North of the Border (Atlanta)

In March 2018, FX announced that the ninth episode of the season would be titled "North of the Border" and that it would be written by Jamal Olori, and directed by executive producer Hiro Murai. This was Olori's second writing credit, and Murai's thirteenth directing credit. Starting with this episode, Murai is now credited as executive producer.[1]

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".[2]

Before the episode premiered, FX sent a warning to journalists.

Tonight's episode is rated TV-MA and contains nudity, violence and strong language. The frontal nudity will not appear in the version airing on the FX network linear telecast. The unedited version will air ONLY on FX+.[3]

The episode was watched by 0.487 million viewers, earning a 0.2 in the 18-49 rating demographics on the Nielson ratings scale. This means that 0.2 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.[4] This was a 19% decrease from the previous episode, which was watched by 0.595 million viewers with a 0.3 in the 18-49 demographics.[5]

With DVR factored, the episode was watched by 1.20 million viewers with a 0.7 in the 18-49 demographics.[6]

"North of the Border" received critical acclaim. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval rating for the episode, based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10.[7]

Joshua Alston of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A-" and wrote, "Atlanta thrives on the ephemeral, but not everything we see exists in a vacuum. It's been long enough since 'Woods' that the only evidence of Al's trial is the bandage across the bridge of his nose. The next time we see Earn, his wounds will have begun to heal too. The question is how long it will take to mend his relationship with Al."[8] Hanh Nguyen of IndieWire wrote, "With two more episodes left in the season, it remains to be seen if this experience will push him to finally see the world through a more realistic lens. Like Alfred, who had an epiphany in the woods last week, perhaps this will help put the 'Earn' in 'learn' for our hero. Then again, this is the same guy who said in the pilot that he can't win for losing. He very well could follow the trajectory of another tragic hero, Oedipus, who after fulfilling his grim prophecy, stabs himself in the eyes, bringing his blindness full circle."[3]

Alan Sepinwall of Uproxx wrote, "And there it is: the serialized story that had been hiding in plain sight all along among the seemingly random short stories Atlanta has been telling throughout this superb second season."[9] Matt Miller of Esquire wrote, "'North of the Border' is a powerful and painful episode of television."[10] Bryan Washington of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "At their current trajectory, the split was bound to happen. But, of course, Earn has to fuck it up a little bit more, in what ultimately becomes a master-class performance in six parts."[11]

Leigh-Anne Jackson of The New York Times wrote, "After last week's brutal onslaught of life lessons, Al is ready for a change."[12] Jacob Oller of Paste gave the episode a 8.2 out of 10 rating and wrote, "After a string of existential one-offs for the characters of Atlanta, 'North of the Border' sees the show's central posse reconvene for a somewhat normal episode."[13] Miles Surrey of The Ringer wrote, "If we're handing out an LVP award for the season thus far, it has to go to Earn: He broke things off with Van in a way that was disconcertingly apathetic, and aside from a jarring meeting at a virtually all-white Spotify-esque company, he hasn't been leveraging Paper Boi's nascent rap stardom nearly as well as he could have. 'North of the Border' is the last straw."[14]