Empire – Toil and Trouble Pt 1

By: Gladys Luna

Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) arrives at a casino in Las Vegas where Lucious (Terrence Howard), Giuliana (Nia Long) and Charlotte (Eva Longoria) are celebrating their Vegas deal. One of Lucious’ security men spots Cookie and immediately informs the man about her. Lucious decides to take care of the situation and asks Cookie to leave the place so she won´t ruin the deal he had just made. She reluctantly agrees, but before leaving she messes with the other players and starts to throw their coins to the floor. She yells at Giuliana who´s been watching everything from the second floor.

2 weeks earlier

The Lyon family are having a meeting in order to find a way to bring Bella back when a woman passes by carrying a baby that Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) is pretty sure is his daughter. He walks towards the woman and abruptly turns her around only to realize that the baby is a boy and not his little girl. He walks away from there in distress while Cookie tries to convince Lucious to stay with her and find a way to solve said situation, but he only tells her that he can’t since Giuliana is waiting for him.

Giuliana, Lucious and Thirsty (Andre Royo) are attempting to convince Charlotte that Inferno Live Show will be a success in Las Vegas, but she is a hard one to be influenced. Everything turns a little awkward when Lucious throws a comment at Charlotte when she confirms him that she is a Mormon. It is a comment that the woman considers as racist, putting Lucious in a very uncomfortable situation. She excuses herself as she has received a call from a friend, leaving the trio to their thoughts. Thirsty apologizes for not knowing that she was a Mormon and letting them know sooner, something that pisses Giuliana off making her convince Lucious that she doesn’t trust in Thirsty. The man takes her comments very seriously and fires Thirsty on the spot.

In the meantime, Jamal (Jussie Smollett) is rehearsing another song of his album When Cookie Met Lucious while Cookie is watching him. After he finishes, Lucious walks in with the company of a man called Byron (Casey Hayes) that he introduces as their new PR. Lucious and Byron suggest Jamal to hold the release of his album for two more months so Inferno can be released first, something that Cookie and Jamal disagree with. Lucious tells him that releasing the albums separately is the best option, but Jamal seems disappointed at his father behavior so he leaves. When Lucious is left alone with Cookie, he blurts out that Giuliana suggested to hire Byron earning a very disapproving response from the woman. Cookie tries to defend her stand as one of the owners of the company, but Lucious assures her that Inferno and the casino in Vegas is his and Giuliana’s project and that is why she is banned from putting a foot in that place.

Cookie runs into Thirsty at the elevator and finds out that he was just fired by Lucious so she decides to invite him over to her house for a get together she is planning to have. Later that day, Cookie, her sons and some friends including Thirsty are reunited at her house trying to make a plan to take Giuliana down. Suddenly, Andre (Trai Byers) and Shyne (Xzibit) have a disagreement making Shyne to exclude himself from working with them. Slowly, everyone steps back from the plan leaving Cookie practically on her own. That is when Thirsty asks Cookie if there´s anyone else she can trust making the woman to think on new possible allies.

On the other hand, Tiana (Serayah) and Nessa (Sierra Aylina McClain) are arguing with Becky (Gabourey Sidibe) about their budgets being cut. Thirsty walks in the room and asks them to stop fighting and confirms them that even his paycheck has been cut, much to the ladies’ surprise.

At Lucious house, he is waiting for Tariq (Morocco Omari) to show up and have lunch with him. Leah (Leslie Uggams) serves the dishes before Tariq arrives and switches Lucious’ plate for his. Lucious realizes something is wrong and that is when he sees that some glass has been put on Tariq’s plate making his mother to confess that Tariq is not welcome in that house. Right that moment, Juanita (Claudette Burchett) announces Tariq´s arrival and Lucious apologizes for having some trouble with the kitchen. He asks Tariq to use his expertise as an FBI agent to help him get his grandchild Bella back. In exchange, he could have anything he wants.

Meanwhile, Cookie and her new team are creating a new plan to take Giuliana down. Thirsty announces them that the only way they have to do that is if they steal the woman´s ledgers from her safe. To accomplish this, Thirsty has created a whole plan that would make them achieve their goal.

Tariq brings a man called Sam (Roy Anderson) to Lucious’ office. The brothers try to get information about Bella but the man doesn’t seem to give any so, they start to beat him up. In the meantime, at Cookie´s house, the team is gathered there practicing on the task each of them will do once they are at the casino. The one who seems to be having a lot of trouble is Becky, who has been entrusted with the task of opening Giuliana’s safe. Thirsty is doing all kind of excesses with her in order to help her achieve her goal. When it seems nothing is working, she suddenly manages to open the safe. Everyone cheers out of excitement and start their new adventure. Cookie, Candace (Vivica A. Fox) and Carol (Tasha Smith) arrive at Laviticus and the whole plan is executed at the mere Hollywood style all managed by Thirsty as if they were in the movie Ocean’s Eleven.

The plan backfires a bit since Carol and Becky´s roles turned out to be reversed. Suddenly, Carol finds herself inside Giuliana´s office attempting to open a safe she wasn’t trained for. Carol freezes over her new task at hand and is almost convinced that she can´t do it, but then Cookie throws at her a pep talk until she convinces her she is capable of doing it and more. Minutes later, everyone is gathered at the trailer where all the cameras have been set except for Carol. It´s been a while since they lost communication with her and they don’t know where she is at the moment. Unexpectedly, Carol enters the trailer and shows them the ledgers she just stole making everyone cheer and congratulate each other.

The next day, Cookie pays a visit to Charlotte and hands her a book that enlists all the kind of troubles that Giuliana has been related to. Then, they start to discuss about Charlotte´s kids when Lucious interrupts them and accuses Cookie of leaving their son Hakeem alone when he is going through a very rough time to be in Vegas putting a show like the one she gave at the casino.

He tells her that said show cost them some money and he offers Charlotte a pay-off in exchange for that. The woman happily accepts the money, making Cookie go mad at her behavior. When Cookie and Lucious leave the place, Andre comes out of from where he has hiding. After a few moments, the couple starts kissing. Thus, we see that he and the woman have been working together all the time.

Cookie reunites with Jamal and Hakeem and apologizes to them for encouraging them into joining to her plan on taking Giuliana down by chasing after Charlotte. She suggests them to release When Cookie Met Lucious that same night and take advantage of it and throw an announcement and ask for the fans help to find Bella. Jamal disagrees with her proposition and when he is about to explain why, Lucious enters the room and that is when Jamal tells her that he has decided to hold off the album release until Inferno is presented. He wants to join his father in the Vegas show, something that Cookie doesn’t take very well. So, she walks away from them. Jamal wants to follow her, but Lucious stops him by telling him that she needs to heal some wounds first.

Later that night, Andre and Cookie are having a conversation about Charlotte and he confesses her that she is loyal to no one. He tells her that the woman has been having some private conversations with him and as long as she tithes to her church she´ll keep accepting some pay offs. What she doesn’t want in her town is the thug element. So, it brings new ideas to them on how to finally bring Giuliana down.

Tariq has been following Bella´s nanny and finally finds out where they have been keeping the baby. He calls Lucious but it goes straight to voice mail so he decides to pay a visit to his brother to give him the good news. Lucious is so happy to hear that Tariq had found out where Bella is. He offers him a drink and proposes to try and make amends and support each other as brother are supposed to do. He agrees and before he can tell Lucious where the baby is, Leah shows up from behind him and stabs him on the neck, ending the man life. There is nothing else Lucious can do but to watch him die in his arms.