Atlanta Season 2 Ep. 8 Recap: 'Woods'

Photo: Curtis Baker/FX

Gloomy mansions. Idyllic towns with menacing, creepily masked underbellies. Ghoulish figures appearing from the shadows. Atlanta seems determined to subvert every horror flick trope this season, and continues this week as we follow Paper Boi into the 'Woods."

As the clothes scattered about his house and all day napping suggest, Alfred's in the midst of a deep funk, hearing the voice of his deceased mother as he imagines her scolding him and cleaning up his mess, putting off signing papers Earn keeps calling about, and wincing when he hears himself on the radio. "Sportin' Waves" and "Barbershop" revealed the ways Alfred's growing fame was infringing on his life, but through all the misadventures and bored white hipsters, he stayed on that J.Lo shit, claiming he was still Al from the block.

"Woods," raises the stakes, putting Alfred in greater danger than he was when he got jacked in by the world's most polite robber, and forcing him to rethink how he perceives himself as a public figure. The latter comes (at least in part) in the form of Sierra, Alfred's sorta-not-really-we-kinda--just-kickin'-it girlfriend. Sierra's Instagram famous--glam selfies, nails pics and pushing that wig line--and as she and Alfred ride to the nail shop, brings up how those around her don't understand the grind of personal appearances and photo shoots.

"It's nice to be around someone who gets it," she says. Sierra has embraced her celebrity, posing for  fans pics, suggesting Al push Earn to get free swag to give his dope boy wardrobe an upgrade (which we know ain't happen 'cause Earn is Earn), and that them hooking up could be beneficial both of their brands. Alfred unsurprisingly balks at all of it, but Sierra clocks his  tea. "You on the radio and you makin' money," she argues. "You been not real."

It's enough to make a man abandon a perfectly good pedicure, which is exactly what Alfred does as he storms out. What he isn't able or unwilling to accept is the point Sierra or even he himself has made about fame: none of it is based in reality, and when you enter the world of popularity (even regional popularity like Alfred's), you cease being "real," at least in the sense that you can move through world the way everyone else does. Of course who you are as an individual still exists, but there's also the public "you," which has to be marketed and managed and reposted and filtered and hash-tagged.

But quicker you can say run the jewels does Paper Boi receive that message courtesy of three fans-turned stick up kids. After getting robbed and shot at, he runs into the woods, where he runs into older man named Wally who claims to be high, but as the day turns to night really appears to be haunted by some terrible, life-altering event that happaned long ago. Alfred, veering back and forth between wariness and annoyance, but mostly annoyance, yells at Wally to leave him alone.

Wally counters Alfred is just like those deer guts they keep passing up--stubborn. Which, if you wanna take that metaphor further, means Alfred's refusal to acknowledge his life is changing could lead to his emotional (becoming bitter and jaded) or literal (getting killed) decay. Alfred again  brushes it aside, but really fucks up when he calls Wally useless, leading him to pull out a box cutter and scarily whispering he needs to get serious and make a decision about how to get out of the woods--or to put it another way, he needs to stop wasting time and start treating his career like a career. That may mean "leveling up," via a better wardrobe and dealing with the necessary evil of social media.

Though at this moment, Alfred's more immediate concern is getting the fuck away from Wally and out of the actual woods, which eventually leads him to a convenience store. Once there he encounters a fan, but instead of rolling his eyes to the sky and sighing, Alfred offers to take a few pictures, even advising the kid on which faces to make. A change in fan interactions is one thing; will a change in management be next?

Other Thoughts:

• Speaking of the affects of fame, I highly doubt plain ol' Alfred could've gotten away with saying "And I coulda thought you was just another stuck up ho with too many stretch marks," to Sierra. That would've at least been a slappable or curse-out worthy offense.

• Plot predictions can be tricky, especially on a series like Atlanta, but all signs appear to be pointing to Alfred dropping Earn as his manager. Again, with this show it can go either way, but from Clark County to Sierra to the white hipster douche from season one and "Sportin' Waves," the universe seems to be screaming, "Earn can't take you to the next level boo boo."

• Darius actually put his foot in the pasta. 

• Damn, first Uncle Willy then Wally. Gentlemen of a certain age with names that start with W keep takin' Ls.

Those One Liners Tho'

• Alfred:"Nigga when you learned how to make pasta?" Darius: "In a dream. Mayor McCheese was there. The girl from Dharma and Greg."

• "Everybody wanna be a black girl but the black girls ain't makin' no money from it."

• "I ain't got no interest in lookin' like a damn black Aladdin."

• "You ever hear of a trash can?" "And I know you know how to fold." "Un uh, get up." One classic black mama line after another. Complete with cleaning the house up-style humming.