On this episode of Empire, “Play On,” Cookie has to deal with the aftermath of her fight with Lucious. Jamal and Hakeem deal with their respective romantic relationships, while Andre continues to work with Shine.
Cleaning Up The Mess
After Cookie took a baseball bat to Lucious’ studio, it’s time to clean up the damage. In addition to fixing the physical damage, Cookie is struggling with the emotional damage. She is feeling guilty because she kissed and almost hooked up with Lucious. Her sister tells her not to tell Angelo because it didn’t mean anything– she just went “Cookie Crazy.” However, when Angelo comes home, he notices the bruises from her fight on her arm. Cookie lies and tells Angelo that she bumped into something. Cookie goes to see Lucious to make sure he isn’t going to tell Angelo about what happened.
Dancing In The Streets
Hakeem and Tiana are holding dance auditions for Tiana’s next single, which Hakeem is directing. Their relationship is better than ever, and Hakeem wants Tiana to meet his daughter. She’s hesitant, but agrees. Becky is helping out at the auditions, and Anika stops by to make things right with her after she got the A&R job over her. Meanwhile, Lucious’ mother goes to work with him, and he assigns a security guard to look after her, but she ditches the guard during the dance auditions. She goes to see Tariq and tells him to take care of “boo boo kitty.” It’s pretty hilarious that she picked up on Cookie’s nickname for Anika.
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Trust No One
Cookie stops by the studio to see Jamal and Tory. She makes it very clear that both of them must be clean and sober to continue working together. (Only Cookie can call someone a “crackhead” and make it seem like a term of endearment.) She also tells Jamal to make sure Lucious doesn’t hear any of their work until it is done. It doesn’t take long for Jamal and Tory to leave the studio without securing their track, and Lucious takes over and starts working with Tory.
Tariq threatens Anika and tells her that he will put her in the witness protection program if she agrees to tattle on Lucious. The next day, she calls Hakeem and gives him Bella with no real explanation. Then Anika takes off on a greyhound bus. Hakeem shows up late for Tiana’s video shoot with Bella, and Tiana bonds with her. Cookie calls Angelo to come get her when cops arrive at Empire Entertainment looking for her. She is in trouble for violating her parole for and “associating with a known felon.” Angelo gets the charges dropped, and they head to see Lucious because they think he is responsible. You can tell Cookie loves seeing Angelo’s protective side and it’s kind of adorable. Lucious tells Cookie it must be Tariq going after her.
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Dangerous Liaisons
Jamal’s counselor, Phillip, comes over to check on him post-rehab, and they (finally!) hook up. He also broke things off with D-Major earlier in the episode. I’m happy to see that rehab hasn’t done any damage to his love life. Elsewhere, Andre continues to meet Shine’s “associates” that are going to help him take down Lucious. He goes with Shine to meet Rafael, the man who can put together the mysterious Vegas deal for them, and they see him beating his wife (played by Nia Long). She takes Rafael’s gun and shoots him. Now that he’s dead, she is going to be making the deals with Andre.
Empire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on FOX. Like more news? Like BuddyTV’s Empire Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of FOX)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
