Tonight on FOX Empire airs with an all new Wednesday December 2, season 2 fall finale called, “Et Tu, Brute?,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, Lucious (Terrence Howard) makes a reckless play for the streaming service that he believes will put him on the map as the most powerful man in music.
Empire is an American musical drama television series which debuted on Fox on January 7, 2015. It centers on a hip hop music and entertainment company, Empire Entertainment, and the drama among the members of the founders’ family as they fight for control of the company.
On the last episode, Cookie and her sister, Candace (guest star Vivica A. Fox), teamed up with a former prison mate (guest star Rosie O’Donnell) to rescue their sister, Carol. Back at Empire, Jamal and critically acclaimed pop star Skye Summers (guest star Alicia Keys) began collaborating and soon shared a deep connection. Meanwhile, Laz (guest star Adam Rodriguez) had truly fallen for Cookie, but things got complicated when she found out the truth about him. 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 makes a reckless play for the streaming service that he believes will put him on the map as the most powerful man in music, but in the end this move could cost him big time; and Cookie decides to stage a concert at the prison where she was locked away from her family for 17 years.”
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 Jason Derulo making ASA Award nominations. Becky tells Andre and Lucious about the live stream of the nominations. Lucious says he’s always getting nominations but has never won. The nominations for best R&B song includes Jamal Lyon for Heavy.
Hakeem makes calls about the Cookout and says everyone says they’re a security risk. She says she can’t believe Laz played her. Hakeem reminds her it’s ASA nomination day. She thanks him for performing at the prison today but he says it’s not good timing.
She says she owes Pepper for helping her find Carol and says she wants him to meet Jezzy. Skye hugs Jamal and they talk about nominations and Lucious sees them getting close. Jamal says they should talk about what happened. Lucious walks in and smiles.
She says they’re on the way out to premier their new song. She walks out and Lucious asks him what’s up. Jamal says chill and he asks if his son is hitting that. Jamal says he’s still gay and tells him not to get weird. Lucious says she fixed him. He smiles.
Lucious meets with Mimi to talk about music streaming. She says the board won’t like him leveraging other divisions. He doesn’t want to answer to them. He says whoever stands against him will be gone after this. She signs off on it.
She says she’s going to have her wife come by to meet him. He asks if this means no more private parties. She says she has to leave soon for more treatments and says she’s glad they closed the Swiftstream deal.
At the ASA Nomination Jam, Tiana does a song. Jamal is with Cookie watching. Jamal says she’s fine and asks if she’s going to come to Empire and see his commercial. She says she’s going to the prison and he says that’s cool.
Lucious is there and mocks Cookie about Laz. She says she lost the Cookout venue. He refuses to help her. She is annoyed and he says she can’t use his club. Hakeem’s category is next and Tiana makes the rapper of the year nomination.
Hakeem watches with Laura and is stunned when Freda got nominated instead of Hakeem. Cookie is annoyed and Lucious says Freda is winning the war. Hakeem stomps away from Laura. Skye and Jamal do their song.
Jameson stands with Lucious and mocks him about never being nominated for ASA song of the year. The crowd loves their song. Charlemagne comes out and asks how Jamal feels about his nomination. He asks Skye if she’s black now.
Skye gets annoyed at him and he says she doesn’t identify as black. She says she identifies as me. Jamal says putting labels on people doesn’t matter. Charlemagne says she never claimed the race. He asks Jamal isn’t he gay and he says everyone knows that.
Judith is upset about the event and Jamal says this is crazy and Skye says she wasn’t performing in black face. She says they photoshopped a Rachel Dolezal wig on her. Judith says this will take years to fix. Lucious says the song is hot and the haters will burn.
Skye asks why Jamal didn’t defend her and Lucious says she picked the wrong day to be black. Then he says he’s kidding. He says he will put them onstage at the Swifstream announcement. He says this will all be fine. He says it’s a long day.
Andre is messing up the alarm code when Rhonda comes over. She says she called the security company. She thanks him for coming home on his lunch break to help with the nursery. Someone is at the gate and she says it’s Anika.
She says Anika is lonely and he says he feels bad for how his family treated her. He says Rhonda should invite her to church. Jameson introduces Jamal at another event and asks how many noms he has. Becky shouts out five.
Jameson says he takes personal pride in his accomplishments and then Jamal introduces the Pepsi commercial. He thanks his parents and then it plays and he also thanks Jameson. Lucious asks Jameson to stick around for the other announcement.
Jameson says he’s mounting a campaign around Jamal’s nomination then says he set a high bar for Jamal who surpassed it. Lucious smiles but he must be mad on the inside. Jameson says the commercial is great and he got him the cover of the Times.
Lucious mentions that Jamal has a girlfriend now then says oops he has a big mouth. Jameson looks at Jamal with Skye and wonders. Cookie is freaked out to be back at the jail. She starts to have a panic account and Porsha says come on let’s do this.
