What We May Be Recap: Empire

There weren’t any earth-shattering events in “What We May Be,” the 7th episode of Empire’s Season 3. Mainly, it centered around Cookie meeting Angelo’s mother while she was dealing with guilty flashbacks from her youth, inadvertently brought back by Jamal.

After Cookie decided that her affair with Angelo is on, she was invited to an event to meet (and be judged by) his snooty mother, Diane DuBois. But Cookie couldn’t make it because of the home movies from her youth that Jamal put in his new music video. After apologizing to Angelo, he agreed that she could invite his mother to dinner to make it up.

You gonna have to Melania Trump the hell out of this situation!

Cookie enlisted the help of Candace, the sister she likes to call a “fake-ass Oreo” to improve her chances with this high-class woman. Candace informed Cookie that Diane DuBois was a member of the same sorority as Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks and Maya Angelou and Cookie is going to have to “come correct” and not be making up words like “conversate.”

That will never do!

Lucious arrived to inform the sisters that he booked the restaurant for a rowdy party on the same night she is supposed to entertain Mrs. DuBois. Cookie soon finds that every other fancy place is booked– as soon as she says her name, that is. Candace convinced Cookie that the best way to go is to have a dinner party at her place, and they dove into complete redecorating and hiding anything that might offend Mrs. DuBois, like fur jackets. Mama DuBois is a card-carrying PETA member.

Everything that could go wrong does. Cookie was supposed to have her sons there because Mrs. DuBois loves family. Jamal arrived high as a kite on his new meds. Hakeem initially texted that he couldn’t come because he had to watch Bella (something that Lucious arranged). But Hakeem didn’t know how to take care of Bella. When the infant got fussy, he didn’t call the maid, Juanita, like Lucious told him to. He took Bella to Cookie’s dinner party. Mrs. DuBois observed that Hakeem was following the example set for him by not keeping tabs on the baby’s mother. Jamal said: “Mrs. DuBois, you be madd shady and I catch that, I clock that!” Cookie told him to shut up.

The next to arrive were Lucious and Anika, looking for baby Bella. Lucious told Mrs. DuBois that his wife was Bella’s mother. He called Jamal “the gay one”, Hakeem “the irresponsible one” and then asked “Where’s the crazy one?” meaning Andre.

To top it all off, Angelo forgot to tell Cookie that his mother is highly allergic to seafood. So there was nothing for dinner. Cookie kicked everyone out except the DuBois and the Lyons. She sent Hakeem to get out the peach cobbler. Cookie told Mrs. DuBois that her family is a “twisted tree” but she wouldn’t change one thing about it. Smart move: When your act ain’t working, drop it and be yourself. Jamal sat down at the piano and performed a song he wrote just for his mother during which Lucious and Anika slipped quietly out of the door.

Before leaving, Mrs. DuBois let Cookie in on a little family secret of her own. She’s no blueblood. Her family’s money came from bootlegging and smuggling. The Lyons reminded her of her own family’s shady history. She admired Cookie for her spirit and fire, but warned her not to let that fire burn her only child, and oh– she did see the fur stuffed in the back of the closet and she enjoyed the peach cobbler.

Andre never did show up. He was at the family party for Nessa’s deceased brother, Stone. He brought Freda Gatz, after she told Shyne the Lyons had conned him, and convinced her to take rapping back up to .

Other Stuff:

Charlemagne Tha God publicly called Jamal The Donkey of the Day and Turkey of the Year. Lucious called a meeting in the boardroom to make everyone and Jamal watch it.

Turkey of the Year! Gobble! Gobble!

What Jamal didn’t know about Cookie and her father was that when her pop found illegal drugs and a gun in Cookie’s belongings, he threw her out of the house and turned his back on her because of her involvement with Lucious. Three days later, her father had a heart attack and died. Candace blamed Cookie and Cookie still feels that was a righteous call.

We were going to mention how odd it is that Lucious’ mother has not been seen for several episodes. We even thought that she would appear in this one in some kind of tussle with Juanita when the baby was left alone with Hakeem. But the preview of the next episode showed Leah Walker at the very end. So she will be back.