‘Empire’ season 3’s episode 5, entitled "One Before Another", will feature Shine’s revenge on the Lyons. Lucious’ rival is set to go after him and his son Andre following a bad deal over Nessa. Meanwhile, Jamal and Hakeem may collaborate and perform together despite Jamal’s fears.
The synopsis for episode 5 posted on Carter Matt stated, “Lucious and Andre are on high alert as they wait for Shine to retaliate after their latest business encounter went south. Jamal, who has yet to perform in front of his fans, teams up with Hakeem for a performance that he thinks could help him face his fears. Meanwhile, Cookie is caught off-guard during a routine meeting with her probation.”
Things don’t seem to be looking good for Lucious (Terrence Howard) and Andre (Trai Byers) despite signing rising star Nessa (Sierra McClain) over to Empire Entertainment. The promo for the incoming episode showed Shine (Xzibit) going after one of the Lyons with a gun in revenge for a business deal gone bad.
In the preceding episode, entitled "Cupid Kills", Shine (Xzibit) called on other music label managers for a bidding war over Nessa much to Lucious’ ire. In the end, Nessa still signed for Empire. However, Lucious proceeded to beat Shine up with a bat and threatened his rival with a gun for attacking Andre.
Meanwhile, Jamal (Jussie Smollet) is forced to confront his fears by returning on stage to perform for his fans. During season 2’s finale, Jamal made an ultimatum to stop performing until his family stopped the violence and cleaned up its ways. He was also traumatized after being accidentally shot by Freda (Bre-Z).
According to TV Line, showrunner Ilene Chaiken teased that season 3 will be about “really examining the journey of Jamal’s recovery. In the finale, he comes out of the hospital after being shot, but he’s clearly not recovered physically, and certainly not psychically.”
Chaiken also revealed that Freda will continue to play a part in season 3. She said, “She’s part of our story. It’s not over. Jamal understand she’s a victim, but he still has to deal with the fact that she shot him. It was a hugely traumatizing event that she perpetrated on him. But he believes in her and in the mission of ending the cycle. So he’s going to have to do something about it.”
Basing on season 5’s synopsis, Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) will step in to help his older brother by collaborating on a performance. Perhaps Jamal will come out of his imposed silence after all.
‘Empire’ season 3’s episode 5, entitled "One Before Another", is scheduled to premiere on Fox on November 2, 2016. The musical-drama television series was created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong and debuted on the network on January 2015.
