Atlanta (season 2)

Two teenagers rob a Mrs. Winner's that doubles as a drug selling operation, getting into a gunfight with an armed employee. Earn is evicted from his storage locker and is asked by Al to go visit their uncle Willy in Florida, who is having a domestic dispute with his girlfriend. Both she and Willy antagonize the police when Earn tries to defuse the situation, and Earn talks to his uncle about his fear that Al will abandon him. Willy gives him a gold-plated gun that he will "need in the music business" and releases his pet alligator to distract the police while he runs. Earn asks Al if he can move in with him, but finds that Al's recently released ex-convict friend Tracy has already done so.

This episode references the Florida Man meme, which is mentioned throughout the episode by Darius and Willie.[5]

Title card: The city of Atlanta

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

Al's long-time drug dealer robs him, forcing him and Darius to try and find a new one, but he finds that his newfound fame makes this difficult as he goes through several irritating dealers. Tracy shows Earn how to scam thousands of dollars out of a gift card before it shuts down and takes him to the mall, but abandons him to go to a job interview, leaving Earn inundated with merchandise. In a post-credits scene, Tracy is told that there are no positions available, and he furiously accuses the interviewer of racism.

Title card: Guardrail

Opening song: "All There" by Jeezy

Earn gets a substantial payout after Al's newest single goes gold, so he decides to take Van out for a night. Both the movie theater and club they go to rip him off. Al is invited to hang out with popular rapper Clark County, where he learns that County fakes his rapper lifestyle. County's sound engineer continually makes mistakes, and he asks Al to leave so the man can be presumably killed. Al takes Earn and Van to a strip club with Darius and Tracy, where Earn is ripped off for more of his money. Al tells him that his problem is that he does not act tough enough, and so he tries to salvage his pride by racing Michael Vick in the parking lot for money, but loses.

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".[8]

Title card: Side of a passing bus

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

Earn accompanies Afro-German Van to a Fastnacht celebration in Helen, although he spends most of it complaining about the bizarre rituals involved. Van and her fellow Afro-German friend argue over their identities, and she and Earn argue over his behavior and control over what they get to do together. After getting her phone stolen by a man dressed up as the traditional Schnappviecher monster, she finds a text from Earn asking her to talk. Van states that Earn is not interested in a real relationship and only is with her for sex, and challenges him to a game of table tennis to decide the fate of their relationship. The outcome is not shown, but the next day, they drive back in silence and she says an emotionless goodbye to him, implying that she won the game.

Parts of the episode bear similarities to the film Get Out.[10][11]

Title card: Wall of Van's bedroom

Opening song: "At Sea Again" by Slime

Al goes to his regular barber Bibby to get his hair cut, but is waylaid by Bibby's constant efforts to make money and his personal dramas. They deal with him not paying his girlfriend's bills and cutting her son's hair, stealing lumber from a work site, chasing down and grabbing Bibby's delinquent son, and getting into a hit and run before finally get back to the barbershop and getting Al's hair cut. Some time later, he comes in for another cut and makes a point of choosing a different barber, but realizes that neither he nor the new barber understand how he likes his hair.

Musical score by: Flying Lotus and Thundercat[13]

Darius answers a Craigslist ad offering up a free, rainbow-keyed piano, and goes to a mansion owned by a strange, pale man named Theodore "Teddy" Perkins. Teddy claims his brother, Benny Hope, was a famous musician that he was forced to take care of once he developed a photosensitive condition, and that their father beat them both while trying to turn them into great musicians. While trying to move the piano down to his truck, the mansion's elevator accidentally takes Darius to the basement, where he meets the mute, wheelchair-bound Benny who communicates that Teddy is planning to kill them both and that Darius needs to get a shotgun from the attic. Darius tries to leave, but finds that Teddy has blocked his truck in. Teddy corners him with the gun and explains that he plans to kill Darius and Benny, staging the former as a home intruder who murdered the latter. Darius tries to convince Teddy to let him go by telling him about his own abusive father until Benny comes up through the elevator and kills Teddy and himself with the gun. The police take both the corpses and the piano as Darius, visibly troubled, 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.[15][16]

