The 2nd season of Empire has been somewhat of a disappointment to many, but we are all still tuned in waiting for the story line to get better.

That being said, the 4th episode of season 2 is titled ‘Poor Yorick,’ and it aired last night (October 14, 2015),

Synopsis:

The Lyons are still split into warring factions, but they all decide to shoot a music video that will capitalize on Hakeem and Jamal’s duet from Hakeem’s leaked album, a collaboration that will benefit both companies.

Read recap + watch the full episode below…

VIDEO: Empire Season 2, Episode 4

In episode four, the feds raid Empire, Cookie is arrested and a dead body resurfaces in the most unlikely of places.

1. The Raid

Apparently the Feds are still looking for answers on who killed Bunkie and they have turned up the heat.  This week Empire opens with a massive FBI raid on Empire’s headquarters.

Jamal is prepping for his 2nd album, which will be called ‘The Artist’ and the raid just so happens to take place when he hits the studio with a journalist from Rolling Stone by his side.  (Uh-Oh! Here comes the bad press!)

Lucious’ crooked lawyer ‘Thirsty’ heads to his mansion to inform he about the raid and Lucious meets the prosecutor, Roxanne Ford, in his foyer wearing nothing but his birthday suit.

[Sidebar: Judging from Ford’s reaction, she wasn’t too impressed with Lucious’ ‘package,’ but I digress.]

2. Lyons ROAR…

The FBI raid doesn’t stop Lucious from attending a board meeting at Empire along with the company’s shareholder Mimi Whiteman (Marisa Tomei).

This is when Lucious drops the line proclaiming that being raided by the FEDS basically means you’ve made it in the music biz:

Hip hop wasn’t born on Wall Street, where we come from cops’ raid your house . . . the Feds raid your house that makes you an OG.

This isn’t when we hide this is when we roar.

3. Lucious Lies…

Lucious holds a family meeting to inquire about Vernon’s whereabouts.   Since he’s in the business of asking questions, Hakeem boldly asks his dad if he killed Bunkie, which he adamantly denies.

Attorney ‘Thirsty’ suggests that the feuding Lyons remain “one big happy family” until Vernon is found.

And speaking of ‘Big Happy Family’… Cookie proposes a truce when she visits her ex at Empire to ask him to stop stealing clients and to give their son, Hakeem and the rest of “Lyons Dynasty’ airplay on APEX stations.

In return, Cookie will allow Hakeem to record a video with Jamal.

4. Ride or Die…

Andre meets with his dad again for yet another desperate attempt to get his job back at Empire. There’s another vague Kelly Rowland flashback and Lucious is reminded of how he had to lie for his ‘bi-polar’ mother.

Andre tells Lucious that he can find Vernon (of course he can, he buried the body!) and issues a proposal to his dad, stating:

“If I can make this go way. Can I come back?”

Later, Andre tells his ‘ride or die’ becky that God has spoken to him and he’s going to dig up Vernon’s body.

5. It’s about the POWER

Hakeem and Jamal reunite to film a music video with the hook, “It’s not about the money” but the power.

The video aims to prove to the world that the Lyons are a unified family.

Things seem to be going well until a jealous Hakeem loses his cool when he sees a huge abstract painting of Jamal on the set.

A fist fight between the brothers ensues.

6. Cookie Tells All (but not really).

Meanwhile, Cookie heads off set to take a phone call but gets picked up by the cops outside of the studio.  As she’s forced into the car, Cookie yells, ‘If I die in police custody, know that I did not commit suicide’… (and ode to the Sandra Bland Case).

Cookie is picked up on a failure to appear charge, but it turns out it’s a bogus charge (her assistant Porsha apparently used Cookie’s name after jumping a subway turnstile), whatever the case, the evil prosecutor is threatening to make the charges stick.

Cookie has flashbacks about jail and considers snitching… but she’s smarter than that! Cookie tells the prosecutor a ‘made up’ story about Lucious that will totally benefit her.

She claims that Lucious and Bunkie were fighting over the ownership rights to Apex Radio and apparently her story is good enough for her to be set free… it’s also good enough to tie up the sell of the radio to her ex-husband ‘for years’!

7. Body Detection Devices

Andre and his ‘ride or die’ wife head to the woods to find Vernon’s corpse but as they dig deeper they can’t seem to find him.

Dre assures his wife that they are in the right spot and notes that Vernon was buried by a ‘tree with a hole in it’ but soon, Rhonda figures out that all the holes on the trees look exactly the same!

That’s when an unknown car appears and the couple thinks they’ve been busted…. but it’s actually Lucious and Thirsty, who have found them after putting a tracking device on Dre’s car.

Conveniently, Thirsty has a ‘body detection’ device in his car (and a few extra shovels) and the group finds Vernon’s body right where Dre left it.

The next day, the evil prosecutor is shocked to discover Vernon’s decayed body in the passenger seat of her car!

Check mate…

What did you think of this week’s episode of Empire?

Is it getting better or worse?