murdering Bunkie. He knows some things the Lyons need him to keep to himself, so later in the episode Cookie meets with him to discuss why it's in everyone's interest for him not to talk to the Feds. He agrees on the condition Empire signs his nephew and he gets an invite to Hakeem's wedding. Later, at a dinner with Lucious, Cookie, Hakeem, Laura, and her parents, her father is less than pleased that Shyne will be attending. 

Back to Anika telling Lucious and Cookie about the Feds, while she's in there Dre and Rhonda walk in. Dre here's the name Shyne and repeats it as if he's familiar with the name, but before he can say anything else Rhonda attacks Anika for pushing her down the stairs. But no one believes her, and they side with Anika who says Rhonda is crazy for thinking she would do that. Rhonda tries to get Dre to tell the family about his visions, but he plays it off and apologizes for Rhonda. And when they are outside the office he tells her his visions were part of his illness. Despite Dre no longer believing his vision, Rhonda tells him she expects him to do for her what she did with him with Vernon.  But Dre clarifies that was self defense, and she ends up going to stay with a friend for a while in L.A. Though she does return for the wedding.

 O...and there's a scene shortly after Anika reveals the Feds questioned her that Hakeem has to grab Cookie and Lucious, because Anika is sitting on the ledge preparing to jump all because she doesn't want to have to testify against Lucious. Cookie ends up being the one to talk her down by telling her she's carrying her grandson so she'll never be alone, and that she's a Lyon now like she always wanted. And Anika actually confirmed that's what she's always wanted to be. This is exactly why I never really liked her character. I just don't get why she's so dead set on becoming a Lyon. 

Now at the wedding...actually, first let me mention that Lucious and Cookie had another one of those moments where Lucious tells her he can't do anything without her. This time adding that's why he never married anyone else. 

Ok...so at the wedding...Shyne comes in making a scene being loud and with a couple of prostitutes on his arm. Which made the other 2 men who are a part of what Cookie deemed the "Circle of Silence" ready to leave. But Cookie and Lucious pull them into a separate room, to explain they needed to get Shyne on all of their good sides to make sure he didn't talk to the Feds jeopardizing all of their lives. So they agree to stay. Now as Laura was preparing to walk down the aisle, Anika is served papers to testify at a grand jury hearing! The server runs down the aisle to get out, and they yell for someone to stop her. In the commotion Shyne got involved and a fight ensued just as Laura and her parents walked in to begin going down the aisle! That was the last straw, and despite Hakeem saying he had it under the control, Laura said she can't live this life and could not marry him!!! Poor Hakeem. 

But the family had even more pressing concerns! Anika has been subpoenaed to testify against Lucious. Thirsty confirms that the only way to prevent it is for Lucious and Anika to get married. Cookie was immediately hurt by the idea and didn't want it to happen. Lucious told her it's just paper and he needs her to be his ride or die on this one. She turned to her sons, tears falling down her face, and tells them that they know she loves them but she just can't do it. And she storms out. 

And then Lucious marries his ex-fiance/mother of his future grandson. Which as someone pointed out, and I already thought of, would make him the unborn child's father and grandfather. Since they would be married when the baby is born. Jamal sees this as yet another continuation of the cycle he wants to end in the family. But anywho...after Dre marries his father and brother's baby mother, he tells his father he can kiss the bride. Though Anika seems to think she would at least get a peck on the lips, Lucious kisses her on the cheek. As they walk down the aisle (after Lucious and then Thirsty yell for Jamal to sing), Lucious tells Anika he knows she pushed Rhonda down the stairs. And Anika says she needs a minute and runs off to the side. 

Everyone else, Lucious, Jamal, Hakeem, Dre, Thirsty, and Lucious' mother, Leah, are walking out the venue when they are stopped by Tariq. Let's take a moment to talk about what Leah has shared with the family in this episode up to this point. She shared that all of this is happening to the family, because Lucious' father was a criminal. Lucious told her not to talk about it and confirmed to his son that his father was a cop. She reveals to the boys that Lucious saw his father get murdered. O and if you were wondering about the end of the last episode, Lucious makes a comment in this episode that Thirsty got to Leah before she could reveal to the press she was Lucious' mother. Anywho...so throughout the episode we see flashbacks of Lucious seeing his father get murdered. Well when Tariq walks up to them, Leah asks Lucious what his half-brother is doing there!! Tariq then calls Lucious Dwight, and Lucious has a flashback to the night his father was murdered. Lucious' father had him hiding, and he asks the man if he wants to go down for shooting a cop (so indeed he was cop). He also brings up the man's son, to which the guy tells Lucious' father that he's the boy's father and that now that boy and Lucious won't have a father!! Then he kills him. 

Tariq seems to know they are half-brothers, but soon realizes Lucious may not have known (though his flashback shows Lucious knew he had a half brother). Tariq goes on to say their father was a good cop but a bad man, and that they each got a part of him (implying Lucious got the bad man part, which Lucious' mother also suggested earlier in the episode going so far as to say one if not all of the boys have it in them too!). Lucious responds by saying his name is Lucious (not Dwight) and he has no family. Then he says let's go and tells Dre to go get his wife (Anika), as he and the rest of them walk past Tariq to leave.

Anika is outside on some type of bridge, when Rhonda comes out and attacks her again. The two fight over the edge, and when Rhonda tells Anika she wanted her child to be the only Lyon's heir, Anika confirms (thereby also admitting to pushing Rhonda down the stairs to kill Rhonda's unborn child). The fight continues, and Dre walks out and sees them fighting. He let's out a yell as we hear what sounds like at least one of them falling over the edge, but of course they don't show us who! I think it sounded like Rhonda, but them bringing Vernon back up makes me feel it may have been Anika and the two will have to cover up another murder together. 

Now you see why it gave me the soap opera feel. 

Until next season Empire!