Cookie goes to leave but then Spider says hell no, you can’t go. Cookie runs to hug her. They tell her the cell block flooded in Sandy and they’re 10 deep. Cookie says they only let her bring two artists. Warden Meyers walks up and calls her fancy.
She says one camera, two artists then says it’s nice what she’s doing. She asks for Jezzy and Meyers says she doesn’t want to talk to her. Spider says Jezzy got life taking out her bunkmate over toothpaste. Anika and Rhonda chat.
Anika brought her a gift and Rhonda says Lucious is obsessed with their child and calls her stomach – the heir. Anika says Lucious is a drama king then says he’d be furious if he knew she was there. Rhonda goes to answer the phone.
Skye takes the stage at the Empire event. Lucious tells Jamal he sees what he sees in her. A guy checks out Jamal. Skye sees them flirting and pulls a face. Lucious announces the Slipstream acquisition. He then brings Mimi to the stage.
Mimi takes the stage and she acknowledges other board members then says she’s struggling with breast cancer and brings up her wife Camilla. Lucious is stunned to see Camilla – holy crap it’s Hakeem’s ex. Camilla smirks at Lucious as she takes the stage.
At the board meeting, Mimi says Lucious’ power needs to be checked and says he’s out of control. She plays a video of Lucious ranting about how the board can suck it and he’s going to clean house. She proposes a vote to oust Lucious as CEO.
She calls for a vote at 9 pm. Thirsty says it’s Camilla. Andre says they need at least one more person and Lucious says they need to bring in all the board members. Video of the year nominations include Jamal and Hakeem and then Jamal for another.
Jamal is with Skye. She asks about the guy at the party and he says he didn’t know him. She says she gets he’s into men and doesn’t think because they hooked up once they’re boos now. She says she doesn’t want to change him.
Camilla comes to see Hakeem and he asks why she’s there. He says she disappeared. He says she took his father’s money and bounced. She says she didn’t take the money and says ask his mother. She calls them Antony and Cleopatra.
He sees the wedding ring and she says she did everything for them. She says she can take him to the net level if he’s ready to go there. She runs her hands down his chest and grabs him. At the prison, Laura is there but says she doesn’t know where Hakeem is.
He finally shows up. He is nervous about being there and she says she spent 17 years there. Cookie says she had a bad morning and they tell her to let it out. She says she knows about the struggles of life in here and says she was locked away from her babies.
She says they are her real sisters for life and says she’s proud to introduce her baby Hakeem. He says he was nervous thinking about how long his mom was there and says his father didn’t bring him there once and says it was messed up. He and Laura do Miracles.
Andre meets with Tricky and asks him to come vote tonight. Thirsty does the nasty with Edna and asks for her vote. She says it’s good but not $10 million good. Andre comes to the prison to tell Cookie about the vote.
Hakeem comes in and says Camilla married Mimi and they are making a move. Cookie says she can’t leave her tonight. Andre says to give him or Hakeem or proxy. She asks Andre to step out and tells Hakeem that Lyon Dynasty is their company but Empire is their legacy.
She signs the papers after he says he knows. Cookie goes looking for Jezzy who mocks her. She tells Cookie she’s innocent just like her. Cookie says she’s sorry for not writing but she still cares. Jezzy says no one heard from her for a year.
Jezzy says she saw her in a gorilla suit to free Lucious and asks what about all the black women in jail. Jezzy tells her to get on back to Empire. Cookie told Hakeem before he left the prison that Camilla did not take the money from Lucious.
He shows up for the vote. Mimi declines to say anything further and so does Lucious. The vote starts. Jago votes to keep him and so do Jamal and Andre. Hakeem thinks about the crap his dad has done to him. He looks at Camilla and Cookie shows up and screams no.
But Hakeem votes against his dad with the extra vote Cookie gave him. Mimi is the new CEO and she hands her power over to Camilla while she goes back for more cancer treatments. Andre offers Cookie a drink.
They hear gunshots and Cookie goes running. Lucious is shooting up his office. She begs him to put down the gun. He says all those years selling CDs out of the back of the car, selling drugs, moving bodies. He says he has damaged his soul for what.
He says 17 years she sacrificed for what. He’s crying and furious. Cookie says it’s not over – they still own majority shares and he and Jamal are on the label. She says song of the year nomination is coming and it’s his favorite.
She makes him give her the gun. She says be strong for the two sons he has downstairs. She tells him to get his ass together and wipes his tears. She tells him he’s a Lyon. She embraces him and he cries in her arms.
He says he wants Hakeem dead but she says he doesn’t mean that. Someone breaks into Andre’s house. The alarm wails. Rhonda goes to check it. She turns it off. She wonders why it keeps going off. The intruder pushes her down the stairs.
She lands in a heap at the floor of the stairs. Song of the year nominations include Heavy by Jamal and Boom Boom Boom Boom by Lucious. They talk about Lucious and Jamal making history. Andre congratulates them and goes to call Rhonda.
Rhonda doesn’t answer. He phone lies by her hand buzzing but she’s either unconscious or dead.
THE END!
