This one was cool. Going to rich parties and meeting weirdos. Season 1 was better.

As Earn (Donald Glover), Van (Zazie Beetz), Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Al (Brian Tyree Henry) navigate the European leg of Paper Boi’s tour, the crew is invited to a party hosted by a billionaire whose taking a liking to Al’s music. As they walk through London neighborhoods to get to Fernando’s home, reluctant as away Earn has to explain to Al why this would be a good look. Earn lays out the stakes of their invitation. “How many billionaires do you know?” Earn asks Al rhetorically. Establishing the value an investor relationship would bring to the table, access to money facilitating their dreams and ideas.

 Upon arrival at Fernando’s place, It looks as if Earn was tricked by another white men who illustres a picture that is far from the reality. Expecting a home behide iron gates we see a ran down hoke that looks condimed whit the window covered by newspapers to block off anyone from seeing what lays inside. Earn knocks on the door and is greeted by a white women who looks to surprise to see them as they are her. But Will (Patrick Kennedy), the wealthy investor, takes them up a set of steps and leads them into a much swankier, elaborate home within the “decoy home.” Fernando (Daniel Fathers) explains that the house’s duplicity functions as a security measure that allows him to hobnob with “influential people from around the world.” Fernando flexes his wealth after Al is impressed by the in-house Nando’s fast-food chain, which, in true exclusive fashion, is free for all invited guests. “You the Nando Nando?” Al asks Fernando, but no, he just likes the peri-peri sauce and is wildly rich.

Van, Earn, Al, and Darius arriving to the front of Frenando’s home; Photo credit, Oliver Upton/FX

The crew is spilt in three different ways after getting into the party Earn and Van go with Will to meet an artist living in Fernando’s home. Darius ventures off to get a drink and also find the bathroom as Al stays to speak with Fernando. The two miscommunicate over their differing definitions of tree, and when Al tries to smoke some tree of his own, Fernando escorts him to his private poker room where they can smoke, drink, and gamble.

In the poker room, Al lights up at the table with a few older European men who inform him the game has a $20,000 buy-in. Al throws stacks of money on the table and, for a little dramatic flair. As the poker game commences, Fernando asks him about his beliefs in the divine and the occult, to which Al is unsure but confirms that he does believe in God. Fernando tells him of his own spiritual awakening, A story about a Black ghost that broke into his home and touched his spirit, leaving him covered in ectoplasm. Al laughs it off, likening it to a sex dream, but remains noticeably uncomfortable. After redirecting attention back to the game, Al wins a huge hand. Without celebration, Fernando walks away, and the other men at the table saunter off without a word. Al sits there confused. He won $40,000 from the game, and yet Fernando has disappeared when it is time to pay up.

On another side of the house, Darius is in the kitchen trying to get some gin, when an Asian woman attending the party assumes he’s trying to flirt and dramatically shows her ring to ward off a conversation. When he clarifies his intentions, the woman, Will’s fiancée, MK (Jasmine Leung), is rightfully embarrassed but unfortunately shameless in her apology. “I get hit on by Black men a lot,” she tells Darius. “Black guys love Asian women,” she continues. Darius brushes it off and they part ways on good terms, but a white man named Socks (Hugh Coles) tells Darius that he overheard the conversation and asserts that it was “fucked up.” Darius insists it was a “lightweight” offense, but Socks is more invested in signaling his solidarity with Darius as a Black man than actually practicing it. Drawing a crowd around Darius and exaggerating the details of the exchange, Socks declares to a group of hysterical white allies that what took place wasakin to 12 Years a Slave. Despite Darius trying to explain that it’s not that big of a deal, it’s too late, and when the white mob sees MK, they pounce on her without asking him what he wants. As it turns out, the performance of supporting him was nothing more than a license for white moral authority.

Daruis shocked; Photo credit, Oliver Upton/FX

Meanwhile, Will introduces Earn and Van to TJ (Sheyi Cole), a young Black British artist he is financing. TJ introduces himself as a “multi-hyphenate” artist deal in all forms of art, despite the hype TJ’s work leaves both Earn and Van at a loss for words. As they look at one of his pieces, a photograph of an old white man in a Supreme sweatshirt and no bottoms, TJ calls them to note the “sadness” of the work. If there is anything particularly sad about the work, it is its lack of imagination. Will pulls Earn to the side to get his thoughts on TJ and his plans to invest in his idea for an influencer hostel. It’s obvious that Earn doesn’t think TJ is talented and worries that he might be taking advantage of Will. But, his unable to give Will a straight answer due to the fact TJ is watching him like a hawk every time he gets the chance to speak with Will.

Earn spotting Van at the pool; Photo credit, Oliver Upton/FX

Earn eventually finds Al, and the two vent about their rough nights. Earn faced with an apparent moral quandary, to protect that poor (but actually extremely wealthy!) white man from his own gullibility or let it continue to happen. Earn’s concern is partly selfish and misguided; he thinks TJ will make it harder for himself to access Will’s capital. The way Al sees it, sure, TJ might be scamming Will, but TJ is Black, and there are plenty of white kids scamming. As the words wash over Earn, he goes back to find Will but is stopped in his tracks by a framed photograph of three white men at the founding of Cape Town’s branch of the First Bank. Behind them, a Black man stands shackled in the shadows. Suddenly, Earn realizes the error in his thinking: The Black scammer is no match for white plunder. Thus when Earn finds Will, he decides not only to play along with TJ’s scheme but to get in on it as TJ’s manager. Will, of course, eats it up.

After Earn gets his piece of the pie, Al decides it’s time he got his. Seeing a Fernando’s most prized possesion is the tree he build his home around Al takes. a chainsaw to it to let Fernando know his going to pay what his owns. Earn stop Al from complete destroy the tree and on there way out Al makes a show of robbing the billionaire, ransackes Fernando’s home to make up for his debt.

Atlanta is a show that has teeth, meaning that their are so many underling layers within the story. In this particular episode the story take queuces from how older white people can feel threaten by a small group of black people, for example a white woman sees them from her window and cowers behind her curtains as she talks into a phone. Or how classism is another from of racism because its a system that seperate people based off differences in the case money. Also white guilt, the reaction Socks  taking more offense to what  MK told Darius when trying to reject him.

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