Underground Season Finale Recap S. 1, E. 10 ("The White Whale")

Wow!! So sad I won't get more of Underground this coming Wednesday. 2017 can't come soon enough!! 

At the Macon plantation, Ernestine is seemingly trying to cope with the fact that Tom hung her son Sam. Tom begs for her forgiveness, calling himself a coward who doesn't even have his own last name, taking responsibility for the death of Sam (well duh!), and offering to take Ernestine with him to Washington (including shopping and dinners in private clubs along the way). Ernestine says she blames herself, because she feels its punishment for having killed Pearly Mae to protect Rosalee. She says all she feels is pain, to which Tom says he can make her feel something else as he puts his hand up her dress (really??). I was less than pleased when she went for it, though the show redeems itself later on this front. And later she finds Tom talking to James as he is teaching him how to be a carpenter. James says Sam was going to teach him and asks if Tom thinks Sam will be coming back soon. Tom asks him where he thought Sam was, and James says his mother told him Sam was in the city making furniture for rich White people. Tom says he thinks Sam is probably really busy, and James asks if Tom thinks one day he'll be able to go to the city to make furniture too. Tom says he doesn't see why he couldn't. Ernestine is listening this whole time, and I can only imagine she is thinking the two things I'm thinking. One, yet another empty promise from Tom to one of her sons (he promised Sam he could buy his freedom) and also that it really symbolizes Tom saying what really happened to Sam could happen to James too!!!

Back at the Hawkes' home, John returns with news that everyone knows the remaining members of the Macon 7 have crossed the river and it's a free for all trying to capture them, with all roads blocked. So they come up with a plan to get Rosalee, Boo, and Noah to Ripley (an abolitionist area). While John and Rosalee are out digging by the side of a house at night, Noah and Elizabeth discuss Noah not knowing if he could and would do what Elizabeth is doing to help runaways and Elizabeth questioning if she would do it again if she knew what she knew now (that they will either end up captured or dead). While Elizabeth tells Noah he's run 600 miles so he can do anything, including what she's doing, he tells her he knows she would do it all over again based on how she looks at Boo. Then they both agree it is all worth it if Boo gets to freedom!

Rosalee and John have a conversation of their own after they finish digging. After Rosalee says Sam probably decided not to run with them because he was scared and thought Tom would let him buy his freedom, adding she hoped he would someday, John revealed to her that Sam was dead. As she cried in the bathtub after returning to the house, Noah brought her a change of clothes and prepared to leave until she asked him to stay. He came in and without speaking, washed her back, held her, and kissed her on her forehead. They looked into each others eyes for a moment, and they kissed and he lifted her up and took her to their bedroom. Later, they discuss the fact that the others didn't make it and pondered why they deserved to have freedom. At one point Noah even said Cato may have been right about him picking everyone just to use them to help him make it to freedom. But they concluded it's not about deserving freedom. It was bigger than that. For one, they all had a right to freedom, which is beyond some deserving it and others not. And finally, they concluded none of them are truly free until they are all free!!

Meanwhile, when August meets back up with Jeremiah and a few of his men (they just dragged in a number of their men who died), August shares the news that Ben didn't die but has to have surgery. Given it became clear that August now had the idea to kill Rosalee after what she did to his son, and given Patty will be pretty upset about Jeremiah losing so many men, Jeremiah tells August they need to renegotiate their deal (aka...we are going to kill you now, and then capture Rosalee alive to keep the reward for ourselves). And there's Augustine in the middle of Jeremiah and 3 other guys. The camera takes us outside the building. It's quiet for a moment, and then Jeremiah comes out the building bloody. But then he falls down, clearly having been on the losing side of the fight. Then out comes August, also bloodied but standing strong and with a gun in his hand. Then he shoots Jeremiah.

Later, Noah, Rosalee, John, and Elizabeth come up with a plan to cause a distraction with all the locked up runaways so they can get to Ripley. Elizabeth walks into the marshal's office requesting to speak with Kyle. They tell her Kyle has been missing for days but offer to speak with her instead. She says she'd rather speak with Kyle and that it is information he may find useful about some runaway activity. Then she requests to leave a note on his desk. Then Noah comes in and holds a gun to Elizabeth's head, telling all of the marshals to drop their weapons.  He also delivers a speech about how slaves built this country and that it is the blood of slaves that keeps the country's heart pumping, making slaves more American than any of them!! When one of them shoots him, Noah shoots him down. Then he puts all of them and Elizabeth into the cell, and let the runaways out. He gives them the guns he collected from the marshals, tells them to shoot if they have to because they won't hesitate to shoot them, and tells them if they get caught to ask for a lawyer and one particular man who can help them (we don't hear who he names since they are walking out of the marshal's office). 

Meanwhile, August approaches John outside of his house, saying Tom told him to reach out to his brother if he needs anything and is in the area. He says he needs to get a wire to Tom for more money for his son's surgery. So John invites him into the house. Rosalee and Boo are in the hideaway with Kyle (who is still tied up). While John goes to get something, Kyle begins banging his head against the block he's tied to, and August hears him. But Rosalee knocks Kyle out with a rock when he won't be quiet. When John returns, August comments on the draft from the fireplace. When John says it's an old home, August comments that the room had clearly been remodeled. To which John says it was remodeled when they were expecting a child. August then asks him if he knows that one of the Macon 7 is kin to him, and then tells him Rosalee is Tom's daughter. Then he adds that Rosalee is the one that stabbed his son, who will never be able to walk again.  Elizabeth runs into the house proclaiming, "It worked!" But then she sees August, and John tells her August is the slave catcher Tom hired to catch the runaways. So Elizabeth asks August what he's doing at their house when one of the Macon 7 just held up the marshal's office. August leaves, and Elizabeth and John tell Rosalee they have to leave with Boo now, because August may be on to them. So they can't wait on Noah. But then August comes into the hideaway from the outside, with a gun aimed at Rosalee. John is able to make part of the top of the hideaway come crashing down on them, as he yells for Rosalee to run! John and August are both knocked out, as Rosalee, Elizabeth, and Boo get away. 

