Atlanta (season 3)

Two friends, a white man named Earnest and an unnamed black man, go fishing on Lake Lanier, where they discuss its history and what it means to be white. Earnest reveals himself to be a spirit and black hands drag the black man under the lake. The sequence is revealed to be the dream of Loquareeous, a black schoolboy who gets in trouble at his predominantly white school for dancing on a desk. A teacher witnesses his grandfather slapping him, and his mother throws him out of the house when child protective services come. He is forced to move in with a white lesbian couple with three black foster children that are clearly terrified of them, and the couple begins behaving strangely, shortening his name to "Larry" and forcing the children to work in their garden. When a black CPS agent comes and is appalled at their poor living conditions, the couple kills her and takes the children out on the road. Realizing they are planning to kill the children and themselves, Loquareeous smuggles the other kids out when they pull over and leaps out of the car just before it drives into Lake Lanier. He is welcomed home by his mother and eats some spaghetti that she left for him, only to turn around when he hears something behind him. In a hotel room, Earn wakes up in bed with a white woman, implying the events of the episode to be his dream.

This episode is inspired by the real-life 2018 murder-suicide of the Hart family.[8]

Earn rushes to the Copenhagen airport to make it to Amsterdam on time, where Al has been arrested because of a pair of groupies that trashed his hotel room while fighting. They notice that Amsterdam is observing the tradition of Zwarte Piet, a Christmas figure, by donning the character's traditional blackface. Al refuses to perform at a venue when he sees his white audience in blackface, forcing Earn to flee from the vengeful owner, who beats up a random man in blackface after being unable to find him. While out thrift shopping, Van and Darius find an address in a coat that leads them on a scavenger hunt, ending when they arrive at a living funeral for a man that resembles Tupac Shakur. Van delivers a heartfelt eulogy when asked, only for the man to be violently suffocated by an apparatus attached to his bed.

Title card: Baggage scanner

Opening song: "Maiysha" by Miles Davis

The group goes to a house party in London hosted by eccentric billionaire Fernando, who is obsessed with ghosts and the large tree growing in the center of his property. An Asian woman reacts apprehensively when Darius says hello to her based on her preconceived notions of black men, causing a white partygoer named Socks to rally a mob towards her against Darius' wishes. Earn meets an investor whose eagerness to please black people is being taken advantage of by a young black artist, but decides to join in scamming him after a talk with Al. He notices Van is behaving strangely and tries to talk to her, but she brushes him off. Fernando invites Al to play poker with him, but refuses to hand over his money when Al wins. Enraged, Al attempts to cut down the tree, forcing Earn to drag him out and leave with Darius, the three being driven away by Socks.

Title card: Wall of a house

Opening song: "Tension" by Central Cee

As black people begin suing white people whose ancestors owned theirs in the past, white Marshall Johnson is sued by black Sheniqua Johnson, losing him his house and ruining his chances of getting back with his estranged wife. His black coworker encourages him to sit down with Sheniqua and negotiate, but his white coworkers tell him to fight against her, which yields little success. Forced to move into a hotel, Marshall meets Earnest, who has also been sued and claims that they are now "free" from the "curse" of whiteness. As Marshall has a change of heart looking at pictures of Sheniqua with her children, Earnest shoots himself in the head and falls into the hotel pool. Some time later, Marshall works as a waiter, where a portion of his check is given to Sheniqua. The kitchen staff is revealed to be mixed race while the waiters are all white, and none of the clientele are.

Al's phone goes missing in Budapest after a concert, the only suspects being a young, cancer-stricken fan, and the strange nephew of the venue owner, Wiley. As he unnerves Earn by quickly deducing the unease he feels about his place amongst black people, Al asks to talk to him alone and explains that he has not written a new song in months, having been struck by inspiration before the show and recording a new one on the missing phone. As he expresses fear that he may never get his passion for production back if he does not get the phone, Wiley performs one of his own songs for Al, who is quietly affected but outwardly unimpressed. The group leaves the venue on a bus, only for Socks to pull out the phone without anyone seeing and throw it in the trash.

