EMPIRE, Season 1 Finale, March 2015

Cookie sleeps with the Head of Security Malcolm (Derek Luke). When Lucious finds out, he kicks her out of the company but doesn’t fire Malcolm, who decides to quit anyway and asks Cookie to leave town with him. Cookie refuses to walk away from what she built at Empire.

Still angry with Lucious for paying off his cougar-love Camilla to leave town (he doesn’t know she didn’t take the money), Hakeem disses him in a rap at the press conference for the big concert and announces that he is going with Anika to Beretti’s label. Lucious punches him.

Lucious turns to Jamal for help on a new song, his swan song. Jamal helps him but refuses to perform at the concert without Cookie running it so Lucious asks her

back. Newly bonded with Dad, Jamal dangles Beretti over a balcony so he’ll sign over Lucious’ master recordings.  Lucious told Jamal he had to get those masters if he wants to take over Empire. At Beretti’s, Lucious finds Hakeem in bed with Anika (ex-fiancee)! They wanted to hurt him, which they did.

Turns out Lucious has MG (serious but treatable) rather than ALS, so he’s not dying. In a drug stupor, he confesses to killing Bunky.  Cookie overhears and starts to smother him but he wakes up and stops her.

Lucious tells the family that he’s not dying and apologizes for everything.  Hakeem gets a private jet, and Dre gets a well-funded foundation he can use for religious purposes. He names Jamal as the new head of Empire, pissing off everyone else. He also outs Cookie for trying to kill him, showing the video to Jamal. She tries to explain that Lucious killed Bunky, but Jamal doesn’t seem to be listening. They make up later though.

The feds want Cookie to help get Lucious for Bunky’s murder, but she refuses in spite of her anger.

Andre wants to quit Empire, having been passed over; he’s more interested in hanging out at church with Jennifer Hudson. His wife almost leaves him. Lucious makes J.Hud an offer she can’t refuse, and much to Dre’s dismay, she sells out. Later, Dre hooks up with Cookie, Hakeem and Anika to launch a takeover of Empire (Anika’s idea).

Lucious mends fences with Vernon (Malik Yoba), who then tries to placate Dre to keep him at Empire.  They fight, and Rhonda hits Vernon over the head defending Dre.  Vernon dies, they cover it up, and she reveals she is pregnant.

Empire starts public trading. Dre is there with his face all bruised; Lucious is wondering where Vernon is. At the big concert, Lucious is arrested for murder. He thinks Cookie rolled on him but she denies it.  It looks like it’s part of the hostile takeover. The takeover investor said they needed to catch Lucious in a scandal to sink the stock prices, so they could swoop in to buy it up cheap.

The feds are upset that Vernon is missing b/c he’s supposed to be their star witness. In the end, Lucious is behind bars, but is he in jail awaiting arraignment/trial? Or have we jumped forward in time, and he’s already serving a prison sentence? It looks like the takeover has gone through, and everyone is moving ahead with their lives. Dre and Rhonda have an ultrasound; Hakeem is recording with Anika; Jamal is running meetings at Empire; Cookie looks like she moved into the mansion. And Lucious vows revenge in a voiceover.