The finale to the third season of FX’s Atlanta, “Tarrare,” gave Vanessa (“Van”), played by Zazie Beetz (Joker, Deadpool 2), center stage to pay off her erratic behavior in the previous episodes of the season. Her antics did not disappoint in what was a jaw-dropping episode.
“Tarrare” begins by focusing on Candice, played by Adriyan Rae (The Game, Chicago Fire), and her two friends Shanice, played by Shanice Castro, and Xosha, played by Xosha Roquemore (Precious, G.B.F.), who are at a café. The three of them are in Paris thanks to Candice’s invitation, because Candice has agreed to urinate on a man for his sexual pleasure and six thousand dollars. She spots Van and approaches her. Van, after pretending initially, all too convincingly, that she doesn’t know who Candice is, eventually recognizes her and meets her friends. Van speaks a mix of French and English and is sure that all her speech is glossed with a Parisian accent.
The four women go to Van’s apartment, where there is a magazine filled with images of her and a photo of her with her partner, Marcel, played by Maël Besnard (L’épouse, Camille Contactless). Van realizes she is late and takes the three of them on a very unpredictable adventure, all while carrying a baguette on her back. First, she picks up keys from Alexander Skarsgård, playing a fictionalized version of himself, before planting drugs in his room and reporting it to the front desk. Then she takes Candice, Shanice, and Xosha to pick up a mysterious missing package. There are shouts of “Tarrare” and hostile men who appear threatening. Thanks to a nearby fight, they all manage to escape. They then proceed to a museum hoping to find Emilio, played by Yoli Fuller (The Widow, Marie Antoinette), who is responsible for Van’s problems. They do, and Van uses her stale baguette to beat him bloody until he reveals the location of the missing package.
Candice, who has been trying to isolate Van and speak to her one-on-one for the entire day, is hesitant about dinner. Her friends are not and accept the invitation to dine with strangers. Candice persists in trying to speak to Van down in the kitchen with Marcel. She then notices the food that Marcel is preparing is human hands. Shanice And Xosha follow the rituals upstairs, drape a napkin over their heads, and consume the food without knowing its identity. Candice asks about Lottie and whether or not Van plans on having her raised eating hands. Van breaks plates and screams and shouts as she escapes her trance-like identity. The two women upstairs notice that they are eating hands and leave. Alexander Skarsgård is happy to take the leftovers.
Van and Candice finally talk. Van outlines an incident where she closed her eyes while driving and felt as if Lottie knew what she had done. She barely remembered flying to Amsterdam and was so inspired by the film Amélie that she came to Paris to imitate her. She is amidst an identity crisis, but Candice assures her that she will be okay. Shanice fills in for Candice and is hilariously overprepared.
In the post-credit scene, an unusual addition to the episode, Earn, played by the show’s creator Donald Glover (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Community), signs for a mysterious bag with his name on it. While examining it, he takes out a photo that reveals it belonged to the other Earnest (“E”), played by Tobias Segal (John Wick: Chapter 2, Mindhunter), a white character from the first and fourth episode of the season. This minor detail ties the anthology episodes into the main season and incorporates them into the same universe. Once again, the surreal and real are mixed in a show that sometimes doesn’t explain itself, because it doesn’t have to.
“Tarrare” was Atlanta through and through and gave Van a much-deserved focus after her previous antics in London and Amsterdam. There was an engaging, confusing story to keep up with, riddled with jokes and moments of pure horror. Van has an emotionally satisfying epiphany and explanation of her actions. Still, everything from her French accent to her handy chef boyfriend was so incredibly uncharacteristic it felt difficult to understand her momentary shift into shock upon realizing how far things had gone off track. It was almost as if she was under a spell, but it was so extreme that of all of the happenings in this wild episode, it felt the most unbelievable. What a season of television.
Rating: 8.0/10