Hakeem and Tiana attend a red carpet together, only for one of the hosts they stop for to refer to Hakeem as Lucious’s son. While Tiana sticks up for him, saying that he has his own name, Hakeem takes the opportunity to mention the video for his new single “Drip Drop” that’s coming out soon. Once the event is over and they get back to the car, Hakeem thanks Tiana for having his back and drops her off at home where a young blonde is waiting for her. The two then kiss. Meanwhile, Lucious brings Anika into his office and gets down on one knee while Anthony Hamilton plays piano and sings; she happily accepts his proposal, but he doesn’t want to tell everyone at once. First up? Her parents.
Jamal and Cookie hit Ghetto Ass Studios in the Bronx, the only nearby recording studio the former could afford. He’s not about to accept any money connected to his father, but he only had enough to pay for one day’s worth of recording, which means he’s going to have to nail this new song pretty much right off. Although Cookie is apprehensive about the bullet holes on the glass and the loitering masses she had to pass by on the way to the studio, she commends Jamal for keeping it ghetto and warns producer Tyree to do right by her son before leaving them be. She’s then forced into talking to Agent Carter after the fed followed her to the studio and tailed her on the street after she left; however, Cookie is worried about having to testify against Frank Gathers, given his reputation and the weird feeling this situation is giving her. Carter assures her that the testimony will be sealed and mentions that Gathers has a viable appeal right now, meaning that Cookie’s testimony will be necessary to put him away.
Over at Empire, Hakeem holds a listening session for “Drip Drop” and receives an enthusiastic response from Lucious and Anika. He goes on about wanting to change the game and rebrand himself as something other than Lucious’s son with the upcoming video, for which he brought a storyboarded concept. While the video is about a million over budget, Lucious leans on Andre to find the money, even though the auditors are looking intently at Empire given their IPO status. Cookie ends up taking the stand against Gathers and confirms that she witnessed him gunning down a dealer she was with, only to find out that said dealer was an undercover federal agent. She then panics about Gathers’s ability to figure out who testified against him and the brutality he showed in killing an agent and this time, Carter isn’t able to bring her back from the ledge. Elsewhere, Andre pays a visit to Rhonda and receives an important piece of blackmail in a photo of Tiana and girlfriend India secretly canoodling. Armed with this, he goes to Empire and suggests that Lucious get Tiana on Hakeem’s track and use some of her promotional budget to cover the excess from the video, which Lucious seems to agree with.
Once Andre leaves, Lucious talks to Vernon about the need to have a doctor certify his clean bill of health in order to further the IPO. There’s no way that he would be able to take Empire public without it, but he does have a connection in Anika’s father Steve, who’s a respected doctor. After leaving the grand jury, Cookie heads home for a quick second and calls Jamal to let him know that she’ll be on her way to the studio in a bit. However, she sees a red rose on her door step – the rose being the symbol of Frank’s empire, the mark of death for those who dare move against him. Once she gets inside and locks herself in, she calls Agent Carter, grabs her gun and some money, puts on a new hat, and prepares to leave, only for Andre to show up. He brings up the plan for Tiana and Hakeem to collaborate and gets Cookie’s conditions – she wants a seat on the Empire board.
While Hakeem begins his video shot riding a jet ski against some green screen, Jamal further develops the song he started writing after taking a walk in his new neighborhood. But when he plays what he has on the phone for Cookie, she knocks the spoken-word intro and the monotonous beat, telling him that the intro is dated and the beat needs a switch up to keep people interested. Cookie then heads to Philadelphia in a cab, while back at the video shoot, Porsha is put in charge of Tiona, who would rather Porsha take control over Hakeem’s rowdy entourage instead. After making a video claiming that “Drip Drop” will put him ahead of the Drakes and Kendrick Lamars of the world, Hakeem goes back on set, this time 
lounging on a bed with four scantily clad women pawing over him. When he’s had enough, Andre leaves the studio and calls Rhonda to tell her to turn the photo of Tiana and India over to the media, with the photo becoming viral very quickly.
