Paper Boi escapes to nature in Atlanta’s penultimate episode
“Andrew Wyeth. Alfred's World.” introduces us to the rapper’s Safe Farm
TV Reviews Atlanta
I should have known after last week’s excellent mockumentary digression that there was no use of predicting what the last few episodes of Atlanta would cover. This show isn’t a fantasy epic or a linear drama where there are plot threads and questions that have to be answered. Instead, Atlanta created characters who have fascinated fans through their day-to-day struggles. A plotless show like this wasn’t going to end by giving viewers as much time as we wanted with each of the characters; instead, we’ll remember to appreciate what we can get. Still, it is a bit disappointing that this episode only features Al, with a little splash of Earn.
This week’s tagline, “They always making Paper Boi go through something,” is a good categorization for the series’ standalone Al episodes, including his chase through the “Woods” and his bad trip in “New Jazz.” Season four sees him escaping to a farm somewhere north of Atlanta, where he’s practicing his shooting, growing weed, and ignoring everyone’s calls. There have been hints that Al would make a life away from civilization all season, including the mention of a home in the woods in “Born to Die” and his at-home grow setup in “Crank Dat Killer.” Though he’d never mention it out loud, the title card song, “Mind Playing Tricks On Me” by Geto Boys, gives a hint of Al’s mindset after the mall shootout.
For most of this very quiet episode, Al is building a farm alone with very little experience. The property is less gorgeous than the landscape we saw in “Snipe Hunt,” though Hiro Murai, returning to the director’s chair, still perfectly utilizes the landscape. This episode’s setting feels like a middle ground between the dreaminess of “Snipe Hunt” and the menace of “Woods.” The same seclusion that means Al can stumble upon an abandoned tractor covered in wildflowers means there’s no one around to hear him scream. I do not fuck with nature like that, let alone nature without any civilization nearby, so I appreciated this episode’s tightrope between the loveliness of solitude and little splashes of menace that show up even before the feral hogs (mainly the Confederate flag clock and the “We don’t call the cops” sign in the general store).
Once some hogs do break into Al’s shed and discover his weed, the show plays a little bit with the “30-50 feral hog” meme vs. the reality of the wild animals’ threat potential. Back in 2019, the jokes went more viral than the warning articles, so Al’s incredulity makes sense. In 2022, though, there have been way more articles about how these pigs can fuck up a person and the surrounding property. Clyde at the general store (played by She-Hulk’s boss Steve Coulter) says Al needs to take them down (with some very aggressive language), but he’s even averse to dealing with a dead mouse, so he tries to feed them poison weed first to no avail.
Farmer Al gets a win the next day, when he gets the tractor up and running. His brief celebration and drive around the lake ends with him stalling on a slope. As soon as he went downhill from the tractor, I was ready for some 127 Hours shit, but luckily his foot only gets crushed and not stuck. His journey back to the house sets up an excellent payoff of all the random threads of the show, from the Amazon driver not hearing his screams to the hogs returning to his back patio for another nightly meal to the rapper finally embracing his anger and going ham on the beast with his new cast-iron skillet. It’s a great moment of catharsis for the character, though I agree with Earn that the breakfast of bacon (from Kroger!) and whiskey is a bit much.
Speaking of Earn, I was worried that some fight or impasse between the cousins had happened offscreen, since most of the calls Al was ignoring were his. Instead, everything seems chill between them, as the manager tells the rapper the same thing I had been shouting at the screen the whole episodes, that “farms are dangerous as fuck.” The episode ends with the team still making moves and negotiating contracts, but now both of them are preparing to move on to new phases of their life, with Earn and the family in L.A. and Al probably going between Atlanta and his Safe Farm. (He looks like a man here to stay, posted up with his ice pack and cane.)
Though this chill bottle episode is underwhelming as a penultimate outing, it does follow the overall Atlanta style. Strip away the unpredictability—shifting genres, impeccable needle drops, surrealist flair, and gorgeous filmmaking—and Atlanta’s about a group of people making their way from a life of hustling to a future of some sort of peace and calm. Everyone (besides maybe Darius, who’s still strangely underused this season) is just working toward a time where they don’t have to keep paddling like a swan’s feet underwater. Earn found that driving away from the campsite with Sade playing, and Al’s enjoying it as the fog comes in off the lake in slow motion. Whether we like it or not, we only have one episode left of the hustle. At least we’re getting glimpses of what peace will come after.
