Tonight on FOX their blockbuster drama Empire airs with an all-new Wednesday, May 10, 2017, episode and we have your Empire recap below. On tonight’s Empire season 3 episode 16 “The Lyons fear that the Dubois family is to blame for their latest family crisis, so when no one is willing to give up any information, Cookie takes matters into her own hands.”
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Empire begins tonight with the entire Lyon family and Empire lawyers meeting with the DuBois family. They stare in silence, then just as Diana DuBois (Phylicia Rashad) begins to speak but quickly suggest the Lyon family starts first as per her lawyer’s suggestion.
Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) says she knows they have connections and knows she has something to do with her grandbaby, Bella being snatched. Lucious (Terrence Howard) pipes in he knows she has all kinds of politicians doing her dirty work. Jamal (Jussie Smollett) and Thirsty (Andre Royo) stop Cookie from jumping across the table and attacking Diana. Thirsty tells the DuBois family they believe they were being the baby being taken by CPS and if the child is returned everything will be fine.
Angelo DuBois (Taye Diggs) says his family had nothing to do with whatever happened to the Lyon’s baby. Jamal wants to know why Angelo would take the $5 million and then stoop so low and his attorney says its because of Jamal that Angelo lost his career. When other begin to speak on the DuBois side, Jamal says they cannot compare politics to taking a baby from her mother, Anika’s (Grace Byers) arms.
Everyone begins to shout until Anika tells them to all shut up and doesn’t care who did what, she only wants her daughter back; begging them to help her find her daughter. Diana apologizes to her, saying she is so much better than the company she keeps. Lucious says he sees where it is all going and understands they all have a little power in them and know how to play a little hit back but when the Lyons hit back, they hit real hard.
When Diana says she doesn’t know what happened to her daughter, Cookie asks if she really wants to go down that road? She smiles and all the Lyons leave, with Cookie leading the pack.
Anika and Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) sit at the social worker’s desk waiting to see Bella; they quickly learn they cannot find their daughter in the system. Thirsty asks if they can’t or won’t. He offers to speak to them more privately.
When Thirsty says they were told she would be returned to her mother today; the worker says its very odd but he has received several motions regarding the child and every motion takes at least a month and they are not going to see their child for a very long time. Anika leaves the office to make a phone call while Hakeem slams his hand on the desk demanding he find his daughter.
At home, Lucious and Cookie try to figure out what they are going to do. Cookie says the DuBois are strong and the Lyon family is very weak when they don’t stick together. She says they have to do better and decides to clear the room of Bella’s stuff so Hakeem doesn’t see it. Lucious tells Cookie she was right and he never should have let them take the baby.
Thirsty tells the whole family it has to be the DuBois who did this and Hakeem says they cannot get away with this. Thirsty goes on to say they clearly underestimated how powerful this family is and Anika asks what can they do as Hakeem worries about Bella being alone in a fosterhome. He turns to Cookie and shouts where his daughter is?
Thirsty says they will have to distance most of the Lyons from Bella because on paper they are all unfit. Leah (Kelly Rowland), Lucious’ mother says she knew it! Hakeem says this whole family is sick; Thirsty says Anika needs to divorce Lucious showing she is making an assertive effort to distance herself from the family; Lucious tells him to make it happen and tells the family to keep their lives on track so Bella comes back to a strong family. Jamal agrees while Cookie promises they will get their baby back, one way or another.
At Empire, Lucious works on Inferno. He loves everything the girls are doing but says there is so much Circe in there, they are missing the Soliel, the soul of the whole thing. Jamal comes in to see his father, Lucious. He says he listened to the first mix of the song and it is fire. They break out laughing and hug. Lucious suggests he will remix the song so its not the same on both albums. Lucious wants to bring in an MC but Jamal doesn’t want that; he ends up telling Lucious to set it up.
Cookie tells Porsha (Ta’Rhonda Jones) the album is a masterpiece but its not going to get Lucious where she wants him to be. She reminds her the Vegas deal is worth millions. Andre (Trai Byers) and Shyne (Xzibit) come to talk to her about her plan as they are both concerned about the tight window.
