Andre is visiting Leah Walker at the home during a bingo game. He asks questions about what her life at the home is like and how they are treating her. She loses the game and has a violent outburst. After she throws her card on the ground she looks at Andre and recognizes his eyes, asking him if he is related to her.
Hakeem and Jamal are recording a new song Hakeem is working on for the soundtrack of a Ryan Coogler film. Hakeem says that he intends to have Tiana sing the girl's part and blows off Jamal and Becky's concerns that Laura might not be okay with that--because Hakeem's judgement with women is always spot on.
Cookie is planning the Lyon family ASA performance and lobbying for a 7-minute prime time spot with music director Derek/D Major. Lucious comes in and wants to play his song but D Major says they intended to have a song from Jamal since he is Empire's most nominated artist. Cookie agrees and she and Lucious get into a spat. Cookie takes D Major to meet Jamal and Jamal gets frustrated and says that he wants to keep his solo spot. D Major tells him to consider sucking it up and doing the group performance.
Hakeem is also not happy about the performance and Cookie tells him to deal with it and to come to rehearsal. Candace, Cookie's other sister comes to Empire headquarters and tells Carol that her kids need to be with her and that they will be coming to live with Carol and Cookie after the school break.
D Major is in the middle of a recording session. Jamal interrupts to ask him to listen to his new song with Freda. Jamal wants to sing something new for the ASAs but D Major blows him off. The two get into an argument but just as things get heated D Major kisses Jamal.
Hakeem and Tiana are recording and Hakeem freaks out when he sees that it is 1 a.m. because Laura will be mad. Tiana teases him about his new married/having a baby lifestyle and says that she'll miss him at the club.
During set up for rehearsal for the ASA performance Lucious tries to play his idea for a song and Jamal wastes no time in telling him that it is played out. An argument ensues and of course Cookie is the one to break it up.
When Cookie says pause, you pause.
Cookie tells Lucious, Jamal and Hakeem not to mess up the show for her just as Andre walks in with Leah Walker and introduces her as Lucious' mother. Everyone is confused and a horrified Lucious storms out.
D Major comes in to see the rehearsal but leaves once he realizes that Cookie and Lucious are trying to figure out family things. Jamal is offended, after realizing that D Major is acting like their kiss never happened.
Lucious finally tells the truth (I think) about his mother. She did try to drown Lucious, and put a gun to her head and pull the trigger but there were no bullets. She was then locked away in a psychiatric ward but was released. Lucious later found her, homeless in a subway station. At the time he and Cookie were on welfare and couldn't afford to care for her. Cookie is hurt that Lucious lied to her but Lucious says that his mother is a dangerous woman.
Laura finds out that Hakeem recorded a duet with Tiana and is furious. Hakeem tells her that she can't expect to be on every duet he records and that there will be other opportunities. They appear to make up but Laura thinks that Tiana is still into Hakeem and Hakeem seems to still have some feelings for Tiana. And so the war between Laura and Tiana continues...
Andre and Rhonda are discussing what to do about Leah when Andre sees Thirsty leaving with her. Andre tries to stop them but Lucious tells him to back off and Leah says she wants to go with Lucious, er, Dwight. That night as Leah gets ready for bed Lucious instructs his maid to keep a close eye on her and make sure she takes all of her medicine.
Thirsty is seen driving Harper the journalist into a dark alley. He tells her that writing a negative story about Lucious and Leah could be bad for her but Harper insists that she can't be threatened or bought. Thirsty lets her out of the truck as masked men approach and grab her.
D Major comes to visit Jamal while he is writing and Jamal rejects him for blowing him off earlier. D Major explains that he just wants to keep things professional but Jamal realizes that he isn't out yet and it bothers him considering all that he went through to fully embrace who he was. Jamal admits that he likes D Major but can't deal with his still being in the closet.
Cookie sees Lucious drinking and wallowing in self-pity and accuses him of keeping his mother a secret to preserve the image he has cultivated as a victim of and champion for mental illness. Cookie assures him that as long as he does right by his sons (read: performs Jamal's song and behaves himself at the ASAs) nothing will go wrong.
Carol and Candace meet and Carol begs Candace to keep her children just a little while longer while she makes everything right with everyone. By making everything right, she means admitting to Cookie that she helped Lucious murder some people while Cookie was in prison. Candace is vehemently against the idea.
Rhonda visits Anika to drop off some more things that she and Andre had bought for their baby and are now re-gifting to Anika. While she's there, someone drops a box on Rhonda triggering a flashback to her fall. This time, Rhonda remembers being pushed.
Leah is playing piano and singing. Lucious comes to join her. Leah accuses Lucious of saying bad things about her and Lucious says he was just being honest. Leah assures Lucious that she is better.
At rehearsal that night Lucious (after arriving less than fashionably late) decides to incorporate the song he sang with his mother into their performance. Jamal is less than pleased and they start to argue again. As usual, Cookie puts a stop to it. After listening to the song Jamal decides that it is actually pretty and Lucious asks that his sons be honest in their performance. In a surprisingly heartfelt moment, Lucious tells his family that although they fight (he forgot to say constantly), he is still Jamal and Hakeem's father and Cookie is still his first love. AWWW!
At a bar Carol appears to be struggling to fight the urge to drink again when she sees Tariq, an old friend and former cop who stops to shoot the breeze with her. Carol manages to not fall off the wagon but just before the scene cuts we see that Tariq is actually a fed and that something is up. You can tell because they play the suspicious "something's up" music.
That night at Leviticus, Lucious, Jamal and Hakeem premiere their new song. The performance goes without a hitch and is well received and D Major gives the Lyons their prime time performance spot at the ASAs. As Cookie and her family celebrate, an offhand comment from Porsha causes Carol to begin to feel jealous of her sister's success.
Jamal catches up with Derek later and tells him that he's okay with him being in the closet and wants to see him. Meanwhile Rhonda visits Anika and tries to tempt her into sneaking a glass of wine. As the two women chat, Anika lifts her foot to reveal a red bottom on her shoe triggering Rhonda to have another flashback of her fall. Oh the connections!
In the final scene of the episode, Leah asks Lucious to sit down at a table that she has filled with different cakes. Leah has sent the maid away and she forces Lucious to eat a slice of carrot cake. She accuses Lucious of leaving her alone like everyone else in her life and says that all of her troubles came from him. She then wishes she had killed him when she had a chance. As terrifying as this scene is, death by cake doesn't seem like a bad way to go.
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