‘Empire’ Spoilers: What Happened In The Season 1 Finale? Recap Before The Season 2 Premiere

The Lyon family will return to the small screen when “Empire” premieres on Fox. There will be plenty of fighting, new music, guest stars and drama just as there was in “Empire” . But before we go back into the Lyon’s den, here’s what happened in the two-hour Season 1 finale, “Die But Once”/ “Who I Am.”

(Terrence Howard), who had been battling ALS the entire season, found out that he was misdiagnosed. Instead it was revealed that he suffers from a condition called Myasthenia Gravis, a chronic but highly treatable autoimmune neuromuscular disorder.

(Bryshere Y. Gray) was fed up with Lucious trying to control his every move, and had an outburst onstage with Snoop Dogg during his album release party. He bashed Lucious in front of everyone and Lucious responded by punching his son in the face. Hakeem would later get back at Lucious by hooking up with his father’s ex-fiancé, Anika (Grace Gealey).

After taking powerful sleeping pills, Lucious admitted out loud that he killed Bunkie (Antoine McKay). Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) heard him and learned that Lucious wasn’t dying. Upset that he was responsible for Bunkie’s death, Cookie tried to smother him with a pillow, but Lucious was alert enough to stop her and she left his room shocked and upset.

With his second chance at life, Lucious apologized to his family and brought everyone gifts. Hakeem received his own jet to tour with, and Lucious promised that he would stop trying to control him. Lucious started up the Lyon Foundation for Andre, and promised to give him $100 million for his disposal after the IPO closes. Jamal was the son who Lucious decided to hand over Empire.

Jamal impressed his father after helping Lucious with his writer’s block and going after Beretti (Judd Nelson) to get Lucious’ music back. Jamal also convinced Lucious to let Cookie back into Empire after he decided to throw her out after he learned of a relationship she had with his head of security, Malcolm (Derek Luke).

Hakeem, Anika, Cookie and Andre began to organize a hostile takeover. Although Cookie refused to work with Anika at first, to the point where the two came to blows, Cookie agreed and they find a financial backer to support them.

Vernon went to talk things over with Andre, but soon things escalated into a fight. Rhonda walked in on Vernon beating up Andre and she asked him to stop. When Vernon wouldn’t let go of Andre she hit him over the head with a candle stick, which ended up killing him. Andre said they had to call the police, but she said no because she was pregnant.

At the very end of the episode, Lucious was arrested for the murder of Bunkie just as he was about to go on stage for his legacy concert. He believed that Cookie was the one who ratted him out and he swore that he’d be back for revenge. However, the police revealed their key witness to Bunkie’s murder, Vernon, was missing.