'Empire' season 3 episode 9 spoilers, news: Cookie helps Angelo win mayoral bid; actress Taraji P. Henson speaks out on how Cookie affected her personal life

The drama keeps on coming in the next episode of Fox's hit series "Empire" season 3.

Titled "A Furnace For Your Foe," the upcoming midseason finale will see a not-so-happy holiday season for the Lyons. According to the official synopsis for episode 9, Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) hosts a free park concert to help Angelo (Taye Diggs) appeal to the masses and win as the city's new mayor. Meanwhile, FBI continues to find more dirt about Lucious (Terrence Howard) and his business, eventually freezing all of Empire's assets. This brings major repercussions not only for the music mogul but also for everyone working in the company.

Aside from portraying the feisty Lyon matriarch Cookie Lyon, Henson will next be seen in a new fact-based film about female key players in the early days of NASA's space program titled "Hidden Figures." The Golden Globe-winning actress recently caught up with Today, and she talked about the many changes in her life since she became part of Fox's hip-hop drama. "I can't go to Target anymore. I really have no personal life. Cookie has taken fame to a new level," she said during the interview.

Henson previously had a sit-down interview with actor Ryan Reynolds as part of Variety's "Actors on Actors" segment, where she admitted that she tried using different props to disguise herself when going out to run some errands. However, nothing has stopped fans from knowing it's her, adding that the character has somehow wrecked her personal life and privacy.

"You're walking down the street and they're just like, 'Hey Cookie' — maybe I didn't want the world to see how I looked today, maybe I wore these sweats yesterday," the actress said. "It was fine until Cookie came... I never saw that coming. I go from this normal life to having to find a house on a private gated road, it's crazy."

The midseason finale of "Empire" airs on Wednesday, Dec. 14, at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. The series will air at a special time to make way for the series premiere of "Star," which is developed by "Empire" co-creator Lee Daniels and Tom Donaghy.