I’ve always wanted to visit Paris.
Having been ferried down the canals of Venice, chasing down sheep in Wales, eating innards in Scotland, my number one pick has always been Paris. The city of love, of adventure.
I suppose it’s only fitting that we end our journey in this city.
If you were expecting this finale of Atlanta (FX) titled “Tarrare” to bring the crew back, you are sadly mistaken.
Instead, we are treated to a feast of existential dread to succor our basic need: a wanting to feel something. That is something Cocteau would be proud of.
At a brassiere in Paris, the council of three Xosha (Xosha Roquemore), Shanice, and Candice (Adriyan Rae) girls spill the tea about spilling the pee. One of them actually gets paid to do that with a liaise.
French men are no better than anyone else and if they have needs, far be it from us to deny those wants, especially at the tune of six figures though, or in Francs, it is so much better.
They both thank Candice for bringing her on their ‘business’ trip, but it’s only digging deeper into sadness.
They want to get into some historical shit, so there is a black walk around, but Candice senses something stronger.
She spots an almost Amelie-type Van (Zazie Beetz) grabbing a baguette down the street.
Van doesn’t recognize her until she does.
She invites them into her apartment, still in Amelie mode.
They all realize she’s a girl from around the way, but living this fantasy.
In fact, she’s been shacked up.
She’s with Marcel and has been working at his restaurant for months.
Once Van pours the wine, she contests Candice’s coming over.
I mean outside of peeing on someone for money.
Before the actual conversation can be made, Van takes them on a journey via motorbike with a large baguette in her backpack.
How more French can you get, and that isn’t a slight.
Dodging through high streets, the group arrives at a hotel fit for Wes Anderson.
Though thoroughly jazzed, they are weary.
This is especially true seeing as though Van needs to get keys from a friend… so this isn’t as much of an introduction to the city of love as much as it is a fucking ride along.
What we find is a coked-up Alexander Skarsgard (right, I mean they had Liam Neeson).
He welcomes them, but he’s already sucking his own on account of how rich he is.
With citing the mistake of Ashanti being with Nelly, which was so ten years ago, the dude still wants a threesome with the other two.
Now with Candice, Van wants nothing to talk about. She jauntily places drugs on his bed.
This is her game to create and tear down.
She takes Candice, and the girls and go to the front desk, begging him for an ambulance. This is the best act she had put on thus far… but the garden path is only starting…
After a brief sojourn, they arrive at a particular arrondissement.
Though Candice cannot wait outside, Van is imminent on going inside.
Though the others are game, something has to change. This plot has to turn.
“Tarrare!”
Keep that in mind.
It’s what a dog barks when they know danger is approaching.
It really matters none, though because Emilio (Yoli Fuller) fucked over Van.
No, she’s not selling drugs at the spot, but they are fucked out of getting out of there-
“Tarrare!”
That is the battle cry that lets everybody know she is there—named after the famed street performer who would ingest anything.
Keep that in mind.
Ducking through a subway, nearly being run over, the girls are concerned.
Van is bold but not in the best way.
She arrives at the doorstep of her friend Carlos (Odysseas Ioannou Konstantinou) letting in Xonda, Shanice, and Candice.
Though it looks like a dirty walk-up, what it harbors is a pristine art museum I want to visit.
Emilio apologizes profusely but to no avail.
Van means ‘business’ when she extracts the hard loaf of bread she’s had on her person.
So much so, that Carlos has to get everybody out of the building.
She ensues to beat the fuck out of him with that loaf she’s been carrying around for months.
Maybe that guilt and hate left her. Or maybe just did her soul.
Though my guy swears he can get her the package, it matters none.
She gets it anyway by swearing to kill him with her skills…
He gives up the ghost and her crew is not only scared but also excited.
Inside, they are invited to dine. Candice doesn’t approve because they weren’t initially welcomed.
Keep in mind, dear audience, unless you aren’t formally invited, stay clear.
That goes double for you, vampires.
Candice is freaked out about Van. The other two don’t mind, but something is up with her girl and she isn’t having it.
It turns out that this party is for Mr. Skarsgard and she can only go south and not in the way he wants.
She spits in his face and goes to meet Marcel.
In the kitchen, as Van smooches the chef, Candice knows something is up, so she pulls her bestie aside and smacks some sense into her, or at least tries to.
Van or her French personality holds back while pushing back, eliding her true intent.
She’s jealous of her friend… but before they can get into murkier territory, dinner is served!
Yes, they are as they appeared to be. Hands.
The upper crust only can dine on braised and deep-fried hands. Yes, you read me correctly.
Human hands, but only not knowing about it.
It kind of makes sense at first. The sensory of the gustatory is better without the sight at times.
However, this is a mean game the rich are playing, tricking people into eating… themselves.
Back in the kitchen, Candice is calmed down and just wants to look out for her friend, which is why she brings up Lottie, Van’s daughter.
Van didn’t even realize what was in front of her face and immediately freaks out, tearing the whole kitchen down.
This is called realization.
As they hear her screaming in the distance below aka Hell, both girls remove their ‘hood’ to reveal what is a fucking fried human hand.
They are both jet and disgusted, but Alexander is all for the food.
Freaking the fuck out, Van wants to know where Lottie, her daughter is.
She’s snapped back to reality, using her actual vox and all Candice can do is talk her off that ledge.
Under the majestic light of the Eiffel Tower, Van admits to not being herself for a while.
It’s beautiful and I can so feel that. Candice listens with worry, but love within her heart for her friend.
Before she could accomplish driving into traffic, Van realizes she wants a big change, especially because she felt her daughter knew what she tried to do before and sees her mother as a failure for once.
Vanessa was suicidal, hoisted by her own petard.
In order to right that, she packed up, and went to Europe.
This solved nothing.
She couldn’t sleep and at one point Amelie came on the television.
Van wanted to know that happiness.
This was a thing so far out of her grasp, it made her want it more.
Candice feels her pain, and it consoles her without judgment.
The thing that presses Van is she is unsure of who she is and no amount of travel will ameliorate that.
She just wants to go home.
Candice secures that they both start anew. That is a true friend.
I can’t speak for Shanice, as she is taking the reigns and giving a romantic evening out… just out in the form of urinating on a willing partner as she looks out on the beauty of the lit-up Eiffel Tower.
It’s a black woman pissing on a white man. I mean, if that’s not the very definition of the American Dream, I don’t know what is.
Writ by the incomparable Stefani Robinson and directed by Donald Glover, this made me feel something I had not before.
Like no other show, this one accomplished the incredible.
What others could not.
It even featured an after the credits, with the police searching a ‘van’ making Earn sign for a bunch of things, including a family photo of white Earnest’s family in episode 4.
