After a long four-year hiatus, Season 3 ofDonald Glover’s critically acclaimed comedy-drama seriesAtlantawill premiere on FX on March 24. Earlier this month, FX dropped the officialtrailerfor Season 3, which shows Alfred aka Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), Earn (Donald Glover), and Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) making their way across the pond as they embark on a European tour with Clark County (RJ Walker), another up-and-coming rapper. It has been a long time sinceRobbin Seasonpremiered in 2018, so we’ve provided you with a recap of everything you need to remember about Al, Earn, Darius, and Van (Zazie Beetz) before we see what lies ahead for them in Season 3.
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Paper Boi Joins Clark County on a European Tour
Season 2 introduces Clark County, a commercialized, radio-friendly rapper with a huge ego. Clark puts up a charming front but has a hidden dark side, as shown in Episode 3, “Money Bag Shawty” when it is uncomfortably implied that Clark has his people beat up his audio engineer after there are technical difficulties during a recording session.
Clark County is the antithesis to Paper Boi. As a rising star in the commercialized rap game, Clark is the “relatable” market-friendly rapper from the Yoo-hoo commercials, while Paper Boi, according to condescending news reporter Valencia Joyner (Paloma Guzman), is the “guy who shot someone.” Clark is a caricature of commercially successful hip-hop artists, in line withChance the RapperorDrake(think of those Kit-Kat and Sprite commercials). Clark has no problem playing the part for profit, whereas Alfred, when recording a voiceover for the white-run Spotify/Apple/Pandora-like corporation, can’t disguise his irritation when the engineer tells him to “do one that’s cool, that’s just like … cool.” The Not-Spotify execs, with their ping-pong tables, high-tech top-of-the-line equipment, and organic, gluten-free snacks, scream of white consumerism. They are the very definition of what Alfred hates: fake shit. Clark County, on the other hand, who freestyles about “Hennessy plus the herb, plus the herb, herb, herb” after admitting he doesn’t drink or smoke weed, is the proud poster boy.
Alfred and Earn meet Clark at Not-Spotify, and unlike them, Clark seems right at home at the crunchy granola startup. Clark “throws up deuces” with Head of Music Outreach Peter “35 savage,” (Jason Burkey), the epitome of the Woke White Millenial Bro Lucas (Matthew Barnes), Clark’s white manager, is another #wokeally who immediately sets himself up as a threat to Earn as Alfred’s manager, jokingly telling Alfred to let him know if Earn isn’t treating him right. As Clark tells Alfred during his recording session, Lucas has all the connections with all the major brands — that’s how Clark gets the big-money deals like Yoo-hoo and theFast and the Furioussoundtrack. Lucas, in fact — not Earn — ends up securing Alfred a spot on the European tour with Clark. Luckily for Earn, however, it looks like Lucas won’t be joining them in Season 3 on the European tour - all due to oneveryfamiliar gold pistol…
Earn Struggles as Paper Boi’s Manager
Earn and Alfred’s relationship is tested in a season rife with tension as Earn tries and fails time and time again as Alfred’s manager. This ultimately culminates in a near-catastrophic trip to the airport in one of the final scenes of “Crabs in a Barrel,” the last episode of the season, where Earn opens his backpack in the TSA line and looks down to find his Uncle Willie’s (Katt Williams) gold gun that he forgot he threw in there to get rid of later. For one long, earth-shattering moment, it looks like Earn has lost everything. It isn’t until they are settling in for their flight that we find out that Earn slipped the gun into Clark’s bag, but Clark lets Lucas take the fall for it.
Alfred tells Earn on the plane that he saw what Earn did, and it seems like this is what the season has been building up to; whether or not Alfred will fire Earn as his manager. It turns out that Alfred is giving Earn another chance to prove himself on tour because he has the one thing that Alfred needs. Alfred says, “You my family, Earn. You’re the only one who knows what I’m about. You give a fuck. I need that.” In an industry where no one really cares about anything except profit and appearances, Alfred feels like he is being forced to be something he’s not. Earn is the only one who knows who he really is — and for now, at least, that might be enough.
