Tonight on FOX Empire airs with an all new Wednesday November 4, season 2 episode 6 called, “A High Hope for a Low Heaven,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, Lucious (Terrence Howard) and Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) put aside their differences for the sake of their family who need them to work together to stay out of danger.
On the last episode, Cookie and Anika worked with Laz to organize a big block party to launch their company, an event that will be highlighted by a signature anthem written by Hakeem, who found himself entering into a tender romance with the lead singer of his girl group. Meanwhile, Jamal collaborated with Ne-Yo; and Andre takes stepped to rid his soul of past sins. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the FOX synopsis, “Lucious and Cookie put aside their differences for the sake of their family who need them to work together to stay out of danger; Jamal does his best to get back in the studio and break away from the “gay artist” label; and Hakeem struggles with how to feel and act like a man.”
Don’t forget to join us for our live recap tonight at 9:00 pm when Empire airs on Fox. While you wait for the recap, check out a sneak peek of tonight’s episode below!
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#Empire starts with the thugs pulling a kidnapped Hakeem out of the van. Becky is with a guy and says she has to go to work in the morning. He tells her no man can knock her off her game. She’s with J Poppa. Cookie tries to call Hakeem again and gets voice mail. She tells him get his ass to rehearsal. Cookie has the girl band rehearsing and tells Laura to start singing. Laura says they need Hakeem to sing his part. Cookie asks to see the choreography. Porsha says she can do Hakeem’s part.
Cookie tells her to shut up or she’ll fire her again. Cookie gets a call from Hakeem but it’s a video chat of him tied up and duct taped. She thinks it’s some sort of sick prank by Lucious and says it’s not real. Lucious works with Jamal in the studio. Jamal sings but then stops it and says his head is not in this. Lucious asks is this head or heart and Jamal says since Michael cheated, he can’t think clearly. He’s upset that the Staples Center hasn’t called back. Lucious tells him to put it into the music.
They start the song again. Cookie bursts in and calls Lucious low and says this otherworldly. She shows him the video of Hakeem. He says he didn’t do this and then they start to freak. She says Hakeem has been snatched. Lucious says he knows what this is and tells Cookie to come along then tells Jamal to stay away and stay safe. The kidnappers talk about how they should have taken the more famous brother. Hakeem sees their tattoos on their backs. He calls them punk asses.
He says his name is Hakeem and they punch him in the face and take him down. His eye is bleeding and they call him a punk ass bitch. Cookie and Lucious are in the hood and he says they only asked for $40k. He says it’s a simple snatch and grab and they’ll get him back. Lucious says nobody gets bodied these days and they’re just flexing on her because she’s a rookie on the block. Lucious says they’ll get their boy back. She gets a call and she says they have the money. He takes the phone.
Lucious asks for proof of life. They see the video of Hakeem bloody but saying he’s alive. Lucious says he sees the welder and they go over there. Cookie asks what proof of life is. Lucious tells her to calm down and says they’re dropping him three blocks west. Andre is at the Gutter Life label meeting. Andre says this should mean something and talks about using artists with characters. He asks Becky to set up meetings and says if they’re not up to standard, he’ll drop them.
Cookie and Lucious wait and he tells her to stay calm and not make any sudden moves. He says to let them make the moves. She runs to the van and says Hakeem is not here. The driver says two dudes paid him to drive the van and the other guy got out. He says they gave me a phone and directions. Hakeem is on the street with a bloody eye looking lost. Anika is out for a walk on the phone with her mom. She says she has nothing and no one and is in full freak out mode. Hakeem is at her door.
He grabs her and kisses her and she looks so blissed out to find him there. Later, he goes to his dad’s house and there’s a doctor there to check him out. He tells them all to fall back. Lucious says let the doctor do his job. Cookie sees that Anika is calling Hakeem and wants to know why. Cookie sees bruises on him as Hakeem pulls of his shirt. The doc says he needs a couple of stitches on his eye but otherwise Hakeem was lucky. Cookie calls him ungrateful. Andre is there too. Hakeem says nothing is worse than being his son and says none of this wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t their son.
Cookie gets mad and Jamal doesn’t get the anger either. Jamal tells Lucious the Staples Center passed on him because he’s gay. He says Empire needs to stop marketing him as a gay artist. He says he’s going to fire Steve Cho. Lucious says to put all of this passion into the music. He starts recording and Lucious grooves to what he’s singing. A guy lurks in the doorway then claps when he’s done. It’s Jamieson. He says Jamal asked him to come by. Lucious isn’t happy to see him. He calls him a con.
Jamieson says Lucious almost signed with him after he left Beretti until he found out he was gay. Jamieson says he’s devoted his life to helping LGBT people and can help Jamal. He’s on the Staples Center board. Jamieson says when he found out Lucious had a gay son he knew there was a god. Jamal tells them to put all the history between them away. Jamieson offers a hand and says he’s willing to use all of his power and influence to help Jamal make it big.
The girls do their number as Hakeem watches. He’s out of it. He missteps and has an awful headache. He says this is not the song he came up with. She says the playback is faster and he chews them out and says their voices sound like static. Andre meets with artists from his new label. One guy rolls a joint and then there’s J Poppa. He asks what the J stands for and he says his first name is Job. Andre asks if he means Book of Job. The guy quotes scripture with him and says he’s a preacher’s grandkid.
He says his grandpa kept him off the streets and Andre asks if he ever thought of adding the word of God into his music. He offers J Poppa a handshake and he asks if Andre is for real. He tells him – let’s do business and they shake on it. Lucious tells Cookie that she almost asked for it with this kidnapping thing. He tells her she needs a house dog and a junkyard dog. He says he created a blanket of security with Empire. She says she won’t crawl back. He says give Hakeem back to keep him safe.
