Atlanta Recap: Happy Birthday, Lottie

To have a good time Lottie’s sixth birthday, Earn, Van, and Lottie embark on a tenting journey within the woods. With a present like Atlanta, watching a Black household enter the woods to go tenting instantly put me on edge, particularly after season three. However it will be too predictable to make use of the woods as a web site to lean totally into the horror style. As a substitute, the journey brings the household nearer than ever. This isn’t to say the writers didn’t dabble in horror with a couple of spooky moments (what precisely did Lottie catch in that pillow case?), however in true Atlanta trend, the story takes a wholly much less cliché route.

“Snipe Hunt” can also be a way more heartfelt episode than I’d have anticipated. Atlanta is thought for its experimental nature and Afro-surrealist vitality, so episodes like this generally fall flat for a viewer like me who is keen to dissect each twist and switch. However the episode appears to anticipate this response by producing an unsettling vitality that retains the viewers anxious about what’s subsequent. There’s a second when Lottie seems to be out throughout the river towards an assemblage of bushes that create a gap to the forest. The sounds of the bugs and wildlife swell till the scene is damaged by the cruel metal-on-metal sound of Van hammering one of many tent poles into the bottom. Scenes like this, and Lottie catching the snipe, take us proper to the sting with out diving into true horror, selecting to pivot to a candy calmness as a substitute. This mirrors the depth of the feelings displayed throughout the episode, particularly Earn’s declaration of affection and Van’s preliminary reluctance. Vulnerability is likely one of the scariest issues on the earth, and the buildup is hell, however it’s additionally how we get to the softest elements of ourselves.

Whereas the episode is considerably sleepy, it’s good to see Earn and Van’s relationship develop and evolve up to now. The potential for a transfer to Los Angeles for Earn’s job alternative looms between them as he presses her to resolve if she needs to hitch him. He broaches the topic as they construct the extravagant tent he purchased for the event. Now that Earn has surpassed monetary stability and is in a tax bracket that permits him a substantial quantity of disposable earnings, he’s in a position to splurge on Lottie. Not solely has he reserved the complete grounds for simply the three of them, however he additionally bought the costliest tent on the retailer, one sufficiently big to accommodate 12 folks. Van factors out that they’ll be freezing and unable to amass sufficient physique warmth to insulate the area, however she doesn’t dwell on this hiccup, delicate to the truth that Earn is happy to create the perfect expertise.

As they assemble the tent, Earn asks Van if she’s thought extra concerning the transfer. Taking her time to provide an intentional reply, she tells Earn she’s thought of it lots however she’d somewhat discuss it later. They discover the wilderness, strolling alongside the river and ultimately stopping to catch frogs. Earn, noticing how Lottie has been exceptionally moody, asks his daughter if she’s having fun with her big day. With out instantly talking to him, she sullenly proclaims that she doesn’t like her birthday.

Van writes it off as Lottie being drained and “in certainly one of her moods,” however she provides some additional enjoyable to their day by telling Lottie they’re going snipe looking. She says a snipe is a uncommon, practically extinct creature with purple eyes that solely comes out within the moonlight. However whereas Lottie is ecstatic concerning the concept of catching a snipe, Earn is worried that Van is pranking their 6-year-old. She tells him snipe looking is a practice she participated in throughout her short-lived time as a Lady Scout, however I’m with Earn: Once I first learn that this episode was known as “Snipe Hunt” and noticed they have been coming into the woods, my thoughts instantly leapt to The Purge and Get Out.

They proceed the day as an idyllic household; Earn tells Lottie a foolish story whereas Van smiles and listens earlier than the trio units off onto the river in a small canoe to go fishing. As they sit on the water, Lottie says she misses her grandparents, maybe eager for the individuals who cared for her whereas her mother and father have been in Europe attending business events and beating folks with baguettes. Earn, attempting his greatest on the father position, reminds her the way it’s uncommon for the three of them to be collectively alone. Being alone with Van and his daughter is a vital second for Earn as he critically considers the transfer to the opposite facet of the nation. As they roast sizzling canine over a hearth, he asks once more if Van would wish to come. They’re unable to proceed the dialog, although, as a result of because the moon creeps into the sky to take the solar’s place, Lottie is able to hunt for a snipe.

