"Crabs in a Barrel" is the eleventh and final episode of the second season of Atlanta. It is the twenty-first episode of the series overall. It was released on May 10, 2018 on FX.
Premise[]
Sometimes you gotta go where the money goes. But it be feeling like something is holding me back. Like I can't leave.
Plot[]
Earnest Marks and Lottie are driven to a meeting with an entertainment lawyer by a Lyft driver who refuses to follow her GPS. He gets a strange look from Alfred Miles as he enters the meeting space with his daughter. The black lawyer explains his credentials to Al and Earn and states that he represents several people on a reality TV show, and will take five percent of Alfred's earnings. Walking to Al's car, Al explains that he wants a "high-level Jewish dude" as his lawyer as opposed to someone trying to rob him. He notes his excitement for his upcoming European tour with Clark County, having gotten the gig from Clark's manager Lucas. Earn says that he should be headlining the tour, and he agrees while raising his eyebrow at Earn.
Earn drives a moving truck to Al's house and leads the movers inside. Al tells Earn that he found the golden gun Earn tried to leave inside one of the moving boxes, wanting to get rid of it, and Earn sheepishly drops it in his bag. He realizes Darius passport is expired and leaves to go to a meeting at Lottie's school, telling Darius to be ready to get his passport renewed when he gets back. Lottie's teacher tells Earn and Vanessa Keifer that their daughter is an exceptional student for her age, and recommends transferring her to a private school, as her public school is not equipped with the resources to teach gifted children. Earn asks if there is a cheaper alternative, and the teacher recommends that they "keep her in a happy, two-parent household." As they move to leave, Van asks the teacher if she would have told them the school was bad if Lottie was not gifted, and she responds that "if I see a steer smart enough to get out of the pen, I leave the gate open." Outside, Earn and Van debate whether or not they should send Lottie to the private school, and Van asks if he is really leaving for Europe for two months. Earn insists that it is tuition for the private school, but Van states that Lottie will need Earn to be around more than he usually is if she goes to the academy. Van muses that she always knew Lottie was going to be advanced, as her father is too. Earn retorts that Van is just as smart. As he says goodbye to Lottie, Van notices his black eye and asks if he is okay, and he shrugs it off as "stupid shit."
Earn returns to Al's to find the mover's kids playing video games on Al's TV and the movers on a 3 PM lunch break. As Darius watches the boys play video games, Earn bribes the movers with fifty extra dollars to finish faster. They go to an office in a Jewish neighborhood, and Darius asks him about the right way to pee while they wait. As Darius fills out his renewal forms, Earn gets on well with the man helping them, and he tells him that his cousin is a high-tier entertainment lawyer that he can hook Al up with. Earn asks how his cousin got into the business, and the man explains it was through his uncle. Earn requests that the man answers his next question honestly, and asks if there is a black lawyer as good as his cousin, and the man tells him that there definitely is, but black lawyers don't have the same connections as his cousin "for systemic reasons." As Darius finishes his forms, Van texts Earn (whose phone background is now the picture of his mother, aunt and uncle) that she is thinking of moving with Lottie back in with her mother. Earn asks Darius if Al plans on firing him, and Darius says he might, but he would never forget to help his family. Earn states that he does not want a handout, and Darius tells him that he knows he is learning and failing along the way, but Al cannot risk failure in his life as a black man. He assures Earn that Al will not do anything until they are situated in Europe and Earn has had a chance to see the world, as it "seems like an Al thing to do."
As they wait for their Lyft, Earn asks Al if they can talk, who says they will talk when they get to Europe. Al smokes and passes his blunt to Darius, who offers it to Earn but is rejected. As they walk through the airport, Earn bluntly shooes away two men working his old job, as they are behind schedule. They meet up with Clark and Lucas and go through security, Darius invoking his right to opt out of the body scanner, as he claims it fries brains. Earn realizes the gold gun is still in his bag just before putting it through the x-ray machine, and quickly devises a plan. He distracts Clark and Lucas, who are behind him, by asking them to pass him a bin, and he slips the gun into Clark's bag. He hurries Al and Darius away as the workers hold up the bag with the gun inside and ask whose it is. On the plane, Al tells Earn he saw him sneak the gun into Clark's bag, stating that people like them need to do whatever they need to survive. He tells Earn that he is "the only one who knows what I'm about." Clark gets on the plane and Al asks what happened, Clark telling them that Lucas got arrested when the TSA found the gun in his bag. He chuckles and walks away, humming his new single, as Earn murmurs to Al that he put the gun in Clark's bag, not Lucas'. Al sighs and stares at Clark as he walks to his seat. Tracy, not knowing Al is gone, hammers on his door with a girl by his side while the neighbors yell at him to shut up, asking to be let in.
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