FOX/Chuck Hodes(NEW YORK) — Wednesday’s episode of Empire, “Absent Child,” begins with a meeting between the Lyon and Dubois families.
Cookie accuses the Dubois’ of using their power to get Child Protective Services to take away baby Bella. The Dubois’ deny it and call out the Lyons for being messy and ruining Angelo’s career aspirations.
After the meeting, Anika, Kareem and Thirsty go to Child Protective Services to get back Bella. Unfortunately, an agent tells them they are unable to locate the child in the system.
The Lyon family discusses what to do and Thirsty recommends that Anika expedite her divorce from Lucious and distance herself from the Lyons who are “deemed unfit.” The family agrees.
At Leviticus, Lucious preps his dancers for his Inferno album release in Vegas. Jamal stops by to discuss the details of his music collaboration with his father.
Meanwhile, Andre and Shyne stop by Cookie’s home to talk about Vegas and their plan to hijack Lucious’ Inferno‘s show. Suddenly, Andre goes off on Shyne, for which Cookie later reprimands her son, telling him to get back on his medication.
At the studio, Lucious and Jamal wait for a rapper to show up, who turns out to be Fetty Wap. The rapper records a track for Lucious’ album, which Jamal agrees is hot.
Still showing major signs of a bipolar relapse, Dre comes back to the apartment and attacks Anika for killing his wife and baby. He sees she is miserable so backs off.
Later, Cookie decides to meet with the Vegas promoter to get the Vegas show focused on Jamal’s album, When Cookie Met Lyon. The promoter agrees, but only if Lucious is on board. At the meeting, Andre goes off the rails again and lashes out about Lucious being involved.
Meanwhile, Hakeem goes on social media and gets people riled up at the Dubois family for allegedly stealing his child. The next day, a mob protests the Dubois family for stealing baby Bella.
At a laundry mat, Cookie talks to Shyne about Vegas and getting baby Bella back. Apparently, Cookie’s plan to find Bella revolves around Shyne’s goons beating up Angelo for information. Angelo offers no info and Cookie walks away leaving him at the mercy of Shyne.
Later, Cookie reveals her own Vegas show plans to Lucious, but he tells her it’s not going to happen. Giuliana also shows up and reinforces that Cookie’s not going to get a chance in Vegas. Cookie storms out.
In the final moments of the episode, Angelo gets patched up by his mother after his beat down. When he tells his mother his plan to turn in the Lyon family to authorities, his mother says she has something better in store for them.
Suddenly, a nurse opens the doors to show baby Bella coming out in a stroller. It’s now revealed that Angelo’s mother was the one behind Child Protective Services taking Bella from the Lyon family.
Empire returns Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET. on Fox.
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