'Empire' Season 4, Episode 9 'Slave to Memory' Fall Finale Recap: A War Between Families [SPOILERS]

It’s going to be a showdown this week on “Empire,” because the Lyons is going to strike the Dubois. It’s one thing to win a custody battle, but it’s another if your son goes through a psychological break. The doctors even told Lucious (Terrence Howard) that Andre (Trai Byers) might suffer brain damage. Now the Lyons have to show the world how devious and conniving the Dubois family is. In “Empire,” a family sticks together for better and worse. And if someone takes one of them down, they have to pay the price.

‘Empire’ Ready to Hit Back

This season of “Empire,” they tackled amnesia, synesthesia, custody battles, and hallucinations. Now it’s time to wrap everything together. They needed a way to get into the Dubois the way they hit them. Luckily, Warren saw through his evil mother, Dianna, and told Jamal (Jussie Smollett) some top-secret intel about his mother’s scheming. It’s his way of apologizing and asking Jamal back. So the plan was set into motion. Lucious offers Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) the seat and takes charge of the arrangements. They have to humiliate the Dubois in their fancy Captain’s Ball. Thirsty (Andre Royo) comes in telling the Lyons, the security is tight, but Lucious has a simple solution for that, they get in using music.

But it looks like Diana is expecting Team Lyon to come and ruin their ball. She amps up the security to make sure nothing will ruin their evening. Angelo even suggests not to push through with the Captain’s Ball. But Diana refuses and knows the Lyons are not capable of doing any damage towards them. She underestimated the fury of a Lyon’s roar. They start off with Cookie and Lucious kidnapping Angelo before the Captain’s Ball. They take Angelo to an alley where Lucious demands Angelo to sign a written confession stating that Diana extorted Hakeem and kidnapped Bella. Lucious tries to reason with Angelo that they have quite a few things in common when it comes to psychotic mothers. Angelo then replies the only thing they have in common is that they both slept with Cookie. This enrages Lucious and punches Angelo until he signs the confession.

Revenge Served with Sweet Soul

After getting Angelo to sign the confession, Cookie and Lucious were able to enter the Captain’s Ball. The former flames hit the dance floor amazing everyone with their passion-filled dance. Then comes in Jamal and Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) with a musical performance blowing everyone away. Diana was confused as to how the Lyons made it in with a strict guest list. When Lucious said music will get them in, he wasn’t kidding. No one did a security check with the orchestra. So it was easy for them to sneak in. After their performance, Cookie takes the stage where she royally roasts Diana. Not only did she call Diana a slew of words but she told everyone what Diana did to her family.
Cookie told the audience of the Captain Ball about how Diana kidnapped her granddaughter, Bella. It wasn’t sitting well with any of the audience members, but Cookie was only getting started. She told them about how Diana’s daughter hired a psychiatrist to give Andre hallucinating inducing drugs. He already has a mental illness now he’s in the hospital recovering. She even had Warren rat out his family members on camera. Diana calls the police to help contain the madness, but once the officers were there, they arrest her instead for kidnapping Bella. In the end, it was Cookie who had the last laugh.

There’s more Crazy coming to ‘Empire.’

Once Diana was exposed, Hakeem goes to Anika (Grace Gealey-Byers) to get Bella back. He goes on and tells her if she tries anything again he can have her arrested for being an accessory to a kidnapping. Hakeem wants Bella to grow up with a mother; he promises she will still be a part of their daughter’s life. He’s not going to release the evidence he has against Anika, but he wants her to remember that he has it in his back pocket. Meanwhile, Angelo finds Warren’s hotel room and pulls a gun on him. He blames Warren for the fiasco orchestrated by the Lyons. If it weren’t for him, the Dubois wouldn’t have gotten away with everything. Then Jamal walks through the door. Amused they were going to run away together, Angelo shoots Warren. Jamal and Angelo get into a fight. In the middle of the fight, Jamal accidentally shoots Angelo.

With all things said and done, Cookie has won the war. This makes Lucious happy and hopeful for their relationship since there’s no one to stand in their way anymore. He visits Andre first; there he finds Shine standing over Andre. When Lucious asked what Shine wanted all he said was that he was worried about his man Andre. Suspicious, Lucious shrugged it off and told Andre about how they took down the Dubois as he promised. While sedated, Andre admits to trying to kill Lucious! Before he has time to react, Lucious is stabbed with a needle. He wakes up strapped to bed. Confused, through his hazy state we see Claudia (Demi Moore). She didn’t take the break-up well, especially when she tells Lucious she’s bringing Dwight back.
“Empire” returns spring 2018 on FOX.