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It’s the fall finale of Empire and you can expect to feel a lot of feels! Tonight’s episode moves season five’s storyline forward in a major way and of course, we get left with a major cliffhanger. We pick up this week’s episode with Bella pointing the gun up at her chin. Thankfully, she doesn’t shoot herself as Hakeem manages to diffuse the situation. Cookie and Lucious take this as their chance to respectively lecture the former lovebirds. Cookie apologizes to Tiana for encouraging the toxic ride or die mentality. Lucious tells Hakeem that he shouldn’t even feel the need to carry a gun because he’s the only one in the family that doesn’t have blood on his hands (ironically) and should stay that way. Lucious points out that there will come a time when he and Cookie may have to face a lot more karma they have coming to them and he may be the one who has to take over the empire for real.

The best thing to happen on tonight’s episode is that Andre finally got Quincy out of prison! He got another inmate who was never going to see the light of day again to confess to the crime that Quincy was falsely accused of. So that’s that. Quincy’s mom wants to pursue a relationship with Andre but he’s understandably afraid and fate may just not allow it. 

Now it’s the holidays and everyone is in Christmas mode, especially Cookie and Lucious. The best gift ever is when Kai drops his report about how Kingsley has been selling people’s data, via Empire, to the highest bidder, including the FBI. Cookie and Lucious are thrilled while Kingsley is pissed and Giselle and Becky are nervous. Patel is pissed because this is messing with his other businesses and he tells Giselle and Kingsley they better figure out who’s going to fall on the sword.

Kingsley decides it’s going to be Becky. He claims to have video chats that prove she was working with Lucious and makes a spectacle of having her escorted out, but this is part of a larger plan. Becky is furious and says this isn’t true. Now, we all know what she did for Thirsty, but this ain’t that. Kingsley is trying to scapegoat her for a larger plan because when Giselle asks to see the footage, Kingsley tells her, “Sink or swim” and that’s enough to shut Giselle down for a minute. Plus, Thirsty said the USB he gave Becky was untraceable and we all know Thirsty’s plots are airtight when it comes to covering tracks because he’s the real MVP. 

Not all heroes wear capes.

Kai informs Jamal that he got some more intel about criminal activity that happened at Empire under Lucious. He wants to release it, being the journalist that he is, but he won’t for now. Plus, his producers in London want to give him a full-time spot. Basically, this means he’s not sure where he and Jamal’s relationship stand and we’re all super confused. Like, did you two not just get engaged?

Anyway, let’s cut to the Lyon Family Management showcase. You already know everything goes down at the showcases! So, here we are. It starts off all-good. Hakeem, Blake, and Tiana perform their song. Cheers to their truce. Meanwhile, in an office upstairs, Lucious comes face to face with Kingsley and snaps. He starts beating the breaks off of Kingsley and probably would have killed him had Giselle not stepped in and told him that Kingsley is his son. Lucious is stunned and only manages to eek out, “That’s impossible.”

From there, Lucious takes a break from the showcase to visit Kingsley’s mother, Tracy, in the hospital right quick. Tracy, in the hospital and we flashback to the 80s. It’s what we already know: He was her dealer, but she also liked “hanging out” with him.

Back in the present, Tracy wakes up and tells Lucious that she knew he’d come back. Lucious is still in denial about Kingsley being his son, claiming that they only “hung out” a couple of times. We all know that it really only takes one time, but at the same time, you get the feeling that there’s a chance that Lucious isn’t the father. Tracy encourages him to take a DNA test. There’s also flashback information that shows us that Tracy actually brought Kingsley to Lucious’ home once when Andre and Jamal were really young. She mentioned that she was clean but didn’t have the heart to tell Lucious that Kingsley was his son since he wouldn’t let them in the house and was generally acting shady. Cookie also startled him because she shouted out wanting to know who was at the door, which got him shook enough to tell Tracy to go away and not to come back. That was also the day Tracy got hooked back on drugs (Lucious gave her the money and encouraged her to get taken care of). Trigger much? 

Lucious manages to get back to the showcase in time for Giselle to tell them what Kingsley is trying to do to Becky and to make a deal to save her own shady arse. Giselle says she has more information that can help get Kingsley out but they must agree to make her co-partner when/if Lucious takes control of Empire again. Lucious says he’ll think about it. Cookie really just wants them to move forward, but the allure of getting Empire back is strong for Lucious. Lucious also has to tell her about Kingsley, but he gets derailed when Porsha summons her to the stage.

Cookie starts off with a nice speech about their victory, but Kingsley crashes the party and blows up Lucious’ spot. Everyone is stunned when Kingsley reveals that Lucious is his father and that he used to sell his mother drugs.  

Cookie, the ridiest ride or die chick there ever was, is so disturbed that she walks off stage. Finally, Andre confronts Kingsley and says he will end him but Kingsley’s chilling reply is, “Not unless I end you first baby bro, bring it!’

Then we cut to three months after that and we see Andre flatlining on a gurney.

That doesn’t mean that Andre is the person who died, but it doesn’t…not mean that either. We know what show this is. We can expect anything to happen but one thing that’s certain is that the flashback storytelling is over and everything will move forward from here.

See you in March.

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