When August comes to, he gets out and goes after Rosalee, Elizabeth, and Boo. Rosalee decides to get out of the wagon to get August to come after just her. As he runs after her, she stops and turns around. When he gets to her, she tells him Ben set her free and that it was his fault Ben was stabbed, because Ben shouldn't have been there and didn't want to be there. She said she's done running. And August walks up and puts the gun to her head, but then he hears a gun cock behind him. He turns around and there's Elizabeth aiming a gun at him. So he drops his gun. But then he throws his knife at her hand, making her drop the gun. But before he can pick up his gun, Rosalee picks it up and shoots him. He falls down, and Rosalee tells him, he hunts runaways like they are animals and now she's going to let him die in the woods like he's an animal. And they leave. Now when he comes to, he's in a jail cell with Patty Cannon standing over him. She tells him there's a lot of things you can do as a slave catcher, but killing White people, especially her men, isn't one of them. 

That's not the only one Patty brought to the jail. In the cell next to August is Noah. While Noah was heading back to the Hawkes' house, he saw a White man trying to capture a young runaway. He began to fight the man, as he told the runaway to run away. Then he got knocked out with a blunt object that kind of looked like a big hair brush, by Patty Cannon. Patty told him she realized a runaway can't know where a marshal office is to hold it up without the help of a White person, and demands he tell her who helped him. She tells him she can help him and Rosalee, who she knows he loves. At first he says he can't, but then he gives her a name. MARSHAL KYLE RISDIN!! (Yes! I was hoping he would do that!). 

Back in the hideaway at the Hawkes' house, John comes to and reveals to Kyle their plan after responding to Kyle's offer to help them if he let's him go by asking if Kyle meant to help him the way he helped Elizabeth (BOOM!). When John and Rosalee were digging by a house, they were digging a hideaway under Kyle's house. And when Elizabeth went to leave a note on Kyle's desk, she was leaving letters from William Still, among other things that will make it look like he was helping slaves run away. And the name Noah told the runaways he set free to ask for if they got caught, Kyle Risdin. Which means, every time one got caught, Kyle's name came up!! Kyle said he would clear up his name as soon as he gets out, because he knows John wouldn't kill him because of his respect of the law. To which John said the Fugitive Slave Act gives him not only the right, but the duty to kill Kyle!! And he suffocates Kyle, and then he and Elizabeth bury him. 

Now back at the Macon Plantation, in the cellar, Tom and Ernestine are having a drink and discussing Tom's plan for when they leave for Washington. But Ernestine has plans of her own. After telling Tom she's realized why Rosalee ran, and that there's no such thing as safety, who seems to be the Reverend's slave, pulls rope over Tom's neck and hangs him from it! Then Ernestine winds a contraption that lifts Tom off the ground hanging him to death (similar to the contraption she was winding when the Reverend and his slave left the house earlier in the episode, I guess to raise and lower the chandelier), after telling him he won't be judged because they are both going to hell!!! She then throws a chair down under him to make it look like he hung himself!! 

And later, when Ernestine is riding in a carriage with Suzanna, Suzanna decides to tell Ernestine what bothered her most about Ernestine. But she started with what didn't bother her. She said it didn't bother her that she was sleeping with Tom, because they all slept with her kind (even mentioning having slept with a stable boy when she was Mary's age). She said it didn't bother her that she had children with Tom, because they were just free labor! But what did bother her was that the one thing Tom promised her was hers, her children, looked to Ernestine like a mother (laughing with and crying out for Ernestine when they needed something)! Should have seen this coming, as it was Ernestine's interaction with Mary in the very first episode that revealed Suzanna's dislike of Ernestine! Suzanna said now that Tom is gone, it is her chance to pay Ernestine back for her relationship with her children. Then Suzanna opens the curtains of the carriage to reveal she is putting Ernestine on the block for sale!! She adds that she plans on bringing James into the house and raising him as her own, giving him a better life than Ernestine ever could (the one thing Ernestine prided herself on)!!!

As for Rosalee and Boo, they made it to freedom and are with William Still. William asks Rosalee about the Macon 7, and she tells him a little about each one. And then she reveals she has to go back and help others get to freedom!! O by the way, in a small scene, we see Cato is alive and why he was probably running late picking them up last episode! He's gone to where he hid the box of money from the carriage!! Not sure how he got away and survived, but that explains why the men told Jeremiah the dead men didn't even have any of the money on them! Cato, Cato, Cato!!! 

O...as I'm sure you've heard by now, Rosalee is connected with Harriette Tubman! Harriette says she heard Rosalee wants to steal slaves. To which Rosalee says you can't steal what's not property!! And Harriette tells her she's going to teach her how to help other slaves reach freedom!!!!!! 

Ugh...why must we wait until 2017??!!!!

Underground Recap S. 1, E. 9 ("Black & Blue")

John has returned home after attending a Bazil Abbott slave auction at Bazil's home. John outbid Bazil for a young woman slave, which afforded him the opportunity to sit and talk with Bazil after the auction. Given his bloodied wrapped hand and bruised face when he returned home, it was clear something happened at the auction, and it was slowly revealed throughout the episode. As John was talking to Bazil about Bazil's interest in making wagers and success at buying and selling slaves, Bazil speaks on his recent encounter with one of his own runaway slaves that he's recaptured. And that slave is Clyde! So now we know why John is really there! So John decides to make a wager with Bazil, the young woman slave he just purchased up against Clyde for a game of darts. But when preparing to shoot the dart, Bazil stabs John's hand with the dart, telling him he knows John is Tom Macon's abolitionist brother!! A fight ensues, and John nearly beats him to death, with Clyde pulling him off saying they'll think he was killed by a runaway slave.