Title card: Wall behind a merchandise table

Opening song: "Doja" by $NOT

A London-based fashion company is embroiled in controversy after releasing a jersey with a cartoon raccoon on one side and "CENTRAL PARK 5" on the other, forcing them to bring in Al to join their "diversity advisory committee." He realizes the group is full of black people who coast off tragedies and injustices, and his idea for an ad campaign promoting community that he stole from Earn is then stolen by the company. Darius takes the company's white head of hospitality out for jollof rice, which she enjoys so much that she buys the restaurant out and reopens it with a more corporate identity. Earn encounters Van in a hotel, pretending to be married to her to keep her from getting in trouble, and the two end up having sex. He wakes up to find her gone.

Title card: Subway station platform

Opening song: "Fake Jersey" by Teni

In New York City, a wealthy white family's Trini nanny dies, but the parents are only concerned about finding a more convenient one. Their toddler asks to go to her funeral, where they are treated with passive hostility and witness the strange goings-on, including meeting a white man who refers to himself as a Trini, having been practically raised by the nanny. Her daughter gives a eulogy, in which she reveals her mother never had time to raise her and her siblings because she was so busy with the children of other people. Returning home, the father opens a package addressed to the nanny that keeps getting sent back to the apartment when he tries to return it, which contains school photos of his son and the nanny at an event he and his wife were supposed to attend.

Al and Darius take space cakes while in Amsterdam, passing by a convulsing man in a Goofy hat that Darius warns Al not to be like. They get separated, and a group of erratic white fans chase Al into an art gallery. He meets a woman named Lorraine, who gives him a Goofy hat and takes him to the "Cancel Club" to meet her friends, referring to Al as "New Jazz" to get him inside. He meets Liam Neeson at the bar, and they have a discussion about his controversial comment until he asserts that he did not hate black people but now does, warning him that they are enemies as he leaves. Lorraine pulls him out of the club before he can be forced to perform for them, and argues with him about her flippant behavior until he loses control of his limbs and collapses, being passed by himself and Darius. He awakes in a hotel room and learns from Earn that he owns his masters, something Lorraine had asked him earlier.

Title card: Sticker

Mixed race, white presenting high schooler Aaron struggles with financial woes regarding college, unsure if he will be able to go with his friends and girlfriend. Billionaire Robert S. Lee, an alumnus of Aaron's school, declares that he is going to pay the tuition of every black student in the school, but will determine their blackness based on a series of trials. Aaron tries out, but is casually and jovially dismissed by Lee. After his girlfriend leaves him for a blacker man, Aaron angrily builds a homemade flamethrower and goes to the school, intent on burning it down, only to be confronted by another student who was also rejected by Lee. They argue and fight, with Aaron narrowly escaping death after the student is shot by the police, having his medical bills and tuition covered by Lee as he is now considered black. One year later, Aaron works at an electronics store, displaying a significantly blacker style and mannerisms. He encounters his old girlfriend and admits he has never been more attracted to her in his life, smirking at the camera.

Opening song: "La Pelle Finale" by Lalo Schifrin

Van's friend Candice goes to Paris as part of an escort job with her friend and the friend's cousin when she encounters Van, who is speaking with a French accent and seems to refuse to acknowledge her life in Atlanta. She takes them to visit her sexual partner Alexander Skarsgård, who she incriminates by planting drugs in his hotel room, claiming to a confused Candice that it is all part of their relationship. The group goes to pick up a package, which Van finds is empty, confronting the man who was supposed to deliver it and nearly killing him with a stale baguette for it. She brings the recovered package to her boyfriend, a chef, and reveals to Candice that the contents are human hands that her boyfriend cooks and serves to his customers, amongst them Skarsgård and Candice's friends. Candice's friends realize what is happening and leave, while Van snaps out of her bizarre behavior when Candice mentions Lottie. She admits that she experienced a moment of suicidal ideation while in Atlanta and fled to Paris, and Candice consoles her. Candice's friend's cousin takes her escort job, urinating on the client until he pleads with her to stop. In a post-credits scene, Earn receives a bag with his name on it after returning from Europe, revealed to be Earnest's.

Title card: Cuts of meat