Cookie apologizes to Andre for not being there for him through the beginning of his disorder, though the family’s visit comes a day before Andre is to sign away his rights to the company. This would allow the IPO to come through, so everyone talks up the role Andre played in getting them to this point, but he falls into himself and doesn’t respond to anyone. Over at the Lyon residence, Lucious and Vernon talk about the fact that the former is cutting Cookie in for equal shares to the boys. Lucious claims that this is to make his eventual prenuptial agreement with her easier; he wants to spend the rest of his life with Cookie and take the second opportunity to be a father. Lola is his chance to do right, but when Vernon tries to celebrate the IPO by saying that “they” made it happen, Lucious reminds him that Empire is his company and no one else’s. He’s still appalled that Vernon and Andre tried to pull a coup on him, especially since Vernon is street-smart enough to know that it wasn’t a good idea.
While looking up information on bipolar disorder, Cookie gets a visit from an apologetic Malcolm, contrite over his growing feelings for her. However, Cookie is more than forgiving; she kisses him and the two end up hooking up in her office. Over at the studio, Jamal records a new song he wrote for Lola, which Ryan praises. When Jamal informs him that he plans on taking the little girl on and becoming a more involved father, though, Ryan backs away from their burgeoning relationship. As Olivia’s abusive boyfriend Reg finds her at a bus depot and strong-arms her into finding Lola, Camilla shoots an ad campaign with Hakeem in her studio. He is to be the next face of her men’s line and when he expresses concern about Andre and frustration with Lucious, she refocuses him by saying that she is there to make him better. The two of them, she claims, are like Anthony and Cleopatra. Back at Holden-Jones, Rhonda readies Andre for the signing of the stock transfer papers, telling him that this is his night and everything he worked for. But Andre isn’t looking forward to the night; he’s not even going, citing the fact that Lucious didn’t see him while he was in the hospital. He can’t be anyone other than who he is and when Rhonda tries to convince him to go, he pushes back even harder. She is to be his proxy and sign the papers for him – nothing more.
That night, Jamal puts Lola to bed and asks her whether she wants to live with him. She agrees to it, especially when he tells her he’ll protect her from her nightmares about birds. After getting his blood drawn, Lucious joins Cookie and names her the head of A&R at Empire, as the position is open with Anika’s absence. She agrees to it as long as he promises to be a better father and allows her to produce the tribute concert under her own banner, the latter of which he goes along with. Before they can continue talking, Jamal interrupts and brings Lucious to the study where he drops the bomb about wanting to take Lola. Lucious doesn’t want his granddaughter to be raised around the kind of lifestyle Jamal lives, a revelation that causes Jamal to question what he would do if Lola had some trait that he deemed imperfect. Just as Jamal was pushed away due to his sexuality, Andre was pushed away due to his 
Over at Leviticus, a coked up Vernon meets with Reg and Olivia under the guise of helping the couple get Lola back. Elsewhere, Malcolm calls Cookie and as the two try a little dirty talk, she’s surprised by Lucious and quickly gets herself off the phone. Just then, Hakeem and Camilla show up in coordinated outfits talking about the brand new song they’ve collaborated on. Cookie bristles at “Yoko”‘s continued presence in her son’s life, but she does agree to be civil for Hakeem. While Jamal looks over the photos from Hakeem’s photo shoot, the notary for the signing stops by and Hakeem gives his family a first glimpse at his song with Camilla. She argues that he needs to embrace his own sound and he performs a much less aggressive song than usual, which does actually draw compliments from Lucious. But he ends up taking Camilla to his study where he inquires how much she loves Hakeem. She senses that Lucious is trying to bribe her to stay away from Hakeem, but when Camilla tries to leave, Lucious locks her in and forces her to converse with him. He knows how much debt she has and how much trouble her business is in, so he thinks she’s only with Hakeem to fatten her checking account.
When Camilla begrudgingly takes the offer, Lucious calls in Malcolm to drive her to the airport and gives her the first check in the installment plan they agreed upon. However, Camilla rips up the check and tells him that when he dies, she’s going to be right there with Hakeem anyway. After Jamal and Hakeem sing Lola to sleep, Lucious finds out that Rhonda is there in place of Andre, which he didn’t agree upon. He thinks Rhonda is trying to steal from right under Andre’s nose, choosing this opportunity to benefit her own net worth; Rhonda, however, isn’t as privileged as Lucious believes and she points out the inconsistencies in the paperwork vs. what she was told. The amount of shares Andre will give up is much lower than she was led to believe, as is the power the shares hold. Forced into a confession, Lucious tells his sons, Rhonda, and Cookie that he took a little from everyone in order to give Cookie what she was owed. Before he can be further called out on his shenanigans, Lucious watches as Vernon, Olivia, and Reg arrive.
