‘Empire’ Recap: Lucious Is Finally Released From Jail Thanks To His Shady Lawyer

Well, Lucious’ time in jail didn’t last very long. After being behind bars for three long months, the head of Empire is finally back and ready to reclaim his kingdom!

Lucious (Terrance Howard) is a free man, all thanks to his shady new lawyer Thirsty Rawlings (Andre Royo). While Lucious and Jamal (Jussie Smollett) celebrate his newly found freedom, Cookie (Tarji P. Henson) is busy starting her own Dynasty.

While Lucious may have had a happy ending at the end of the episode, he was actually having a rough time before his release. While in jail, Lucious had been receiving medicine to try and keep his ALS symptoms to a minimal. Unfortunately that was taken away from him all because the prosecution was trying to play dirty! Super shady, right?

Ludacris’ was a guest star on this episode and his character, Officer McKnight, definitely has something against Lucious. As the singer continues to suffer in jail, his wifey is plotting revenge on his Empire.

Cookie Starts Her Own ‘Empire’

This is one Lyon that can’t be tamed! After being thrown out of Empire by Jamal, Cookie decides to start her own company with Hakeem and Andre. The three of them conspire via phone calls and eventually meet up at the ghetto studio where Jamal was seen recording “Dollar Bill” in the first season. Andre was so unhappy about what he was seeing, but he decided to continue with the plan.

While they’re all setting up, Hakeem decided to throw around the idea of starting a girl group. He totally has his own music to worry about, but the rapper thought it would be a good thing to do for their un-named label. Cookie agrees with the idea and allows Hakeem to go and find his perfect group instead of getting him to record his last few songs for his album.

Hakeem holds auditions and a familiar face shows up! Valentina (Becky G) obviously nails her audition and impresses Hakeem, but she’s totally blindsided by the fact that it was a casting for a girl group. She claims the Instagram posting — casting via Instagram? The struggle is kinda real — didn’t mention anything about a girl group.

Unfortunately, the gal sitting beside Hakeem said there definitely was and Valentina was not happy. In fact, she bluntly told Hakeem, “With or without you, I shine.” Becky was right, her character is certainly the mini version of Cookie. Did I mention Hakeem wants to name his three-girl girl group “Rainbow Sensation?” Because that also happened.

Lucious Teams Up With A New Lawyer

Jamal visits Lucious in jail and asks his father to give Hakeem his album back. After their business talk, Jamal notices his father wasn’t feeling too well and a lawyer by the name of Thirsty Rawlings overhears their conversation. He immediately gives Jamal his card and offers up his services to the singer. Obviously after much thought, Lucious decides to take his chances and run with this new guy.

When he teams up with Thirsty, Lucious then starts to receive a little bit of special treatment. He was able to get the meds he needed and on top of that, time to record a new song while in jail! One of the prison guards who was escorting Lucious to the private room revealed that Thirsty has connections inside the jail and that’s why Lucious was able to receive his medication along with many others.

The singer meets up with his crew from the courtyard and starts recording a new song. Shortly after they finished, Officer McKnight and other guards came in to detain the inmates. That little stunt earned Lucious some time in the “hole.” While Officer McKnight and Lucious are talking, Lucious basically threatened the guard and he held true to his word.

Everything went from zero to 100 real quick. Officer McKnight was out and about when he was ambushed by two guys who we can only assume were working for Thirsty. They beat him up until the guard gave them what they wanted, the computer that Lucious recorded his song on. That item was given to Thirsty to do whatever he wanted with it.

Andre Tries To Return To Empire

After talking to Lucious, Jamal decided to ask Hakeem to return to Empire one last time before ultimately giving his younger brother his unfinished album. Hakeem decided to take things into his own hands and leak it all online. This move causes Andre become upset and to leave the start-up company.

He goes to visit Lucious in jail to ask for his forgiveness. Andre apologizes for being a part of the hostile takeover with Cookie, Hakeem, and Anika. Sadly, Lucious says to his eldest son, “Pray for God to forgive you, because I don’t.” Stone cold. Andre doesn’t give up and asks why his dad hates him so much. This takes us to a flashback with Kelly Rowland as Lucious’s mother. It’s a sweet and creepy memory, but it definitely caused me to wonder if Lucious’ mom also suffered from bi-polar disorder and seeing Andre deal with the same disorder hurts him.

Not too long after the album leak, Hakeem goes to see Jamal to tell him the news along with the fact that he isn’t returning to Empire. Jamal gets upset — over the leak of the album and threatens to sue Hakeem. There’s a little banter between the two, but then Hakeem drops the news by revealing the name of their start-up company, “Lyon Dynasty.” Jamal called it corny, but Hakeem dismissed him by saying, “our little dynasty is going to crush your Empire.”

Lucious Drops A New Song From Prison & Gets Out Of Jail

“Damn, that’s hot,” Cookie said after hearing Lucious’ new song on the radio. You know a song is hot when Cookie says so! After all, she did help Lucious start his career. “There’s not much he can do to us right now before he gets out of jail.” Sadly that was a short-lived moment for Cookie because in the next scene, we see Lucious being released from jail.

Thirsty was able to gather some incriminating photos of the judge presiding over Lucious’ case. This causes him to release Lucious on a $1 million bail. We wonder how Cookie will react to this news once she finds out Lucious is out! Not to mention she’s barely done starting-up her dynasty. She and Hakeem have a lot of sweeping to do!

HollywoodLifers, what did you think of this episode? The music? Let us know if everything lived up to your expectations in the comment section below!

— Michelle Phi
Follow @_MichellePhi