But back at home, John has yet been able to share the full story with Elizabeth, because Elizabeth has a revelation of her own to share after Boo walks in. She introduces Boo and then tells John that Kyle found Boo in their hideaway, which also means that Kyle now knows they're a station. She reveals that he won't tell, because ...well... Kyle never stopped loving her after she called off their engagement...and well...and in not so many words, John realized she slept with Kyle! John was of course very upset, and to add to that, Kyle had just come by that day trying to force himself on Elizabeth! Elizabeth ended up knocking him out with a candlestick holder and tying him up in the hideaway, where he is still tied up. John is so upset about the entire situation, asking Elizabeth to tell him everything that happened, pointing out she slept with Kyle during their engagement and with John before they were married. He says he wants to slap her and kill John, and at this point, Boo shoots a gun that barely  misses John's head!! Elizabeth runs to her, and Boo says she was trying to stop the bad man from hurting Elizabeth. To which Elizabeth says he's not the bad man and hugs her. Then there's a knock on the door! More on that in a moment.

So meanwhile, Cato and Noah have fought two men and taken their horse drawn wagon full of money, as part of their plan to save Rosalee. As the two go back and forth up until they locate where Rosalee is being held, we learn a few things about Cato. He supposedly isn't doing this for Rosalee, but only because she knows where the next station is. And he has a bonnet Noah has seen him with that belongs to his daughter. It turns out Noah HAS (he corrected Noah who said he "had") a wife and daughter that were sold from the Louisiana plantation when the area transitioned from cotton to sugar. Cato ran away, tracking the wagon they were in for days, until he was dragged back. 

Their plan is for Cato to ride along the building throwing out money as a distraction, while Noah saves Rosalee and meets Cato in the wagon on the other side. And this turns out to be a good plan. After August has to stop Jeremiah's men from possibly attacking and raping Rosalee, the two had a discussion about those men being focused more on satisfying their current pleasures than long term goals (which makes them prime for Cato's distraction). Which led to Jeremiah asking August to join Patty Cannon's gang, as he is a smarter catcher than the other men. August declines, saying he only plans on keeping his word of helping them find the last two of the Macon 7, and then he and Ben are returning home to his wife. Jeremiah makes a comment that implies Ben knows they do not need the money to save the land, and August goes along with it knowing he hasn't told Ben the bank is offering to pay them money, not take their land away. 

Now when August stopped the men from attacking Rosalee, after they were yelling for her to take off that "white woman's" dress, Rosalee went ahead and yanked off the dress and threw it in a near by fire. August then took her into another room where he tied her to a table and left Ben to watch her. Before August walks out the room, Rosalee asks August why he protected her, and August says thanks to her dad, who's paying for her what he's paying for the other 6 combined! She asks him if Tom said she was his daughter, and August says no but the money says it all. 

When Ben and Rosalee begin talking, Ben tells her his name, but when she tells him her name he says he knows because it's on the slave bill. So Rosalee begins to tell him things about her like her favorite color is yellow, to ultimately tell him in the end she's more than a runaway or $5000. In the conversation Ben also tells her he's sorry, offers her water a few times, and tries to explain they are doing it because they need the money so they won't lose their land. All the while, Rosalee is trying to get loose unsuccessfully. Later, Jeremiah comes in to give Rosalee some of Ben's clothes to put on, and gives Ben a book to read about a hunter who loses everything due to his obsession with hunting (Rosalee later asks if that hunter represents Ben's father).

Now, at some point Rosalee hallucinates Tom walking by, and it's clear it has something to do with that burning dress and the smoke it's filling the building with. Well the hallucinations continue to intensify, after Cato blows money in front of the men and Noah sneaks into the building. The men run after the money (except for two who follow Cato on horse, but when they come across the wagon pulled over and open the wagon door Cato shoots them dead with a shotgun). Even after August tells Jeremiah it's a distraction and it means Noah is about to try to take Rosalee, Jeremiah goes out to get the money leaving August to try to stop Noah from taking Rosalee by himself. 

The next one to begin feeling the affect of the smoke is Ben, who starts reading the book Jeremiah gave him slower until a letter falls out of the book. Turns out it's the letter from the bank telling August they want to pay him for the land. Ben hazily begins to realize his father lied to him and pulls out a knife walking towards Rosalee. Rosalee thinks he's going to stab her, but instead he cuts her loose to let her run away. 

Meanwhile, August finds himself hallucinating that Ernestine is in the building with him talking to him about how he's a hunter and will never stop even if he's in denial about being a wolf when he really is. She's slapping him with a knife in a kind of erotic fashion, to the point where the two (August and his hallucination of Ernestine) begin kissing. But more importantly, Ernestine tells him how smart and strong it turned out Rosalee is, and that she was picking Devil's Snare when August first encountered her and put it in that dress that is now burning in the building! Yep, they are on a Devil's Snare trip. Ernestine also tells him his son sees what he is doing and doesn't like it. She says his son will change him. At this point, Noah is in the room with August watching him talk to himself, but just as he is about to attack, August snaps out of it and a fight ensues between the two.

In another room, Rosalee is trying to escape the building without being seen, but when she walks into a room she hallucinates it's Tom's office and Tom's there. She goes back and forth with Tom about her being his daughter, with him yelling she can't have freedom because she's his daughter!! After she yells at him about just sitting their reading a newspaper while her arms were being whipped, the overseer who whipped her and ultimately tried to rape her before she stabbed him in the neck with a broken bottle (ultimately leading to her running away when she did) appeared in the hallucination, as well!! At one point the wounds on her arms started opening and bleeding profusely. And as Tom approached her, she ended up stabbing him. But remember this is all a hallucination she is acting out on. It turns out, she stabbed Ben!!! (I yelled out "Nooooo!!!" and even shed a tear). Ben calling out, "Pa...pa..." led August to leave his fight with Noah to find his son. And Ben was laying there with a knife in him dying in August's arms!!  

