Does Lucious love Kingsley? Will God save Andre? Is Teri a part of the family? Does Cookie want to save her marriage? And what is the FBI up to when it comes to Lucious Lyon? All those questions and more are answered in “A Wise Father That Knows His Own Child” episode of Empire.
The episode begins with Teri (Meta Golden) in the pulpit of a church – her church, presumably – and she is reminding the audience that she believes in the power of God and she is asking everyone to pray for Andre (Trai Byers.) Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) and Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) sit in the audience. Cookie looks to be a believer while Lucious looks stricken and pained. It turns out that pain was his soul being nurtured by God to “get his house in order,” as described by the preacher, Pastor Brown. His prayer for the family was a bit of an indictment of Lucious.

“Put your house in order and let God work in your life.” And with that, Tina Jenkins Crawley (a stellar musician in real life) leads the church in a lovely gospel song.

The next scene finds Andre in bed, looking like he is sick and in extreme pain. Teri is there to minister to his needs and Cookie, as mothers do, offers him a plate. But he’s just had another chemo drip, and he’s not interested in food. Cookie and Lucious go upstairs while Teri reminds Cookie that she’s got this. When they get upstairs, the Lyon patriarch and matriarch struggle a bit with the emotions of the church service. Cookie doesn’t want to say it, but she’s afraid Andre will die. Lucious tells her to think positive and to stop entertaining those negative ideas. But then Lucious says something that will make anyone watching give pause:

“What if the preacher was right? Maybe if I made peace with Kingsley the karma would turn around and it would save Andre.”
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This doesn’t make Cookie feel better. She says she needs to leave and go spend some time with her sister Carol on a project.