Stray observations
- I’m not that familiar with Andrew Wyeth’s work, but the NYT described the painter as “a reclusive linchpin in a colorful family dynasty of artists whose precise realist views of hardscrabble rural life…sparked endless debates about the nature of modern art.”
- I’d love to read Taofik Kolade’s script for this one-man show of an episode. The points of Al chuckling to himself, and talking to the plants and animals, are so natural and well-placed.
- Someone in the writers’ room should be proud of “These Backhoes Ain’t Loyal.”
- The attack on a woman outside Houston actually happened in November 2019, so it pans out if the episode was planned out sometime in 2020.
- This ep’s two other stellar needle drops are “Rollin’” by Dungeon Family and “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Cryin’” by Ray Charles.
- My exact notes for the moments when the hogs show up: “Absolutely the entire fuck not nope nun huh fuck this no no no stay the fuck away from him Pumba.”
- I always wonder whether cast iron is overrated when it goes on sale, and this episode is the best ad for Lodge that I’ve seen.
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For some reason, this flaky site is not showing any pending comment at all, so if my submitting my post again may be a duplicate, please delete one, thanks.Well hey, a little art history show ’n tell is in order I guess, though the episode title is ultimately a great deal more subtle than merely a knowing tongue-in-cheek pun.
Wyeth’s most famous work, Christina’s World, takes a second look to realize the prone figure of a young woman out in a field is not at all relaxed but shown positioned with particular determination gazing off to the distant country house. Yet Alfred’s injured predicament also more direct parallels Wyeth’s subject, as described in the online background of the work that is installed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art:“Wyeth’s neighbor Anna Christina Olson inspired the composition, which is one of four paintings by Wyeth in which she appears. As a young girl, Olson developed a degenerative muscle condition—possibly polio—that left her unable to walk. She refused to use a wheelchair, preferring to crawl, as depicted here, using her arms to drag her lower body along. ‘The challenge to me,’ Wyeth explained, ‘was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless.’”Over four distinct seasons, Atlanta has depicted some impressive world-building that’s at once about a specific time and place but also universal thanks to its four richly developed main characters dealing (literally for Al, early on) and contending with that world, eventually succeeding on their own terms, which this review rightly recognizes as the true strength and essence of this utterly unique series. All that a white woman in the painting on one hand, and a black man more temporarily handicapped on the other, may have in common is the universality of their respective human conditions out in the open country.
Yet even away from the city, when Al once again encounters nature fraught with peril, we see him winning over each obstacle, from the tractor to the long haul back home to finally fending off the feral hog: he deserves that satisfying whiskey in the end, in some ways his own “extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless.”
Well hey, a little art history show ’n tell is in order I
guess, though the episode title is ultimately a great deal more subtle
than merely a knowing tongue-in-cheek pun.
Wyeth’s most famous work, Christina’s World,
takes a second look to realize the prone figure of a young woman out in
a field is not at all relaxed but shown positioned with particular
determination gazing off to the distant country house. Yet Alfred’s
injured predicament also more direct parallels Wyeth’s subject, as
described in the online background of the work that is installed at New
York’s Museum of Modern Art:“Wyeth’s neighbor Anna
Christina Olson inspired the composition, which is one of four
paintings by Wyeth in which she appears. As a young girl, Olson
developed a degenerative muscle condition—possibly polio—that left her
unable to walk. She refused to use a wheelchair, preferring to crawl, as
depicted here, using her arms to drag her lower body along. ‘The
challenge to me,’ Wyeth explained, ‘was to do justice to her
extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider
hopeless.’”Over four distinct seasons, Atlanta
has depicted some impressive world-building that’s at once about a
specific time and place but also universal thanks to its four richly
developed main characters dealing (literally for Al, early on) and
contending with that world, eventually succeeding on their own terms,
which this review rightly recognizes as the true strength and essence of
this utterly unique series. All that a white woman in the painting on
one hand, and a black man more temporarily handicapped on the other, may
have in common is the universality of their respective human conditions
out in the open country.
Yet even away from the
city, when Al once again encounters nature fraught with peril, we see
him winning over each obstacle, from the tractor to the long haul back
home to finally fending off the feral hog: he deserves that satisfying
whiskey in the end, in some ways his own “extraordinary conquest of a
life which most people would consider hopeless.”
MoMA also points out about the painting, “The title Christina’s World, courtesy of Wyeth’s wife, indicates that the painting is more a psychological landscape than a portrait, a portrayal of a state of mind rather than a place.” As can certainly be said of Atlanta as well.
