It turns out Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star isn’t just a song we sing as children. Hakeem used this tune to placate Bella long enough to take the gun from his young daughter’s hands. No injuries were had as a result of this conflict. Which is saying something considering how many times guns have caused trouble (injuries and death) with the Lyon family.
Lucious and Cookie pull Hakeem and Tiana aside respectively, as Lucious encourages Hakeem to get his life together and to stop being reliant on guns to maintain his sense of safety. Cookie reminds Tiana she deserves to have a life with Prince and Bella away from Hakeem. It’s better to continue her life apart from Hakeem and grow than it is to move beside Hakeem, who still hasn’t figured out how to grow up and mature for longer than 5 minutes.
“Can you finish saving the world and come back to bed please?”
Jamal is intent on having Kai’s full attention, but the journalist is preoccupied with the data mining scheme uncovered when Becky copied files from Jeff Kingsley’s computer. It sees that Kingsley has been misleading Empire Extreme customers by using law enforcement to sell their data to the highest bidder without the use of a warrant. Kai wants to see this story through, despite Jamal’s warnings that getting mixed up in Lyon family business could put the singer’s bae at risk.
Cookie and Lucious are hanging in bed when Cookie reminds her husband that all the love in the world can’t pay their bills. They need to get label deals and sponsorships in order to stay afloat.
Giselle speaks with Kingsley about her discoveries. He’s butthurt that she thinks Kingsley is the youngest child. He’s the first. Giselle wants to run the Empire, threatening to release his connection to the Lyon family. They agree to work together and celebrate.
Quincy is home. His mom decorated their house to the nines for Christmas, elated that her son is home and exonerated. Andre leaves early, hesitant to stick around now that it’s not just himself and Quincy’s mom spending time together.
“You standing up here drooling at the TV, at him, like a bobblehead.”
Can you blame Jamal though? Kai looks so great on television in a suit, exposing Kingsley’s schemes. He mentions Jeff working under Kelly Patel doing all this shady shit, which of course brings Kelly Patel back into the picture, completely furious at his CEO. They’re losing brand deals, therefore losing money for Empire. Giselle is prepped to speak with the press, and Kingsley continues to pass blame onto others.
Showcase rehearsal is a hot mess. Lights are broken, the artists aren’t timing well. Cookie is stressed. Hakeem is a no-show, Jamal is whining that he can’t use Loving You Is Easy in the showcase. Lucious is endlessly amused by the display. Cookie isn’t having it.
giphy – TGON – Empire – Fox
“Why don’t you jump up there and talk that Shaka Zulu-meets-Malcolm X mumbo jumbo you be preaching?”
Cookie’s clapbacks in this episode impressed me so much. She takes no shit from anyone and has no patience for slackers. Her family and her artists both understand this. It’s best to stay out of her way and keep your mouth shut.
Hakee and Tiana agree to be cordial for the sake of the kids. I think they’ve finally started to move on. I think this’ll be good for them.
The showcase later is a swash, as sponsors from Apple and Nike bare witness to the talented artists of LFM. Much rehearsal really got the show put together flawlessly. The performances were jazzy and the audience is impressed.
It wouldn’t be a Lyon family event without someone crashing the party. Kingsley sneaks in the back, stealing the microphone as the event wraps up to reveal to everyone that he’s the eldest Lyon son that Lucious never told anyone about. His mom is actually still alive, and Lucious knew this information from his visit with her. Cookie is agog by this reveal and storms away.
Hakeem and his brothers refused to believe this news, but Kingsley insists.
The episode ties up some loose ends, as Kai is called back to London to continue his investigation. I hope Jamal follows him when the season returns because the pop star deserves to be happy with his man back in London, where everything started for them. For now, though, they’re at an impasse.
Hakeem and Blake squashed their beef. Andre is continuing to see Teri seeming happy enough. But the cutaway to a hospital bed reveals that Kingsley may have gotten into his altercation with Andre. Andre looks worse off, and it looks likely that he’ll be the one in the coffin when this season concludes.
Cookie sold her condo for a cool $5 million, promising to toss her funds into LFM. But with Empire in disarray, Lucious and Cookie are tasked with a decision: do they continue growing their Lyon Family Management endeavour, return to Empire with Giselle as their partner? Or combine both enterprises and control both artist management and a record company? We shall see.
Empire returns this Spring 2019. Catch up all episodes of Empire online anytime.
