Atlanta 4.10

It Was All a Dream

Van invites Earn, Al, and Darius to have lunch with her in a new sushi restaurant. It is right across the street from a Popeye's. Al isn't crazy about the sushi restaurant and keeps eyeing the Popeye's.

Darius spends some time in a sensory deprivation chamber. He wakes up numerous times. Towards the end of the episode he shows up at the sushi restaurant, just as the owner is getting angry at Alfred for wanting to leave and get some chicken from Popeye's. They speed off in a car he stole.

Darius tells his friends about the dream he is in. They don't believe him that it is just a dream.

Atlanta 4.09

Andrew Wyeth. Alfred's World.

Alfred spends some time, by himself, at the farm he bought. Animals have broken into his grow house. He gets some advice from the cashier at the local hardware store who thinks (based on Alfred description of the mess left behind) that it is a wild pig. Alfred laughs at the guy's story. He later finds out what it was that broke into his grow house.

Thoughts

Elements of this episode, the title and some of what Alfred experiences, reference a painting by Andrew Wyeth: Christina's World. I did not know of the painting. It was brought to my attention by the episode of The Ringer Prestige TV Podcast about this episode of Atlanta. 

Atlanta 4.08

The Goof Who Sat by the Door

This is a documentary style episode about Thomas Washington, an African American animator, who mistakenly was selected to be CEO of Disney. It is about his life. It tracks him from his childhood until his death. His big project, once he became CEO of Disney, was A Goofy Movie (1995).

Thoughts

This is the longest episode of the season. It is 38 minutes long. The regular cast of Atlanta are not in this episode.

I'm not sure what to make of this episode. I'm not big into Disney. I've never seen A Goofy Movie or Goof Troop, the TV show that it is a follow up to. I had to check after I watched this episode to see if A Goofy Movie was even a real thing.

Atlanta 4.07

Snipe Hunt

Earn, Van, and Lottie go camping for Lottie's birthday. Earn is still planning to move to Los Angeles. He wants Van and Lottie to come with him. He tries bringing up the subject more than once. 

The snipe hunt is Van's idea. She shows Lottie how it works. It doesn't turn out exactly as Van thought it would.

Thoughts

Early in this episode I wondered if this was going to be a weird horror inflected episode of Atlanta. It is not but the way it was shot made it feel that way. The further I go into the episode the more I forgot about the possibility of something going wrong.

Atlanta 4.06

Crank Dat Killer

Alfred gets nervous when he finds out that there is someone going around killing people who put out a Crank Dat video, because years ago he made one. He tries to play it cool but he can't. He goes to the mall but more than one person spots him. One of them comes after him, with a gun. He gets saved in the end by someone he doesn't want to deal with.

Earn and Darius go to meet with a man who has Nike Miracles, which are really hard to find. When they ask how much he wants he says he wants to see them kiss. Earn is ready to walk but Darius really wants the shoes and tries to talk Earn into doing it, for the shoes.

Atlanta 4.05

Work Ethic!

Van takes Lottie, her daughter, with her to Choclateland, Kirkwood Chocolate's production studio. Van is there to act in a TV show. Everything goes smoothly until Lottie speaks up in the middle of shooting. The reclusive Mr. Chocolate takes a shine to Lottie and puts her in one of his productions. Van loses track of Lottie and spends a good part of the day trying to find her and get her back. 

Thoughts

Earn, Alfred, and Darius are not in this episode.

Atlanta 4.04

Light Skinned Ed

Earn goes to church with his mother. They stop along the way to pick up her sister, his Aunt Jeanie, and her father. Earn and Jeanie get out of the car and then his mother drives off with her father. She told Earn she was going to do that, before she did it, before Jeanie and his grandfather got in the car. She just didn't share any details with Earn.

Earn's dad goes to the mall. He gets talked into buying a hat by a beautiful, young woman. He feels good about himself until he runs into a teen who makes him feel old.

Earn tries to leave church without his aunt but she catches him trying to sneak out. He goes to the studio where Alfred is hanging out with some of his friends. His Aunt Jeanie goes with him. She kicks everyone out except Alfred and Earn. She calls her siblings, including Earn's mother but that gets her nowhere so she calls the police. That doesn't help either. Alfred and Earn manage to sneak out while she is busy with the police.

Atlanta 4.03

Born 2 Die

Paper Boi is hired by a middle aged white man to help his son, Benny, who is also a rapper. That gig leads to a meeting with Bunk, another music artist. Bunk introduces Paper Boi to a group that believes that in the power of the YWA (Young White Avatar). PB takes this to heart. He tries to sign Benny to a contract, even though he doesn't think much of his music, but Benny has already signed with Bunk. Paper Boi, instead, signs Yodel Kid, a friend of Benny. Yodel Kid becomes phenomenally successful extremely quickly but then he dies on the night of the Grammys.

Earn goes looking for D'Angelo, in the hopes of signing him. He is forced to wait for days. He finally gets in only to find that the man he has met isn't D'Angelo. He experiences a sort of spiritual awakening.

Atlanta 4.02

The Homeliest Little Horse

Earn goes to therapy. He talks to his therapist about why he left Princeton and how they want him to come back. It helps Earn or at least it seems to, at first.

Thoughts

That isn't much of a description. I didn't even mention the other central character in this story, Lisa. She wrote a book called The Homeliest Little Horse.

The purpose of this episode seems to be to make a statement about Earn's mental health. His visits to the therapist, I think there were two of them, are just the tip of the iceberg. 

Atlanta 4.01

The Most Atlanta

Darius tries to return an air fryer while the department store he takes it to is getting looted. He gets chased by an older white woman in a motorized wheelchair. He's still got the air fryer that he was trying to return. She thinks he stole it.

Alfred goes on a scavenger hunt that ultimately leads him to the funeral for another musical artist, Blue Blood.

Earn and Van get trapped in a mall where they keep running into people they've dated before.