The purpose of this recap is to break down the key moments from each episode without wasting time on unnecessary filler storylines.
Ready? Let’s jump in.
“Takeem” may burn out before it gets too hot
We were surprised two weeks ago when we found out that Hakeem was cheating on Tiana with a woman twice his age, but this week we get an inside look at Tiana’s secrets.
After a red carpet appearance with Hakeem, Tiana goes into her apartment where we see a blonde female character that we haven’t met before. It’s Tiana’s girlfriend. Yes, her girlfriend.
Even the most innocent looking characters on this show have secrets and hidden agendas. At least now we know why Tiana wasn’t fazed when she caught Hakeem cheating on her. She’s doing the same thing!
As fate would have it, Tiana and her girlfriend are on the set of one of Rhonda’s shoots and engage in some PDA while they think no one is looking. Of course Andre’s sneaky wife snaps some pictures, giving her hubby a leg up on the competition a.k.a his little brother. Later, while Hakeem is busy on his video shoot, Rhonda posts the photos and video on PerezHilton.com, a top celebrity gossip website.
Takeem was obviously doomed from the beginning since it was birthed from a convenient PR move, but it’s interesting to see a rare look at Hakeem’s vulnerable side when it comes to Tiana. He actually seems hurt when he finds out that she’s in a relationship with someone else.
Hakeem is Lucious’ favorite son this week
From week to week Lucious either has one favorite son (usually Hakeem or Andre) or just can’t stand all three of them. This week was Hakeem’s turn to get the love.
Hakeem tells his father that he wants to rebrand himself so he’s not seen as being just “Lucious Lyons’ son.” Lucious beamed with pride as Hakeem sucked up to his dad in order to get him to invest in a music video for his song. The only problem is that Hakeem’s idea for the video was $1 million over the allotted budget.
Andre warns his father that Hakeem’s expensive video isn’t a good look while auditors are eying their spending in preparation for the IPO, but Lucious doesn’t care. Instead, Lucious threatens his son and tells him that if he can’t find the money for Hakeem’s project, that he doesn’t have a purpose at Empire Records. Yet again, we see Lucious encouraging his sons to compete for his approval.
Andre figures that the only way to pay for the video without ruffling any feathers is to feature another Empire artist and using money that’s allocated for their use. What a perfect opportunity for hip-hop’s happiest it-couple, right? Yup, Andre pegs Tiana to co-star in the video.
In true Cookie fashion, she won’t let one of her artists do something without a win for herself. She tells Andre that the only way she’ll allow Tiana to co-star in the video is if he puts her on Empire’s board of directors to give her an in on the company’s financial endeavors.
Despite drama on the video shoot after Hakeem finds out about Tiana’s secret relationship, Lucious convinces his son to be about his business and worry about his relationship later. After all, according to Lucious, Jamal is in the studio getting things done, so why should Hakeem let something like petty drama get in the way of being on top?
Andre and Rhonda continue to plot
This power couple always seem to find the sneakiest ways to stay on top.
After Rhonda anonymously leaks photos of Tiana cheating on Hakeem, he leaves the set of his music video in a rage. With one brother down, Andre tries to knock Jamal out of the way as well.
A group of Hakeem’s free-loading friends overhear Andre talking loudly to Rhonda on the phone about how his “gay ass” brother is at the recording studio with all his expensive watches and shoes, so they spring into action. Thanks to a seed planted by Andre, the men rush into Jamal’s studio with guns and plan to rob him.
Jamal instantly recognizes a gunman as one of Hakeem’s friends and loses his fear. Instead, he’s angry that Hakeem would try to use these types of scare tactics against him. After one of the gunmen shoots Jamal’s producer, the owner of the studio barges in with a rifle and is able to scare them away.
To sum all of that up: Andre swindled both of his brothers and tried to pin them against each other by giving Jamal the impression that Hakeem sent his friends to rob the studio.
As we’ve seen since the beginning, Jamal and Hakeem have a special brotherly bond separate from Andre. Later in the episode, Jamal visits Hakeem’s apartment to confront his brother about the incident. Of course Hakeem says he had no idea about the incident, but Jamal doesn’t believe him and their meeting ends with hostility between them.
These weasel moments are a prime example as to how similar Andre is to his father. However, how far would Andre go without Rhonda? While Andre does deserve some credit, he would be nowhere in this game without his wife who is arguably the mastermind.
Lucious proposes to Anika
Despite the fact that he may still be in love with Cookie, Lucious pops the question to Anika and she says yes.
