Empire – Bleeding War

By: Gladys Luna

Picking up where we left on the last episode, Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) and Lucious (Terrence Howard) are sharing a moment together. He had asked her to tell him everything about her time in prison and the woman had finally agreed. Cookie is telling him how, one time that she, Chyna (Ptosha Storey) and the Philly girls were watching Lucious on the TV when a woman named “Poundcake” (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) walked in and asked for the channel to be changed making Cookie to miss Lucious’ interview. Something triggered Cookie´s anger making her punch the other woman in the face. However, the fight didn’t turn out so well since Cookie ended up with some bruises and a cut hand.

Back to that time, Lucious visited Cookie and when he saw her condition he couldn’t help but to feel bad about his wife. She reminds him that there was still a long way for her to go in prison and he had to get used to it. In the next visit, Lucious took Jamal (Jussie Smollett) to see her since the kid requested that as a birthday present. Lucious recalls having been there and also, what came right after, the man never came back. Cookie confesses that even though it really hurt her, it made her strong and she understood his reasons. But the “new Lucious” just doesn’t seem to understand how if he loved her that much, he ended up doing all those doings to her. So, he makes a promise to his new self and that is that he will be better for her and support her. And to prove that, he will start to get himself more involved with Empire and although Cookie does not agree at first, he finally convinces her to let him in. When they are about to leave, Claudia (Demi Moore) interrupts them asking if she had missed on anything.

Lucious and Cookie arrive at Empire making everyone to give him a warm welcome. Becky (Gabourey Sidibe) runs and gives a bone crushing hug to Lucious who happily reciprocates while Jamal and Andre (Trai Byers) watch them from afar wondering what Cookie is up to this time. Porsha (Ta’Rhonda Jones) gives Andre some flowers with a card saying “For Tomorrow,” which earns him a playful smirk from his brother.

Cookie approaches her sons and explains that their father has decided to be involved in the business again and she has invited him to listen Hakeem’s (Bryshere Y. Gray) new song. Later that day, Lucious, Andre, Becky and Claudia are at the studio seeing Hakeem perform. When he finishes, he asks for his father´s opinion who seems to like it as he believes he has invested so much passion in it.

In the meantime, Diana (Phylicia Rashad) is having dinner with her two sons, Warren (Terrell Carter) and Angelo (Taye Diggs), and she is now aware of Lucious current condition. As usual, the two brothers start teasing each other, but are cut by Diana when she suggests Angelo start doing something useful instead of just arguing.

A little while later, Cookie enters a room filled with all of Empire prime artists and announces that they will start a competition with one another for the Alpha spot on the Empire 20/20 project. This doesn’t seem to be taken in a good way by the artists. Jamal decides to give up on the competition and Cookie lets him go. One by one, they start to show up and perform the best as they can in front of Cookie, Porsha, Lucious and Becky. The first one to go in is Tiana (Serayah) who performs amazingly well and is followed by Tory (Rumer Willis) who is dismissed by Porsha before she even begins. Cookie explains that the Alpha spot should not be filled by a “white girl.” Lucious doesn’t seem to agree with it, but they don’t take his opinion in account.

Tory joins Jamal at the studio and gives him an update on Cookie´s current competition. The young man says he doesn’t feel in the mood the get into something like that and even if we wanted to he doesn’t have any good to put out there. Tory encourages him to use the song he had showed her before that happened to be made for a duet. The both of them may have a shot right at their hands.

Anika (Grace Byers) is on the phone planning her daughter´s birthday when she is intercepted by Angelo who had listened to the call and is surprised that the woman is now about to have a party with the Lyons since a few months back, she was willing to team up with the Dubois. Angelo assures her that the Lyon family are not to be trusted and they would betray her in any chance thy have so he gives her a card and asks her to call if she decides to team up with him.

