Empire – Sweet Sorrow

By: Gladys Luna

Lucious (Terrence Howard) takes Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) to the hospital where she’s being treated for a heart attack. As the ER Doctor (Anish Jethmalani) doesn’t know how big the damage was, he suggests Lucious gather his family to keep him company for the night. Later that day, Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray), Jamal (Jussie Smollett) and Thirsty (Andre Royo) are on a room trying to calm themselves and waiting to see Cookie again. Andre (Trai Byers) walks in to check on his mother but his brothers ask him to leave as Lucious blames him for what happened to Cookie, leaving him with no choice but to walk away. Alter a while, Hakeem suggests they should pray for Cookie´s health but only Jamal joins him. Lucious leaves the room and then enters a chapel where he delivers a speech to an image of Christ about everything he feels it was taken away from him and sends a threat of what he would do if something happens to Cookie.

Afterwards, Dr. Stein (Tara Mallen) shows up and explains what happened to Cookie and assures her that if she doesn’t change her life habits she could be back in the hospital sooner than expected and won´t get to be as lucky as this time. Hakeem, Jamal and Lucious enter the room and she makes sure to let them know she is fine because she is a Lyon.

Celeste (Ryan Michelle Bathe) and Eddie (Forest Whitaker) are showing a loft to Lupe Fiasco (himself) and trying to convince him to buy it. After some conversation, Lupe decides to buy the place and confirms to Eddie that his manager will be sending him the details later. When Celeste and Eddie are alone, he makes known that he disagrees with her selling the place, but she tells him she is just scared of all the debts they have yet the man is convinced that once the deal with Empire is done, all those debts will be gone.

Cookie is finally back at home and even though Lucious is not there, Jamal and Hakeem are just there to make sure she is alright. She asks them for some space making them to unwillingly leave. Right at that moment, Andre arrives asking to see his mother and she agrees. He blames himself for what happened to her, but she tells him that he is not that important. He apologizes to him and Cookie tells him that he really hurt her right to the core this time and she hopes that his apologies are enough.

Becky (Gabourey Sidibe) and the company´s lawyers inform Jamal that due to his recent situation with the DuBois’ family one of the company´s Empire has been partnered with has decided to remove Jamal´s ads of their products until the whole situation is solved. So, Becky explains to Jamal that they have set up an interview where he can apologize for what he did but the guy refuses. Suddenly, from the speaker, we hear Cookie´s voice saying that he should do it and if he doesn’t she will use her heart attack as a way to convince him into it. So, Jamal is left with no choice but to oblige. When the meeting is done, he and Becky discuss about the girl´s pregnancy and she confirms that she has decided to terminate it.

Back at the studio, Eddie confirms to Tiana (Serayah) that she´ll be having a collaboration with Hakeem, but the girl doesn’t seem too convinced to do it. Eddie explains that Cookie asked for it so that makes Tiana change her mind, but on one condition – she won’t be recording in the same booth as Hakeem.

Later that day, Lucious introduces Micah (Demetrios Troy) to Cookie as her new personal chef. As the man begins to explain the diet he has for her she shuts him up saying she does not need that kind of food. Micah is asked to leave for a moment while Lucious tries to make Cookie understand how serious her situation is, but she is stubborn. She assures him how capable she is of taking care of herself making Lucious give up with the argument.

Andre talks to Shine (Alvin ‘Xzibit’ Joyner) and lets him know that he confessed everything to Lucious except the part where Shine is involved making the man to finally believe him that he won’t be having any problems due to this.

When Cookie wakes up, she is met with the news that her sisters, Candace (Vivica A. Fox) and Carol (Tasha Smith) have been called by Lucious to take care of her as she is not listening a word of what he says. The two women manage to keep Cookie in check taking her laptop and cellphone away from her. Candace confesses that their mother has heard about what happened to her and wants to see her but Cookie refuses it.

Andre questions Eddie about the information he´s been requesting lately from the company, but the man avoids the subject graciously leaving a very thoughtful Andre behind.

Becky is having a meeting with her ex-boyfriend J Poppa (Mo McRae) trying to pretend like nothing have happened between them, but the man is not paying any attention to her. Becky asks him to listen to her, but he tells her that he can’t just pretend that nothing has happened. He wants some answers about their relationship, but the girl remains stoic before him just granting generic answers. When he stands up and is about to walk out of the office, she confesses about her pregnancy. J wants to discuss it further, but then she confirms to him that she is not keeping the baby making the man to walk away from her.

Cookie has locked herself in the bathroom to listen a sample of the song Tiana has made with Hakeem but is caught up by her sister Candace who asks her to give her the phone back and rest. Cookie does as requested but not without putting a fight first. Jamal is finally having the interview he was asked to do with Robin Roberts (herself). He starts to lie about what he did, but eventually gets tired and confesses that he was asked to do the interview and comes clean about his real feelings about what happened with the DuBois’ family and Angelo’s (Taye Diggs) death. He then stops the interview and leaves while Cookie is watching him on tv. Right then, she decides to put everything in order saying that if “I can´t go to Empire, then Empire´s coming to me.” When Lucious returns home, he is mad when he sees what the living room has been turned into as he sees speakers and microphones all over the place. He blames Candace and Carol for not being able to keep their sister in bed and they all start an argument that is quickly stopped by Cookie when she asks them to let her go on as it is the way she would heal making Lucious to finally agree.

Jamal and Becky are at the abortion clinic waiting for her turn to go in. When she is finally called and as Jamal is trying to comfort her, J walks in and even though Becky is upset to find him there as she believes he will just judge her, he tells her that he supports her in whatever she needs even when he doesn’t agree with her decision but he loves her and doesn’t want her to go through that alone.

Back at the Lyon’s mansion Tiana, Hakeem, Eddie, Cookie and Lucious are gathered in the living room that is now prepared as a “recording studio.” Cookie asks Tiana and Hakeem to perform but in order to do it right, they have to be in the same room. They start the song but there’s an evident discomfort in both of them making Cookie mad at the situation. She gets up while yelling at them, but then she almost faints and it feels like the air has been taken out of her lungs. Lucious asks her to rest but stubborn as she is she refuses. That is when Tiana and Hakeem decide to make amends for a moment and perform the best they can making Cookie happy with the result.

Eddie meets with Celeste again at the loft and tells her he has cancelled the selling of the place. He confirms that they are about to close the deal he’s been pushing for with Empire and they celebrate it. Little did he know that in the meantime, Andre will be talking to Cookie and Lucious about his findings about Eddie and how he believes that the man was about to steal money from the company.

Later that day, Eddie is called by Lucious and Cookie and when he is faced about his plans, he comes up with more lies to try to uncover what he is doing behind their backs. He even plays the victim in this new game he’s putting on, but neither Lucious or Cookie are buying it so he is “nicely” requests Lucious to leave the house immediately.

When everyone has gone and just Lucious and Cookie remain, she finally comes clean to him as she confesses she doesn’t want to die. Lucious attempts to comfort her and then they confess their love for each other thinking that for now it´s all that really matters.

Some problems are solved and some more are still on the way. Keep track of the Lyon family and their never-ending drama every Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.