I didn’t watch the episode but this comment is cool and I think it doesn’t deserve to be stuck in the greys
Is there any way to be “verified” or whatever so you don’t wind up in the greys? I can’t find anything on the google.
I’d also like to know.
Thanks for the support, but aside from what I think must have been a site glitch failing even to show my post as “pending” I might assume any other delay may likely be just waiting for morning when the reviewer or some staffer assessing submissions finally grants approval.
thank you x
I appreciate the acknowledgement.
This is probably the most educational comment I’ve seen on this site, thanks for sharing this great info.
Thanks very much. I can only say that the show itself has been most enlightening and inspiring, from its conception to writing, direction, and performances over a seemingly disjointed set of seasons that, not at all coincidentally, befits our country’s own unprecedentedly astounding upheavals over six years since 2016. For all that this episode’s title and far-flung artistic reference might be no more than showing off smarts in lesser hands, we have a fitting final showcase for all of Brian Tyree Henry’s remarkable talent eliciting true empathy and insight into “Alfred’s World”.
All I have to add is that your comment led me to look up Andrew Wyeth on Wikipedia, and I was really surprised that he was still alive as of 2009. My art teacher in grade school (in the 1980s) was a big fan of his, but she seemed to talk about him in the past tense, so I assumed he’d been dead for decades.
As I’ve noted, beyond any visual comparison between the painting and Alfred’s plight that jogged my (very) distant design school art history memory, I too was prompted to discover the MoMA collection page online which really drove home many points of the episode through the quote I cited. And while all art should not necessarily require explanation for a viewer to understand and appreciate, Atlanta has always excelled at delivering cultural humor and social commentary with acutely aware purpose that we should all learn something if we really pay attention.
I’ve seen this painting in person at the MOMA, and it’s absolutely stunning. Thanks for the history lesson and explanation of the reference!.
Much appeciated, thanks.
So cool, thanks for this knowledge!
I want to watch more videos from These Backhoes Ain’t Loyal
Really enjoyed the small moments and the pace of this episode. Beautiful property, glad to see him hanging out on that sweet porch at the end but wow as a nurse I would have had him visit the hospital and have someone check out the foot injury and the hog attack! Tip of the hat for the character’s toughness coming through it all and be able to chill in the aftermath.
I took the bandages on his head and arms and the wrap around his foot as evidence that he had gone to the hospital at some point..
Gosh I hope you are right! I may be speculating he is one of those tough guys who thinks he can do it himself, plus he would’ve had a hard time driving. Anyway we see people all the time who bandage up wounds but don’t cleanse them properly plus a hog bite is full of infection and a rusty, dirty tractor wound is a conduit for tetanus. Clearly I’ve been overthinking this TV show; want him to have a little peace and rest.
I just can’t see Al wrapping his foot that tightly and efficiently, is all..
You may be right, even after all my years I have to have the right angle and a good start to get a nice smooth looking wrap on a patient (snug but not too tight, evenly placed spirals), but I chalked all that up to whoever did it for the shot, probably from the props department, hair/makeup or maybe from the set EMT?
Apparently I was distracted during this episode, because I didn’t remember seeing Darius once, I didn’t realize the weed was poisoned, and I don’t know how you knew the farm was “north of Atlanta”.
I don’t recall Darius either. He’s barely been in this season, it’s kind of a bummer, though I wouldn’t hate if they end the series on a Darius episode. It seems like the show already wrapped up Earn, Van, and Al’s stories.
Darius wasn’t in the episode, I’m assuming Lakeith was busy with one of his many projects which explains his relative absence from s4. he will be in the last episode though, there’s scenes from the trailer with Darius which haven’t showed up in the season yet
Al mentioned wanting to poison the hogs in the general store, but we didn’t see him put poison on the weed. I thought that he was using it as a lure to shoot the hogs but missed his chance to shoot them when he fell asleep.
It is virtually impossible to poison a wild hog (and kill it rather than just sicken it). Their immune systems are incredible.
“To the Escape Tractor!”
I haven’t started this season yet. I’ve watched last season but I think at this point I’m doing it as a binge. Given these standalone episodes that might hit nicer (speaking as someone who watched it weekly broken up by the standalone episodes last year that featured none of the core cast). But it must be said tho, all the standalone Paper Boi episodes are amazing. Spending the penultimate with mostly Al an a splash of Darius sounds about right for this show.
Nando’s!
Did I miss Darius?I didn’t notice him.
I know that things are crafted for the narrative more than realism, but it was hard to concentrate on the narrative knowing 90% of the tractor’s problem was it needed a battery charge.
