Empire

Previously on Empire...

Your entire family will burn to the ground.

We are happy to reunite you with your daughter.

But, it comes at a price.

Jamal Lyon thinks I'm gorgeous.

- Fabulous. This is Franco.

- He's the best at blowing stuff up. - Boom.

I want to see the world with you, Cook.

I want to write a new page in our story.

- Hey, I'm calling it off. - You started this. I'm gonna finish it.

Oh, Lucious!

Look, I know you're some kind of special nurse,

but it's been three months.

Lucious! (gasps) Lucious!

Who are you?

Are y'all ready for this?

We're making this TV special,

shooting interviews

and rehearsals so the audience can see

all the work and love that goes into building Empire.

Thank you.

Look, there's a lot of me in Empire.

All right? My blood, my sweat

and my tears.

And Lucious... will he be

a part of the special?

This year is Empire's 20th anniversary, so...

- (cheering) - You can't speak about

Empire's legacy without Lucious.

There would be none of this without Lucious.

I said, are y'all ready for this?

He is our legacy.

You know how I get down.

Funk Flex... I'm in the building.

Act like you want it. This is what

New York City sounds like! This is gonna be

on TV in about a month. I need y'all to look live,

act live and be live, you hear me?

You and your family have suffered a great deal

of pain in the last five months.

Is this anniversary bittersweet?

It sure ain't sweet... (laughs)

...when that kind of pain comes at you,

and it came at us fast and hard.

And you just do what you got to do.

You stick together, 'cause that's what family does, right?

They don't call us Lyons for nothing.

How many of you are old enough

to remember Motown's 25th Anniversary, 1983?

Yeah, we grew up on it.

Our dad would play it over and over.

They had Stevie, Marvin, Smokey, The Jackson Five.

Mm-hmm, it was the first time anyone had ever seen

Michael Jackson moonwalk to "Billie Jean."

It was the big bang of pop.

Our television special will

make this 20th anniversary be our big bang.

And it's gonna be hot,

so, to the Empire!

To the Empire!

To my father.

Lucious!

Well, my parents made the sacrifices

to build this company,

and, uh, they looked forward to the day

when they would hand it over to one of us.

if I had a choice between having Empire

or, uh...

or having my father...

I, uh...

I'm sorry. Um, don't... don't print that.

Let's... start over again, please.

: Can we stop?

I can't... do this again.

- (applause and cheering) Tonight,

at Laviticus for the Empire 20th Anniversary Special,

making his first public appearance

since that fateful night in Las Vegas

when we almost lost him,

Lucious Lyon... will... be... here!

Ready?

Okay.

Hey, Cookie!

Hey. Lucious. Yeah.

Looking good.

Yes, he's back. He looks good, right?

- (laughs quietly) - Mm-hmm.

Welcome back, boss!

All here for you.

- Okay? Lucious.

- Ma'am. - It's okay, Webb.

Really? It's me... Carlotta.

You're looking damn good, brother.

LUCIOUS (laughs): Mmm!

And you're wearing that dress, Cookie.

Thank you... Carlotta.

Were you in that girl group... that duo with that white girl?

- Mm-hmm. - Carlotta... What was it?

- Brown. - Yes.

- Mixed Harmony. Me and Mary Davis. - Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we sang the hook on a couple

of Lucious's tracks back in the day.

Remember how you used to tell Mary

how much you loved her voice?

It was her tone.

Her tone.

Well, she passed.

- Drugs. - Oh, we are

so sorry to hear that.

But you look good, girl, but we gots to get on.

Well, I'm managing her daughters now.

I mean, they're a girl group,

and I thought you might want to help 'em out.

You know, as a favor to Mary.

Maybe lend one of your producers to do a couple tracks for 'em.

I mean, y'all got the best ones.

- Well... - Yeah, we got the best,

and they very busy.

Yeah, but I'm sure we can do something for them.

I mean, even if it's just for... for Mary.

Okay, I tell you what. Call the office,

and we'll see what we can do for you.

- Webb? Come on. - Thanks.

- No, thank you. - Uh-huh. Thank you. Watch yourself now.

I...

I didn't know who that was.

That's okay, baby. You're doing good.

- Hey, Lucious. Welcome back. - Hiya, boss.

Okay, wait a minute. Back up.

How's it going? What's up, Lucious?

...drinking in your honor.

We missed you, man. Okay.

- Right here, Lucious. All right, back up.

Okay, back up. Back up.

Hey! Hey, Lucious!

I can't believe... Hi!

Aah! Get away from me!

Get me out of here!

_

Hey, boss man, I got some...

I got some news.

- I'm not your boss. - Look,

Las Vegas PD is coming back for one more round.

- All right, just pro forma, no biggie. - It's been five months.

I already gave them my statement, Thirsty.

Well, give it to 'em again verbatim, all right?

You overheard Giuliana in the alley behind the club,

popping off at somebody about how Lucious betrayed her,

and now he was gonna pay with his life.

She said something about his car.

Yeah, and that's when you ran to warn him.

- Have they found her yet? - My people

are telling me Vegas PD is getting ready to bring her in.

- All right? This is good news, right? - (door opens)

I told them we're just giving news divisions

access for five minutes,

and they're exclusive for everything else.

I'll work it out.

Well, you can tell MTV and BET

they can threaten to pull coverage all they want.

I'm not the one bluffing here. I want every network

to catch Lucious walking out on that stage,

live and in the flesh.

Cookie, I pushed back your investment review

so you could do that press briefing.

Child, did you run it by Andre?

Because I can't do all that financial,

high-English double-talk with him.

I'm here, Mom.

Thank you.

It's mainly business press. They'll throw you

some questions about when Lucious plans

- on coming back to work. - Why?

Our share prices are high, our revenue is strong.

Lucious's back catalogue is more valuable than ever.

Wall Street just likes to be reassured.

They'll chill after they see him at the anniversary

- concert tomorrow night. - I hope so.

I got to run. I got to do something real quick.

I'll, uh, be back in half an hour?

Uh, wait, wait. I want you to look at something.

Thank you.

This pitch from Big Ten?

Oh, yeah. Um, I say

we play hard-to-get until after the anniversary,

then reevaluate.

I say so, too.

Have you heard from Pop?

Are they back from Stanford yet?

Claudia said, um, everything went well.

They should be landing in 20.