Atlanta (season 2)

The episode opens with a robbery of a Mrs. Winner's (which is a secret drug front) committed by two teenagers. Later, sometime before Christmas, Earn is "evicted" from his storage facility space. He then visits Alfred (who is under house arrest) and Darius (who is mutually at odds with Alfred). After Earn reviews the terms of his probation, Earn and Darius then visit Earn's uncle Willie to defuse a domestic disturbance. Willie is antagonistic even when the police arrive but eventually simmers down and flees the house after talking to Earn about not repeating his history of professional and personal mistakes, but not before giving Earn a gold-plated handgun. Earn and Darius then return to Alfred’s house, but Earn chooses not to ask to stay with them after Tracy, one of Alfred’s friends and an ex-con, beats him to it, making him officially homeless.

This episode references the Florida Man meme, which is mentioned throughout the episode by Darius and Willie.^[4]

Opening song: "Did It Again" by Jay Critch & Rich the Kid

After Alfred gets robbed by his long-time drug dealer and he and Earn return from a failed meeting at a start-up—which involved meeting fellow rapper Clark County and his manager Lucas—Darius gifts Earn his half from the dog breeding operation (from season 1 episode "The Streisand Effect") which Tracy flips into an $8000 gift card. While Alfred and Darius look into getting a new dealer, Earn and Tracy head to the mall for a shopping spree; however, Tracy ends up abandoning Earn to head to a job interview after shoplifting several pairs of shoes and the card is shut down once the mall begins to catch on to their fraud. At his job interview, Tracy is told there are no positions available and he furiously accuses the firm of racism.

Opening song: "All There" by Jeezy

Along with earning social media attention, Paper Boi's newest single goes gold, so Earn decides to take Van out for a night on the town to celebrate. Meanwhile, Alfred and Darius visit Clark in the studio to record guest verses but are asked to leave by Clark's crew when the audio engineer has technical difficulties with his software, with it being implied the engineer is going to be savagely beaten. Earn and Van's evening is marred by three racist incidents where places believe he's using counterfeit $100 bills or won't let him pay in cash at all, so Earn chooses to go to a strip club with Van, Alfred, Darius and Tracy; the club ends up burning through more money than Earn intended, leaving him frustrated. After some reassurance from Alfred, Earn tries to salvage the night and his pride by racing Michael Vick for cash in the club's parking lot, but ends up losing the footrace.

The episode's cold open is an homage to the viral video of a mother reciting and criticizing the lyrics to Vince Staples' "Norf Norf".^[7]

Opening song: "MF'N Right" by 2 Chainz

Earn performs cunnilingus on Van before they take a trip to Helen for a Fastnacht celebration, but Earn's apathy and displeasure towards the bizarre, off-putting festivities (coupled with Van chatting with a German bartender in fluent German) and Van's frustration over his attitude boil over into a profanity-filled argument over their relationship. Later, similar to season 1 episode "Value", Van and her friend Christina, a fellow Afro-German, disagree over their respective identities. She later confides in the bartender that she and Earn are growing apart. As she leaves to use the bathroom, she finds her stolen phone when the Schnappviecher appears behind her; Earn then texts her saying he wants to talk. Van says she feels that Earn only uses her for sex and doesn't value her as a partner, while Earn is fine with the "arrangement"; they decide to settle their differences over a best-of-five game of table tennis, with a victory for Van meaning that the two essentially split outside of Earn providing child support. The explicit outcome is not shown but it is suggested that Van won.

Parts of the episode bear similarities to the film Get Out.^[9][10]

Opening song: "At Sea Again" by Slime

Alfred looks to get his hair cut before a photo shoot for a magazine by his regular barber Bibby, but is instead led through a whirlwind of events involving: visiting one of Bibby's girlfriends, cutting their son's hair before Alfred's, illegally repossessing lumber, chasing down a different, truant son, and inadvertently committing a hit-and-run. Alfred finally gets his haircut upon returning to the barbershop and reluctantly pays Bibby for his services. Sometime later, Alfred comes into the same shop for a haircut but settles for another barber; he then realizes he doesn't understand barber jargon—given he would tell Bibby he wants "the usual"—as he watches Bibby handle a different patron.

Darius answers an ad off of a message board for a piano and ends up at a mansion owned by a pale, idiosyncratic man with a mask-like face named Theodore "Teddy" Perkins. Teddy cares for a man named Benny Hope, who he claims is his brother. Benny is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, and Teddy claims that Benny is extremely photosensitive. After being urged by Alfred over the phone to be direct and leave as soon as possible, Darius is eventually granted the piano but is taken to the mansion's basement via elevator where he meets Benny, who communicates with him through a chalkboard that "Teddy [will] kill us both" and that he should retrieve a rifle located in the attic. Darius, nevertheless, plans to leave without dealing with the brothers but is forced to confront Teddy when he blocks the loading bay of Darius' rental truck and he hears a loud sound back inside. Teddy holds Darius at gunpoint and informs him that he plans to kill him and stage the scene to look like a home invasion, but an injured Benny arrives just in time to kill Teddy and then himself. The police haul off the corpses and the piano as Darius drives away.