Rosalee runs out of the building, and Noah runs out from the other side. They run out to find Cato, but he's not there! They're thinking he left them with the money, but he ends up riding up, though at this point Jeremiah and his men are coming towards them. Rosalee and Noah get in the wagon and they ride off, while Jeremiah and his men go to get their horses to follow after them. They come to a block in the road and have to get out and go by foot, but Cato gets his leg caught in a trap and gets hung from a tree by his leg. Rosalee has told them they have to look for a bridge, and they hear water nearby. With Jeremiah and his men approaching and shooting guns and arrows, Noah sends Rosalee ahead to find the bridge while he works on getting Cato down from the tree. With Cato shooting, Noah manages to get Cato cut down, but then Cato gets shot in the thigh with an arrow. With it seeming more likely he won't be able to make it (I had a flashback to what he did to Zeke!), Noah drops Cato's knife in front of him, and they exchange looks (I think Cato looked like he knew Noah was going to leave him but was still upset he wasn't going to try to help him, while Noah had a look like this is pretty much what you get for what you did to Zeke and pretty much his attitude the whole time). Then Noah leaves to meet up with Rosalee. Rosalee asks where Cato is, and Noah looks at her and then there's a final gunshot (there's your answer...maybe...). And the two run off to the bridge with the plan to cut the bridge down once they get over so they can't be followed.

So now, back to the knock at the Hawkes' door! It's Rosalee and Noah! Boo runs to Rosalee! 

Empire Season 2, Episode 17 ("Rise by Sin") Recap

Lucious is sleeping in his office and driving rehearsals late just to avoid being at home with his mother, who he insists is dangerous (and I think she is too...I mean last episode she said she's sorry she was too weak to kill him when she had the chance!!). Meanwhile, she's at the house telling Juanita she doesn't know how to season her food and that she thought she fired her!! She's also gaining Dre's sympathy to the point that he planned on sneaking her out of the house to go to the ASAs, but Lucious was a step ahead and had Thirsty lock both of them up in the safe room during the ASAs. 

And Lucious isn't the only one avoiding people. Anika goes to Empire to speak to Rhonda, who tells her she has less than a minute to talk. So Anika says she was wondering why she hadn't seen Rhonda at yoga and why Rhonda isn't returning her texts. Rhonda says she's been busy dressing everyone for the ASAs, but then Rhonda gets straight to it! She begins asking Anika about her Louboutin flats, saying she was curious because they looked like good day to night shoes. Then she straights up asks Anika if she wore it the day she came to see Rhonda's nursery, and if she wore it into the night, you know being presumably good day to night shoes. But of course, this is also the same night Rhonda was pushed down the stairs. So when Anika is like I don't know if I wore them that night, and the line of questioning changes to did Rhonda see Anika that night...they both know what Rhonda is really saying. She's saying, are you going to admit you pushed me down the stairs! But of course the scene cuts away with no answer from Anika or resolution.

One of the people Rhonda has been busy dressing is Carol, who was going to be Cookie's plus one to the ASAs (that falls through for reasons discussed in a moment, and Lucious ends up asking Cookie to be his date to the ASAs...which comes with a beautiful bracelet and slight reminiscing). While showing Cookie the dress Rhonda picked for her, which Cookie didn't like, Carol tells Cookie she ran into Tyriq and they were going to dinner. Cookie's first response is to point out he's a cop, and of course Carol jumps in and says he's not anymore. And later, when Lucious tells Cookie Thirsty looked into Tyriq and he hasn't been a cop for ten years but the files after that are sealed, Cookie's first instinct is he's the Fed then! Lucious doesn't see why the Feds would still be after him, but Cookie is convinced. So she goes to Leviticus to talk to Tyriq herself, knowing Carol would be late. She straights up tells him she knows he's the Fed and that he better not try to squeeze her sister to get to her and her family. He asks what she has to hide, and goes on to comment on how she stole all of Carol's boyfriends (including Lucious) and how Lucious killed her cousin Bunkie (saying it as if he may have thought she didn't know). But Cookie holds it together and tells him to enjoy dinner at HER and Lucious' restaurant.

The next day Carol confronts Cookie, telling her Tyriq told her she went to see him before she arrived. The two go back and forth with Carol telling Cookie Candice was right about Cookie not caring about Carol and just helping her to maker herself feel better. She also brings up Cookie stealing her boyfriends, including Lucious. To which Cookie tells her she really thinks she should have what she has. And after confirmation that Carol had a drink and is no longer sober, Cookie sticks to her promise to kick Carol out if she lost her sobriety and yells for her to leave and to get her stuff out of her apartment too! Now while I was like, noooo, now she's really going to let it all out to the Feds, it turns out this would come back on the family in a much different way! More on that later.

A brief moment on Hakeem and Laura. A conversation where Laura is telling Hakeem about what she envisions for the wedding and magazines wanting to cover it, somehow turns into Hakeem telling her of no fault of their own her career is just not popping off how they expected. I was almost as shocked as Laura. She was like, and we can let US Weekly have a wedding exclusive and then maybe they'll highlight some of my music, and Hakeem was like...babe, babe...let's just accept that your career didn't pop off like we expected after a few dope records and opening for Tiana on tour! I felt kinda bad for her. LOL. She seemed to accept it, saying her dream right now is just to marry him (after of course saying he doesn't believe in her anymore). But then, at the ASA red carpet, despite being affectionate towards her in the pictures being snapped, one photographer finally just asked to get some pics of just Hakeem (even asking her to step back further than she already did)! SHEESH!! 