Hakeem’s entourage is, of course, beside themselves at this news, but Hakeem himself is furious. He goes to confront Tiana while she’s rehearsing choreography, only for her to spit back that he has a side piece, too. While Porsha tries to get in touch with Cookie through Jamal, Andre proceeds with the next phase of his plan – taking out Jamal. He decides to indirectly send Hakeem’s entourage to Ghetto Ass to put the scare in his brother, though he assures Rhonda that no guns will be drawn. His talking up of Jamal’s watch and shoes sends a crew out to the Bronx, with Raheem leading the robbery effort. One of Jamal’s engineers gets shot in the arm, while Jamal stands up for himself, showing that he doesn’t have a watch and questioning Raheem as to whether Hakeem played any part in this. The crew is ran out when Tyree brandishes a shotgun against them, but it’s too late for Jamal’s session, as the producer won’t have anything like this happen on his watch.
In Philadelphia, Cookie finds her sister Carol and lets her know what went down with the testifying and the red rose. Though Carol thinks it might be Teddy McNally, one of Frank’s closest assets on the outside, who left the rose, she wants no part of this, as she’s as removed from the life as Cookie is. However, Cookie reminds her that Carol was once in deep with Gathers and if Frank could get one of them, he could easily get the other. The two then hop in a cab where Cookie takes care of the multitude of fires raging throughout her life – she talks Tyree into putting some rookie engineers on Jamal’s session; she assures Tiana that they can work the “freak” angle and that this scandal won’t break her career; and she encourages Lucious to handle things on the set of Hakeem’s video. But Lucious has something else to take care of first, as Anika’s parents have come over to share in the engagement joy. Except Anika’s mother knows about his cheating, therefore making Lucious no good for her daughter, and her father isn’t exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of having Lucious as a son-in-law. After confessing to having ALS and inquiring about the progress currently being made in research, Lucious plays it straight with Steve and tells him that he needs a certified clean bill of health in order for Empire to go public. Initially, Steve refuses, citing his fears of losing his license and hospital; Lucious persuades him, though, by telling him that Anika would never know about it and that she would become a billionaire after he dies.
Cookie and Carol stop off at their friend Jamel’s and get confirmation that Teddy was the one who left the rose. In order to get the roses to stop and lift the threat hanging over her, Cookie pays him $5,000 to take McNally out. At Hakeem’s video shoot, Lucious gives him a pep talk, telling him that he can’t afford to let this opportunity go to waste with Jamal in the studio. Hakeem then puts the Tiana drama behind him long enough to knock out the rest of the video shoot, with a formal introduction to India following. Over at the studio, Jamal takes charge of the new batch of musicians sent his way and switches the beat up accordingly, making it fuller and more contemporary than the original version. Cookie walks in while the finished product plays, only to give a helpful critique about Jamal’s vocals needing to be turned up in the mix. Once the adjustments are made, she’s as happy as everyone else who worked on the song.
Afterwards, Jamal goes to Hakeem’s to confront him about the robbery. Hakeem denies being involved, but when he calls Jamal a non-factor, Jamal counters by saying that Hakeem will only be Lucious’s son before punching his little brother in the stomach. While Hakeem calls Andre to ask him about rushing the video out ahead of Jamal’s song, Lucious stops by Cookie’s to thank her for talking to Tiana. She then finds out that the rose was from him, a reminder of their wedding anniversary that week, and tries to reach Jamel before he goes through with the hit on Teddy. Unfortunately, she’s too late, as Jamel and his crew shot up Teddy’s car, killing him.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-“The name’s Cookie. Ask about me.”
-“Dead bitch walking. That’s me right now.”
-“Make me proud. Work your magic, baby.”
-“Hakeem got a side piece?” “Yes, he does.”
-“Alright, look, girl. I don’t judge, but youse a freak.”