Alfred Struggles with Fame
Season 2 ofAtlantafinds Alfred grappling with his newfound fame. As he rises in popularity, he grows increasingly aware that he can’t go about life the way he used to now that he is becoming a recognizable name in the rap industry. In the opening scene of Episode 2 of the second season, “Sportin' Waves,” Alfred gets robbed by his long-time dealer in a hilariously polite exchange that captures Glover’s comedic styling and Al’s trademark look of exhausted exasperation. Alfred and Darius try to find him a new dealer but can’t escape Alfred’s rising celebrity status. Just when they think they’ve found their new plug, a white guy with a bearded dragon and a seemingly chill understanding of Al’s privacy, he sends Alfred a video of his girlfriend doing a cringy acoustic rap cover of his hit single. “Them white girls,” Darius informs Al, “lovethat shit.” And with that, Alfred says farewell to that farm-fresh weed as quickly as he says goodbye to his phone that he immediately tosses out the window.
In Episode 8, “Woods,” Alfred is robbed by a group of supposed fans who then chase him into the woods. “Woods” shows a side of Alfred we’ve never seen before — a side of intimate vulnerability. At the start of the episode, he argues with his potential girlfriend, Sierra (Angela Wildflower), who is entrenched in the superficial vacuum of branding and appearances. He tells her that he “ain’t into all that fake shit. I’m just trying to stay real.” This interaction epitomizes Al’s struggle throughout the season with his newfound fame. Alfred just wants to make money, but he doesn’t want to be a sell-out and bust out an impromptu performance on a conference table in front of a bunch of white execs at the Not-Spotify corporation.
As he wanders lost and terrified through the woods, he runs into an unhinged homeless man who may or may not be a figment of Alfred’s subconscious, conjured up as a physical manifestation of his grief over losing his mother and his struggle to maintain his sense of self in an industry that seems determined to change him. When he makes it out of the woods, bloody and exhausted, he runs into a fan at a convenience store. Alfred takes a picture with him, seemingly confirming his acceptance that this is his life now. Whether he wants it or not, heisPaper Boi — and being “real” might be a thing of the past.
Earn and Van Struggle to Make it Work as a Couple
In Episode 4, “Helen,” Earn and Van’s relationship reaches its breaking point when they drive to the town of Helen to go to Fasnacht, a traditional German celebration. So nightmarishly “traditional,” in fact, that a white woman reaches out to touch Earn’s face, enthusiastically saying that his costume looks “so good,” because she assumes he is playing the traditional Moor character who is typically depicted using blackface. Rightfully so, Earn is wildly uncomfortable and irritated at being dragged to this supremely weird event which gives off some strongJordan Peele-esque vibes where the bizarre residents seem a littletoofascinated by Earn, one of the few black people in attendance.
As the night goes on, the tension rises and bubbles over amidst one heated ping-pong game between Earn and Van that is clearly aboutmuchmore than ping-pong. Earn feels like Van’s bringing him to the event is another example of Van wanting him to be someone he’s not. Van, on the other hand, is frustrated that it seems like no matter how many times she does things for Earn thatshedoesn’t want to do, he won’t reciprocate for her. When she tells him that it’s not like she enjoys going to Alfred’s concerts every night, Earn bites back at her that he wouldn’t say that if he were her because those concerts are paying her bills — a low blow, especially since Van is still unemployed.
At the end of the episode, Van confronts Earn and asserts what she wants. She tells Earn, “I want to be in a committed relationship where I’m valued as a human being and not as an accessory that you can fuck.” Earn responds that their arrangement works for him. That is no longer enough for Van — it never was. Van is done waiting around for Earn to give her the love that she not only wants but deserves.
Van Continues to Struggle with Unemployment
Van lost her job as a teacher in Season 1, Episode 6, “Value” when she admitted to her supervisor that she smoked weed (after a masterful, but ultimately failed attempt at taping a balloon of baby Lottie’s pee to her thigh). She is still unemployed in Season 2, and it is clear in her confrontation with her “friend,” Christina (Jessica Tillman), in “Helen” that while Van may be struggling to figure out what her next step is, she knows that she deserves to be recognized as more than, as Christina repeatedly refers to her as, “Lottie’s mom.” When Van confronts her and asks why she can’t refer to her by her name, Christina offers her a painfully patronizing “compliment” that “it’s different” for Van because “You make that shit look good.” It is obvious to Van that Christina, who tells Van with casual condescension that Van “chose black,” looks down on her — and she always has. In Season 2, Van is looking for the one thing she truly deserves: to be valued.
Darius Continues to Be Darius, and That’s Why He’s The Guy Who Always Gets Free Drinks
If there is one thing you’re able to count on inAtlanta, it’s Darius continuing to be Darius: Atlanta’s seer, musing over the philosophical nature of simulated reality while pensively eating an apple poolside at Drake’s mansion. Not even a nightmare encounter with Teddy Perkins can stop Darius from living by his words of wisdom: everything’s made up, stay woke.
