Most of the character fates were unknown, but there were two hard facts of what absolutely had to happen in the series finale: Lucious had to be shot (probably to death) and Cookie’s car (possibly with Cookie still inside) had to blow up.
Now, if this was the finale that had been planned, I wouldn’t have loved it at all.
Prior to the production halts that shut down the entertainment industry and cut Empire short by two episodes, Empire had included flash-forwards to the end of the story that would be completed in the finale.