Also on the red carpet is Jamal, who answers the question on whether he has a special someone by essentially saying he's happily single, while looking over at D-major on the red carpet with a woman named Chanel. But Jamal knew D-major would be there with Chanel. Let's rewind. So making more musical magic with Freda, this time in front of D-major, Jamal finds himself being told that he should move on from having his mother being his producer and let...you guessed it... D-major produce his next album. What a convenient idea  for D-major to suggest!! SMH! So Jamal ends up in the studio working on a song with D-major, where they end up having a discussion about Jamal knowing being with Chanel on the red carpet will mean nothing to D-major. And when D-major hears someone coming in when he and Jamal were getting "close," he shoved Jamal and made a big scene as if Jamal was coming on to him. And when it turned out to be Lucious, he goes so far as to tell Lucious his son was coming on to him and storm out. But it turns out Lucious has been knowing D-major was on the DL, and turns it into an opportunity to demean his son by saying it's no secret D-major likes to take rich boys and make them his lil you know what. And then he and Jamal get into it on a level they never have before. After Lucious goes in on Jamal still not being over him putting him in the trash can 20 years ago, Jamal goes in on the fact that Lucious' mother brings him to tears 40 years after what she did to him. Which led to Lucious grabbing Jamal by the neck and setting up to punch him. And the worse was when he said he'll be celebrating when Jamal dies from AIDS! 

Now when Jamal runs into Cookie upset from the ordeal, and he tries to explain what happened, Cookie gets caught up on another part of the story before Jamal can even get into what he and Lucious said to each other. While Jamal thought she was focusing on D-major wanting to produce his next album, it turned out she was actually focusing on him saying he was making music with Freda. She ended up revealing to him that she got out early by snitching on Frank Gatz, which is how he ended up in prison with Lucious. And then she confirmed that Lucious had Frank killed. And she told him that's why he has to let Freda go, because Frank would have killed them all like it was nothing, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. And boy was she right!! 

So at the ASAs, while everyone was wrapping up with the red carpet and the press, Carol shows up drunk and/or high yelling out for Cookie. Cookie hugs her, grabs her by her weave, and tells her to get out. On the way out though, Carol runs into Freda, and when Freda asks her if she's okay and if she needs her to get her an uber, Carol says she needs Freda to get her into the ASAs. And when Freda said she had some press things to finish up, Carol goes off on Freda asking her if she thinks she's better than her, calling her a hood rat, and saying she's only on the label because Lucious feels guilty for what he did to Freda's daddy!!!!!!!!!! Freda then has these flashbacks to when she first met Lucious in the prison when she was rapping to her dad, to when her dad told her to stay away from Lucious, and to earlier that night when Jamal told her they need to talk about her needing to leave Empire!! Then she runs, grabs a gun off of a police officer, and runs up on the Lyons to shoot Lucious. But Jamal steps in front of her to stop her from shooting, but she shoots and ends up shooting Jamal!!!! She's arrested and he's taken to the hospital!!! He's rushed into surgery, and the family hasn't gotten any news. And of course Cookie is upset and blames Lucious, until a bit later when she softens a little after he says his mother should have drowned him and Cookie tells him he was born into a bad situation.

Now, when Thirsty woke up and saw the news that Jamal was shot by Freda, he got Dre and his grandmother out of the safe room and took them to the hospital to join the others. (Side note: neither Lucious nor Jamal won song of the year, perhaps because they split the vote as Hakeem suggested). Now at some point in the night, while Cookie and Lucious are talking, and the others are grabbing coffee and snacks, Lucious' mother walks out the hospital and is accosted by the paparazzi. They ask her what she knows about Jamal and whether she's a family member. She eventually says she is a family member, and after they ask her how she's related to them...the scene cuts off!!!

O...and now Tyriq has Anika at the FBI headquarters, where he tells who seems to be his superior he will be able to persuade Lucious' ex-wife and future baby mother of his son to give them the information they need on Lucious. I wonder if she will cut a deal realizing Rhonda may be on to her pushing her down those stairs!!!

Empire Season 2, Episode 16 ("The Lyon Who Cried Wolf") Recap

When Hakeem suggests Tiana sing the female part of the song he and Jamal are working on for a movie soundtrack, Becky and Jamal look shocked and concerned. When he asks why they're looking like that, they ask if he thinks Laura would be okay with it. He assures them she understands it's business, and moves forward with having Tiana sing the part. While he and Tiana are recording, later, he is eyeing her, and she may be slightly flirting...maybe. Later, when he talks to Laura, she is actually pretty upset, but not just because she thinks Tiana wants him back, but also because she thinks Hakeem should have pushed for Laura to get to sing the part. Her head is all the way blown up if she really believes that, but on to other things...

Candice has returned to tell Carol she needs to take her kids back after the winter break, now that she's sober. And while out to eat, Carol tells her she needs time so she can tell Cookie what happened between her and Lucious. Apparently she helped Lucious kill a few people while Cookie was locked up! What they didn't know was that they had an eavesdropper at the next table, and he approaches Carol later. It turns out he's an old friend named Tariq, who used to be a cop. Carol asked him if he still was, but he says it didn't pay enough. What he didn't say, but we saw when he paid for their drinks (Carol opted to drink cranberry juice), was that he's with the FBI!! And before I leave Carol, I wonder why they had Porsha tell Carol she would be jealous if her sister was Cookie and she didn't have anything. I hope they aren't setting Carol up to fail as a sister in future episodes. She seems to legitimately not be jealous so far. 

Rhonda has been spending some time with Anika, and things seem to be coming back to her memory. At Hakeem's, while Anika is having things for the baby delivered, one of the deliverers pushes Rhonda out of the way to avoid a falling box. And she has a flashback of feeling hands push her down the stairs the night she lost her baby! She reveals this to Anika. And later, while they are talking and she's having a drink, she sees Anika shoes (Louboutin flats), and she has a flashback to seeing someone with red bottom flats walk out the door while she was lying on the ground that night!! Anika asks her what's wrong, and she plays it off by saying it's the wine making her light headed. I'm glad she's figuring it out!!

