On this week’s Empire, “Cupid Kills,” Cookie, much to Lucious’ dismay, attempts to find her place in Angelo’s world. On the business side of things, Lucious, Hakeem and Andre try to sign Nessa to Empire, and are willing to do anything to get her at their company instead of one of their competitors, while Cookie helps Tiana write her revenge song.
The Bidding War
Lucious and Andre head to Nessa’s neighborhood in hopes of getting her to sign a contract with Empire. When they arrive, Shine won’t sign the contract and reveals he has all of Empire’s competitors in the studio ready for a bidding war. But based on the looks that Nessa and Andre exchanged, he won’t have to compete for Nessa’s attention outside of the studio to help him get over Rhonda.
Back at Empire, Lucious is furious that Becky (who is still begging for a promotion) and Cookie didn’t close the Nessa deal earlier. Cookie promises to deliver a revenge song from Tiana instead, but is quickly distracted by her social life when Angelo sends three little kids to sing Farashaka to “Miss Cookie” and ask her out on a date. Cookie agrees and then has a flashback to when her dad wanted more for her than music and a boy like Lucious. It’s safe to say that Lucious, who is clearly still interested in Cookie, has more than one bidding war on his hands.
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Cookie’s Big Night Out
In one of the best closet scenes I’ve seen since the Sex and the City movie, Cookie tries to find the perfect outfit for her night out with Angelo. Clearly nervous, Angelo takes her to a charity event with the upper class, but Cookie does not let the mean girls who think they are better than her get to her. “I’ve summered in Connecticut too, at the Danbury Correctional Facility,” she declares. (If only Teresa Giudice from Real Housewives of New Jersey would be so real about her jail time instead of telling all of her friends she was a “camp.”) And when she catches the same women talking about her in the bathroom she drops another one liner. “I’ve got a charity for you – Make a wish. Once I get done whopping both y’all ass, you’re going to wish you never met a hood rat like me.”
Angelo keeps calling Cookie after she leaves the event, and even turns to Jamal for advice about getting back in his mother’s good graces. Jamal also seeks out Angelo to help him get Frida out of jail because when he went to visit her again (with the help of his PTSD counselor) he learned that Lucious had her beat up in prison.
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Signing Nessa
After Hakeem’s attempt to sign Nessa on Empire’s live-stream does more harm than good by exposing the price that Empire was willing to pay to all of the competitors, Andre takes a shot at reasoning with her. He goes for the emotional approach and tells her about how he met her brother before he was killed. He also points out how much they have in common–including the seemingly irrelevant fact that they’re both “good at math”–and encourages her to take her contract into her own hands.
Andre’s plan works, and Nessa signs, but Shine is not so willing. He barges into Lucious’ office and starts to beat up Andre and even pulls out a gun. As a result, Lucious hits Shine with his displayed Alex Rodriguez baseball bat (“At 250K, I told you A-Rod’s bat was going to pay off”) and holds him a gun point until he signs.
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I Choose Me
At her hearing, Frida’s lawyer, with the support of Jamal, argues that she was having a psychotic episode when she shot Jamal. Frida is released on bail. Meanwhile Cookie, inspired by the song she heard about being torn between two men at the charity event, remixes it for Tiana’s new revenge song. Tiana pulls a Kelly Taylor and performs a song with the lyrics “Nobody loves me like me.”
During Tiana’s performance, Angelo points out that he and Cookie aren’t so different after all, but Lucious won’t let Angelo be happy for long when he tells the story of how Cookie got her name and how he beat up her boyfriend when they were kids and clearly would be do the same now. We also learn that not only did Lucious have Frida beat up in prison, she was in on it as a way to make Jamal feel guilty and get her out.
Three’s Company
While Jamal continues to mix his pills with alcohol, Shine is assembling a group with various weapons to get revenge on Lucious and Andre. Nessa, however, is actually at Andre’s house, but he immediately stops her when they begin to hookup because he thinks about Rhonda. Her ghost appears, and she actually encourages him to sleep with Nessa, saying “we’ll both do it.” I haven’t seen a show attempt ghost sex since Denny and Izzy on Grey’s Anatomy, and it turns out there is a reason. (Was anyone else disturbed by that threesome? Does it even count as threesome if one of the participants is dead?)
Empire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on FOX. Like more news? Like BuddyTV’s Empire Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of FOX)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
