Season three of Atlanta added another anthology episode, “The Big Payback.” The viewer follows Marshall Johnson, played by Justin Bartha (The Hangover, Gigli), as his life falls apart. None of the main cast was present for a moment in this highly imaginative sequence of events.
Marshall listens to a radio show as he waits to order a coffee. He is urged forward by the barista, who will not take the order of the black man in front of him for some unknown reason that Marshall missed because he listened to people talking about the need to listen more closely. He offers for the black man to order first, but when the man refuses and leaves the coffee shop, he proceeds. He offers passive support without being outraged and experiences a representation of the usual privileges of white people. He orders his coffee, gets into his car, and realizes he has accidentally stolen a snack. He gets away with it but is followed by a blue vehicle without a license plate.
Marshall picks up his daughter Katie, played by Scarlett Blum (The Walking Dead), from his wife’s house. They are separated, but Katie reveals that her mother put on perfume while waiting for Marshall. It seems possible that they might get back together. On the radio, Marshall hears about a successful lawsuit whereby a black man has sued a significant Tesla shareholder because his ancestors enslaved the black man’s ancestors and therefore is entitled to the direct earnings that resulted from this. Marshall’s white co-worker cannot believe it and is outraged compared to Marshall, who seems indifferent because of its lack of effect on him. Another of his co-workers frightens him when she reveals that personal litigation is possible now and that anyone whose ancestors enslaved people can be targeted and forced to pay what they are owed. He ignores this, along with multiple phone calls from an unknown caller foreshadowing his future.
Marshall drives Katie to his apartment and must defend that they are not racist to her. He also comically notes that they are Austro-Hungarian, so their ancestors were enslaved too. Marshall’s fears are realized at dinner that night when a woman named Sheniqua Johnson, played by Melissa Youngblood (Summer ’03, Burden), shows up at his house and sues him, wanting three million dollars in reparations because Marshall’s ancestors had owned hers. She shows up at his workplace and harasses him for the money, and visits his wife’s house, who wants to make the divorce official because she doesn’t want her finances to take a hit. He isn’t even allowed to see Katie.
At work, Marshall asks a black co-worker of his for advice. As soon as this co-worker starts telling him that he needs to do his best to pay her back, the scene immediately and hilariously cuts to the following conversation, where his white co-worker tells him that he must fight back. When he returns home, Marshall finds that Sheniqua and her family and friends are barbecuing outside his property, waiting for him. He drives away to avoid his problem. He complains about his desperate situation while sipping on a cocktail in a fancy hotel to Earnest (“E”), played by Tobias Segal (John Wick: Chapter 2, Mindhunter). E is the white man from the opening scenes of the season in episode one, “Three Slaps.” He makes a compelling argument to Marshall about how present slavery is for black people in the United States and that, for them, it is not a distant, mysterious historical phenomenon of the past, it is currently relevant. The curse white people face from slavery will be lifted from Katie. This same curse is mentioned in that horrifying sequence on the boat. E then commits suicide at the pool and floats, juxtaposing the hands pulling down the black man he had previously conversed with in the opening episode. Marshall’s reparations to Sheniqua normalize in a world where all paybacks are received.
“The Big Payback” shares a central but powerful message about the need to consider the persisting effects of slavery in modern society and how it remains relevant. The satirical nature of the episode was comedy with thought provocation. The viewer must suspend their disbelief at the main feature of this fictional world, that one can be responsible for the crimes of their ancestors. The brief cameo of the secretive and captivating E elevates the quality of this episode enormously.
Rating: 8.0/10