'Empire' season 3 spoilers: Competition between Lucious and Andre intensifies; Jamal goes to rehab

Jamal (Jussie Smollett) embarks on a new journey on the upcoming episode of Fox's hit musical drama "Empire" season 3.

The first half of the season left off on a low note for Jamal, who had to go to rehab to recover from his pain medication addiction. After his People's Ball performance, Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), Lucious (Terrence Howard), Hakeem (Bryshere Gray), and Andre (Trai Byers) ushered Jamal into a car headed directly to a treatment facility to address his issues.

Executive producer Sanaa Hamri recently spoke with TV Line, and she teased that Jamal's journey to self-recovery will be explored more in the back half of season 3. "He has to go through the program and come to terms with his addiction," the EP said, adding, "And the journey now for him is if he can be sober — and if he can create being sober, which is a whole other thing."

Meanwhile, Andre's emotional goodbye to Ghost Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday) will completely change him as a person. Now that nothing is messing with his mind, the eldest Lyon son becomes unstoppable as he tries to take over Empire. Hamri went on to explain that the new Andre is "more determined, more calculated, more in competition with his father."

Season 3 kicked off with the tragic death of Doubleday's Rhonda, but the actress remained in the series as a recurring character. She stayed in the story as a ghost who continues to influence her husband Andre's decisions. Now that he's decided to move on, Rhonda is definitely gone, but it seems that she can still return at some point in the future.

"I think right now we're saying goodbye to Rhonda. However, again, Andre's mind is not all there so she could make an appearance again at some point," Hamri stated. "We don't know. We'll see where the story goes but for right now, we've definitely said goodbye to her," she went on to say.

The third season of "Empire" premieres Wednesday, March 22, at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.