At long last…Empire is back! And it was so exciting that the episode wasn’t online until today. So let’s not waste any time and get to the Empire episode recap of “Death Will Have Its Day.” We start off where we left off: Rhonda on the ground. She’s bloody and disoriented and she sees footsteps leaving. She struggles to crawl to her phone, only to see it’s smashed. She’s bleeding badly and prays for the baby’s survival. She throws the phone at the door to trigger the alarm.
Hakeem comes home to his mom Cookie sitting in his living room with a big ol’ broom. She’s pissed that he helped Camilla take over Empire. She wants him to take his vote back and he refuses. She even hits him with the broom and various other items. He still says no.
Lucious refuses to leave Empire, physically. He’s got a gun and Thirsty stands with him — he’s got two guns, because it’s Thirsty, after all. Thirsty says the company charter will probably rule the vote unlawful and Lucious orders Andre to get it right now. Because Lucious ain’t leaving his company. The cops bust into his office, but Lucious finally leaves when Becky tells him that Rhonda’s in the hospital.
The family convenes there and breaks the bad news to Andre: Rhonda lost the baby. Andre insists that he’s fine, until he’s on the hospital floor, crying. Rhonda has no clue what happened and thinks she slipped. They argue about God: “If he did [exist], the baby would still be here,” says Rhonda. But Andre believes that God saved her.
Lucious and Cookie embrace in bed, because I guess they’re on that level again. The next day, Cookie wakes up and finds Lucious with his gun in his GIANT walk in closet. They discuss Hakeem’s betrayal. Cookie wants to “take Camilla out from the inside,” you know, rather than Lucious’ crazy gun plan, whatever it is.
She crashes Hakeem and Camilla’s pow-wow about the future, and she offers him the acquisition of Lyon Dynasty for $20 million. Camilla rejects the offer. Meanwhile, Lucious enacts a plan of his own — and calls Hakeem Fredo, which is a nice Godfather reference.
Then Anika visits Rhonda and brings her flowers. Because that’s the totally sane thing to do when you’re the prime suspect of Rhonda’s “accident.” Anika acts surprised and says “maybe everything happens for a reason,” which makes Rhonda cry. Good going, Anika. Way to twist the knife. “There will be another heir,” Anika says, as her own heir is growing in her uterus.
Hakeem and Jamal discuss Hakeem taking over Empire. Jamal admits he hated running the company — it wasn’t for him. And Hakeem doesn’t want to ditch Laura, like Camilla wants him to, because he loves her. So he busts into practice, picks a fight with Laura, and she insults his insults.
As Lucious plays piano, we see his henchmen take care of business with all the CEO candidates. They all withdraw for “personal reasons,” but still, Hakeem steps up — literally, on the table — to make his mark and take charge as CEO. At the hospital, Cookie and Jamal discuss his sexuality, since Jameson found out about his attraction to Skye Summers. She encourages him to do all he can to win the ASA award he was nominated.
Andre and Cookie discuss Rhonda’s release from the hopsital and Cookie reveals that she had a miscarriage (a baby girl) before the three Lyon sons. When Rhonda arrives home, she attempts going back up those infamous stairs and has a flashback.
Hakeem is sitting pretty as CEO with Camilla, feeding him. Cookie, Andre, and Jamal do some maneuvering with Jamal’s album to get Cookie back on the inside (so she can take down Camilla). Camilla is against Cookie’s request to be head of A&R and the sale of Lyon Dynasty, but Hakeem wants his family back together, so he accepts.
Andre breaks down about losing the baby in the nursery. Hakeem apologizes to Laura for being an ass and they make up by having sex. No one tell Camilla. Presumably later, Hakeem and Lucious meet in a spot under the bridge, where Bunky died. Lucious explains he’ll do anything to get Empire back and dares Hakeem to shoot him or else he will. It’s intense. Hakeem walks away, saying he doesn’t have to do what Lucious wants anymore. Oh boy. It’s ON.