Title card: Darius driving down the road

Opening song: "Sweet Little Girl" by Stevie Wonder

Van and her friends Candice, Tammi and Nadine go to a New Year's Eve party at Drake's mansion. The women take edibles upon arrival and Van seeks out Drake for a photo for Instagram, only to get waylaid by Nadine reacting badly to her drug. Nadine finds Darius sitting by a pool, who converses with her about the nature of reality. While looking for Drake, Van finds a Mexican man who claims to be Drake's grandfather and finds that Drake is actually on tour in Europe. When she finds "Drake", she learns he is actually a cardboard cutout that people are paying to take pictures with. Tammi notices that a black actor she is attracted to is married to a white woman, and she argues with her about the realness of their marriage. After Candice leaves to go to a separate party hosted by T-Pain, Van and Tammi find Nadine and Darius and the four walk home, where Van has an epiphany that "Drake's Mexican."

The episode briefly touches upon the feminine beauty ideal and some negative effects of social media. The Bostrom simulation argument is also mentioned.[18][19]

Part of this episode is later interpolated in the song "In My Feelings" by Drake from the album Scorpion.[20]

Title card: Tablecloth

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

Al wakes up from a dream about his mother and goes to a salon with a girlfriend, but leaves when he realizes she is just using him for social media clout. He encounters a trio of fans on the way home who rob him, forcing him to flee into the nearby woods. He gets lost and encounters an old man named Wiley, who holds a knife to his throat after arguing with him about the way he treats people. He gives Al thirty seconds to escape the woods, and he barely does, breaking down in tears before laughing with relief. He goes to a nearby gas station to get something cold to put on his battered face, and takes a selfie with a fan when asked, breaking his usual tradition.

Title card: Coaster

Opening song: "Meditate" by EarthGang

Tracy and the guys go to a college in Statesboro, where Al and County are scheduled to perform. Earn has failed to book proper lodgings, so they are forced to stay with a student who has an obsessive crush on Al. When she sees him talking to other women after the show, she throws her drink on him, and Tracy pushes her down the stairs and punches one of her friends in the face, forcing them to flee to a nearby all-white frat house. They are sat in front of a large Confederate flag and watch a hazing ritual, while Al informs Earn that he is considering dropping him due to his failures in favor of County's competent white manager Lucas. The next morning, the guys find their stuff torn apart and Earn realizes his laptop is locked inside the girl's room, pulling the fire alarm in desperation to try and get her out. On the way back, Earn snaps when Tracy mocks and pulls an antique gun he stole from the frat house on him, demanding Al pull over, only to immediately lose when he fights Tracy.

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".[25]

Title card: Cylinder of Al's gun

Opening song: "Patty Cake" by Kodak Black

In the late 1990s, a middle-school aged Earn gets his mom to buy him a yellow FUBU shirt, but learns that his classmate Devin is wearing a nearly identical shirt, leading their classmates to conclude that one of the shirts is fake. Earn asks Al for help, who interrupts when Earn is confronted by his classmates and convinces them that Devin's shirt is the fake, and he is relentlessly bullied by upperclassmen. The next day, Earn learns that Devin committed suicide, which is blamed on his parents' divorce. At Earn's house, his and Al's mothers remind the boys to watch out for each other because of their familial bond.

Title card: Wall of a Marshalls

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

Earn and Van learn that Lottie is too smart for her school and is recommended to be sent to an expensive private school. While packing up for a European tour headlined by County, Darius informs Earn that his passport is expired. They go to a Jewish neighborhood to get it renewed, where Earn has a discussion with a man about why black people cannot have the same success others do in the management industry, which the man says is because of "systemic reasons." At the airport, Earn realizes he left Willy's gun in his bag, and subtly drops it in County's before security can catch it. On the plane, Al tells Earn that he saw what he did and tells him that he is the only one who truly understands him, and that they have to stick together because they are family. County gets on the plane, claiming that Lucas got caught with a gun in his bag. Tracy, unaware that Al has left for Europe, hammers on his door late at night to the annoyance of the woman he is with and Al's neighbors.

The episode addresses the Jewish lawyer stereotype and institutional racism against black lawyers.[28]

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