It doesn’t take too long into the episode until we find out what really fueled Lucious to propose. Lucious’ business partner informs him that he needs a doctor to certify that he is in good health in order for the IPO to go through. Essentially, it’s vital that a company has a healthy CEO before it goes public.
Obviously, since Lucious is in the early stages of ALS, his bill of health isn’t clean at all. Luckily, Anika’s father happens to be a doctor. Lucious plans to woo is future father-in-law into signing off on the health policy in order to hide his ailing health from the public.
When Lucious pitches his plan to Dr. Calhoun, he initially wants nothing to do with it. Anika’s father is appalled that Lucious would ask him to risk his career by committing fraud. But, it’s all about the money right? When Lucious tells Anika’s dad that his daughter could be a billionaire in her own right if the IPO goes through, it’s an offer that Dr. Calhoun can’t refuse.
I don’t doubt that Anika loves Lucious, but I still don’t know about this relationship. I had a feeling that something wasn’t right, and it was kind of confirmed in this episode. Does Lucious genuinely care about Annika at all or is he just completely using her at this point?
I have a feeling that once he gets what he needs from her, he might just toss her aside. Who knows, I may just be biased since I’m on #TeamCookie.
Cookie + the Feds
This week we return to the complicated relationship between Cookie and the FBI.
The FBI agent working on Cookie’s case wants Cookie to testify against Frank Gathers to ensure that he goes to prison for good. Cookie is hesitant to testify, but agrees anyway.
While sitting on the witness stand in front of a Grand Jury, Cookie is forced to relive her checkered past.
From what we can gather in the flashback, Cookie was part of a drug deal that went south very quickly. A man that Cookie was selling drugs to was shot and killed by Frank Gathers as she looked on. We learn that it was during this failed drug deal that Cookie was found by the police and arrested.
The reason why the FBI needed Cookie to testify was to identify that Frank Gathers was indeed the shooter that killed the man right in front of her. Cookie learns in the courtroom that the man who died wasn’t just another buyer. He was actually an undercover agent. Cookie is shocked to learn this bit of information while testifying in court.
Cookie calls herself a “dead bitch walking” after she snitches in court and she may be right if anyone ever finds out that it was her. Even if Frank Gathers does spend the rest of his life in prison, it won’t be surprising if he has friends on the outside that will make life hard for Cookie. That is if they actually let her live.
Cookie’s paranoia gets even worse after the testimony when she finds a red rose at her doorstep. She remembers that Frank Gathers’ trademark was the rose and fears he already knows that she snitched. She thinks that the only way to take care of this situation is to get at Frank first by hiring a hitman to kill him.
At the end of the episode, Lucious shows up to Cookie’s apartment to remind her that it’s their anniversary, which she forgot about. He says that he left her a present earlier that day: a rose on her doorstep.
When Cookie realizes Frank Gathers wasn’t actually out to get her, she tries to call the hitmen off, but it’s too late. Frank is shot and killed in his car.
I guess you can add another thing to the list of similarities between Lucious and Cookie: they’re both (technically) murderers.
Jamal starts recording
Jamal’s recording session started a little rough thanks to Andre’s meddling and a few sound issues, but by the end of the episode, Jamal really started to come into his own.
Jamal has been taking a back seat for the past couple of weeks and I’m hoping that changes now that he’s honing in on both his sound and his identity.
Additional comments:
- Obviously what happened with Cookie and Frank Gathers was a terrible misunderstanding, but I can’t help to be annoyed with Lucious. What does he want from Cookie? Of course she didn’t remember their anniversary. She’s moved on and expected him to move on as well. Lucious has been extra sweet to Cookie in the last two episodes and I get the feeling that he wants to rekindle a romance with her. I personally love the chemistry between Taraji P. Henson and Terence Howard which is why I love the Cookie/Lucious relationship so much. I just hope Lucious figures out what he wants from Cookie during next week’s episode because I’m getting impatient.
– In the short scene where we met Anika’s mother, she makes a comment about her daughter playing the piano “all the way to Julliard.” Until this point, Anika has been referred to as just another executive that doesn’t know anything about real music. I haven’t been the biggest Anika fan, but this episode piqued my interest into the layers of her character that we haven’t uncovered yet.
– I have to address the bizarre casting of Anika’s parents. For some reason, the actors cast to play her parents look like they’re no more than 3-4 years older than her. It’s not that Anika looks old, but her parents just look very, very young. And not Angela Basset looking young, but “did you have a child at 5 years old?” young. When Lucious had them over for dinner I could have sworn it was a group of old college buddies that were reuniting for a double date.
Music from this episode:
Preview next week’s episode “Out, Damned Spot”:
