It’s Cookie’s birthday, y’all! And what’s a better gift than a new episode of Empire? Answer: It’s the best gift there is. Empire episode “The Tameness of a Wolf” begins with…Camilla’s funeral! Hakeem speaks on a stage, saying, “No one knows what happened to her.” Ha! Actually, Lucious knows. He hands the Antony & Cleopatra fashion label over to Rhonda. Afterward, Andre apologizes for accusing Rhonda of cheating and they talk about how the doctor adjusted his meds.
Hakeem walks into the CEO’s office and finds Lucious at his desk. Lucious says, “Thank God you killed her.” Hakeem doesn’t like that word and snaps back at his father. Cookie exposits that the police are calling it a “murder-suicide” and that’s that. Cookie interrupts the boys and Lucious’ trading barbs by reminding them that it’s her first birthday outside of jail. All she wants is some peace, but can they deliver?
Cookie and Lucious visit the site of where he slept as a young boy when he ran away — and that’s where he wants to film his music video. Cookie encourages his to tell his “whole truth” in the video. As they attempt to cast his mother for the video, Lucious flashes back to memories of his own mother.
On the set, it gets all too real for Lucious. He confesses to Cookie that his mom held him under water and almost drowned him. When she realized what she had done, she shot herself in front of him. After that, a neighbor took care of him and then he ran away. At 16, he began selling drugs for Frank Gathers. Back on set, Cookie realizes Lucious is having a tough time, so she clears personnel and then they continue filming.
On tour with Mirage a Trois, Tiana is P-I-S-S-E-D at Laura cutting into her set, since she’s the headliner and all. Later, Becky tells Hakeem about the rumors that Tiana wants to drop out of the tour, so Hakeem says he’ll head to Washington, DC, to work it out. Tiana makes her demands with Hakeem, who takes them to Laura and they all try to compromise — until Tiana spies Hakeem and Laura making out. Laura’s parents show up on tour and they beam with pride for her — something Hakeem realizes he’s missing from Lucious. Hakeem crashes a tour performance and performs with both Tiana and Laura. Everyone’s happy?
Jamal and Hakeem go to a rough neighborhood to meet with Freda and wind up bonding with some kids who have music dreams. And then Freda shows up. Hakeem and Jamal want to record with her, but she tells them her loyalty is with Lucious…until he tells her they kicked her off the song when she visits the music video set. Then she runs to Jamal, who totally gets how she feels and they record together.
Jamal tries to butter up Cookie, because he doesn’t want to go to her party and see Lucious. Jamal thinks Cookie is falling in love with Lucious again, but Cookie defends how she feels. At Cookie’s birthday dinner, only Lucious shows up…or so Cookie thinks. Andre, Rhonda, Jamal, and Hakeem surprise their mom with a birthday song and a cake with her face on it. Aww!
After dinner, Cookie shows the family a rough cut of the “Boom Boom Boom” music video. Andre seems to be the most affected by it, since he realizes that Lucious’ mom was probably bipolar, too. Lucious says back then there wasn’t a name for it, but Andre gets angry that this was kept from him his whole life. Lucious tells Andre that he’s equally as embarrassed of his mother and Andre for their mental illness (yikes). Andre and Rhonda leave in a huff.
Hakeem waits for Laura after a tour stop and he tells her he wants a family as beautiful as hers. Then HE PROPOSES MARRIAGE TO HER. Already. She says yes and the fans go wild. Tiana sees it and she smiles for a second, but you can tell she’s not happy with this.
Of all people, Rhonda meets with ANIKA. Who possibly pushed her off a flight of stairs. Anyway, Rhonda confides to her that she doesn’t want to go back to her house and decides to stay with ANIKA. Who possibly pushed her off a flight of stairs. Seriously.
When Jamal and Freda debut their song, Cookie overhears in a verse that Freda is the daughter of Frank Gathers and she is SHAKEN. Uh oh….
