Empire Season 2 Episode 16 Recap: Mama Walker

Mama Walker is now a free woman and ready to tell her story on this week’s episode of Empire.

Andre visits his grandmother in the nursing home during a game of bingo. Believe it or not, she recognizes Andre as her grandson. It’s his eyes. Leah must’ve been watching TV while away because she knows Lucious is famous.

Since Jamal is the Lyon with the most ASA award nominations, he wanted to take charge and perform one of his new songs at the show. Now that Cookie is co-CEO she’s able to make changes to Jamal’s dream — such as making the performance a Lyon family ensemble. The man in charge of making the final decision, D. Major, doesn’t want to listen to any of Jamal’s new songs. Instead, he wants to…kiss him? Yeah, I definitely didn’t see that one coming.

While everyone is fighting over who gets to sing what in the Lyon family song, Andre shows up with a special guest- Leah Walker. I bet everyone thought they were seeing a ghost as she walked closer and closer to them. Lucious is clearly speechless.

Andre tells his family that Lucious sent Leah away to a home for over 21 years and sent Vernon out once a month to pay hush money to keep anyone who knew she was there quiet. Leah tries to touch her son’s face, but all Lucious can do is run away and tell Andre he has no idea what he’s done. I think it’s the other way around. Lucious has no idea what he’s done.

Cookie asks Lucious how he came up with the music video if he’s been lying this entire time. He said it wasn’t a lie. His mother did try drowning him and she did put a gun to her head and pull the trigger. Turns out there weren’t any bullets in the gun. The sad part is, Leah told her eight-year-old son that it was his fault she did it.

Lucious starts to explain that under Reagan’s presidency, the government took all the mentally ill and dumped them out on the street. One day Lucious almost tripped over his mother in the streets. At that point in time, Lucious and Cookie were on welfare and already had two kids, with Hakeem on the way. He tells Cookie that they couldn’t have taken care of her even if they wanted to. It’s hard to hear, but Lucious tells Cookie that he needed Leah to stay “dead.”

Andre connects with his grandmother, because the two suffer from mental illness. He thinks that she was suffering inside the home, when in reality, she probably had the best caretakers there for her. Lucious and Cookie try to convince Andre that taking Leah back to the home would be what’s best for her, but he doesn’t want to listen. Andre tries to take his grandmother home with him but she requests to go home with her Dwight.

I’m so torn right now! Does she really just want to be with her son, or should we be as cautious as Lucious is?

While helping Anika bring in more baby things, Rhonda gets pushed out of the way before a falling box can land on her. Rhonda has another vivid memory of being pushed down the stairs the night she was attacked. She tells Anika about it and Anika seems genuinely shocked. I’m not sure if I totally trust Anika yet, but I’m glad Rhonda is starting to remember what happened that night.

A sweet moment is shared between Lucious and his mother as they sing a song together. Leah tells Lucious that she was sick, but she’s all better now. I don’t think Lucious fully believes it yet, but I think he’s starting to warm up to her. He even uses the little song as inspiration for the Lyon family song. It’s honest and beautiful.

Carol can’t keep holding a secret from Cookie. She wants to come clean and let her sister know that she had Lucious take care of some people while he was in prison. Carol’s other sister, Candice, thinks the idea will cause a lot of trouble and advises her to stay quiet. I don’t think Carol’s secret is going to stay a secret for much longer now that her old friend overheard her conversation.

I knew it! Anika is the one who pushed Rhonda down the stairs! Where is my award?

While Anika was complaining to Rhonda about her feet hurting her, Rhonda remembered seeing those same shoes leaving her front door after she was pushed down the stairs. Red soles. Can someone say Christian Louboutin? I knew it had to be Anika! I don’t know how Rhonda was able to keep calm and not rip out Anika’s hair.

OK, so maybe Leah isn’t fully healthy yet. She wakes Lucious up in the middle of the night and orders him to sit down at a table that’s covered with different cakes. It reminds me of the scene from Matilda where Miss Trunchbull makes the poor kid eat the whole chocolate cake. Although, there wasn’t a knife involved like there is in this situation.

Leah’s back at it with blaming Lucious for ruining her life. She asks him if he loves her and he says yes, but she calls him a liar. I guess she didn’t like being put away in a home for 21 years. Now Leah is saying she’s sorry — for the fact that she didn’t kill Lucious a long time ago when she had the chance. What?! How is Lucious still sitting there, eating cake?! I guess we can see where Lucious gets his attitude and temper from.

What were your thoughts on tonight’s episode of Empire? Do you like Jamal’s new fling? I just hope he doesn’t get hurt again. It’s clear that Leah is still sick. What was your reaction as she made Lucious eat the cake? I can’t believe she admitted to wanting to kill him! Do you think he’ll send her back? What do you think Carol’s old friend is going to do with the info he found out? Anika pushed Rhonda! Were you shocked? What do you think Rhonda will do next? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

New episodes of Empire premiere Wednesday nights at 9/8CT on FOX.

Photos: Chuck Hodes/FOX