Meanwhile, Andre is spending time with Leah Walker, and she comments on his eyes and asks if they are related. Next thing you know, he's taken her out of the home and brought her to Jamal, Hakeem, and Lucious' rehearsal for the ASAs! When he says it's their grandmother, no one seemed to believe him at first, but Lucious just looks at her without saying anything! When she tries to touch his face he pulls away, drops a tear, and walks off telling Dre he doesn't know what he did. We learn that she did try to drown him and shoot herself. But there were no bullets in the gun. Also, she blamed him for her wanting to kill herself. She ended up being put in a mental health hospital, until a Ronald Reagan policy had many mental ill patients released from hospitals. Lucious ran into her living out on the street, but by then he and Cookie were married, on welfare, and Cookie was pregnant with Hakeem. When Dre tries to stop them from taking her back to the home, Lucious tells her she's not like Dre. But Dre refuses to let her go back to the home. She says she wants to go home, and by home she says she means with Dwight (Lucious). Lucious is hesitant for obvious reasons, clearly traumatized by what he endured as a child, but allows her to go home with him.  He has a nurse there, and tells his maid, Juanita, to keep an eye on her at all times and to make sure she takes her meds. She keeps calling him Dwight, and he keeps telling her his name is Lucious. When he hears her playing a song she used to play with him, he sits down and joins her (later incorporating it into the song he puts together with Jamal and Hakeem for the ASAs). But even in this moment you get a little bit of tension as she confronts him about telling the family bad things about her and he continues to correct her when she calls him Dwight. But the worse was yet to come. 

One night, more like 3 in the morning, she has him follow her into the dining room, where she has several cakes laid out!! He asks where Juanita is, and she basically tells him she fired her, because she doesn't like anyone in her kitchen!!! He tries to tell her it was his maid and she can't fire her, but she tells him to sit down and eat the cake. He does, as she stands over him with the knife in her hand telling him how everything bad that happened to her (including his father being murdered) was because of him!! At one point she asks him if he loves her, and he hesitantly says yes, and she calls him a liar!! 

O...and with the knowledge that Harper told Dre about his grandmother, Thirsty takes her for a drive. She thinks it's to go see Lucious, and when she realizes it's not, she tells Thirsty she can't be threatened. He assures her he's a gentleman and wouldn't lay a finger on her and pulls over to let her out, after she asks what he was going to do. And as she is getting out and still talking, how she didn't see this coming I don't know, two masked men grab her!!

Meanwhile, on the ASA front, after his mom introduces him to D-Major (musical director for the ASAs), Jamal is disappointed to learn Cookie has traded in his solo performance of a new song for a trio with Hakeem and Lucious over one of his old songs. Jamal attempts to get D-Major to let him do his solo performance, after D-Major told him to stop having a hissy fit when Jamal first heard the news. This included Jamal approaching him in the studio. D-Major tells him there are ways to make him change his mind, but that isn't it. I got exactly what he was hinting at as soon as he said that, but not sure Jamal did. D-Major then sends everyone out of the studio and ends up kissing Jamal. One can assume from the rest of the scene the two hooked up, but the next time Jamal sees him he seems cold. So Jamal assumes he isn't interested, until D-Major comes to Jamal's place. At this point Jamal realizes he acted that way, not because he wasn't interested (or trying to be professional at work like he claimed), but because he wasn't out. And Jamal told him he wasn't interested in being a part of that. However, he has a change of heart towards the end of the episode and asks D-Major to meet him at his place, saying he can handle the situation. O, and given the performance is still a trio (though a good one), I suppose hooking up with him behind closed doors also isn't how you change D-Major's mind! 

Underground Recap S. 1, E. 8 ("Graves")

Cato and Rosalee, with the help of the Native American man and the White man who was helping them to the next station, managed to get themselves and a delirious Noah into the coffins to be taken to the next station, which would have been the Hawkes' home. After being unloaded in a small town, Cato and Rosalee get out of the coffins. Cato thinks they should go on without Noah, who is dying and having hallucinations of Henry. But Rosalee insists they go to the home of the doctor they overheard the drivers mention while they were in the coffins in the wagon. Rosalee convinced Cato to do it when she pointed out she was given the information about the next station, not him. So he could either go along with her plan to get medicine for Noah, or try to unsuccessfully make it on his own. 

So Rosalee and Cato go into an abandoned store to steal nice clothing, and then go to the doctor's home and pretend to be free. The doctor checks her vitals, and says she is fine. Using her knowledge about decor from her life in the big house, Rosalee is able to extend their stay in the house and get them invited to dinner with the doctor and his brother. While Cato is quick to want to resort to killing the doctor, after they find the medicine cabinet is locked, Rosalee suggests the house girl probably has a key. So she goes to speak with the house girl and eventually shares with her that they are runaways and need to get to the medicine for Noah. The house girl is hesitant, and Cato is closing in on her prepared to stab her for the key, but she ends up giving the key to Rosalee, never having noticed Cato was about to stab her. 

Meanwhile, Jeremiah is beating the White man that helped Cato, Rosalee, and Noah get into the coffins. Jeremiah knows that the system is broken up into units so no one man can take the whole system down, but he also knows each man has to know who's in the system after him. But the man refuses to give information about the next station. After seemingly knocking him out with the butt of his rifle, Jeremiah walks away from the man. But the man gets up and is about to stab Jeremiah, when August comes into the doorway and throws a knife into his back, seemingly killing him. Jeremiah and August agree to be partners, with Jeremiah getting Cato and Noah, and August getting Rosalee. They make it to the town where Rosalee, Noah, and Cato were dropped off and ask the sheriff if they could look around for some runaways. They soon realize Rosalee and Cato took clothes from the abandoned store, due to prints in the dust and finding their old clothes. 

