Tonight on FOX their blockbuster drama Empire airs with an all-new Wednesday, May 17, 2017, episode and we have your Empire recap below. On tonight’s Empire season 3 episode 17 “Part 1 of 2. In the Season 3 finale, when Cookie is banned from Leviticus Vegas, she pulls together a team of her own allies to seek revenge on Giuliana and steal her secret weapon.”
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Empire begins tonight in Las Vegas at the grand opening of Leviticus Vegas, the new casino-club Empire has opened. Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) arrives to enjoy the club when she is positively identified by security. Meanwhile, Lucious (Terrence Howard) and Giuliana (Nia Long) entertain and congratulate Charlotte Frost (Eva Longoria) for making it happen.
Security comes over and shows Lucious and Giuliana that Cookie is in the club; she tells Lucious to handle it and he leaves the table, observing Cookie betting at the roulette table. He leans in and reminds her that he told her not to do this while the gaming commissioner is upstairs. Cookie leaves, but not quietly, she throws all the chips on the table in the air screaming at security to get their hands off of her.
Two weeks earlier… Lucious tells Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) that it is times like these that the family sticks together and they will get through this. Cookie tells him their top priority is to find Bella and being her home; Jamal (Jussie Smollett) says its the only thing that matters and Andre (Trai Byers) encourages him to stay strong.
Hakeem is seriously struggling as he chases a woman holding a baby believing the baby is his daughter Bella. Cookie tells Lucious this is the third time he has done that and Lucious says he knows the right person to find Bella and begins to leave; Cookie says Hakeem needs them right now but Lucious says Giuliana is waiting for him.
Charlotte meets with Giuliana who insists Inferno is going to be the biggest live show Vegas has ever seen promising they are going to do for the strip what Hamilton did for Broadway. When Charlotte refuses alcohol and coffee, she tells Lucious she is Mormon, he jokes that all this time he thought she was Mexican; she looks at him saying she thought he was black, but she has no idea if he is Muslim or Christian or anything else because she doesn’t make assumptions on his religion based on his race or ethnicity. Charlotte is late for her lunch date and tells Lucious to make sure Inferno doesn’t open up the gates to Hip-Hop hooligans from hell.
Giuliana blames lawyer, Thirsty (Andre Royo) for not knowing she was Mormon. She says Mormons run the gaming commission and this could have cost them their gaming license. When Thirsty questions Giuliana on the ledgers she has in the safe, Lucious tells him to stop as she shows him what they are spending to keep the Feds off the premises and she was sure Charlotte was expecting some pay. Giuliana tells Lucious she doesn’t trust Thirsty and he is sloppy; Lucious fires him.
Jamal works in the “church” room on his new video for his album When Cookie Met Lucious (WCML). Cookie calls to add a few names to the VIP guest list for Jamal’s release party. Cookie promises the album is going to be a game-changer. Lucious arrives and introduces them to Byron who is their new PR person. Byron immediately suggests holding off WCML for a few months because Inferno is pushing through the roof with fans and if they release 2 albums at the same time, it will take away from both.
Jamal is upset that his father would stall his album. Lucious says it would be better to release it separate so he can earn his own respect instead of being in competition with Inferno. Jamal walks away and Lucious tells Byron to go explain it to Jamal so he understands that he is trying to help him, not hurt him.
Cookie flips out when she learns Giuliana was the one who recommended Byron; she tells him to keep his bitch out of her and her family’s company. Lucious says it’s reasons like that she is kicked out of the damn casino. Lucious tells a shocked Cookie that the casino is his and Giuliana’s and Cookie has been black-booked.
Thirsty tells Cookie Giuliana let him go, but for the record he respects her gangster and she is a good mother. He promises to keep his eyes and ears open for her granddaughter; she invites him to her house that night. That night, Cookie introduces Thirsty to the resistance, as Shyne (Xzibit) starts to say he saw Giuliana pull the trigger; Andre tells him to shut his mouth.
Porsha (Ta’Rhonda Jones) orders everyone to stop acting like a bunch of bitches and tells them to shut up. Cookie tells them all to keep it together, revealing Giuliana is a cancer to the entire family and they need to take care of her. Shyne tells Cookie he is out as he can’t work with a fool like Andre. Cookie is upset that a couple of the guys leave; Hakeem says he needs to stay for Bella and Jamal says he needs to work on his album and they both leave; Andre leaves too. Thirsty asks her who else she can trust.
Becky (Gabourey Sidibe) attempts to stop Nessa (Sierra Aylina McClain) and Tiana (Serayah) from fighting when they learn both their budgets have been cut. Becky informs them everything outside of Inferno and the Vegas show has been cut including her own check. Thirsty calls Becky for some personal help.
At home, Lucious’ mother, Leah (Kelly Rowlands) serves dinner and he realizes she put glass in the food, saying Tariq (Morocco Omari) is not welcome in this house; Lucious apologizes saying they had a little trouble in the kitchen. Lucious shares that he has searched high and low to find someone and has come up empty.
He tells Tariq CPS illegally took his granddaughter and is somehow lost in the system with no paper trail. He needs Tariq’s FBI expertise to find her and is willing to give him whatever he wants.
Becky meets with several of the people Thirsty gathered sharing that their plan is to sneak into the casino and crack the safe. He reveals he asked them all to help because Cookie has faith in them, he shows them the plans of the building and each of their roles. Marvin rolls in a safe and points to Becky about cracking the safe but Porsha says she can do it; Cookie refuses saying only Becky can do it.