Shyne tells her he is working on getting Bella back but when he notices Porsha is trying to listen in, he says they should talk about Vegas. Cookie says they need to make this album a Vegas production and brushes off worry about Lucious and Inferno as it doesn’t have a storyline. Andre gets rude with Shyne and he tells him to watch his tone.
Andre tells him to think big and Shyne laughs at him telling Cookie to call him after he sings a lullabye to Andre and they can work out the details themselves. Cookie needs Andre to calm down and tells him to get proactive and call his doctor. Porsha says she knows a great doctor but Cookie tells her to shut up and mind her business.
Jamal arrives at the studio and waits with Lucious for his artist. He comes in after being shot 4 times the precious night. Jamal says he can barely stand up and can’t perform as he is high on pain meds. As he is rapping, his wounds begin to bleed through his shirt and Lucious tells Jamal he is willing to die for this moment. Jamal says the MC is dope but the track isn’t right.
Lucious throws in his face that he was shot once and disappeared but this cat was shot 4 times and still performs. Jamal asks everyone who has been shot before and everyone puts their hands up but Lucious. Jamal tells him that no one told Lucious how to deal with his father being shot so don’t tell him how to feel about taking a bullet for his. He reminds him that playing hard is what got Bella taken.
He agrees to work with Lucious but he isn’t backing down; he needs to listen to his version of their track. They play Jamal’s remix and Lucious is told Jamal killed it; he isn’t pleased.
Anika is reviewing papers when Andre comes in the room and locks the door saying they have unfinished business. Andre charges at her saying Rhonda told him how she pushed her down the stairs causing her to miscarry. He is screaming in her face, choking her. Anika says she deserves for him to kill her because she wanted to be a Lyon so bad she sold her soul and now her baby is gone too. She begs him to do it but he stops and tells her to suffer like he does.
Hakeem is at home and orders everyone out because he doesn’t need them to watch him.; he needs to be alone.
Cookie and Andre meet with their Vegas contact saying Lucious is lying to him about Inferno and that he doesn’t have Empire’s biggest star, Jamal Lyon with him. She offers to give a better show than Inferno called Jamal Lyon’s “When Cookie Met Lucious”; a visual album telling the story of the first family of Hip-Hop involving all the Lyons. Andre says Lucious won’t be involved but Cookie says he will be. He says if she gets him Lucious, he is in. Andre says again that Lucious is a liar and a snake and he won’t work with him. Andre storms off.
Hakeem live streams what is happening with his daughter and shouts that he wants her back. He stands up and begins to rap out his anger as people talk about going after the DuBois family, with emojis of guns and bombs.
Angelo suggests they ride out the storm because they had nothing to do with taking the baby. He asks his mother if they did, she laughs saying the Lyon family is a disgrace and set back for their race with their degrading lyrics and thuggish behavior. She says they didn’t get the baby taken but she doesn’t have an ounce of sympathy for them. Angelo and his mother agree they cannot let it escalate but a mob of angry fans arrive demanding they free Bella.
At the Lyon mansion, Leah is in Bella’s room when Lucious walks in with a book thinking how strange it is to feel so helpless. He thinks if he knew this would happen he would have changed so many things. He sits by the fireplace and asks his mother if he is a good father and she tells him he isn’t even a good person. He nods and says “true” as she places the skin lightening cream back in Bella’s cupboard.
Cookie chases after Andre and informs him she told them Andre lost his mind for a moment but he is fully on board. Nessa (Sierra Aylina McClain) watches as they argue. He says she always ends up protecting Lucious and they had a deal without him. She says this family needs him. Andre tells her that deep down in her soul she is ashamed of how much she caters to Lucious and she should be.