Andre indulges in ineffectual music therapy with Michelle that leads to an impromptu prayer session, just as Lucious takes an obviously messed up Vernon aside to question what he’s doing bringing these people here. He’s especially upset at Vernon bringing a stranger into his home and accordingly dismisses him for the night. Later, Cookie tries to get to know Reg in relation to his relationship with Olivia and the tattoos (a crow, a demon) on his arms. Jamal notices that the crow matches Lola’s description of the nightmares she has, meaning that Reg is who she’s scared of. When he goes to confront Reg, Jamal has a gun pulled on him, with Reg upset at Olivia being “damaged goods” by the time she got to him. Hakeem tries to offer his watch to Reg when the issue of money is brought up, while Lucious confesses to being the father of the baby in order to spare Jamal’s life. When Reg was about to pull the trigger, he explained that he got Olivia to marry Jamal in exchange for promising to make her a star. She got lonely due to Jamal being unwilling to touch her, so she turned to him and he took advantage of her. Lucious begs Reg to shoot him, citing all the wrong he’s done in his life, but just as Reg is about to do it, Malcolm gets back from the airport and shoots him in the head. Unfortunately for Lucious, nobody is appreciative of him putting himself out there because of the truths that came along with it.
The next day, Olivia explains to Jamal that she had to get Lola away from Reg and she knew how good a person he was, hence her sudden arrival at Empire. She never meant to hurt them and promises to be a good mother to Lola from now on. After the entire Lyon family says goodbye to Lola, who gives Jamal a stuffed animal, Cookie confronts Lucious in her office. He wants to be with her again, but she doesn’t want anything to do with him, not after learning how self-serving he is. She believes he only wants to avoid dying alone, so she leaves and asks Malcolm to take her somewhere they can be alone.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-“I’m gonna give you a reason to arrest me for indecent exposure.”
-“She got her drawers wrapped around my baby’s neck.”
-“And in six months, you’ll be rotting in a wheelchair like a vegetable with a colostomy bag trailing behind you.”
-That Mary J. Blige cameo (I see you, Aunt Mary!) was pretty pointless. I hope that future guest stars will at least service the plot rather than turning this show into the Where’s Waldo? of the urban music scene.
-Interesting structure to the cold open with the intercut flashbacks. I generally like flashbacks more when they’re incorporated into the series, but in this instance, I think they fit the episode pretty well. My favorite was the shot of Andre and Cookie that cut back to them in similar positions in the present.
-Also, can we talk about how out of control Raven-Symone’s cleavage was in these flashbacks?
-Are we ready to call Jennifer Hudson’s performance in Dreamgirls a fluke yet? Because literally everything else I’ve seen her in, she’s been awful – stiff, uncomfortable, unable to inhabit a character. Which says a lot, since most of her characters are music-based.
-Speaking of bad performances, Derek Luke has felt off to me the past few weeks. His line readings just aren’t there for me; I mean, he doesn’t get great dialogue, but he’s so wooden that I don’t think great dialogue would make a difference.
-Andre talking in third-person seems like such a strange symptom of bipolar disorder. I’ve literally never seen that portrayed as something associated with bipolar disorder, but it apparently can be a part of it. So, score one for Empire.
-Jamal’s break-up was funnily abrupt. While I know he wasn’t that attached to his boo, the lack of emotion and almost clinical nature to the end of their time together was unexpected. In character, given how much love he has for Lola, but unexpected from a storytelling standpoint.
-I like how Camilla was so offended at Hakeem bringing his mommy issues to her, yet she uses their age difference as a power play to get him to continue with the photo shoot.
-That’s a heck of a hospital room for Andre. Shoot, put me in a 48-hour hold and let me stay in a palace like that.
-That Wiz Khalifa song they played sounded a lot like Young Thug.
-I’m curious what Olivia was doing between the time she left Lola and the time Reg found her. I expected her to get out of town, but apparently she was close enough for everything that went down to go down and she had enough time to get some new hair.
-I like how this episode deepened Lucious’ loyalty to Hakeem. It’s not just that the boy reminds him of himself (i.e. Lucious’ narcissism) or that Andre wasn’t musically inclined/”down” enough; it’s that Jamal was gay and Andre was bipolar. Hakeem is kind of the choice by default, which is an intriguing tweak to a dynamic that I thought I had figured out.
-Hakeem’s song is a jam. I like the “Tom’s Diner” sample and the production sounded almost 20s-30s-ish – kind of a muted trumpet effect, which was cool.
-Very glad that Naomi Campbell went out with a blaze of glory on this show. That kiss-off to Lucious was delicious. Fingers crossed that Camilla finds her way back into this show’s orbit next season, though, because I like what Campbell brought to the role and Camilla’s presence is a positive for the show.
-The little glimpse into Rhonda’s past was interesting. I think she fights so hard for what success she has because she knows what it’s like to have nothing, so she’s unwilling to accept failure or complacency.
-I think the episode benefitted from being structured around the paper signing. Sometimes, this show can be all over the place, so it actually being centered and the writers writing toward something made things feel a lot smoother.
-I appreciated the ridiculous singing from Jennifer Hudson (giving me PTSD) and the bait and switch in her last scene with Andre.
-Although I think the show made a poor decision in keeping Olivia away for so long, I think her plot wrapped up pretty well. At least somebody on this show can find happiness.
-Lucious’ death wish was something I’d like to see explored in season two. I know that he claims to have stepped to Reg to curry favor with his family, but I think part of him wanted Reg to pull the trigger and end him before the ALS could. Could he exercise riskier decision-making the more his symptoms flare up?
-Next time on Empire: It’s the two-hour season finale and while Lucious has a secret that will change everything, including his evolving relationship with Jamal, Hakeem tries to figure out the best move for his career and Cookie puts together a plan meant to take her back to the top.