This episode references the psychological pressures and traumas child stars sometimes face, especially ones with abusive and controlling stage parents such as Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Tiger Woods, and Serena Williams.^[14][15]

Opening song: "Sweet Little Girl" by Stevie Wonder

On New Year's Eve, Van and her friends Candice (Adriyan Rae), Tami (Danielle Deadwyler) and Nadine (Gail Bean) head for a party at a mansion hosted by Drake; Candice looks to spend the party with a boyfriend named DJ and Van wants a photo with Drake to spice up her Instagram. Upon arriving, the ladies meet DJ and take marijuana-infused gummies (sans Candice), but Nadine reacts badly to hers and ends up separated from Van and by a pool speaking with Darius (who was invited to the party because he knows Drake's personal chef). While Van looks for Nadine and Drake throughout the mansion, she stumbles upon a television-lit room with an elderly, Spanish-speaking man (Carlos Guerrero) who claims to be Drake's grandfather and learns that Drake is currently on tour in Europe. She also learns that people are actually just posing with cardboard cutouts of Drake. Van and Tammi then find Nadine and Darius, where they all learn that Candice left with DJ to go to T-Pain's New Year's Eve party and people are being kicked out of the house. The next morning, as the four walk back home, Van has an epiphany that Drake must be Mexican.

The episode briefly touches upon the feminine beauty ideal and some negative effects of social media. The Bostrom simulation argument is also mentioned.^[17][18]

Part of this episode is later interpolated in the song "In My Feelings" by Drake from the album Scorpion.^[19]

Opening song: "Never Created, Never Destroyed" by Jlin

Alfred wakes up shortly after having a dream about his mother and spends the day with a female friend named Sierra but ends up abandoning her at a nail salon after an argument over the authenticity of his career. On the walk home, he meets three fans who decide to mug him when they realize he's alone. Alfred flees into the woods after narrowly avoiding being shot but finds himself lost. As he looks for a way out and day turns into night, he's followed by an apparently mentally unstable man called Wiley. Although he initially seems innocuous, Wiley eventually holds Alfred at knifepoint and threatens to hunt him down if he doesn't find a way out of the woods. Alfred finds himself at a BP gas station after a mad dash and, after a moment of catharsis, enters to get something cold to numb his wounds. When approached by a fan, he decides to break personal tradition and take some selfies with him.

Opening song: "Meditate" by EarthGang

Earn, Alfred, Darius and Tracy drive to Statesboro for a university concert and lodge with Violet (Jerusha Cavazos)—a girl Earn and Darius met who also has an obsessive crush on Alfred—in her apartment. After Alfred and Clark's performances at the night-time concert, Violet dumps beer on Alfred for talking to another girl; the situation escalates due to Tracy's brash decision-making and the four flee and end up at a frat house in the middle of a party and hazing ritual. While Darius and Tracy visit the house's gun room, Alfred informs Earn that he's considering dropping him as his manager due to his continuous stinginess and lack of perks and that he's looking into being managed by Lucas. In the morning, the four return to Violet's apartment complex to find Alfred's car vandalized and their belongings stolen and/or damaged. Earn is particularly incensed when he finds his laptop missing and resorts to pulling a fire alarm and unsuccessfully attempting to kick Violet's door in. On the ride home, Tracy mocks Earn's decision-making throughout the entire ordeal and pretend-shoots him with a flintlock that was stolen from the frat house. Earn reaches his breaking point and demands to fight Tracy as Alfred pulls the car over and he and Darius watch. Tracy easily beats Earn into submission and the four re-enter the car without a word.

The silk pajamas Earn, Alfred and Darius wear throughout much of the episode bear a strong resemblance to those worn by TLC in the music video for "Creep".^[24]

Opening song: "Patty Cake" by Kodak Black

In a flashback to the late 1990s, a middle school-aged Earn (Alkoya Brunson) comes to school wearing a yellow FUBU shirt he ecstatically picked from Marshalls. However, another student named Devin Meyers comes to school wearing an extremely similar shirt and word quickly spreads that one or both are counterfeit; ridicule from upperclassmen also accompany these accusations. Once the school day ends, Earn is close to being exposed but Alfred (Abraham Clinkscales) interjects and deflects the accusations onto Devin. The following day, Earn's homeroom class is informed that Devin committed suicide, with early theories stating that the choice stemmed from trauma from his parents' divorce compounded with the bullying; the latter appears to be unknown to faculty. Earn is guilt-ridden but keeps it to himself. Alfred, alternatively, seems apathetic.

Opening song: "Give Me One Reason" by Tracy Chapman

At a parent-teacher conference, Lottie's teacher informs Van and Earn that their daughter is gifted like Earn and requires a transfer to an expensive private school if she wants to reach her full potential. Meanwhile, Alfred and Darius pack to move out of their house and go on a European tour headlined by Clark County. Alfred finds the gun from "Alligator Man" while packing and tells Earn he wants it gone. Thinking nothing of it, Earn puts it in his backpack. Additionally, Darius's passport has expired, but he "knows a guy". While at Darius's passport agency, Earn receives a text from Van that she's thinking of taking Lottie and moving in with her mom. Darius tells Earn that he has seen his improvement as a manager and, even though he may be fired, he's family and will always be taken care of by Alfred. At the airport, the three meet up with Clark and Lucas. Earn finds the gun in his carry-on at security and slips it into Clark's bag. On the plane, Alfred tells Earn that he saw what he did. However, he isn't angry about it and even compliments the decision; he tells Earn that people only care about themselves in this business but the two of them are different because they watch out for one another. Clark walks down the aisle and, when asked, tells Alfred that Lucas couldn't make the trip since he got caught with a gun in his bag. Earn confirms to Alfred that he placed the gun in Clark's bag, not Lucas's, solidifying Alfred's feelings about Clark. The episode ends with Tracy arriving at Al's apartment, not realizing that he has left on his European tour.

The episode addresses the Jewish lawyer stereotype and institutional racism against black lawyers.^[27]

Opening song: "Walk in the Way" by Ray Barnette & Larry Hall