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Empire was never a show that was short on drama, but the Fox series' finale managed to get two episodes worth of action into one. After production was forced to close in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the decision was made to bring together what had already been filmed for the third- and second-to-last episodes of the series and turn it into the last episode. Though cast and crew are holding out hope that they will one day shoot a real finale for the series, for now fans are left with Season 6, Episode 18, as the end of Empire.
What happened at the end of Empire?
By the closing minutes of the Empire series finale, titled "Home is On The Way," two characters had died, and Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) and Lucious (Terrence Howard) had reunited.
This reunion began at the start of the episode where they team up in their business lives to fire Pamplemousse employees Kelly (Pej Vahdat) and Giselle (Nicole Ari Parker) to regain control of the Lyon family music empire.
Kelly and Giselle were able to gain the power they had over the business was due to Andre Lyons (Trai Byers) and his breakdown after his separation from wife and son.
He is out of the hospital and plans to become a missionary in South America until his brother Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) persuades him to stay and build a relationship with his son. He agrees to stay and do this, but Fox viewers did not see him reunite with Walker, presumably because those scenes remain unfilmed.
Flashbacks throughout the episode seem to suggest that despite their many flaws, Lucious and Cookie are meant to be together. However, in order to allow that to happen, the show first had to get rid of Lucious' young musical protege Yana (Kiandra Richardson). In typical Empire style, the series finale did this by killing her off.
Yana realizes that Lucious' heart is still with Cookie and the pair break-up in amicable terms with a friendly hug. However, Yana's father Damon (Wood Harris) sees this hug and sees it as a sign that Lucious has been lying to him and is sleeping with his daughter.
In anger, he takes out a gun and tries to shoot Lucious but ends up shooting his daughter. According to USA Today, this moment was due to be the cliffhanger at the end of Episode 18.
After this shooting, Lucious tries to cancel the premiere of Hakeem's movie over safety fears, but the Lyons won't let him. This causes Lucious to act first and break into Damon's home. The pair fight and Damon nearly manages to kill his enemy before Lucious detaches his own prosthetic leg and uses it to kill Damon.
With the threat extinguished, the show ends with the family (except Jussie Smollett's character Jamal) settling down for a screening of Birth of an Empire, in what is (for now) the last ever scene of the Fox show.
