‘Empire’ Recap: Lucious Tries To Sabotage Cookie & Jamal’s Downward Spiral Continues

Cookie sets up a lavish dinner to meet Angelo’s mom and major drama ensues on the Nov. 30 episode of ‘Empire.’ Lucious, of course, tries to get under Cookie’s skin, Andre chooses Nessa over his family, and Jamal continues to make terrible decisions.

Cookie’s arguing with Tiana first thing in the morning. Not exactly the best way to start the day. Being the best boyfriend, Angelo brings her coffee. He wants to talk about that press conference, but Cookie’s trying to avoid the conversation. “Are you in or are you out?” he asks, giving her an ultimatum. She responds by throwing him on the couch and smothering him with kisses.

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Charlamagne Tha God trashes Jamal on The Breakfast Club for being weak and unable to produce new music. Not surprisingly, Lucious agrees with Charlamagne. Jamal claims that all this pressure is killing his vibe, but it’s probably just the drugs. He’s tired about everything being about the numbers. He tells Lucious he’s working on a visual album.

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Nessa asks Andre to come to a party honoring the anniversary of her brother’s death. He agrees to go. Shyne walks in pissed because Freda’s not cooperating. Andre promises to fix the situation and bring Freda to the party. This should be interesting.

Even though Jamal could have died last week, Derek is still giving him drugs. This is not going to end well. Jamal, get yourself together! Jamal makes Phillip promise he won’t tell Cookie about the blackout. When Cookie arrives at Jamal’s place, he shows her part of his visual album. The album features old videos of Cookie and her family. She’s all for it until a video of her father starts to play. Cookie completely freaks out and bolts.

Cookie is supposed to meet Angelo’s mother, played by the iconic Phylicia Rashad, at a campaign party. She doesn’t arrive on time, and Angelo’s mother is not pleased. She hasn’t even met Cookie and already thinks Angelo is too good for Cookie. Girl, please. Later, Angelo admits that Cookie did disrespect his mother. Cookie and Angelo think a dinner with Angelo’s mother and the boys will be the perfect way to mend the situation.

Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?

Jamal goes to see Aunt Carol to ask about why Cookie would freak out about her father. Carol says all roads lead back to Lucious. After finding guns and drug money in her room, Cookie’s dad kicked her out. His distaste for Lucious was apparent. Three days later, Cookie’s father had a heart attack and died. She never got the chance to talk to him.

To prepare herself for her big dinner, Cookie gets some etiquette lessons from Candace. Candace admits Cookie’s going to have to “Melania Trump this situation.” Lucious tries to ruin Cookie’s big dinner, but she decides to have it at her place. That gives Candace a reason to redo Cooke’s whole house.

Jamal comes to the dinner high as a kite. Oh, Jamal. Hakeem brings a screaming Bella. Anika and Lucious show up unexpectedly. Everything that could go wrong for Cookie is going wrong for Cookie. Lucious tries — once again — to ruin Cookie’s life. He trashes his own family right in front of Angelo’s mom. Lucious is stooping to new low.

Andre is a no-show at Cookie’s dinner. He brings Freda to Nessa’s party. Nessa guilt trips Andre into staying around to watch her perform. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think Andre has real feelings for Nessa. I’m into it. After some convincing, Freda hits the stage and performs while Shyne records the performance.

Cookie salvages the dinner with Angelo’s mom and takes control. She acknowledges that her family is twisted and crazy, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Angelo’s mom gains respect for Cookie but warns that she better not break Angelo’s heart.

Jamal performs a song he wrote for Cookie, and it’s beautiful. Lucious realizes this is not his place and leaves with Anika. I think he is finally understanding that Cookie has moved on. However, Lucious and Cookie did have something great once. No one can forget that. But Lucious isn’t going to let Cookie have all the fun. He takes a good look at a nearly naked Anika at the end of the episode. Will these two really get back together?

HollywoodLifers, what did you think of tonight’s Empire? Let us know!