‘Empire’ Recap: A Jaw-Dropping Secret About Lucious Is Revealed

Holy secrets, ‘Empire!’ Kingsley’s vendetta against the Lyon family was finally explained during the Nov. 14 episode, and Cookie had a terrifying encounter with someone she knows and loves.

TBD is back in the Empire studio, thanks to Giselle. She’s making big moves. Lucious, Cookie, and Kingsley are also in the studio, which is pretty nuts. Seeing Lucious and Cookie back in the Empire studio is bittersweet, especially since that annoying Kingsley is running things. He still wants to cut TBD, all because he can’t stand Lucious. He’s not giving on anything.

Giselle tries to get through to him, and Kingsley admits he feels like he’s been slapped in the fact by Lucious and Cookie starting their own company. After some time and another conversation with Lucious, Kingsley agrees to work with them. But he’s not going to make it easy. He later asks Lucious to rework TBD’s entire song just because he can. Ugh.

Tiana and Hakeem finally start talking again after their major fight. She tells him that she’s glad he took down his diss track aimed at Blake. She wants him to take the kids for a couple of days, and he’s ecstatic about it. This is progress! When Hakeem releases a new diss track aimed at Hakeem, he wants to retaliate. But when he takes a step back, he decides to take the high road and end the beef.

One of Jamal’s artists from London, Winter, shows up at his door wanting to finish her album. She’s got some seriously soulful pipes! Cookie wants to manage her, and Jamal gets a little peeved that Cookie’s trying to proposition his artist. After some encouragement from Kai, Jamal finally tells Cookie about his engagement.

Meanwhile, Andre is working hard with Quincy’s mom to try and get Quincy out of jail. They’re not having much luck. Andre wants to take the cause to the court of public opinion. He’s being nothing but supportive of Quincy’s mom. “I’m so happy I’m not doing this alone anymore,” she tells Andre. They end up sleeping together. FINALLY! Afterwards, she says she wants to take things slow and not continue this relationship until Quincy’s out. She soon gets a call from her lawyer saying that Quincy’s getting out of jail. Someone in jail confessed! Thanks, Andre.

Franklin, Candace’s son, begins helping Cookie and her sisters out. Candace is so proud of her son. Cookie notices that Candace has bruises on her arm. Cookie believes Candace’s husband is beating her, but Candace denies everything.

Lucious invites Kingsley over for dinner to try and get to know him. Kingsley goes to visit his mother in the hospital. “I will make him pay for what he did to you,” Kingsley tells his sleeping mother. When Kingsley gets there, the entire Lyon family is sitting down for dinner. Kingsley reveals that his mother raised him on Empire’s sound. He brings up Lucious’s drug days, and Lucious says he did what he had to do for his family. Kingsley quips that drugs ruined a lot of people’s lives. Lucious brings Kingsley into the studio to watch him play with the boys. At one point, Kingsley has a smile on his face!

The next day, Kingsley goes to see his mother again. “He’s trying to erase us,” Kingsley says. The photo he keeps looking at? It’s a photo of his mother and LUCIOUS! “I’m going to erase him from the face of the earth,” Kingsley says. “How’s that for talent, dad?” Lucious is Kingsley’s dad?! WHAT THE HECK?!

When Candace doesn’t answer her phone, Cookie and Carol go looking for her. When they get to Candace’s house, they see Franklin — yes, her son — brutally beating Candace. Cookie tries to intervene and punches him, but he punches her right back. Franklin continues to attack his mother, so Cookie calls the cops. That infuriates Candace so much that she slaps Cookie! When the police arrive, they have to tase Franklin. Candace pleads with the police not to take her son and says he has mental issues. “You are not my sister,” Candace says to Cookie. “I never want to see you again.” Cookie goes live on Instagram to talk about what happened, especially how terrified she was to call the cops since she’s a black woman in America. Let’s hope Candace catches this video and reaches out to Cookie.