‘Empire’ Recap Season 2 Episode 4: ‘Poor Yorick’

The episode starts with the FBI ransacking Empire, Dynasty and Lucious’s home. Roxanne Ford is on a rampage to take Lucious down. The Lyon strategy is to put on a united front, meaning the family has to play nice, at least in public. Easier said than done.

To send a message to the FBI — and the public — Hakeem and Jamal agree to shoot a music video together with a Black Panther theme. The song’s chorus is “It ain’t about the money. It’s about the power.” Before shooting, Lucious tells Hakeem he made a special beat just for him, if only he’ll come back to Empire. Hakeem looks tempted, but says no.

Meanwhile Jamal is slated to be on the cover of Rolling Stone and a photographer — who seems smitten with the singer, much to the dismay of Jamal’s boyfriend — photographs Jamal, and then turns it into a Warhol-style painting. The artist brings it to the video shoot to show Jamal, but Hakeem ends up stabbing it after he gets in a brawl with his brother about the fake pretenses the family is putting on. But no worries. The artist thinks the slit throat makes the piece even better, sending a message about race and homosexuality.

At the video shoot, Cookie gets arrested. When she gets to the station, she finds out it’s because her assistant Porche was caught not paying to ride the subway and said her name was Cookie Lyon. While waiting to be questioned, Cookie has flashbacks of how hopeless she felt in prison and made a snap decision to call Roxanne Ford. While there, she tells Ford that she doesn’t know for sure if Lucious killed Bunkie (Season 1 faithfuls will remember that he did), but she did know they were fighting about a radio station deal that Bunkie didn’t want to happen. This is all fabricated, but serves Cookie well as telling the lie will prevent Lucious’s radio station deal from going through and keeping Dynasty’s music off the radio.

After his fight with Jamal, Hakeem heads to a dive bar to drink his woes away. There, he’s wowed by a Latina singer on stage. Could this be the new replacement lead singer for his girl group?

Andre is still desperate to get back to Empire and Lucious tells him if he makes all the legal woes go away, he will be welcomed back. Andre decides to dig up his dead Uncle Vernon’s body (his wife Rhonda accidentally killed him when Vernon was fighting with Andre) and say he did it, as he knows the feds are looking for Vernon. Rhonda agrees to help Vernon and the two attempt to dig up the body in the middle of the night. While they are doing so, Lucious and his lawyer come find them. Lucious is pleased with Vernon’s death and welcomes Andre back to Empire.

The episode ends with Roxanne Ford getting into her car, and finding Vernon’s decaying body in the passenger seat.