Tariq brings in a man named Sam, telling him Lucious needs his help; saying the only reason he is helping is because of an innocent baby that is his niece. Lucious stands up and approaches Sam questioning him about forging documents regarding his granddaughter; Sam denies any involvement and Tariq beats him.
Thirsty sits and encourages Becky to crack the safe while Chicken (AzMarie Livingston) shows everyone else the cameras they will be wearing. As Becky gets frustrated, Thirsty tells her to breathe and helps her re-focus.
Sam admits that he helps get children out of the system sometimes so they don’t end up being bottom feeders; both Lucious and Tariq are furious he would call innocent children who end up in the system as bottom feeders, people like him and his brother. Lucious says what he said hurts his feelings and together they repeatedly stomp on Sam. Lucious apologizes for how long it took for them to get together. Lucious says he has a meeting and hopes Tariq can get more out of him; he apologizes again that it took them so long to get there.
As everyone else is passed out or resting, Thirsty tells Becky she is one with the lock, that she is the lock and she manages to open it; Cookie wakes everyone up saying they are going to Vegas as Becky shouts that she IS the lock!
Cookie’s sisters are enjoying their ride and try to get it together before they meet with Cookie. They are quickly greeted to Leviticus Vegas, share a drink until Cookie eyes them, signing them to their separate areas after Cookie learns Lucious and Giuliana are upstairs with Charlotte having dinner. Cookie purposely has security remove her while her sister and her husband, Frank request to see the vault.
Lucious reassures Charlotte everything is running smoothly and Andre tells her his father is a man of his work. Andre says he was there to warn Lucious but it appears he is too late after Lucious disrespects him. Cookie joins Thirsty inside the RV where they watch Giuliana bring Frank to the vault. Frank manages to get the code on camera and Thirsty gives it to Becky.
Carol is unable to get past the security guard but Thirsty realizes he is into Becky instead. He says Carol will have to be the one to crack the safe, but no one has faith in her. Becky flirts with him while Carol sneaks into the room. Thirsty guides her to the safe and when she says she can’t do it; Cookie says she will beat her but they then say she has got this. Cookie says she is made of steel and she has got this, she agrees but Thirsty needs to talk her through it.
Everyone anxiously awaits to hear from Carol as they lost video feed and thought she got caught. Carol pulls out the ledger from her back and Thirsty says one look at these from the gaming commission and there will be several indictments. They all celebrate their victory.
Cookie meets with Charlotte who says these ledgers are really bad. Cookie notices Charlotte has 7 children who hate how much she works. As they talk about motherhood and their children needing them, Lucious walks in saying he is disturbed Cookie would abandon him in his time of need and shares with Charlotte how Hakeem is going through a rough time.
He places a bag with $500,000 in it for his gaming license and Charlotte smiles. He asks if they are calling this a charitable donation and Charlotte says she doesn’t care what he calls it but after reading the ledgers the price might go up. Cookie says she didn’t know Mormons took pay offs and Charlotte says she didn’t know “you people” were prone to stereotypes.
After Lucious leaves with Cookie, Charlotte tells Andre he has an interesting family and he says he wouldn’t use interesting to describe them. She suggests he help her find better ones, they shake hands and he brings her hand to his heart as they kiss.
Cookie tells Hakeem to trust his father when he says Bella will be back in a day or two; but she shouldn’t have trusted Charlotte. Jamal tells her to dust herself off and get back to work, she agrees. She says Byron is wrong and she wants to get ahead of them by releasing WCML tonight. She wants Hakeem and Jamal to perform together so they can put an APB out so people can look for Bella.
Jamal stands up saying he made the decision to release WCML after the release of Inferno because he is going to join Lucious’ show in Vegas. Cookie argues with Jamal saying his father doesn’t care about him, jhe just wants to win. Lucious says he wants them all to win; he wants the fans to truly hear his lyrics but they won’t get a chance to listen to it if all they are hearing is news from Inferno.
Jamal says Lucious is right but Cookie says he can’t trust him, causing Hakeem to get interfere since she just told him he could trust his father about Bella. Lucious tells the boys to stop gaining up on her and give her some space. As she leaves, Lucious says they came at her hard and maybe she just needs to lick her wounds.
Tariq is parked outside the DuBois house where the nanny is buzzed in with baby, Bella. Tariq calls Lucious saying he found Bella and is on his way.
Andre encourages Cookie to not give up on getting Giuliana arrested, saying he is just getting started. He says Charlotte may have taken dad’s money but she has no loyalty to him. Andre shares he had his own private time with her and Cookie wants to know the 411. Charlotte is okay taking money as long as she gives a tithe to her church but she is dead set against thugs moving into Vegas. He says if anything jumps off, she will snuff out Inferno before Lucious could even strike a match. They agree to bring thugs to cause trouble in Las Vegas.
Lucious thanks Tariq for finding Bella; as they sit down Tariq says he never thought they would get there. Lucious suggests when they bring Bella home they should sit down and talk how they can really look out for each other like brothers are supposed to. Just as Lucious pours them a drink, Tariq says he will need all the family he’s got once he learns who has Bella; but before he can answer Leah stabs Tariq in the neck.
Lucious holds Tariq as he bleeds out on the floor. END
THE END!
