"Empire" Recap: "One Before Another"

L-R: Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard and Bryshere Gray; Jean Whiteside/FOX(NEW YORK) — On Wednesday’s Empire, titled “One Before Another,” the show opens with Shyne preparing his squad for a major retaliation against the Lyon family.

As Shyne announces, “Let’s go kill some Lyons,” Cookie and Angelo Dubois are seen flirting over coffee; Lucious is riding around in an armored car as he takes Anika and baby Bella to a doctor’s appointment; Jamal is recording new music with a producer; and Hakeem’s planning his next move in an effort to get Nessa back. 

Shyne then arrives at Andre’s apartment and pulls out a gun — ready to shoot. He’s stopped by a tearful Nessa, but promises to return to finish the job.

To prepare his family, Lucious calls a meeting with Cookie and the sons to discuss his and Andre’s attack on Shyne, and the family’s next business move. Jamal and Hakeem agree to do a song together for Empire X-Stream, but Hakeem sees it as an opportunity to clap back at the rapper Gram, who’s been dissing him. 

Lucious, who sees Hakeem’s beef with Gram as a way to get more subscribers for Empire X-Stream, encourages his son to “destroy” Gram and give into the Lyon ways. But Jamal tells Hakeem not to do it, even though he also struggles with becoming devious like his father.  

Andre later meets up with Nessa, who’s upset that Andre and Shyne are at war. Andre convinces Nessa to orchestrate a meeting between them so they can work things out. At their meeting at Lucious’ house, Lucious and Shyne’s negotiations quickly fall apart, but Anika manages to intervene just in time and offers Shyne his own imprint under Empire.  Shyne accepts, with the condition of bringing on Freda Gatz.

Meanwhile, Cookie is having trouble with her parole officer, who’s tightened her grip on Cookie’s freedom. Cookie believes the sudden change is because of Dubois, and accuses him of trying to keep her “in check” while he runs for mayor. He denies the claims, which leads them to think it’s Lucious’ doing. 

At the streaming event, Lucious becomes upset by the lackluster streaming numbers, which he says are a result of Jamal’s boring performance. In an effort to boost the ratings, Lucious stokes Hakeem by telling him about Nessa’s relationship with Andre. Hakeem, visibly upset, spits an angry rap where he calls out brothers. After he ends his song, the family erupts into a huge fight that’s caught live by the streaming cameras. 

Near the end of the episode, Cookie drops Becky from Tiana’s project for not following her orders, and Angelo brings Cookie’s probation officer to Empire, where the PO apologizes and promises to be more relaxed.

In the final minutes, Shyne is seen helping Tariq, Lucious’ half-brother who’s a Federal agent, create a plan to take down Lucious. The plan includes using Freda Gatz. Lucious thanks Anika for her help with Shyne and shows Hakeem how to take care of his daughter, Bella. Lucious also encourages Hakeem to be a “destroyer of souls” and to be willing to do whatever it takes to win, including going to war with his brothers.

Empire continues next Wednesday night on Fox.

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