Van provides Lottie a pillowcase and instructs her to put a marshmallow inside as bait, scratch the bottom with a stick to draw the snipe, then hit it throughout the top to seize it. They go away Lottie alone to hunt and retreat again to the hearth, once more beginning a dialog across the transfer. Van opens up about what’s holding her again, saying she’s afraid Earn is asking solely as a result of he doesn’t wish to be alone in L.A. Personally, I anticipated this dialog to be extra about Lottie and her wants, however Atlanta has by no means been a present about parenting. (I imply, how a lot display time has Lottie even gotten up to now?)

Their discuss is as soon as once more lower quick by Lottie as she proudly yells to her mother and father that she’s caught the snipe. Frightened by what Lottie may’ve probably captured, Van fastidiously tells her to drop the pillowcase and run to security. After ensuring Lottie is secure, Earn strikes nearer to prod the pillowcase with a stick, and out jumps one thing that makes a creepy noise and slithers away. Van anxiously asks, “What was that?” and Lottie says definitively, “It was a snipe. I obtained him.”

One way or the other encountering what may very well be an actual snipe doesn’t frighten them sufficient to go residence, and so they finish the night with a makeshift birthday cake for Lottie within the type of a s’extra with a candle on prime. They begin to sing Stevie Surprise’s rendition of “Completely satisfied Birthday,” however Lottie shuts it down, melancholy as ever, asking for no singing earlier than blowing out her candles and making a want.

Attempting to go to sleep within the large tent, Earn’s tooth chatter as he shivers at nighttime. Listening to him endure, Van affords Earn area the place she and Lottie are sleeping. With Lottie fully asleep, he makes use of this as a possibility to speak about L.A. with out interruption. He reassures her that she’s not merely a safety blanket — if he wished to seek out somebody new he would, however what he really needs is for his household to be collectively. Van, nonetheless unsure, says she will be able to’t pack up her complete life simply because he loves her as an extension of his daughter. Earn will get up, signaling a extra critical discuss, and bears his soul to her, telling her he’s in love together with her and has dreamed about her since Amsterdam. The truth that she’s additionally the mom of his youngster makes him “simply fucking burst.”

For essentially the most half, Van sits silently listening to his proclamations of affection, however Earn retains expressing himself, formally asking her to go to L.A. as his associate, not merely a co-parent. She lastly agrees, permitting Earn to set free a breath as he joins her subsequent to their sleeping daughter, whom he refers to because the manifestation of the perfect elements of one another.

The following morning, they get up realizing rain is coming. Anybody who’s a fan of Afro-surrealism and Black media understands the importance of water in our tales and spirituality. It’s a typical however vital trope with a wealthy historical past: Water holds reminiscence, ebbs and flows, and has the facility to take and provides life. As Toni Morrison as soon as stated, “All water has an ideal reminiscence and is without end attempting to get again to the place it was.” To me, the rain started at an ideal time, as Earn and Van got here full circle of their relationship. Langston Hughes was additionally identified for his use of water as symbolism. One among his most well-known traces is, “My soul has grown deep like rivers,” a line I considered Earn, Van, and Lottie brushed their tooth within the morning. Over the previous 4 seasons, we’ve seen extraordinary progress and depth from Earn, who, as he stated himself, “by no means fights for something.” However now he’s preventing for Van, one thing he wasn’t able to doing years in the past.

The household drives away from the campsite whereas enjoying Sade’s “Love Is Stronger Than Pleasure” (what an ideal soundtrack alternative) because the rain falls on the automotive home windows. Lottie watches her mother and father from the again, noticing a spark of their banter and chemistry of their physique language, and at last cracks a smile, reminding me of many late-night drives in my very own childhood with my still-in-love mother and father blasting Sade and holding arms. Earn is so proper: “What else are we doing it for, if not that feeling?”

• One other enjoyable wink to the apparent horror components of the episode is the interplay with a barely uncomfortable but coldly pleasant older white man once they first arrive on the property. Earn’s guess that there’s an 8 % likelihood of him killing them of their sleep felt about proper to me though Van thought that was a excessive estimate.

• Hiro Murai’s eye for composition is immaculate; the best way his directing enhances the storytelling makes for such a full expertise whereas watching that generally I neglect these episodes are solely half an hour. My two favourite moments are the broad shot of the household on the river fishing and the scene shortly after wherein Earn and Van are out of focus with the hearth behind them positioned between their heads as Lottie performs within the digicam’s focus.

• Whereas I used to be ready for a bounce scare, the bread crumbs of Van being the reluctant one of their relationship and Earn desirous to take the leap have been scattered all through the episode. Wanting again, her telling Earn to decelerate on the best way to the location and her insisting the river is just too intense to cross are symbolic of her pulling again to save lots of herself. I’m glad she didn’t in the long run, although.