Lucious drops a paternity bombshell on the Lyon family while Andre, Hakeem, Jamal and Cookie prepare to take the company public on Empire‘s “Sins of the Father.”

Empire 1×11 Recap

The Lyon family, minus Lucious (Terrence Howard), is gathered at a medical clinic to support Andre (Trai Byers) and meet with his psychiatrist and music therapist, Michelle White (Jennifer Hudson). Cookie (Taraji P Henson) is hesitant to accept her son’s bipolar diagnosis, but once she hears about his first psychotic break in college, she is determined to help Andre get better. Along with her sons Jamal (Jussie Smollett) and Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray), she emphasizes Andre’s role in taking Empire public and creating the IPO.

Lucious Wants Another Chance With Cookie

Lucious, however, doesn’t seem too keen to give Andre credit. During a meeting with Vernon (Malik Yoba), Lucious reveals he wants to give Cookie the same amount of shares as their sons, hoping that giving her more control in the company will soften her up so that they can get re-married with a prenup. He wants to marry Cookie and spend the rest of his life raising Lola, Jamal’s surprise daughter. He’s also not going to forgive Vernon for going behind his back with Andre, agreeing that Andre should be put in charge should Lucious’ health fail.

Lucious’ plans are unraveling practically as he’s making them. At the office, Malcolm (Derek Luke) approaches Cookie to tell her that he has betrayed his boss by falling in love with his wife. While Malcolm and Cookie hook up in her office, Jamal is recording a song for his daughter in the studio. After he’s done singing about his love for Lola (Leah Jeffries), he tells Ryan (Eka Darville) that he’s thinking of raising Lola on his own, away from his father’s house, even if that means breaking up with Ryan. Later that night, when he puts Lola to bed, he asks if she wants to go live with him and she says yes. When Jamal informs his father of his decision, Lucious makes illusions to his ‘lifestyle’ and goes straight to Cookie, looking for support.

Lucious Gets Camilla Away From Hakeem

Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) is busy modeling for Camilla (Naomi Campbell), and admits that he’s upset with his father for not coming to the hospital with the family earlier. He brings Camilla to the IPO meeting at Lucious’ mansion and performs “Nothing But a Number” for the family, a song all about dating older women. Lucious and Cookie are far from thrilled. Lucious gets Camilla alone in his office and offers her money to stay away from Hakeem, but she refuses. Desperate, Lucious has Malcolm get her off the property and tells Hakeem that Camilla accepted his bribe.

Olivia Returns For Lola

When getting on a bus, Olivia (Raven-Symoné) is accosted by Reg (Jerod Haynes), her abusive boyfriend. He wants Olivia back and he wants Lola. Olivia and Reg find Vernon at a club, where Vernon is relapsing with cocaine. Vernon crashes the signing over of the shares at Lucious’ house with Olivia and Reg in tow. Everyone has gathered to sign over shares and take the company public, except Andre, who refused to leave the hospital after being shunned by his father.

Cookie sweet talks Reg, and gets him to show off his scary crow tattoo, which rings a bell with Jamal. Lola has been having nightmares about scary birds, and when he puts it together, he goes to confront Reg, who takes out a gun. Reg holds a gun to Jamal’s head, threatening him as Lola’s father. Fearing that Reg could shoot Jamal, Lucious offers himself up to Reg. He tells everyone that he’s the father of Olivia’s child. He took advantage of her when she was stuck married to Jamal, and he practically begs Reg to shoot him. Lucious accurately tells Reg that if he shot him, Reg would be considered a hero in the family. Everybody hates Lucious – it’s true. But before Reg can pull the trigger, Malcolm returns from taking Camilla to the hospital and shoots Reg in the head, killing him.

With Reg dead, Olivia admits that Lucious could be Lola’s father, and tells Jamal she lied because she was trying to hide Lola from Reg. Olivia takes Lola away, but the Lyon family promises she can come back any time. Even Andre returns to say goodbye to his maybe sister.

Upstairs, Lucious tells Cookie that he wants to get back together, but she refuses. Lucious kills everything he touches, she says, just look at what he did to their sons. Instead of marrying Lucious, Cookie goes straight to Malcolm and asks him to take her away.

Empire’s two-hour season finale airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on FOX.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.