(Spoiler alert: Please do not read on if you haven’t watched Tuesday’s episode of “Atlanta”)
Tuesday night’s “Atlanta” finale just gave everyone a healthy dose of the reality of police brutality and how desensitized we have become to it.
The episode, appropriately titled “The Jacket,” focuses on Earn’s quest in retrieving his lost jacket after a night of partying and heavy drinking with Paper Boi and Darius. Earn (Donald Glover) quickly finds out that he left it in their Uber driver’s car from the night before so he, along with his cousin and sidekick, plans to meet up with the driver to get it back.
As Earn, Paper Boi and Darius wait on the side of the road for the driver to arrive, a slew of police officers pull up on them and order them out of the car with their guns drawn –they’re looking for the Uber driver too, who they suspect of being a drug dealer.
Shortly after, the suspect in question runs into the scene, wearing Earn’s jacket, and attempts to flee from the officers, but unfortunately this doesn’t end well for him. The Uber driver ends up getting fired at by almost every officer present and winds up dead.
Although this was probably the most intense scene in all of the “Atlanta” episodes, none of the characters lingered on the fact that they just witnessed a man being shot to death by police officers. In fact, no more than a minute after the man was pronounced dead does Earn walk up to the cops and asks if they could check the pockets of his jacket on the dead driver.
It has long been a criticism that sharing videos of police brutality towards black men is making us desensitized to the violence and “Atlanta” captured that effortlessly.
All 10 'Atlanta' Episodes Ranked From Pretty Good to Phenomenal (Photos)
Just in case you're having the feels after the "Atlanta" season finale and want to binge watch all the episodes all over again, we've ranked all 10 for your viewing pleasure.
You're welcome.
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10. "The Streisand Effect" I don't remember much of this episode so it wasn't the best, but it's "Atlanta" so it was still good.
This is the one where Earn and Darius are on a mission to get Earn some money --Darius gives Earn his phone to pawn. And that's the story of D and E's friendship.
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9. "The Big Bang" We love this episode because it set the tone for "Atlanta," as viewers quickly realized that Donald Glover is not here to explain black people to anyone -- the characters just are.
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8. "Streets on Lock" With Earn in jail awaiting bail, this episode focuses on the prison system in a lighthearted "Atlanta" way.
Paper Boi earns his street cred and him and Darius are honored with WET lemon pepper wings (the highlight of the episode).
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7. "Value" This episode was all about our girl, Van. Before this, we pretty much thought she was just Earn's uptight baby mama. Although Van ends up in a pretty unfortunate circumstance, the episode itself just goes to further prove that she's bae.
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6. "The Club" This episode didn't give you all the glamor and hype of clubs -- it kept it real. The only person that seemed to be having any fun was Darius, and he left early to go home, eat cereal and play video games.
This is also the episode where Paper Boi slaps the club manager with a stack of cash. Plus: the invisible car.
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5. "Go For Broke" All Earn wants to do is take Van out on a nice date, but he's broke. The whole episode is pretty much him stressing out about how he's going to pay for this elaborate meal while the waitress continues to up-sell him.
It's a pretty hilarious scene that we're sure many of us have probably fallen victim to. Plus it defines the struggle of dating while broke.
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4. "Nobody Beats the Biebs" Other than Earn getting mistaken for another black guy, this episode had so many gems. Black Justin Bieber for one. No one made any mention that the Biebs was now black and that was the greatest part.
This episode forced us to think how an obnoxious and out of control Bieber might be treated if he was black, plus also hinted at the whitewashing of Hollywood.
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3. "The Jacket" This episode focused on Earn's quest to retrieve his jacket after a night of partying and, like most of us do, he retraces his steps through Paper Boi's Snapchat Story.
"The Jacket" featured many themes: police brutality, providing for your family, pride, etc. epitomized what "Atlanta" is all about.
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2. "Juneteenth" We love this episode not because it showcases the diversity within the black community, but mostly because of how annoyingly hilarious Craig was.
You think he's the bad white guy appropriating black culture, but at the end of the episode we kinda fall in love with him for taking a semi-stance against his pretentious wife.
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1. "B.A.N." OK, so it's kind of cliché that this would be ranked the best episode, but hear us out. Not taking into consideration the weird structure of "B.A.N." this episode was just extremely creative in presenting the idea of a trans-racial identity and then having that person be intolerant when it came to LGBT rights. Like, WHAT?!
Also, the commercials. Those alone deserve their own ranking.
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From ”Nobody Beats the Biebs“ to the ”B.A.N.“, every episode is great — just some more so than others
Just in case you're having the feels after the "Atlanta" season finale and want to binge watch all the episodes all over again, we've ranked all 10 for your viewing pleasure.
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