Al troubleshoots via YouTube videos like I do, right down to where he’s underneath the tractor and hears the dire warning about how easily you can be crushed to death by it, followed by “oh shit”.
I grew up in a rural enough area, that I knew to never be downhill from a tractor on an incline. Seems like a tractor rolling on them was a leading cause of farmer mortality when I was growing up.
As worried as I was for Al during the shootout in “Crank Dat Killer”, it was nothing compared to the cold sweat I got when he went to the other side of the bank. Al was really “Shaking Hands With Danger” and I’ve seen enough OSHA statistics that I seriously thought they killed him off.
I get and appreciate your “shake hands with danger” reference (Rifftrax version). Well done. I was thinking of the same thing every time he was near the tractor.
Clyde’s monologue about the need to destroy wild hogs was chilling; his entire demeanor changed, from folksy/sarcastic to seething/entitled. It was interesting that Al laughed rather than stepped away.Also, Al’s half-hearted claim that he wouldn’t buy the pan on Amazon was pitch-perfect.Also loved his sudden put-on chill when he finally picked up with Earn.
Of course Al did end up ordering the pan from Amazon. But the perfect karmic payoff was not the delivery driver failing to hear his pleas for help as he struggled to get back to his house. Only because he’d opened the package outside was he ironically able to feel around for the pan on the ground at hand at the crucial moment to wield as a weapon against the giant hog he’d laughed off earlier.
Maybe I read into it too much, but to me, the chilling thing about the store clerk’s monologue, was that it felt like he could be talking about something else…
Everyone is always welcome to their own interpretation but to me that felt like we were also maybe supposed to laugh off the (hardware store) clerk’s points about how serious and dangerous the situation was, only for Al/the audience to find out that, no, actually the easily dismissed clerk was displaying the appropriate amount of reverence and Al was overconfident.
100%
I definitely felt that as well, and no way it wasn’t deliberate.
Yeah, 100% there was heinous subtext on his words. A way of concealing hatred within an apparently mundane conversation. One could say it’s reading too much, but just in here I’ve seen 3 people agreeing on this intrpretation. Good script and good acting in the way the clerk said what he said while talking to Al.
Earn’s line: “Atlanta isn’t going anywhere.” That one hit hard.
so what’s the distinction between a feral hog and a boar? looks like a boar to me
They’re kind of the same thing. A boar is an intact male. A hog can be male or female.
That’s good to know. I figured it was a regional thing, like “soda” and “pop”
Nothing. Feral hogs are actually a crossbred mix of Russian boars and Spanish pigs…They spread like wildfire and cost millions in crop damage. They can breed about every 5-6months and have a litter of 3-7 each time. A female pig is ready to breed after 3-4 months from birth… We are in a constant battle with them on our farms. They are fun to shoot at night with thermal but the minute we stop putting pressure in them, they rebuild their numbers with ease. And they can hurt people, we had a farmer buddy break his leg when a big old boar charged him and took his legs out.But yeah feral hog pig boar, it’s interchangeable.
Not one mention about the whole episode being a metaphor for paper bois career?Growing up struggling, dealing with casual racism (no mention of the hogs being a metaphor either?)…. Using his own creativity to get by…The tractor represents his rap career a thing he put all this effort into to get it to work… He takes off … And its over in short order …. This whole season was about how quick that high can fade… And what comes next… Dealing with the mental health issues of that and his near death experience…. That tractor almost killing him being a direct representation.His struggle to get home… To find a place that’s home….And to do it all himself. Hes always relied on Earn to do everything for him… So ignoring his calls was his way of saying “I’m good Earn, I can take care of myself” leaving Earn to go off on his next journey, his trip LA without feeling guilty.Paper bois journey is complete. He’s ok to take care of himself both physically and mentally (his injured crawl reflects that). And the little banter over the phone shows us… These guys have always been and will still be best friends… And they’ll be fine even after they move on in their lives It’s a brilliant way to show a characters developmental journey most of which happens off screen and between episodes in this show.Feel like this review missed all of that…
this was an A+ episode for me. one of my favourites in the whole show. just felt like one last showcase for Brian’s incredible facial acting and performance as Al
I don’t understand why the bacon and whiskey breakfast was “a bit much” for the reviewer. Al had survived two close brushes with death and cooking that bacon must have felt like sweet revenge on the hog that almost killed him. And as for the whiskey, it’s not like he had anywhere to be that day. He was going to be laid up with a bad (broken?) foot watching TV all day.