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.
1. Cookie moves up
Lucious finally gave Cookie an office in the Empire building and, even though it’s a tiny space next to the accounting department, this is still an important move. 
At the start of the episode we see Empire artist Tiana (who’s also Hakeem’s girlfriend) visit Cookie in her office to ask her to listen to her latest demo.
Cookie is surprised by this and asks why Tiana didn’t ask Anika. Tiana says that Anika is a “suit,” basically she’s just an executive, but Cookie truly lives and breathes the music. 
2. Lucious is still playing mind games
Hakeem was excited to go see Titan, the biggest rapper in the game in concert, but Lucious pulled the daddy card and took his tickets away.
Lucious makes a remark about how he wishes Titan was signed to Empire and tells Hakeem that unless he can prove to be as successful as Titan, he won’t be inheriting the company. 
It’s episode four and Lucious is still coming up with new conditions for what it will take for one of his sons to own the company. There’s no specific trajectory that the Lyon boys can take to please their father and inherit the company.
Per usual, nothing seems to be good enough for Lucious. 
3. Anika finds out about Lucious’ ALS
Anika finds out about Lucious’ condition when she catches him shaving and sees that the tremors in his hand are too severe to steady the razor.
This scene was touching because you can tell that Anika does actually love Lucious. With tears in her eyes, she took the razor and started shaving Lucious’ face for him.
If Anika sticks around long enough, I wonder if she might be in the running to take the company over for Lucious. They’re not married as of yet, but who knows what could happen before the season’s end.
Speaking of Anika, the tension between her and Cookie is as high as ever in this episode, but Lucious isn’t taking sides. Interestingly enough, he’s able to stay neutral and remain in both of their good graces. 
4. Lucious is confronted about Bunkie’s murder
The detective that has been following the case of Bunkie’s murder returns this episode to question Lucious further.
When asked where he was the night of the murder, Lucious lies and says he was at home. Seeing that the detective may be doubting his father, Andre steps up and adds that he was with Lucious that night. They were together watching a boxing match.
Of course we know that Andre is lying as well. I’m sure he’ll want an explanation from his father soon as to why he had to protect him from a detective. Lucious is still the only one on his team that knows the truth about what he did that night. 
If you remember what happened in last week’s episode, you know that the detective found a witness that more or less ID’d Lucious as Bunkie’s murderer.
The only issue is that the witness is a homeless man who may or may not be suffering from a mental disorder. While he may have actually witnessed the murder, I don’t think it’ll be hard for him to be discredited by a millionaire CEO in court. 
5. Lucious wants Titan
Lucious went from telling Hakeem that he wants him to be more like Titan to actually pursuing Titan for Empire. 
After Titan gets thrown in jail for shooting at someone in a club, he’s put into a vulnerable position when it comes to his career. Lucious sees this as the perfect time to poach Titan from his label and into Empire. 
Even Cookie gets in on the poaching when she goes to visit Titan’s mother and tries to convince her that her son is better off at Empire. Titan’s mom, who is a practicing Muslim, is open to the idea since she believes that her son’s current label is what moved him away from his faith. 
When Anika and Lucious meet with Titan’s manager, the rendez-vous doesn’t go well at all. The meeting, which took place at a diner in a bad part of town, goes south when a drive-by shooting occurs. It’s obvious that either Lucious or Titan’s team is the target as the shooters aimed directly at them. 
Later at Lucious’ club, Leviticus, he gets a visit from Bill Barretti, the man who owns the company that Titan is currently signed to. We find out that Lucious an Bill have a complicated past with each other. Apparently, Bill took credit for writing Lucious’ songs on one of his early albums. Obviously this doesn’t sit well with Lucious which is the root of their bad blood. 
When Bill came to visit Lucious at Leviticus, I thought it would have something to do with Titan, but I was wrong. Instead, he tells Lucious to cancel his upcoming IPO and stop Empire from going public. If Lucious doesn’t comply, Bill says he will uncover Lucious’ dark past and bury both the company and everyone who is a part of it. 
In true Lucious fashion, instead of backing down with his tail between his legs, he goes full steam ahead and visits Titan in prison. 
We find out that Lucious was once a part of the Nation of Islam until it “killed his father” according to Cookie. When Lucious visits Titan in prison, he’s able to appeal to Titan’s roots and convince him to side with Empire.
Additional comments:
– This week, the tension between Lucious and Cookie officially went from exes who hate each other to full on sexual tension. Not only are they working well together again, but they’re extra touchy-feely with each other. I am definitely here for Lucious and Cookie to reunite and take over the industry as a team again. I would feel bad for Anika, but her character isn’t really doing anything for me anyway.
– Jamal had a quiet role this week. We only saw him in a handful of scenes where he was getting used to living in a crappy apartment. Now that he isn’t suckling on Lucious’ silver spoon, he’s starting over on his own and learning what the term “humble beginnings” really means. However, even though he’s living on his own, Jamal is still signed to Empire. I’m hoping that Lucious doesn’t continue to create unnecessary roadblocks when it comes to Jamal’s career and learns to respect his son instead.

Preview for next week’s episode: