Empire Season 4 Episode 12

Source: Gina Ferazzi / Getty

Tonight’s episode of Empire picks up with the reminder that Cookie had a heart attack and her status is critical. When Dre shows up to the hospital (because he’s genuinely remorseful), Lucious blames him for this since his assumption is that Dre tried to kill her anyway (remember, Dre didn’t know that Cookie was getting in the car that night). Dre’s brothers are also not too thrilled to see him and in short, it would be a shame if they triggered him again with their hostile behavior.

In related news, Lucious went to the hospital chapel to pray over Cookie. His prayer was, um, interesting. Basically, he threatened a statue of Jesus at the end of his prayer. He said that if Cookie dies then he will rain down more hell on his Earth.

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Finally, we learn that Cookie had a mild heart attack and with modifications to her diet and stress levels she can improve her health. This means lots of downtime and recovery at home. Jamal and Hakeem are the first of a few family members (including Cookie’s sisters) to be all up under Cookie making sure she doesn’t do the most. Dre eventually has some solo time with his mother. He apologizes, and Cookie says that she understands that Lucious can drive people to murder (because this family is ridiculous), but what he did hurt her to the core. She forgives him, though. You know how soft Cookie is under that tough exterior.

The problem now is keeping Cookie away from work, and getting her to eat her kale salads without bacon, which is proving to be difficult, especially when she has them set up a studio in her bedroom so that Empire artists can come to her for the showcase, and she works herself up nearly to passing out.

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Dre is on his confessional tour. Next up is Shyne. Dre confesses to Shyne that he told Lucious everything but left his name out of it. Shyne is obviously pissed, but Dre points out that he took the fall for both of them and basically wiped his slate clean so now Lucious never has to know, otherwise that’s his life. It’s probably going to be his life at some point. Knowing this show, Shyne’s time might be running out.

Anyway, there’s Eddie, who is trying to steal Empire from the Lyons because he squandered all his riches. You know how he has been going around manipulating people, right? He manipulated Tiana into breaking up with Hakeem. Now he’s trying to work Dre. He tells Andre that it’s a shame that his parents didn’t let him run the company and that moving forward—you know, when the Patel deal goes through—he should be in charge.

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Dre is just looking at him like, “Thanks Captain Obvious,” and definitely doesn’t trust him. That’s clear when he asks him what this little speech was really about. Eddie pretends that he’s just there in good faith, but we already know that Dre ain’t stupid. He goes over the Patel deal that Eddie brought to the table and realizes that something ain’t right so he immediately alerts his parents. The three of them confront Eddie, and Eddie starts running game about how he negotiated an amazing deal for Empire, yatta yatta. Lucious is like, bruh, I didn’t say you could make deals on my behalf. The Lyons shut it down and Eddie starts feigning outrage about how he stepped in when they needed him and how he tried to make a deal to make Empire bigger and better, and that they won’t even give him the benefit of the doubt.

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Then Eddie starts going on about how “the white folks at bigger labels” think Empire is a joke and that the label is full of a bunch of stepin fetchits. Lucious tells Eddie where to go, as calmly as he can and makes it clear that he’s not yoking him up because of their long history (as if that has ever stopped Lucious before smh). Eddie says he’s going to fly to Cali to tell Patel that the deal is off. Cookie tells him to take a break for himself while he’s at it, and Cookie appoints someone to make sure he actually gets on the plane and goes where he says he’s going. She’s still doing the most and clearly not 100%. Lucious begs her to stop pushing herself and we end on that note.

You already know Eddie isn’t going out without getting what he wants.

We’ll pick back up next week.

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