Becky is having a rooftop rendezvous with Empire artist J Poppa.

Cookie is frantically trying to get hold of Hakeem and she eventually receives a picture of him with tape over his mouth. She brings the picture to Lucious and the two of them work to free Hakeem. They go to the drop off spot, where the kidnappers have requested $40,000 in exchange for Hakeem. However, when the van comes, Hakeem is missing. 

Hakeem goes to Anika after the ordeal and the two kiss. 

Later, Hakeem shows up at Lucious's and is very scarred from the event. He blames both Cookie and Lucious before leaving. 

Andre meets with all the clients at Empire to make sure they are up to a certain standard. After meeting with J Poppa and discovering he's also a church man, he encourages the rapper to incorporate the bible into his music. J Poppa adds a freestyle bible verse to the end of his performance, much to Lucious's chagrin. 

At the same performance, Frida is heckled by a club goer and she responds by kicking him in the face. 

After getting turned away by the Staples Center, Jamal enlists the help of an old foe of Lucious's to help him market himself better.

Hakeem struggles after coming home and even brings a gun to a meeting with his kidnappers. Cookie arranged the meeting after getting some advice from Mr. Delgado about possibly bringing the kidnappers on as security.

Before Mirage-á-Trois's performance, Hakeem pushes Lucious away and Jamal and Andre talk to him. He freezes on stage when he sees Lucious in the crowd, but Laura is able to get him to focus. 

Cookie goes to Delgado and the two begin to make out. It's revealed that Delgado has the same bull horn tattoo as Hakeem's kidnappers.