-So, hey, you guys. Welcome to the first KSiteTV recap of Empire. This is a trial run of sorts – if this gets a large enough audience and a positive enough response, we’ll be finishing out the rest of the season. Now, I like the show quite a bit, so it’d be nice to be able to talk about the remainder of the season. Hint, hint.
-Great to see Anthony Hamilton out and about. Comin’ From Where I’m From remains one of my favorite albums of all time.
-Tiana having a girlfriend might be my favorite twist of the series thus far. It was completely unexpected on my end and I like that she has some power in this relationship with Hakeem, as well the fact that she’s willing to play the fame game just as hard as he is. A lesser show would’ve had Hakeem bed both her and India, but Empire hasn’t taken Tiana lightly yet and I don’t see them putting her in that type of position.
-Ghetto Ass Studios. That feels like somebody wrote the script, used it as a funny stand-in for a real name, and then decided to roll with it because they didn’t come up with something more legitimate. It’s still a great name, though.
-I wouldn’t have taken Hakeem for a storyboarder. Do you think he scrapbooks? Crossing my fingers for a very special episode of Empire that takes place at Hobby Lobby.
-I think Hakeem is Lucious’s favorite son because he reminds him of himself. His boldness and swagger play right into Lucious’s narcissism, whereas Andre’s stuffiness and Jamal’s homosexuality confuse Lucious and cause him to keep them at arm’s length.
-Okay, I’m all about a good media scandal, but did Rhonda literally upload the photo of Tiana and India to Perez Hilton’s website herself? That’s not how that works. Also, there’s no such thing as a Teen Choice Award nomination concert, which was a confusing choice to make given that the TCAs air on FOX. Am I the only Teen Choice purist left in the world? Don’t answer that.
-Would Tiana and India really canoodle that openly? I mean, they were hiding behind some clothes racks, so it’s not like Rhonda had to go to any great lengths to get the photo in the first place. Could Tiana have subconsciously wanted to be caught so she didn’t have to keep up the charade? Because I don’t buy somebody with as much to lose as she has would be that reckless, especially considering that we’ve not seen Tiana do anything similar before.
-If Empire‘s only purpose was to put Taraji P. Henson in different flashback wigs every week, I’d still watch every episode. That blonde in the Gathers flashback was cute.
-Speaking of fashion, Cookie’s white heels were just sickening. So beautiful.
-I liked the editing on the flashback/testimony transition, with Cookie touching her face in both. Sometimes, Empire has moments that feel very abrupt, so the smoothness of shots like that is very welcome, especially moments like the transition between Hakeem’s video shoot and Jamal’s finished song at the end of the episode.
-Cookie picking up a new hat while fearing for her life was perfect. Another perfect Cookie moment: her playing phone tag in the cab with everybody in her social circle.
-The “Drip Drop” video was intentionally ridiculous on a lot of fronts (I think to play on Hakeem’s inflated sense of self and distorted view of what kind of artist he is/how big he is), but what was with the cheap CGI/green screen?
-Even though I think Jamal’s vocals have been overproduced thus far, when he’s left alone, he bears a resemblance to J. Holiday, which is a compliment coming from me.
-Going off that, Tiana is baby Rihanna through and through. And is it weird that I like every song of hers they’ve played more than “FourFiveSeconds”?
-I love that Andre got into the mix this week. For the first few episodes, he felt like an outsider and it was troubling that he wasn’t folded into the main narrative. But his power play this episode was delicious, demonstrated his smarts, and said a lot about his dynamic with Rhonda – how much she’s willing to do to get the power she’s desperate for, how much she gets off on Andre’s mania, etc.
-Obviously, Frank’s crew isn’t going to take Cookie out, but I think we might need to say a prayer for Miss Carol, y’all. They’re going to trace Jamel’s involvement to her and that’d be a devastating loss to watch Cookie have to come back from.
-Next week on Empire: Lucious asks Cookie to manage an artist who hasn’t released an album in years, while Jamal’s ambition starts to cause problems in his relationships and a mysterious woman from the Lyon family past shows up bearing a secret.
