Empire 3×03, “What Remains Is Bestial,” showed us the aftermath of Andre’s unfortunate arrest, but at least Mariah Carey helped to lighten the mood!
Recap of ‘Empire’ 3×03, ‘What Remains Is Bestial’
Andre’s arrest
Andre’s out of jail now and his attorney tells Andre not to go “all ‘Black Lives Matter'” on him. Shame on him. When the press starts asking Andre questions, he goes to answer and then sees Rhonda in the group. Andre later heads to Empire and tells his parents that he didn’t cooperate, so he may have deserved a bit of what happened.
Cookie and Lucious want to go all-out public with this and get Thirsty involved in finding more info on the cops that racially profiled Andre, but Andre doesn’t want any of that.
Jamal and Hakeem attend Andre’s hearing. He discovers he’s also being charged with battery on a LEO and assault. He’s in complete shock. Turns out Andre’s lawyer is a friend of his from school and he’s not doing a great job. He says that it’s a cop’s word against Andre’s and they should plead out.
Lucious picks them up and takes them back to where they grew up as kids. He calls out his three sons, saying he thought Andre was “just bipolar” and Jamal was “just gay” and Hakeem was “just spoiled.” He tells them that they don’t realize they’re also black.
There’s never a dull moment with Lucious around, ladies and gentlemen.
Andre all but spits back at Lucious. Andre and Jamal storm out of the limo, and Hakeem wants to go back to the studio and have Lucious “eat his own words.”
Tariq follows Andre later that night and tells him that he read the report from the cop that arrested Andre. He tells Andre that he’s definitely going to get locked up after that. Andre realizes that Tariq is trying to get Andre to rat on Lucious.
Mariah/Kitty and Jamal
Jamal joins a PTSD group and quickly realizes that it isn’t for him. The group leader tries to convince him otherwise after the group session, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
We’re finally presented to Kitty (Mariah Carey), and it seems Cookie has set up a meeting between Jamal and Kitty. Jamal is of course star struck because Kitty is a very well known singer/artist.
Then Jamal is invited to go on tour with her! Jamal then blurts out that he’s “not really performing right now,” and things get awkward. Kitty tells Cookie and Jamal that she’s going to get back to rehearsing and to get back with her later.
Cookie reminds Jamal that the requests for Jamal have dropped and he needs to get his act together. Jamal then tells Kitty he has a proposition for her.
This entire episode, Lucious has been trying to get anyone to release content to add to Empire Ex-stream. Jamal presents the option to collab with Kitty and release the song on Ex-stream.
Jamal visits Freda in jail. He feels horrible that she’s in there, but his PTSD is kicking in even more in her presence. I guess he thought he’d feel better after seeing her — not so much.
Jamal and Kitty are trying to record a hot new track called “Infamous.” Jamal is obviously struggling a bit, and once again, Lucious is absolutely no help. It also doesn’t help that it seems the recording is being video taped or broadcast.
Jamal asks for the mood to be set in terms of lighting. He turns around and it looks like he may have taken a pain killer. Wasn’t he trying to get himself off of those? Also, was Kitty just flirting a bit with Andre there? He looked like he even blushed a bit! Good for him!
Jamal is then able to flawlessly record “Infamous” with Kitty. Unfortunately, it was with the help of his pain killers. You can listen to the audio of it above!
Lucious later releases the Black album on Ex-stream without Jamal’s permission. Lucious tells Cookie that it’s personal and it’s business.
Cookie and Angelo
When Cookie meets up with Angelo, he’s upset. Lucious is taking one of Angelo’s kids and giving him a contract, and now the kid wants to give up school and his other choice for a career. Cookie tells Angelo that Lucious did that to pit them against each other.
At the end of the episode, Lucious gives the boy a contract, but Cookie swoops in and rips it up because he needs to go to college instead of being a rapper — at least for now. Thank goodness!
Cookie tells Angelo that he’s not better than she is and he agrees. He goes in to give her a kiss and she disses him. Poor guy. But I have a feeling that won’t be the last of these two.
Loose ends
Anika talks to Lucious about possibly becoming head of A&R for Empire. While he’s talking to her, Anika’s ex-assistant stands up from under Lucious’ desk…claiming she was looking for her earring. So nasty.
Later on, she calls Lucious to the house and she does the exact same thing to him. Except the UPS man was looking for her…earring under his desk. Maybe these two were actually meant for each other?
Nobody knows Porsha. Don’t worry, girl! We see you, Boo!!!
Music
Tariq is posted outside of Leviticus because Tiana is performing that night. They decide they want to follow Gram (Romeo), a rapper that ends up singing with Tiana. Hakeem is not liking it either. Their song is catchy as hell, though! Here it is: “Love Long Time.”
Hakeem and Shyne are coming up with a song to diss Tiana and Gram, and Nessa doesn’t really want to join in on the hook. Shyne then grabs her by the throat and she immediately leaves. Hakeem looks scared and pissed. Hakeem goes to Lucious and tells him what happened, but Lucious doesn’t really care. Of course.
After Lucious gives that speech to the Lyon brothers, it seems to light a fire under Hakeem. He “claps back” at Tiana and uses part of her “Love Long Time” hook in his song instead of having Nessa do the hook on his song. It is absolutely brilliant, and Lucious is all too happy about it. Check it out here:
