Atlanta: Season 2/ Episode 3 “Money Bag Shawty” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)
What do you do when you get your first big check after being homeless and broke? Well, if you’re Earn, you spend it on dumb things to stunt of course. Network FX Director(s) Hiro Murai Writer(s) Stephen Glover Air Date 3/15/2018 Characters Introduced Clark RJ Walker A Gold Record But No Major Dollars: Darius, Al,…
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What do you do when you get your first big check after being homeless and broke? Well, if you’re Earn, you spend it on dumb things to stunt of course.
| Network | ||
| FX | ||
| Director(s) | Hiro Murai | |
| Writer(s) | Stephen Glover | |
| Air Date | 3/15/2018 | |
| Characters Introduced | ||
| Clark | RJ Walker | |
A Gold Record But No Major Dollars: Darius, Al, Clark
Thanks to some white woman mad her child likes a rap record far out of her age range, it seems Al now has a gold record. However, he still isn’t seeing the money he is expecting. So, he decides to hang with Clark, with Darius, and vibe with him a bit. See how he does since he got the endorsement deals, big money, and that is the level Al wants to get on.
And you know what he learns? Looks can be deceiving. Not in terms of Clark’s manager Luke having connections and hooking him up, but it seeming Clark’s persona is why he is doing so well. Misconception. Clark is low key an ass. Granted, his engineer was messing up, but considering the threats Clark was presenting, though not explicitly saying, and what we are left to assume his boys did, don’t underestimate Clark. He may be clean but his goons get dirty.
Commentary
There is something about Atlanta which always contains a bit more truth than meets the eye. So, in a way, you have to wonder if this is all supposed to be in reference to a rapper that is popular, does commercials and all that, but is a low key butt wipe. Not to a fellow artist or even the general public, but to his engineer and people like that. I mean, considering how many in the industry take subtle shots at their peers until it is socially the thing to do, maybe years from now we may learn who inspired Clark County.
It’s Time To Stunt On These Negroes: Earn, Van, Al
All Earn wants is some respect. Despite his association with Al, no respect. Despite him trying to do something nice for his girl, no respect. Even a cashier at a movie theater disrespects him. What the everlasting gobstopper? Well, if you take Al’s perception, it is implied because Earn doesn’t present himself as someone to respect. What Earn does is present himself as someone who deserves to be played. Hence why he loses money throughout the whole episode from a hookah bar to a strip club being hustled. All of which Van watches and takes his side on. Until this fool wants to try to race Michael Vick. Showing, maybe it isn’t the outside world playing Earn but just him continuously playing himself and sucking other people into his situations.
Commentary
Earn is damn near broke all the time, barely contributes to raising his daughter, and was just living in a storage facility a few episodes ago. His parents seem like good people and he apparently was smart enough to get into an Ivy League school so, is it just lack of common sense? Something is clearly up with this dude and no one seems to want to talk about it. I don’t want to say it is the culture or else everyone on the show would be in the same predicament as Earn. But, hey, maybe this should just be seen as a lesson of how not to act when you get new money. Maybe Jay-Z had something poignant with “The Story of OJ.”
Question(s) Left Unanswered
- Why does Earn give Everybody Hates Chris
vibes with the Ls he takes?
Highlights
- How Atlanta can produce episodes which sort of feel like filler, story-wise, yet deep down it is continuing to develop characters. It pushes you to realize Earn’s issues in life stem from more than a bad hand but often having piss poor planning. The reason why Al isn’t going from making it to rich is because the dude isn’t willing to put in the work, personality-wise, to woo big money his way. He’d rather between Earn or whoever set up the deal, he shows up and puts in minimal effort, and he gets paid.
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