Later, Ben confronts his father about his choice to be a slave catcher, asking him if he caught Jay too. August shows him a letter from the bank, and says, slave catching isn't personal but it's the only way to keep their home for them, Jay, and his mother who was on her way to the house. Ben stands his ground and asks his father if it's the only way or just his father taking the easiest way! And later, recall from episode 1 August cannot read, August has Jeremiah read the letter from the bank to him. Jeremiah tells him the letter says August's land is full of mercury, which means it's hard to grow crops, and the bank would like to buy it back at a premium. August questions the use of the word premium, and Jeremiah tells him mercury is used to mine for gold. He adds, if he knew August was rich he wouldn't have let him get Rosalee out of the deal. So...August may not need the money after all. When he tells Ben to get the horses ready, Ben asks if they are going home, and August doesn't give a clear answer. 

Back at the doctor's house, it turns out the doctor's brother is the sheriff! The sheriff begins a game of 21 questions with them after dinner, asking Cato how he burned his face (he says from lye, as he claims to be a soap maker) and Rosalee about her background and if she is an octaroon. His brother chided him for calling her an octaroon, but she says it's alright and makes up a story about who her parents are. The sheriff tells her she talks like she went to finishing school, and she says as an octaroon she couldn't go to school so she had a tutor where she learned etiquette, how to play the piano and so on. So the sheriff asks her to play the piano. She seems a little shocked by the request, but gets up to play and plays well. So well, Cato almost seemed enchanted by her (he was certainly a bit enchanted by how she cleaned up in their new clothes). He stood up and went to stand next to her by the piano. I almost thought he would give them away, because as her husband he shouldn't be that in awe of her ability to play the piano. The doctor steps out the room, having something in his eye. And the sheriff is straight forward with them. He tells them he doesn't think it's a coincidence that he's told there are runaways in his town and the same day his brother has them in his home for dinner. He basically tells them that they seem very cultured, but he still thinks they are the runaways. So he asks to see their papers. Rosalee seemed a bit worried, but Cato pulled papers out of his coat (phew!). But then he seemed nervous as he went through them, and the sheriff asked if something was wrong. Rosalee said no and took the top two papers and placed them on the table. The sheriff asked her to push them closer to him, which is when we see the top one has Pearly Mae's name (not the name Rosalee gave them, and everyone is familiar with the Macon 7 now and thus Tom's name). Luckily, a man runs in to tell the sheriff they are about to catch a runaway in the cane field (Noah followed his hallucination of Henry into the cane field), and the sheriff jumps up to follow the man. Rosalee tells Cato to go help Noah while she gets the medicine. 

One of the slave catchers reaches Noah and punches him down. He seems to be out, until his hallucination of Henry tells him not to quit, because he has to help the others. And with that, Noah fights back and is able to take the catcher out. Cato later finds Noah laid out next to the catcher. Which surprised me, because knowing Cato's history I didn't expect him to actually go help Noah. Meanwhile, when Rosalee runs out the house with the medicine she is caught by Jeremiah and August! They force her out by the cane field as they call out for Noah and Cato. Surprisingly, it is Cato who heads to run for her, and it is Noah who stops him, telling him they can't help her if they get caught too! Cato has definitely taken a liking to Rosalee, and Noah has somehow went from practically dying and hallucinating to walking on his own and thinking logically (don't know if I buy this swift recovery). August seems to be walking ahead of Jeremiah, who is holding Rosalee. When Jeremiah says he guesses they don't care about Rosalee, August tells him they're just waiting for the right time and will be after Jeremiah and his men. So maybe August is going back home. He's letting Jeremiah hold Rosalee, and he says they will be after Jeremiah and HIS men. Hmmm... I honestly for a moment thought he might help Rosalee get away, with the knowledge that he may be into some money and may not have to resort to catching slaves.  But I guess not. And I also wonder if Jeremiah lied to him about the mercury on his land and the bank wanting to pay him a premium, just to get him to go back home so they don't have to split the money with him. We'll see on the next episode.

Now back on the plantation, John is in town for his brother's big political event. While Ernestine is serving him, he confirms that her daughter is one of the Macon 7 and tells her he heard they made it to Kentucky. Later, when the reverend and Tom join him at the table, the reverend comments on John being a sympathizer. John ensures him that his brother Tom never listens to him anyway. Then he leaves to handle business in the city, ensuring his brother he'd be back in time for the event. Later, Tom and Ernestine agree to keep Sam's running away just between the two of them, as it would make Tom look bad. However, later, a man arrives to the Macon plantation, not early for Tom's event like Tom thought, but to deliver Sam back to Tom. He tells Tom Sam tried to bribe him to help him, and he adds that perhaps if Tom had hung the other runaways (I suppose he means Noah and Pearly Mae) his other slaves wouldn't try running away. With the reverend there, it seemed Tom's only option was to hang Sam, but he says he thinks he wants Sam to be a living example of why they shouldn't run away. So he makes plans to have Sam's heel cut off, crippling him! Ernestine goes in to see Sam, and tells him she asked to do it, because if it's done too deep it won't heel correctly. Though her position is at least he's alive, Sam doesn't understand why she and Tom seem to think it's better to be alive. When Tom and the reverend come in, Sam says he's ready and goes to lay on the table. He looks Tom in his eyes as he waits for his mother to chop his heel off. As she's preparing to do it, Tom tells her to stop and says he won't do it. Which of course seems to damage the likelihood of the reverend backing him. 

Later at the event, Ernestine approaches Tom before he heads into the room with the other men. She tells him not to worry about what happened and to just be him and show them he's the best candidate. But when he goes in there, all they talk about is slaves and how slavery is a benefit to slaves. The reverend asks him if he wants it bad enough. And later, when Ernestine doesn't find Sam in his quarters, she runs around looking for him and asking the other slaves if they've seen him. Then the overseers grab her. Then we see Tom giving a speech to the men from his balcony, and as the camera zooms out we see Sam hanging from the balcony!!! And Ernestine is naked in the same hole in the ground they had Zeke in!!! 

After the event, John returns to the Macon plantation. Tom points out John missed it, and John asks if him being there would have stopped Tom from killing Sam. Tom tells him he doesn't have the moral legs John and their father has.