Fox TV’s Empire is bringing the HEAT this season… figuratively and literally!

This week’s episode is titled ‘The Rise of Sine’ and the popular hip-hop drama shocked fans as one of it’s main characters took a bullet and was left bleeding on the red carpet.

FoxTV Synopsis:

Hakeem struggles to find a place for his fianc?, Laura, in his career and family; Cookie reveals the truth about Freda’s father to Jamal; Jamal makes a sacrifice for Lucious.

While common sense would lead us to believe that it’s virtually IMPOSSIBLE for a main character to get killed, Jussie Smollet has hinted that he just might be gone for good!

More details + watch full episode below…

VIDEO: Empire S2 Ep7

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Last night,?Jamal took a bullet for his homophobic music mogul father, who had only a few scenes earlier had berated his son about being a DL producer’s ‘latest b*tch’. ?Lucious also shockingly made a statement about said he hoping Jamal died from AIDS. 😯

While Jamal’s life saving actions may have seemed to be genuine, I believe he was helping Freda more so than saving Lucious?from the shooting.

Jamal seems to care about Freda and probably and didn’t want her to make such a destructive life-altering mistake…. but I digress.

Jussie Smollett revealed a bit of tea via twitter recently and it seems that this is all part of a larger plan.

Empire has been chopped & screwed in several lawsuits and I’ve heard through the grapevine that this season may actually be the last due to the costs involved in defending all of the cases.

I didn’t initially believe the rumor, but judging from Jussie’s tweet there seems to be some truth to it. ?Hail… it’s no secret that Daniels has certainly faced his share of lawsuits stemming from the show and most are still pending:

• Marvin Gaye’s son filed a lawsuit last year, claiming that Daniels stole the concept from him…
• A former pimp?named Ron Newt filed a billion dollar lawsuit against Daniels, Terence Howard AND Fox?claiming the entire story was stolen from him and is based on his life story…

Ron Newt, who describes himself as a “known ghetto player” claims he met with Terrence at the Four Seasons hotel a while back and they discussed Ron’s documentary, “Bigger than Big.” Ron says Terrence connected to it, and said he wanted to play him in the film.

Fast forward to January, when “Empire” debuted to huge ratings. Ron says the similarities are more than suspicious. (READ MORE)

• And now a lady named Sonya Eggleston has filed a lawsuit of her own claiming that she’s the real cookie…

Former gangster Sophia Eggleston has hired a lawyer and filed new court papers alleging that the producers of ?Empire? lifted the flamboyantly fiery role, played by?Taraji P. Henson, from the pages of her 2009 autobiography, ?The Hidden Hand.?

The papers filed in US District Court in Michigan claim that Eggleston met screenwriter Rita Miller at her home in California in 2011 and that Miller said she would pitch it to Daniels.

The suit takes aim at 23 characteristics and plot points that it claims were taken from ?The Hidden Hand,? including that Eggleston has a gay son and that Lyon has a gay son?and that both the real and fictional ladies have a taste for flashy clothes and feather boas. (READ MORE)

Most recently, Daniels was forced to issue a public apology to Sean Penn for disparaging statements he made while defending Empire star Terrence Howard against domestic violence claims.

[READ: CUT THE CHECK! Sean Penn Settles $10 Million Defamation Suit Against #Empire’s Lee Daniels… ]

Whatever the case, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes and there could possibly be some major news dropping soon.

Stay tuned.

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

Is Jamal going to die? Could this be the final season of the popular show??