Empire – Evil Manners

By: Gladys Luna

Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray), Jamal (Jussie Smollett) and Andre (Trai Byers) visit Lucious (Terrence Howard) in his bedroom where he is exercising. He lets them know that he is getting better every day, which makes his family happy but still there is something going around his head and that is the way Leah (Leslie Uggams) was referring to him before she was taken to the mental institution, as she called him a “monster.” He wants to know what he did to each one of them, but Cookie refuses to say anything about it. Hakeem is the first one to speak as he confesses to Lucious that once he punched him in the face. Lucious wants to go deeper into the reason why, but was stopped by Jamal. As he sees the boys are not saying anything else, then he questions Cookie about why she said she had spent seventeen years away as flashes of herself in prison cross her mind. When she is brought to reality, she just stands up and leaves the room alleging that she has to attend to a photoshoot, leaving a very confused Lucious behind.

Diana (Phylicia Rashad) has gathered with her two sons and daughter to keep plotting their vengeance against the Lyon family. She is giving some instructions to Lana (Alanna Lovely) as she will be in charge of Andre. Warren (Terrell Carter) confesses that he had already made Jamal to open his heart to him and Diana informs them that she´ll be meeting Hakeem later that day. Angelo (Taye Diggs) is sitting there, drunk, and asking for his assignment on this plan but he has none. He and Warren start an argument that is quickly terminated by Diana who put both guys into place.

Later that day, Cookie is at her Forbes photoshoot as she will be part of the magazine´s 100 Most Powerful Women in Business. She is standing next to Lucious’ chair at his office and the photographer asks her to sit on it. She refuses to do it as it is “Lucious’ Chair,” but the other woman encourages her and she finally agrees. While she is there, she goes down the memory lane again to her days in prison. Andre walks in and Cookie interrupts the session to join her son. He wants Cookie to ask for a loan in order to launch their “20/20” new project with Empire. The woman is not so convinced with her son´s plan, but accepts it anyway.

In the other side of the mansion, Jamal is at the piano when Lucious enters the room and the young guy asks him to join him as he plays a song they both wrote together. Lucious loves the melody and starts to ask some questions about the creative process so Jamal kindly explains to him about it. Then, Lucious asks him to take him to Empire so he manages to make Thirsty (Andre Royo) to help him with it. Cookie gathers with the Empire board as Becky (Gabourey Sidibe) explains to them their new project.

Shine (Alvin ‘Xzibit’ Joiner) enters the room and gets mad when he sees they have started the meeting without him. Also, he doesn’t agree on the new project. Cookie leaves the room and Shine follows her to her offices and try to make a deal with her to what the woman finally agrees.

Thirsty updates Andre about Giuliana´s (Nia Long) situation and tells him they need another person to confirm his statement. Andre tells him that the only one who can do it is Giuliana herself but she is nowhere to be found. So, he asks Thirsty to suggest to the police that maybe the woman is just missing. Later that day, Andre pays a visit to Detective Pamela (Teyonah Parris) and tells her that he is not responsible for what happened to Lucious and attempts to explain why he believes Giuliana can’t be found. However, the detective is not buying his story as she tells him that she firmly believes he is lying.

Andre and Cookie go to the bank in order to check whether if their credit was approved or not. They are supposed to meet with Whit Houseworth, but are received by Morris Loach (Sean Blake) instead. The man informs them that unfortunately their loan was declined and apologizes, but Cookie doesn’t believe in his words as she thinks that he declined their loan on purpose only to have something to brag about. She leaves the place followed in tow by her son.

Jamal takes Lucious on a tour through Empire. He shows him the awards he had won and his record studio which somehow Lucious manages to recognize. Suddenly, they are interrupted by a woman´s voice through the intercom announcing that Warren has arrived to visit Jamal. He immediately goes to the door and stops the man from entering the studio. Warren barely sees who is inside and recognizes Lucious, but Jamal lies to him saying that is only one of the engineers. He insists on taking Jamal out for lunch, but he tells him that he´s really busy at the time and suggests to go out for dinner instead. When Warren finally leaves, he goes back to the studio and shows his father the song he was playing earlier for him except, this song is fully arranged. The melody seems to soothe Lucious and he asks Jamal to show him how the mixing board works and tries to use it as Jamal said but he can´t manage to do it. So, instead, he asks his son to take a moment and share a talk. When Lucious begins to question him about what Hakeem said earlier that day, Shine breaks in and is surprisingly recognized by Lucious. They both start to talk about music and when Shine shows him a remix he made of one of his songs, Lucious is hit by some violent images of his past and stands up in a haste screaming.

Jamal and Lucious are on the living room and the man questions his son again about the “trash can story” that Hakeem almost told him earlier that day. Jamal confesses that when he was a kid Lucious threw him on a trash can when he walked in the middle of a party they had at the mansion, wearing his mother’s heels. Lucious feels extremely embarrassed for his own behavior and apologizes to him. Hakeem is recording a new song while Tiana (Serayah) is on the floor playing with Bella. The little girl starts to cry so he interrupts his recording. Right on cue, Anika (Grace Byers) enters the room and attempts to take Bella with her, but the baby doesn’t recognize which annoys her as the little girl seems to be more comfortable with Tiana.

At the photoshoot, Cookie is greeted by Diana who is part of it as well. She and other three women start to gossip about Cookie and what they believe she shouldn’t be in there. Cookie walks in and faces Diana and tells her that if she has anything to say to her, she can do it as she is already there. The photoshoot begins and Cookie starts to feel so out of place as she recalls again when she was in prison and a woman named Chyna (Ptosha Storey) approached to her and made her feel welcome and supported. Back to the present, Cookie can´t take it anymore so she stands up and comes clean to the group before her. She says that she was just turned down for a line of credit that she needed to launch a project on Empire and what she needs to do is to go and find a bank that supports her. When she is about to leave, one of the women in there stops her saying that she understands her and offers her ten million dollars. Suddenly, everything turns on her favor and she is happy to join them on the photoshoot much to Diane´s dismay. She tells Cookie that they should leave their issues behind them and support each other. Then, she takes he hand and another round of pictures is taken.

When the photoshoot is done, Diana goes into her car and meets Morris (the banker that declined Cookie´s loan) who happily informs the woman about what he did. Hakeem enters the record studio and plays the song he just wrote. In the meantime, Andre arrives to his apartment, grabs a beer and walks to his balcony in order to relax when he spots Pamela waving at him from the building across the street. He turns around and walks back inside, but then he reconsiders it and waves back at her. Pamela calls him and tells him that she is off duty. Then, they both start to strip off of their clothes.

Jamal is having dinner with Warren, who appears to have something in his mind and, of course, Jamal notices it. When he questions him about it, Warren confesses that he believes that he doesn’t trust in him and comes up with a story about his own father in order to make Jamal´s feel guilty in which he succeeds. So, the other man opens to him and tells him about Lucious’ brain injury, just what Warren wanted to hear.

Cookie arrives at the mansion and sees Lucious painting on a wall. She decides to confess why she was away for seventeen years and also tells him it was because of him so Lucious asks him to tell her the whole truth about it.

Tables are turning very quickly. Makes sure to catch up with Starry Constellation Magazine recaps and keep watching Empire every Wednesday at 9/8 c on Fox. ¡Hasta la próxima!