Rhyon Nicole Brown

The bickering between Ray, Debra, and his parents is having an effect on Michael.

When Alan and Judith argue during a rehearsal of a play that Jake and his classmates are rehearsing, Charlie is forced to handle a roomful of fourth graders alone. The kids think Charlie is a loser until they realize he wrote the "Maple Loops" cereal jingle. When Charlie discovers the children know every jingle he's ever written, he decides to use his commercial expertise to craft the play--with some interesting results.

As Eddie fights for his place at Empire Entertainment and gets the board on his side, Lucious and Shine must find a permanent solution to keep him out. Meanwhile, Cookie is desperate to fulfill a promise to a friend before it’s too late. Then, when tensions rise in Jamal and Tory’s new band, Preacher Azal inspires Jamal with an idea to get everyone in sync.

Lucious and Thirsty try to squash Eddie’s (guest star Forest Whitaker) takeover by confronting him with legal papers. Cookie recalls her complex relationship with her mother (guest star Alfre Woodard), while she continues her search for her friend’s orphaned daughter. Meanwhile, Andre flounders, Hakeem anxiously prepares a release strategy for his 20 for 20 single and Jamal and Tory try to find a new team to make their own first non-Empire single.

Confident second-year resident Pratt wants to prove his abilities when he works the graveyard shift (11 p.m. to 7 a.m.), but his heroics sometimes backfire. Pratt shows contempt for a man, Ed Gamble (Paul Cassell), who presents no symptoms of disease but temporarily loses his speech. As Weaver decries the "incompetence" of her staff, she also makes a grievous error. A screaming man with a broken leg waits several hours for treatment, and Neela deals with a little girl who arrives with her beloved grandmother whose status is DNR ("do not resuscitate"). Meanwhile, Abby is desperate for money and credit. Later, she meets both Kovac and his new girlfriend. And Corday begins to appreciate Dr. Dorset (recurring guest star Bruno Campos).