Funny you found this to be a terrible episode, cuz this was my favorite, surpassing the jail episode. I'll expound below...
It's cool not to like the episode, we all have different opinions, but y'all gotta stop using the word "filler" for anything you don't like. "Filler" refers to episodes (or songs on an album) we're they're just going through the motions. The result is generic, forgettable, cookie-cutter art. This episode is surely not that. Clearly they put thought into the episode and were
trying to do something here.
I liked this episode so much because it covered
from different angles with different levels of subtly.
The most overt was Darius' story line. With CaCs and their tendency to value dog life over human life. They had no problem with dude shooting a target of "dad" but were batshyt over a dog target. Furthermore, instead of the owner just asking Darius to leave, he led him out at gunpoint. It's not like Darius was turning up, he's always laid back. Even the Arabs talking that jihad shyt weren't engaged like that (hilarious interaction btw
). How many times do we see CaCs and cops immediately approach black folks in such an unnecessarily violent manner, then blame us when we react to that aggression. Good thing Darius is a naturally cool cat.
Then there's Paper Boy tryna pawg (I actually expected the coli to have a lot more to say about this nikka gushing over this white Nubian queen
). He had no chance with her but she did hip him to game with that "stay in your lane" advice. Not necessarily an issue unique to race, society is always trying to compartmentalize you. It can be difficult to break from that.
Then there's Black Beiber. I took that decision to be a direct shot at the "
Last nikka on Earth starring Tom Hanks" shyt that Hollywood likes to do. How many stories from Black writers/across/directors/producers have you heard where they'll be sitting in a room with top execs and they'll say something like "Hey we love this story, but does the protagonist really have to be black?"
Finally, there's Earn. His angle was actually my favorite from the episode. It starts with the common trope of white people thinking all Black people look alike. I kinda wish they showed the real Alonzo at the end of the episode. Like maybe have someone whisper to Beiber that Alonzo said it's time to go, they gotta get over to an event at Phipps Plaza then they pan to an open limo door with a nikka who looks nothing like Earn waving Beibs in. What made Earn's story the best to me was him sneaking in to that VIP room. To the audience (and to Earn), it was the white chick who snuck Earn into that room. She went off on the doorman about them not needing to wear lanyards, and dude just let him in. But she reveals later that she got fired from her agency. She was actually using 'Alonzo' to get into that room (that's why she waited till she got in the room and worked the room on her own, before going off on 'Alonzo' for fukking her over). Neither of them were wearing lanyards and the white bytch walked in first, no problem, but the doorman felt the need to stop Earn. In his eyes, the white chick belonged there, but the Black dude had to
prove he belonged there. And the rub in all this.......the doorman carrying out this low level white supremacist policy: a Black man.
Great fukking episode imo