Empire season 3, episode 7, “What We May Be,” showed us how quickly dinner parties can go south. But Cookie always has something up her sleeve.
With two episodes left until the mid-season finale, this episode doesn’t do more than help the plot move forward a bit. This is a Cookie-heavy episode, though, and those tend to be my favorite.
Another favorite of mine that this episode helped me to figure out is: I love high!Jamal. He was hilariously witty — more so than usual. I know he needs to get off his meds soon, but I can enjoy a little bit of this before that happens, okay?
All right lets get down to the recap.
‘Empire’ 3×07 recap
Worst dinner party ever
Angelo’s mother, Diana, doesn’t seem to approve of Cookie. Cookie shows up late to an event that Angelo was holding and his mother is not impressed.
Cookie later goes to apologize to Angelo and tells him that Jamal brought up these old videos of her.
We then get a flashback of Cookie and Lucious. Cookie’s dad kicked her out because he didn’t want Lucious’ drugs and guns to corrupt his other two daughters like it was starting to do to Cookie.
Then three days later Cookie was driving by with Lucious and her father was taken in a stretcher due to a heart attack. He ended up dying and her sisters always blamed Lucious for it. That must have been so tough. How could she have still stayed with Lucious after that happened?
Angelo tells Cookie to invite her sons over for dinner the following night to make it up to his mother. The dinner ends up being at Cookie’s house and she’s freaking out.
Cookie asks Candace for help to be more proper at the dinner table. This is a huge task. Getting prepared for this dinner seems very important to Cookie and it’s actually adorable how much she wants to impress Diana. She even hides all her fur because Diana is part of PETA.
Jamal is the first son to show up to dinner and he’s high from the new meds that D-Major gave him. Let’s mark that down on our ever-growing list as another reason to hate D-Major.
And poor Cookie’s face when Hakeem barges in with a crying baby Stella!
Then when dinner is about to be served, Angelo decides to tell Cookie his mother is allergic to seafood — Cookie’s entire meal is “from the bottom of the ocean.”
Anika and Lucious make a surprise visit because they’re worried about Stella. Lucious decides that then is the perfect moment to lay the Lyon family drama all out on the table for Diana to listen in and witness. Typical Lucious.
Thankfully, Cookie always finds a way. She tells it like it is and then as usual Cookie asks Jamal to sing. Jamal then sings the fitting song, “Mama.”
Music
The day before the dinner, Jamal played this beautiful song for Cookie while home videos of Cookie’s younger days were shown on multiple TVs around her.
She loved it all until videos of her father were shown and she freaked out and left. Jamal went to ask his Aunt Carol why Cookie freaked out and she tells him it’s because of Lucious. Of course it is.
Andre skipped the dinner and went to Nessa’s family event in remembrance of her late brother. He brought Freda as well so she can link up with Shyne about new music for Empire.
Andre told Nessa he needed to go meet his mom, but she convinced him to stay because this is extremely important to her. Unfortunately for Cookie, Andre was the main son she wanted at her dinner.
Cookie’s rap sheet
-Cookie to Angelo: “I think this means you’re in.”
-Random guy to Jamal: “We’ve been waiting on your album since that gay bald-headed chick shot you at the ASAs.”
-Cookie to random girl hanging around Angelo: (Cookie throws girl’s bag on the ground) “Ol’ cheap ass bag.”
-Cookie to Angelo: “You gonna sing whatever you was singin’ to them cheap ass bitches?”
-Candace to Cookie: “You gonna have to Milania Trump the hell out of this.”