(Fox)
On Wednesday’s fall finale of “Empire,” Cookie hosted a concert for Angelo’s campaign while Tariq tried to take down Lucious by freezing Empire’s assets. Here are the most important things to know about “A Furnace For Your Foe,” the ninth episode of season 3.
The midseason finale began with Angelo having a rally in Queens, where Cookie defended him from critics and announced that the Captain’s Ball would now be the People’s Ball, a street concert open to the public, with Jamal headlining. His mother Diana was furious, and Lucious questioned whether Jamal could handle an “uncontrolled crowd.” He also accused Cookie of putting Angelo before the family.
Lucious and Diana had their own chat about the situation, and she wanted his help squashing a story that could cost Angelo the election. In exchange, she promised the Cookie romance would be “incinerated.” Unbeknownst to Lucious at the time, Tariq got a judge to freeze Empire’s assets as he works to get a murder indictment against him for Frank Gathers’ murder. Anika also demanded that Lucious choose between her and his mom Leah.
Lucious essentially threatened the journalist with the vendetta against Angelo, but Diana wanted to go back on her end of the bargain because there was now a “Cookie effect” helping Angelo’s campaign. He was pissed, and then had to calm Cookie down when she learned their credit cards were frozen. “I promise nothing will happen to you again,” he told her, leading to a flashback of their first kiss. He also warned her that Angelo is an “opportunistic politician” with “skeletons.”
Lucious then went to the FBI to confront Tariq, saying, “You want me? Here I am.” He offered up their father’s police badge, revealing to all the agents that they were siblings, and gave a spiel about brothers looking after each other. After, Shine asked Lucious why he could no longer access company funds, and he actually offered to front him $ 50 million, in exchange for a stake in Empire. Tariq was angered when he heard Shine was going to help him out since they were previously working together.
Jamal stressed as he prepared for his comeback performance with D-Major’s help, and Lucious told him to “take a permanent dirt nap” if he planned on airing “dirty laundry” in his new music. Jamal promised Cookie he was no longer getting high, and reluctantly gave her his pills. But on the day of the concert, he was MIA. Cookie then found him in the throes of withdrawal, and he tearfully begged for the pills just to make it through the show. She ultimately caved.
Meanwhile, a depressed Andre confessed to Nessa that he’s bipolar, and shared how Rhonda used to take care of him. She refused to step into that role, in hopes he would become independent. His hallucination of Rhonda, however, said, “She’s trying to take you away from me.” He asked her to “let me go,” so he could carry out their dreams. “Rhonda” gave him permission to move forward with Nessa for the sake of getting power, but also made him promise to take down Anika.
Hakeem planted a kiss on Tiana at the end of their concert duet, and she went along with it as the crowd cheered them on. Jamal himself finally made it on stage, and he gave an intense performance that everyone loved. But after, Cookie and the family told him he was going to rehab with Phillip’s help. A tearful goodbye followed, with Jamal feeling betrayed, but Lucious assured Cookie that he will eventually thank her.
He then blindsided her by having the journalist confront Angelo about his long-ago DUI… in which his passenger died. In the episode’s final minutes, Andre called Shine out for working with Tariq and setting Lucious up for the asset freeze. The twist: Andre offered to team up and “kill my father.”