Lucious says these wolves won’t stop until they open a vein and bleed her. She asks if he’s going to leave them to the wolves. She calls him a busta and walks out taking the primo bottle of wine with her. Lucious looks at a pic of Hakeem. He’s making music but he’s not making sense and he can’t make the rhyme work. He keeps thinking about the beat down he suffered. He rages. He’s angry and scared. He breaks a mirror. Cookie calls him and tries to calm him down.
She says she’s meeting with security now. He hangs up on her. She tells Laz she needs security now. He says she should hire the guys who took Hakeem and jacked Tiana. She thinks he’s crazy. He tells her about a similar situation when he was a cop and says the labels put them on payroll and it all stopped. She thinks back to what Lucious said about junkyard dogs but she says she doesn’t want those wolves in her house or ex cops then tells Laz no offense.
She says she has to pay someone. Laz says he can be her wolf, dragon and lion slayer. He touches her arm and goes to kiss her. She scoots closer and then kisses him. She thinks about it and stops then says she’ll set up a meeting. Jamal tells Cookie that Hakeem won’t take her calls. He says he and Andre will get Hakeem to show up to the big show and tells her not to cancel. She takes Hakeem with her to meet the guys who snatched him. She asks Hakeem if he can be good and he says he will.
Hakeem pulls a gun on them and says – who you calling a little bitch now? Cookie is stunned. Cookie begs Hakeem to lower the gun. He says he won’t make a plan with these fools and Cookie reminds him they came there to do that. Cookie tries to talk him down and says if he pulls the trigger, she’ll step in front of the bullet. She says she’d rather die then lose him again. One of the guys goes for his gun and Cookie takes the gun and puts it right on the guy’s head. He says he wants double the fee.
She tells him if he comes at her again, he won’t even hear the door. He agrees and she says welcome to my streets bitch. At Lavaticus, J Poppa is singing and Jamal asks Becky how she likes it. She says he makes her so weak she can hardly stand. He goes to talk to Andre. Jamal tells Andre it’s a good turnout. They agree they’re both worried about Hakeem. Andre tells Jamal that J Poppa is his archangel. Andre says the thing with Becky is a problem but he won’t push it for now. Jamal says to let her have it.
Becky wonders why he started changing up the verse to include scripture. Becky says she doesn’t think Andre understands the philosophy of the label. Luscious asks if he’s making business decisions or Bible ones. Jamel tells Lucious he’s going to a party at Jamiesons and asks him along. Lucious says been there done that and tells Jamal to be careful. Lucious introduce Freda Gatz. He tells Andre that she’s not even question. A guy heckles Freda and she hands him some rhymes in his face.
He talks her down some more and then Freda kicks the heckler in the face. Andre says this is not okay and says she’s too much of a liability for a public label. Lucious says he put Andre in place, not in charge and says Freda will not go. Cookie coaches the girls before their number at the Big Apple Jam. She tells them their life depends on this. They wonder where Jakeem is. He’s in an alley somewhere else. Lucious picks him up and says he has a song for him to listen to.
Hakeem says he doesn’t need any tracks from him but Lucious says it’s about him, not for him. He says it’s about him banging his head against a wall. He tells Hakeem this business is life or death and hands him a flash drive and says – no strings. Hakeem says there’s always string with him that are more like ropes that choke everyone. He drops the flash drive on the ground and walks off. Hakeem shows up and Lucious follows angry.
He tells Hakeem he’ll break his back the next time he turns it on him. Cookie says he won’t get to him that way and Cookie gets between them. She tells Lucious to stop this and he says whatever it takes for Hakeem to grow a sack. Jamal and Andre show up and Lucious tells Hakeem to be a man. Andre tells Lucious to get out and tells Cookie to go too. She pulls a face but goes and leaves her sons alone. Jamal tells Hakeem that he doesn’t have to go out there and Andre agrees.
Hakeem says those dudes pinned him up and he didn’t do nothing, didn’t fight back and wasn’t strong. Jamal says he stayed alive. Andre says the three of them can’t be broken because they already survived being the children of those parents. Andre says Hakeem is already a better man than his dad and braver too. Andre says neither of them would have handled it any better than Hakeem did. He tells them they’re both punks and the three brothers hug.
The number starts. Cookie watches. Hakeem goes to take the stage and then sees his dad and freezes. Laura covers for him. She sings into Hakeems’ face as Lucious smirks. She pulls his attention back to her. He perks up and starts rapping. Jamal and Andre watch smiling as he shows up his dad. Cookie smiles at him killing it. Lucious gives up on intimidating and walks away. Hakeem kisses Laura’s hand when they’re done. The crowd goes wild for them.
After, Hakeem tells the girls this can be big and thanks them for believing in him and trusting him then thanks Laura for riding with him. She smiles. Somebody knocks and Hakeem goes to see. It’s Anika. She says she’s been so worried and he says he’s been crazy. He thanks her for being there for him but won’t let her in. Laura listens in. He says it’s not a good time and she says she was just checking and says call if he needs anything. He shuts the door in her face.
Freda tells Lucious she knows she messed up when he gave her a shot. He says he’s not dropping her, he’s pulling her in closer. He says he sees a beautiful flame in her eyes and says they’re cut from the same tree. He says he identifies more with her than any of his sons. He says he wrote a song for her. She gets into the car with him. He plays the song he wrote for Hakeem and starts rapping for her. She digs it and starts rapping. Lucious loves it. They sing together in his car.
Cookie comes to see Laz at his place. She asks if they’re going to do this or what. He pulls her into his place and she says make me forget everything that happened this week. He says he’s got her and they kiss. He picks her up and carries her inside then kicks the door closed. On his back is the same symbol that Hakeem’s kidnappers had. Did he set up Hakeem to get a payday? Is Cookie sleeping with the enemy?
THE END!