Cookie says if they keep Lucious in the deal they keep him from going to war and they all get a piece of Vegas. Nessa says she gets nothing as the new show has nothing for her. She blames all this on Giuliana (Nia Long) but Nessa is furious. She stands up and tells Cookie she was out of line by bringing Lucious into the deal and Andre is a grown man and she can’t talk to him like he’s a child.
Cookie tells Andre she hopes he can understand what she is about to do and she backhands Nessa telling her to never come in between her and her son. She tells Andre they need to do the deal her way with the whole family or they lose everything. She walks away suggesting next time Nessa holds her mouth.
Lucious is playing the piano when his mother comes and gives him a picture of his father. She says if he hadn’t died things would have be better for him and she would have been a better momma. She says violence made him what he is.
He sadly says he should have done something to save his dad the day he died. She says he was just a boy and he would have run out into the mess and died too. Lucious says that is exactly what Jamal did for him.
Leah said no matter what she has said about Lucious, Jamal is special and has a little bit of God in him and it was Lucious who put that light in the world. She kisses him and goes to bed. Lucious places the photos on the piano and returns to playing.
Jamal runs into Lucious in the hall but doesn’t want to argue any more. Lucious tells him he heard him and tells him to go into the studio; inside there are visuals of Lucious’ father, Joe Walker. Jamal says he looks like his father. Lucious hopes this will help with his visual aid and help them make a better album; Jamal is happy to learn Lucious is going to do the song his way admitting he was tired of fighting and his music will be Empire’s legacy.
Cookie goes to the laundromat and meets with Shyne. Andre brings Hakeem and Cookie is furious Andre brought him there. She tells him to wait in the car and they will find Bella; she orders Andre to get Hakeem out of there. She heads into the backroom where Shyne’s men are beating Angelo.
He pleads with Cookie that he had nothing to do with her granddaughter. He says when they broke up things got weird but she blames it on his mother and him waging a war against the Lyons. She says the war stops today. Angelo says she broke his heart and he lashed out on her and Lucious but he would never go this far. Cookie tells him if he tells her where Bella is, she will let him go. He denies knowing anything.
Cookie stands up and tells him everything his mother said about her being ghetto and hood, she was right. She tells Angelo to talk to his mother and find out where her granddaughter is. She walks out the door telling the crew to “go ahead” calling Angelo a bitch.
Cookie returns to Lucious’ house saying she is sure Angelo isn’t in on it. She also tells him Jamal’s album is going to be on stage in Vegas; she says this is what fans want: her and Lucious together! She blames all the in-fighting as the reason Bella slipped through the cracks. Lucious says its not going to happen and Giuliana walks in asking what she will get saying Marcone called her and she flew home to make sure they are still on the same page.
Lucious puts his hand on Giuliana’s leg and says Inferno is the Vegas deal and Inferno will be the show to launch the casino as Jamal and him laid a track that morning. Cookie is shocked to learn he is saying no to something that could bring the family together. Lucious leans back with Giuliana and says he has made his choice.
Cookie stands up saying she did 17 years for him and Giuliana thanks her for that and says she will take it from here and smiles as Cookie leaves the house.
Nessa comes to see Andre who wasn’t answering his phone all day. He says his family needed him. Nessa questions what his plans are as she is not going to watch from the audience. He tells her she can do whatever she wants and this is between him and his family. She rants that his mother hurt her and Tory Ash (Rumer Willis) stole a song from her and he did nothing about it. She even throws Giuliana in his face.
He says this is how he does business and she feels he just wanted an artist he could control, an artist whose career boosted his and he chose Nessa. He tells her it could have worked out for her and it still can. She calls him crazy as he wraps his hand around her face and tries to kiss her. She pushes him back, shoving him repeatedly.
Diana is cleaning Angelo’s wounds and he says he will see the police chief as soon as they are done. He wants to put every Lyon in jail but Diana says extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, she rings the bell and a nanny walks in. Angelo asks her what she has done and she tells him to meet the newest member of the DuBois family. She says they ruined one of hers so she took one of theirs as she holds Bella in her arms.
THE END
