‘Empire’ Season 2, Episode 6 Recap: Hakeem Returns Home, Cookie Has Sex With the Enemy and Jamal’s Career Takes a Hit

After taking a week off from the drama -- for a much less dramatic viewing of the World Series -- viewers can rest easy because Empire is back and the OMG moments continue. While the show officially kicks off with Becky getting down with her first love scene, it's Hakeem's kidnapping that brings viewers up to speed and back to all things Lyon.

Hakeem's been missing for hours and Cookie can't stop leaving him threatening voicemails telling him to "bring his ass." But after receiving a "fake" video of his kidnapping, the Lyoness transfers her aggressive nature from her son to his father -- since she thinks he's behind the whole thing. As Jamal and Lucious premiere Empire's latest track, "You Broke Love," Cookie barges in to ask her baby daddy why he would pretend to kidnap their son. To no surprise, Lucious says, "I didn't do this." Thus, Cookie responds by shrieking, "Oh my, God. He was really snatched!"

There's no question that the scene's delivery could have been executed a little more convincingly, but ultimately, we get the point. Hakeem's three kidnappers are using him to shake Cookie down for setting up shop on their block. They hold Hakeem for a whopping $40,000 -- a kid that's worth millions. But after what seems like nothing more than five hours -- as Charlamagne Tha God so candidly pointed out on Twitter (the tweet has since been deleted) -- Hakeem's kidnappers pay someone to return him in an unmarked van.

However, Hakeem asks the driver to let him out before reaching the drop off location, and he does. He finds himself disoriented and wandering around in a place other than Manhattan. By the looks of things, let's just say the place represents Brooklyn. He shows up at Anika's place and starts kissing her like she wasn't almost his stepmother at one point.

Acting out and having constant flashbacks to his less-than-half-a-day kidnapping, Cookie steps in to get help and protection for her son and her family. So she turns to Laz Delgado, her new love interest, to help her find a solution. Laz suggests she hire the guys that took Hakeem to watch over them. Cookie latches onto the idea and sets up a meeting with the three men, not realizing it was actually four men involved, and holds a gun to the ringleader's head telling him next time he won't even hear the knock at the front door.

Meanwhile, Andre is officially running Gutter Life Records. But instead of reviving the street-bred label, he's gutting it to show rapper there's a different lyrical path for them to follow. The eldest Lyon introduces his roster at Leviticus only to find out that his father didn't give him the job he thought he did. In fact, while Freda Gatz hits the stage to perform, Andre tells his father she has to go. Lucious says that's not an option. The conversation plays out like this: "You put me in charge," say Andre. "No, I put you in place. Don't confuse the two." There's no question as to who was speaking there. Poor Andre. He can never catch a break.

Outside of the family business, Jamal is still dealing with his personal issues aka Michael cheating on him at his own house, and Jameson Henthrop played by William Fichtner (Prison Break, The Longest Yard and Entourage) steps in to represent Jamal in the LGBT community after the Staples Center overlooks him for a gig because he's too "now of an artist." In other words, he's too openly gay for them to pay him to perform. Laura Calleros, the lead singer of Hakeem's all-girl group with no name (Cookie calls them “Destiny’s Problem Child”) is falling for him and Anika catches wind of their attraction to each other when she stops by to check on him after his "return." Unfortunately, Laura and the rest of Lyon Dynasty is celebrating their first performance at his house and he tells Boo Boo Kitty it's not a good time.

Maybe Andre and Anika should start hanging out together because neither one of them are winning right now.

And to wrap things up, Empire has its first jaw-dropping moment of the season when viewers find out that Cookie's new man is the real mastermind behind Hakeem's kidnapping. How do fans know this? He has the same steer tattoo on his back as the rest of his kidnapping crew.

Stay tuned for what drama occurs on Empire next week.

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