‘Empire’ Season 3 Spoilers: Andre Schemes To Get Nessa Into The Spotlight; Episode 8 Recap

The Lyon family is really starting to fall apart. On Wednesday’s Season 3, episode 8 of Fox’s “Empire,” Andre makes it his mission to ruin his mother’s fashion show in order to help Nessa, while Anika demands Lucious give her what she wants. Keep reading for the recap of “The Unkindest Cut.”

The episode kicks off with Tiana (Serayah) rehearsing for an fashion show Empire Records is doing. Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) brings Angelo (Taye Diggs) and Diane (Phylicia Rashad) to the rehearsal and wants to introduce them to Helen Von Wyeth (Gina Gershon), the designer they are collaborating with for the show.

It turns out that Diane already knows Helen and upsets Cookie by asking Jamal (Jussie Smollett) to write a song for Angelo’s campaign and sing it at the governor’s ball. Cookie doesn’t want Jamal to do the performance because of his post-traumatic stress disorder, but Jamal agrees.

To further complicate things for the fashion show, Helen tells Cookie that she wants Tina to wear her hair straight and to wear one of the dresses she designed. Cookie says the dress is too tight and too long for Tiana to do her choreography. Helen doesn’t care.

As all of this is going on Andre (Trai Byers) is still working on his plan to take over Empire with Nessa (Sierra McClain). Andre tells Nessa that he wants her in position to take over Empire with him. They later show up to Tiana’s rehearsal for the fashion show and Nessa tells him that she wants to be in the spotlight.

After the rehearsal, Andre apologizes to Cookie for missing her dinner and tells her that he met Nessa’s family. He tells his mom that he didn’t think it was possible for him to like someone else after Rhonda’s (Kaitlin Doubleday) death, and Cookie is happy for him. Andre also asks if Nessa can shadow Tiana at the fashion show so she can learn more about the business and Cookie tells him that Nessa can come to Tiana’s fitting for the show.

Meanwhile, Lucious (Terrence Howard), Anika (Grace Gealey) and his mom Leah Walker (Leslie Ugamms) go to lunch to try and figure out a way for them to all survive living under the same roof without killing each other. Leah starts yelling for bread crust and Lucious pays a waiter to bring some to the table so his mom will quiet down.

When Anika complains that the Leah is invading her space — and trying on her ruby lipstick — Lucious angrily says to his mom: “What did I tell you was gonna happen to you if you keep disrespecting her boundaries?” Leah starts yelling about Lucious locking her and Andre in a dungeon and when Lucious grabs her arm to quiet her she starts screaming even more about how he’s hurting her. People at the restaurant start looking at the table and the woman sitting behind Leah touches an ear piece she’s wearing. It’s revealed that Tariq (Morocco Omari) is sitting in a car outside the restaurant with his partner listening to the conversation between Lucious, Leah and Anika. Tariq wants to turn Leah against Lucious.

Back at the fashion show prep, Tiana is upset she has to wear Helen’s dress. She asks Nessa to help her get out of the dress and Nessa takes the dress and “accidentally” lays it on something that causes it to catch fire. Tiana flips out and starts screaming at Tiana and rants about how Helen. Porsha (Ta'Rhonda Jones) takes Tiana out of the room and tells Nessa to figure out how to fix things.

Things then to switch to Leah, who’s at a doctor’s appointment. Tariq walks into the room and Leah tries to run out of the room but he calms her down and tells her that he wants to help her. Tariq tells Leah that if she can help him prove that Lucious hates Anika then he can out Anika away. Leah, who can’t stand Anika, starts smiling.

Things go from bad to worse for Tiana and she learns that her meltdown in the dressing room after Helen’s dress caught on fire was caught on camera and posted online. Andre offers to clean the mess up by talking to Helen. When he does meet up with Helen he suggests that Nessa fill in for Tiana as the performer for the fashion show. Helen doesn’t think it’s a good idea, and as Andre is leaving he makes a weird comment about how beautiful Helen’s daughter’s hair is. The next morning, the little girl wakes up and notices that her hair has been cut off. Helen tells Cookie that Tiana is out as a performer and Nessa will be filling in. Cookie is starting to have suspicions about why Helen suddenly wants Nessa to perform.

After Nessa’s performance at the event, Cookie confronts Andre and tells him that she knows he’s up to something. Cookie doesn’t like that he lied to her in order to get Nessa into the spotlight. Helen also pulls Angelo’s mother to the side after the event and tells Diane that the Lyon family is dangerous and to get Angelo as far away from them as possible.

Leah goes to another doctor appointment to meet up with Tariq. He wants to know if she can get access to Lucious’ office and also wants to know more about his father.

Back at Lucious’ house, Anika is walking around in lingerie smashing some of Lucious’ things. Lucious comes into the room to see what the commotion is and yells at Anika to stop breaking his very expensive things. Anika looks Lucious in the eye and smashes a vase. She’s getting ready to break something else when Lucious begs her not to. Anika makes Lucious promise that he’s going to give her whatever she wants. Anika is upset that she didn’t get the A&R job with Shine (Xzibit). Lucious agrees to do whatever Anika says and they start kissing. Right before Lucious and Anika do the deed, Leah walks in yelling at them to stop and get off the dining room table.

Lucious tells his mom to meet him in the study because he wants to talk to her about all her doctor visits. Uh oh, does that mean Lucious knows what his mother has been up to? And is he going to punish her for it? It turns out that Lucious knows Leah has been meeting with Tariq because he’s the one who orchestrated it.