Empire season 3, episode 4, “Cupid Kills,” brought Cookie and Angelo a bit closer together. Find out how things went down in our recap of the episode.

‘Empire’ 3×04, ‘Cupid Kills’ recap

Jamal and Freda

Jamal and his counselor go to Freda’s prison to help him with his PTSD. When Freda walks out, her one eye is swollen shut as a result of getting beaten so badly. Jamal quickly jumps to her defense, but she tells him she deserved it because of what she did to him.

Angelo later meets with Jamal and Jamal gives him advice to level more with Cookie. In exchange, Angelo tells Jamal he’s going to hook him up with an attorney that might be able to help Freda Gatz get out of prison.

Thanks to the new attorney, Jamal is able to truly help Freda get out of jail. He pleads with the Judge and tells her she was basically set up for failure and she needs help. The Judge ends up letting her free.

Lucious congratulates Jamal on getting Freda out of jail. Lucious then tells Jamal that he had Freda beaten and she knew it was coming. They both knew that Jamal would help her once he saw her.

Also, Lucious told him that he was happy Jamal paid off the doctor to convince the judge of her mental history because now anything Freda says isn’t credible. Basically that means Lucious is now off the hook for killing her father, and Jamal unknowingly helped that happen. Ugh. Damn you, Lucious!

Cookie and Angelo’s date night

Angelo asks Cookie out on a date and when she thinks about it, he reminds her of the boy her father wanted her to marry. We flash back to Cookie and her father. Her father tells her not to get with Lucious because he’s just going to drag her down.

Watching Cookie get ready for her date with Angelo is adorable. She finally picks a hot red dress to wear and when she arrives, Angelo tells her that this is a black tie fundraiser. All the woman are in long beautiful gowns and Cookie definitely looks like she feels a bit out of place.

After overhearing a couple of women in the restroom talk about her — and Cookie hilariously responding to their gossip — she quickly sneaks passed Angelo and leaves the fundraiser without him seeing her.

Angelo meets Cookie at Tiana’s live music stream and they share a moment. They realize they’re really not all that different from each other. Lucious butts in, and when Cookie walks away, Lucious flashes us back to the moment where Cookie got her nickname.

A young Lucious is rapping with Cookie and others watching. A friend tells Lucious that Cookie’s boyfriend is looking for “Laretha.” Lucious tells Cookie that she’s “his cookie” and he takes her boyfriend outside where he is jumped and thrown out. Poor guy.

Music

As always, the music on Empire is the reason for everything. “Cupid Kills” absolutely killed it!

This song by Nessa (Sierra McClain) is simply amazing, and I can’t help but notice Andre’s attraction to Nessa either. What’s hilarious is that Lucious thinks he can come in and sweep Nessa away from Shyne with a contract but Shyne isn’t stupid. In the other room are a group of other music labels ready to compete for Nessa.

Lucious recruits Hakeem to help Andre sign Nessa to Empire, but Hakeem quickly blows it when Shyne exploits the amount Empire is willing to pay for Nessa on their live stream.

Andre then tries on his own and seems to succeed. There is definitely something between Nessa and Andre, and I really like where this is going. Unfortunately, I still feel like Rhonda’s death isn’t even really talked about. When Andre tells Lucious about Nessa signing, Shyne barges in and punches Andre. Ultimately, Shyne is forced to sign the papers with a literal gun pointed to his head.

Shyne is getting ready for a war against Lucious, Andre and Empire. This is at the same time that Nessa shows up at Andre’s house and they start to have sex. All of a sudden Andre sees the vision of Rhonda again and his vision of Rhonda is telling him to do it — and she kind of joins in — which is totally weird. Very weird, actually.

Tiana finally comes up with her own “clap-back” to Hakeem’s from last week, and it’s performed live on Ex-stream. All with the help of Cookie and Angelo. Lucious makes fun of the fact that it has a bit of an opera feel to it — obviously that’s because it was partly influenced by Angelo’s date with Cookie — but is loving how many viewers tuned in.

Jamal is still addicted to pain killers — but he creates an amazing song while he’s high on them and alcohol. Although he’s creating great music under the influence, I do hope he gets himself together soon.

Cookie’s rap sheet

• While getting ready — “I look like snuffleuphagus.”
• When speaking to the snobby women at the fundraiser — “Actually, I have summered in Connecticut — at the Danbury Federal Institution for Women.”
• After overhearing the same snobby women talking about her in the restroom — “Once I get finished whippin’ both of y’alls asses, you’ll wish you never met a hoodrat like me. [She flinches toward the women and they jump as Cookie chuckles.] Just wipin’ my hands, bitches.”

What did you think of ‘Empire,’ 3×04, ‘Cupid Kills’?

Empire 3×05 will air after the world series on FOX.