My thoughts regarding the first three episodes
This is a series more about “theme” than linear story arcs. The theme of this season was to create a “black fairy tale” and each of the three episodes of this season have stuck to that main theme.
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Episode 1- A young black boy literally beats the odds and is able to liberate himself from a white supremacist system of oppression and mortal danger that many black children NEVER escape from. Episode 1 is actually the most blatant exploration of this theme as they literally took a story that was “ripped from the headlines” and flipped a story of black tragedy into black triumph.
Episode 2- Paper Boi starts the episode in prison. Usually a black man caught up in the legal system would be a hellish experience, but instead for Alfred it is pleasant. Complete with a prison guard who acts as a waiter, a 4 course gourmet meal, and comfortable lodgings. The place is so nice that Alfred chooses to STAY and have lunch rather than get out as fast as he can (compare this episode with Alfred and Earn’s experience in season 1 episode 2: Streets On Lock) Moreover, Darius and Van are completely safe around a group of cultish white people (think Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, etc.) who revere Tupac on his death bed (Tupac in reality was labeled a thug, a menace, and dangerous by the white media) Finally, the “fairy tale ending” of the episode is Alfred refusing to perform (i.e. tap dance) on a stage in front of white people in black face. He gets to keep the advance, and Earn is able to escape because the white guy beats up the wrong guy in blackface.
Episode 3- Earn, Darius, and Alfred are able to attend an upscale party. A white man (Will) befriends Earn and is massively rich. He’s bleeding money on this black kid whose obviously hustling him. The black kid is able to use the white guy for money (the reverse is often what happens) Alfred is able to win a game of poker even though the white man in charge (Fernando) was CLEARLY trying to throw him off his game. First using Ghosts (which typically black people are wary of discussing. How many times have we heard from our parents and/or elders that you don’t mess around with the “spirit world”) then using a weird, implied Homosexual experience with said Ghost (Black males are stereotypically made out to be the most Homophobic) and then capping it off with talk of God & The Devil (Black people are typically very religious) none of this works, and Alfred wins. Fernando leaves, leaving Alfred without his winnings. Instead of leaving empty handed, Alfred is able to get revenge by destroying Fernando’s favorite possession ( A tree, which historically been a source of great violence and trauma for black people due to America’s vile history of lynchings)
Meanwhile Darius has a mildly racist but ultimately harmless encounter with an Asian woman, meets a white guy named “Socks” who christens himself Darius’s “savior” and gets his buddies to enact vengeance on the woman. Parallel to this Van assaults several white people by pushing them into a pool with no blowback or retaliation for her actions. The night ends with all four of them escaping consequences and Alfred even getting the hat that was stolen from him earlier returned.
If THAT isn’t a “Fairy tale” ending for four young black people amongst a white majority I don’t know what is.
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