'Empire' recap: Cookie's history is revealed

Here’s a recap of the latest episode of "Empire", titled “What We May Be.”

Cookie hosts a dinner party.

Angelo and his mom, Diana, who is played by Phylicia Rashad, hold a party to reintroduce Cookie to their friends and supporters. Cookie does not show up. To make it up to Angelo, Cookie agrees to hold a small dinner party at her house with her family. Cookie’s sister, Candace, who is played by Vivica A. Fox., helps Cookie prepare her home for an esteemed guest such as Diana. They even replace the art.

Diana arrives for dinner and immediately notices that Cookie has replaced some art, just for the dinner party. Jamal is high and Hakeem shows up with a crying baby. Andre doesn't even come. Lucious comes to the party with Anika, further exposing their messy family relations. Just when it seems the dinner party has completely fallen apart, Cookie gives a short speech about how her family isn’t perfect, but it works. Diana eventually tells Cookie that her family isn’t perfect either and as long as Angelo doesn’t get hurt, she supports their relationship.

Cookie’s history with her father is revealed.

Jamal writes a song called “Dear Mama,” about Cookie. He plays the song for her as he shows childhood footage of Cookie and her sisters. He got the video from Carol, Cookie’s sister. Cookie sees footage of her father and immediately breaks down.

Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Lucious ruined the relationship between Cookie and her father. Lucious was hiding drugs and money in Cookie’s room. Her father discovered it and kicked her out of the house. Cookie went to live with Lucious, and within a week, her father had a heart attack and died. Cookie is still upset that she wasn’t on good terms with him when he died.

Bre-Z starts rapping again.

Since her release from jail, Bre-Z has not been rapping with Empire. Nessa asks Andre to talk to Bre-Z and convince her to join Shine’s new label, a subsidiary of Empire.

Andre convinces Bre-Z to come to a memorial concert Nessa is holding for her brother. She gets caught up in the music and freestyles on stage with Nessa. At the end of hte episode, Shine is seen sneakily recording the performance.

Join Action News Jax anchor Tenikka Hughes to talk about "Empire" on Facebook Live at 8:30 p.m. before the new episode premieres on FOX30 at 9 p.m. Live-tweet with us on @AllThingsFOX30.

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