Empire Season 2 Episode 13 Recap: Birthday Dinner

Empire-Season2-EP13-Cookie-Lucious

On last week’s episode of Empire, Lucious caught Camilla trying to hide her tracks after killing Mimi. He told her to take a sip of whatever it was that she gave Mimi and, surprisingly, she downed a bottle of prescription medication. I had my doubts about whether or not she actually took the pills but it looks like she did. Everyone is mourning the loss of Camilla during her service at Empire on this week’s episode of Empire.

Empire-Season2-EP13-Andre-RhondaI guess Lucious hasn’t broken the news to his family about the role he played in Camilla’s death. Lucious tries pinning her death on Hakeem for sending the tape to Mimi. Since the police think her death was a suicide, Hakeem doesn’t want to be blamed for it.

Cookie has had it with the constant bickering between her sons and Lucious. She reminds them that Sunday is a glorious day — because it’s her birthday. The Queen’s birthday! Not only that, but it’s also the first birthday Cookie will be able to spend as a free woman since she was released from jail. All Cookie is asking for is a nice, drama-free dinner. Yeah, right.

Hakeem might be CEO of Empire and have everything he wants, but now he has to deal with girl issues. This time it’s between Laura and Tiana. Since Mirage a Trois has been on tour with Tiana, the tension between Tiana and Laura has been rising. Tiana is upset that Laura has been cutting into her stage time and going into her wardrobe. All valid points. Since Hakeem and Laura are dating, he’s going to let things slide a little for Laura to get more attention.

Lucious is focused on changing his direction with his song and music video, so they’re authentic as they can be. That means changing the idea of the video to his life growing up with his mother — and cutting out Freda’s verse in the song.

Now that Freda realizes she’s not useful to Lucious, she goes back to Jamal and takes him up on his offer to work on his song with him. It’s another powerful song from Jamal and I think with Freda in it, it’s that much more powerful. They both have similar stories that need to be told. Daddy issues!

Empire-Season2-EP13-Cookie-LuciousWe’re finally discovering the true Dwight Walker story. Seeing the set come together for his music video was too emotional for Lucious. It brought back too many memories, and all of them seemed to be ones he was trying to forget.

Cookie sat down with Lucious and he told her the truth behind it all. His mother held him under the water in the bathtub for a long period of time in order to “cleanse” him. Once she realized what she had done, she searched for her bullets and gun. Right in front of Lucious, she put the loaded gun to her head and pulled the trigger.

I cannot imagine what a young Lucious was going through at that moment. It’s clearly impacted his entire life.

Lucious continues his story, telling Cookie he ran off because he didn’t want to go with social services. He slept in the streets, abandoned buildings and even ate from garbage cans for six months. One day Lucious met a 16-year-old who gave him his first bag to sell. That teenager was Frank Gathers. Frank turned Lucious onto hustling. However, Lucious credits Frank for saving his life. Funny how things work out in life.

Everyone had Cookie fooled into thinking they weren’t going to show up to her birthday dinner. It was just going to be a dinner for two — her and Lucious. In the other room, the rest of the gang started singing “Happy Birthday” and while it wasn’t Stevie Wonder doing the warbling, Cookie was still happy.

Empire-Season2-EP13-Happy-BirthdayCookie worked really hard to get a rough cut of Lucious’ music video put together to show the rest of the family. After watching the video for a little bit, it was clear that no one in the family except for Cookie knew about Lucious’ past.

Andre had the hardest time watching the video. He shut it off after watching the actress playing his grandmother put a gun to her head like he did. Andre asks Lucious if his mother actually shot herself and if she was bipolar. Lucious tries to evade the question by saying they didn’t have a name for it back then — but it’s clear that she suffered the same way Andre is suffering.

Andre gets angry at Lucious for not telling him the truth. For years, Andre says he’s felt like some kind of freak. If he would’ve known about his grandmother, he would’ve felt better. Things get out of hand once Lucious tells Andre that the truth is he was embarrassed by his mother, just like he’s embarrassed by Andre. That is not okay! The two wish each other to hell before Andre leaves. I

knew Cookie couldn’t have a nice, calm dinner. Raincheck with me, Cookie?

I think all of this drama has gone to Hakeem’s head. He meets up with Laura after one of her concerts and tells her that he really loved meeting her family. See, her family encourages each other, unlike Hakeem’s family. Instead of wishing each other to Hell, Laura’s family wishes nothing but the best for each other. Hakeem says he wants to raise his family the same way Laura’s family is. So what does he do? Gets down on one knee and opens up a little box with a huge diamond in it. I guess he got over Camilla already.

I’m shocked! Laura says yes to Hakeem’s proposal. I can’t Empire-Season2-EP13-Cookietell by the look on Tiana’s face if she’s happy or upset to see the happy couple. It seemed like she didn’t have any feelings for Hakeem left so I don’t think she’d be upset.

Oh no! Boo Boo Kitty is back and now she’s allowing Rhonda to stay at her place to take some time away from the Lyon family. I understand that Rhonda wants her space from the chaotic Lyon family, but Anika was not the person to call for help. Let’s hope Rhonda makes it out alive.

While Cookie is in the recording studio with Jamal, Hakeem and Freda, she hears Freda rap a line about her father, Frank Gathers. Freda confirms that Frank was her father when Cookie asks her about the line she just heard and then hears Freda talking about her father being murdered and still not knowing who did it. Cookie knows that name has a lot of meaning to the Lyon family and now they’re working with his daughter.

What were your thoughts on this episode of Empire? Now that Lucious seems to be coming clean about who he truly is, do you think he’ll come clean about his murderous roles in Camilla’s and Frank’s deaths? I’m sure Cookie will figure things out soon about Frank’s death. Do you think the battle between Tiana and Laura will continue now that Hakeem has proposed? I still cannot believe he popped the question. What are your thoughts on the Dwight Walker story and Lucious’ use of the music video to tell the story? I think it was a creative way to do it but I don’t think it’s right that he’s using that to just now tell his family his story. I don’t blame Andre for getting angry at him. What do you think Anika has planned for Rhonda? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

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

Photos: Chuck Hodes/FOX

1 Comment

  1. I hope that Tiana will have more time this time n hopefully “takeem” get back together

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