Back at Empire, Cookie is still chopping heads much to Lucious dismay who seems to believe the woman has been truly harsh on the artists. Another singer called Tommy (Chris Lee) walks in and does his performance leaving everyone there dumbfounded. Lucious has been moved by the young man´s voice and lets him know that. They have seemed to have found the Alpha spot, but then Lucious questions the man about the feeling he portrayed into the song which makes the singer to confess a hard situation he’s going through. Lucious tells him that even though he is the right person to do this, his place is with his family instead. Tommy seems to be grateful to be released, something that doesn’t make Cookie really happy so she asks Lucious to leave.

Tory and Jamal have seemed to not have found the perfect tune. The man is not pleased with the results. They end up talking about his relationship with Warren and he confesses that the other man might be his one.

Hakeem and Anika keep arguing about their daughter Bella’s birthday preparation. Cookie makes clear to Anika that the fact she was there is just a mere courtesy. Suddenly, they are interrupted by Andre and Lucious walking in as the latter wanted to see his old office. When he enters he sees Bella in the back of the room and walks straight to her, but they stop him and tell him she is asleep. Then, he sees Anika and attempts to make polite conversation with her but is surprised when the woman tells him that she was just out of jail. The family attempt to make the man leave and before he does Anika confesses that he was the reason she was there making Lucious to stop right in his tracks and come back to apologize. But the woman doesn’t believe him. She starts to yell at him until Andre loses his temper and goes against her, but is stopped by the others. He reminds them about his wife´s death and how Anika got away with murder just because the family wanted to keep the secret.

He walks away leaving the family to deal with the uncomfortable situation. Cookie apologizes to Claudia for having Lucious get into something he wasn’t clearly ready for. She opens to the woman and tells her something that it might be Lucious crossroads and it´s a lion statue in Philadelphia where he spent his first night as homeless, back when he was Dwight Walker.

Jamal and Warren are spending some time together. The singer keeps changing the lyrics of his song until he realizes that he has been doing it all wrong. He wants to show the way he loves and perform it so he sits at the piano and starts to play while Warren watches him. The next day, Tory shows up at the contest announcing that she will be doing a duet with Jamal. When the man arrives, he apologizes to her and confesses that he has decided to make some changes and she is not included in it. Tory leaves the room upset at the situation and then Jamal announces that he will be doing the song with the help of Warren. After they perform, Porsha, Cookie and Becky are amazed by it and they decide for Jamal to be the Alpha.

At Bella´s party, everyone seems to receive the respite they needed from all the drama. Hakeem and Jamal are singing and dancing and all of the guests seem to be having a great time. Andre arrives at the party and is greeted by Cookie who apologizes to him for forgetting how painful the day was for him as it was the same day his wife died. A little later, Andre walks out of the party and spots Detective Pamela (Teyonah Parris) leaning on her van at the other side of the street; he walks towards her and asks her if she is going to arrest him she better do it in another place. But she just apologizes to him as she found out what happened to his wife and he realizes that she was the one who sent the flowers. He asks her to go with him somewhere else and she agrees.

Lucious is in his room, watching the paintings hanging in there that only bring violent images to his head. Claudia walks in and he opens up about his concerns of the man he used to be, but the woman tells him that he can always choose to walk a different path. She believes he is ready to take a next step in his recovery so she asks him to go with her somewhere.

Back at Bella´s party, they are about to open up some presents but don’t want to do it without Anika who, after all, is the little girl´s mom. As she is nowhere to be seen, they start without her. Suddenly, the woman walks in, with the company of Angelo and they let the family know that she will be suing for sole custody of the baby.

Back to Lucious and Claudia, the woman has taken him to Philadelphia, right to the place that Cookie told the woman about. Lucious doesn’t seem to recognize the place at first but then Claudia lets him know that under that statute, Dwight Walker became Lucious Lyon. Images of that night start to assault Lucious’ head and he only sees a lonely and sad boy and confesses that he doesn’t want to be like that again. So, Claudia suggests him to choose differently – to find another path and he asks her if she will go that road with him and the woman agrees.

How the new decisions on Lucious life will fit in the Lyon family? Let´s find out on the next Wednesday episode of Empire at 8/7c on Fox. ¡Hasta la próxima!