Cupid Kills Recap: Empire

“Cupid Kills” (10-12-2016) was Empire’s fourth episode in Season 3. Andre met Nessa for the first time when he and Lucious went to Shyne’s “rinky-dink” studio thinking that they were going to be signing Nessa up. Shyne had a little surprise for them.

Nessa seemed to be singing directly to Andre

He had Frank Sutton, Warner/Cappell, Trey Rhodes, Cecil Bive, Island Def Jam and Universal Music Group there and, he said, Tommy Davoni wanted in on the old school bidding war that was about to happen over Nessa. Meantime, it was not lost on Shyne that sparks seemed to be flying between Andre and Nessa.

Cookie offered to show these two snobs how her Make-a Wish charity operates

Angelo DuBois took Cookie to the opera to see La Bohème without letting her know everyone else, including him, would be sporting formal wear. She showed up in a sexy red dress. She got off on the wrong foot right away by letting a couple of wealthy ladies, Vivian Plummer and Bridget Pearce, know where she had “summered” in Connecticut– the Danbury Correctional Institute for Women. Then while Gia Copeland sang an aria from La Bohème, Cookie got all carried away, jumped up and shouted out her enthusiastic approval of the diva. While hiding out in a ladies’ room stall, the snobs came in making snide remarks about the “hood rat.” Cookie threatened to kick both their butts and make them wish they never met a hood rat like her!

Freda told Jamal she got the beatdown from his fans

Jamal went back to the PTSD group and got back to the point where he felt he could handle seeing Freda Gatz in jail, with the support of group leader Philip. Jamal was horrified to see that Freda had been severely beaten. He later talked to Angelo DuBois about it. Angelo linked him up with a top NY attorney named Gabrielle Gerard who specialized in temporary insanity cases. She was able to convince a judge that Freda had a bad minute when she plugged Jamal by mistake. Jamal’s presence and support at the hearing was a big help in getting Freda out on bail, too. Later, Lucious told Jamal that he arranged for the beating and Freda was “down with it.” They knew he would do something to get her out of there, like how he paid a doctor to falsify Freda’s medical history. Is Lucious lying? We don’t know but now Jamal feels like Freda played him.

Shyne got his butt kicked by Andre and Lucious

Speaking of playing someone, just like Lucious predicted, Shyne took advantage of Hakeem and got him to reveal Empire’s $2.5 million offer for Nessa on a napkin. He flashed it on the Live Stream for all the competitors to see. Andre went to see Nessa and he found out that, like him, she was a natural at math. Andre told Nessa that he knew about her dead brother and that she didn’t really owe Shyne. Shyne owed her. When Shyne found out that Andre went behind his back like that, he barged into Lucious’ office and punched Andre in the face. Andre took off his jacket and knocked Shyne down. Shyne came up drawing a gun but Lucious grabbed his $250K A-Rod bat and knocked Shyne back down. They made him sign Nessa’s contract at gunpoint and beat him some more. Now Shyne has a shiner to Xzibit. (yeah, we know, ugh! but we couldn’t resist)

Xavier is in and Becky is out right now

Becky was dismayed to learn that her boyfriend, J Poppa, was right. She was stepped over for the A&R position. Cookie hired a young Jewish guy named Xavier Rosen. Becky had already been threatened with termination by Lucious. She didn’t quit in this episode anyway. She helped Cookie get Tiana’s clap back track together.

Lucious tries to discourage Angelo from courting Cookie

Tiana’s song ending up featuring some opera from, you guessed it, La Bohème. To Cookie’s dismay, Angelo showed up to witness his influence already taking root in her world. Lucious took the first opportunity he got to tell Angelo how Cookie got her nickname. He gave it to her and he and his homies beat the hell out of her daddy-approved boyfriend Barry to make sure he got the message that he was now a former boyfriend. Earlier in the episode, Lucious told Cookie that Angelo dates a string of society ladies. He also put in a bid to be the mayor and he wasn’t going to do that with a convicted felon on his arm.

Remember when Shyne crashed Hakeem and Laura’s wedding? A lot of the guests didn’t want to be around him and his thugs. So those on the level of the Lyon family look down on Shyne and his ilk. But those on the level of Angelo DuBois look down on the Lyons and their Empire. All we know is that Lucious taints everything in his Empire and Shyne ain’t going away. He’s gonna come back hard at Andre & Lucious.

Other Notes:

• Nessa acted on her attraction to Andre and went to see him. Andre reciprocated but couldn’t go through with it, Nessa said she understood and knew he was not yet over the loss of Rhonda. Right then, Rhonda’s ghost showed up and gave Andre the go-ahead to have sex with Nessa as long as she could join in. Hoo boy. What can we call that? A supernatural love triangle?
• Before the Lucious flashback, Cookie had a flashback where her father told her that Barry was the right guy for her, not “Lucifer” Lyon or whatever his name is. Later, Cookie said something similar to Lucious about Angelo, but as we know, that doesn’t matter to Lucious. All he probably thought was hmmm, now how can I ruin that? So we think Cookie shouldn’t waste her breath on telling Lucious anything.
• Porsha had the best line in this episode when Cookie was trying on outfits to go on her date with Angelo: “Angelo better get ready for all that jelly.”