Alfred (“Al”), played by Brian Tyree Henry (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, If Beale Street Could Talk), Earn, played by the show’s creator Donald Glover (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Community), and Darius, played by LaKeith Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You, Knives Out), returned to Amsterdam in “New Jazz” and explored the world of legal hallucinogenics for a very trippy episode.
Al, Darius, and Earn are at a cafe in Amsterdam. After Al asks Darius whether he wants to split the bill with him, Darius plays dumb and thanks Al for getting it. Earn asks whether they are still planning on doing what he is not allowed to know for insurance purposes, and they say they are.
Al and Darius head to a store that sells the specific hallucinogenic space cake that Darius is after. On their way, Al spots a figure wearing a Goofy hat, shivering, curled up in a doorway in the street. Darius explains that person is a tourist and tells Al not to be like that. They purchase one each, even after Al is warned by the vendor that it is not for the inexperienced. After consuming the drug, they walk through the streets of Amsterdam, listening to music. On their way to a spa, Darius chooses to take them through streets filled with tourists, much to Al’s disapproval. On their way, Darius wanders off, and Al is spotted by some troublesome teenage boys who begin to harass him.
Al escapes into a dark room and hears a woman sobbing. He approaches her to help before she stops crying and indicates that she is a part of an exhibition. Al is in a museum. He meets Lorraine, played by Ava Grey (Gentified), who criticizes his hat, introduces herself, and makes fun of Al and his lifestyle. She gets a Goofy hat for him to wear instead of the designer one he has on to stop unnecessary attention from coming toward him. She is particularly critical that the rapper doesn’t know who owns his masters (the recordings used to make future copies of his music).
They exit the museum to find it nighttime, and Lorraine gets him into a club by telling the bouncer that he is “New Jazz.” In the club, he meets a fictionalized version of Liam Neeson, played by Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List, Taken). He has a conversation with him about Neeson’s racial scandal. Neeson apologizes for the factual incident before claiming to still hate all black people for attempts to ruin his career. He then notes how the best and worst thing about being white is not having to learn anything, tying the conversation back into the theme of white guilt through this third season.
Lorraine urges Al to leave with her and he does just before he was about to be called to perform as New Jazz. It is daytime again when they exit the club. Al and Lorraine argue. He admits he doesn’t trust her, and she lays out that he is being taken advantage of by his friends. She next comments on his inability to move and suggests he sit. Al watches as he experiences the previous conversation between him and Darius on the way to pick up the space cake. He has become the tourist he was warned not to be. Al passes out.
Earn is in the hotel room when Al wakes up. Earn comforts him and is there to take care of him. Al asks for Lorraine, to which Earn responds, wondering if he means his mother. He then asks who owns his masters and finds out that he does, much to his satisfaction.
“New Jazz” investigates Alfred’s psyche and the anxieties surrounding his rise to fame. Before he is aware of his ownership over his masters, his primary concerns revolve around his decision to have his friends and family in charge of his career and life. He worries about them having vested interests. Earn’s treatment of him and assurance that he owns his masters allows these anxieties to be quashed, but they may persist as his popularity continues to increase. The moment that Al realizes he has become the tourist tweaking out in the street with a goofy hat on is powerfully eerie. There are a lot of unanswered questions about what exactly Al experienced and what was hallucinated. With the final comments on Lorraine being his mother’s name, it feels safe to assume that Al imagined the entire thing as soon as he separated from Darius, who was already claiming to be high. It was a brilliantly surreal episode.
Rating: 9.0/10