After four seasons, the Atlanta ending explained just enough to leave audiences with a satisfying yet ambiguous conclusion. In its final season, the FX series has given time to three of its four characters: Earn (Donald Glover), Vanessa (Zazie Beetz), and Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) have each led their own individual stories. The one exception, the one main character that hasn’t received much of a focus, is LaKeith Stanfield’s Darius. He gets the spotlight in the Atlanta finale, anchoring an episode that’s only occasionally tethered to reality.
In the afro-surreal Atlanta season 4 finale, titled “It Was All a Dream,” Earn, Vanessa, and Alfred plan to eat at a Black-owned sushi fusion restaurant. Darius plans to join after his appointment at a sensory deprivation tank. As he explains, his dreams in the tank do get pretty intense and if he ever feels too overwhelmed, he just looks to Judge Judy. If he sees that she has a more pronounced backside than she should, that means he’s still in the tank and has to remember to wake himself up. As the episode progresses, however, it becomes harder for Darius to distinguish what’s real and what isn’t.
Why Atlanta’s Series Finale Focuses On Darius
The Atlanta ending maintained the unpredictable tone of the series as it has encompassed many things over the course of its run: it’s ridiculous, yes, with semi-frequent references to Chris Evans and daring cameos by Liam Neeson. It’s an alternate world, where Justin Bieber is a bisexual Black man, and where there was for a brief time a Black CEO of The Walt Disney Company. It’s also plainly real and profound in unexpected ways.
Those three competing ideas don’t really apply to Earn, Alfred and Vanessa. They do apply to Darius. For all of his mystery and all that’s unknown about him, he approaches life very much like it’s a dream. He walks the line between reality and something beyond. It’s only fitting that he’s the central POV for a very ethereal goodbye.
Why Atlanta Season 4’s Ending Cuts To Black
The Atlanta finale, written by Donald Glover and directed by Hiro Murai, follows Darius while occasionally cutting to Earn, Vanessa, and Alfred. They’re having the worst time at the sushi place. However, the episode primarily sticks with Darius. Whenever things get too dangerous or too emotional, as when Darius meets up with his dead brother, the character finds a way to wake himself up in the deprivation tank. Sometimes, he sees Judge Judy and that reminds him of his dream-reality. In other instances, he just returns to reality with a terrified scream.
That is until the very last scene in Atlanta. Darius is left alone with the TV episode playing an episode of the celebrity judge. He stares and stares, waiting to see if she looks any different and to confirm that it’s all a dream. Except viewers never get an answer. Atlanta fades to Black on Darius’ face as he lets out a reluctant smile. Is he smiling because he realizes it’s a dream? Is he smiling for the opposite reason? The ending is inconclusive.
Throughout its run, but especially throughout Atlanta season 4, the show has been resistant to providing concrete answers. Which family member assaulted Earn when he was a child? Is Vanessa an elitist snob for looking down on Tyler Perry or is Atlanta mocking Tyler Perry? Will she live happily with Earn, or is she choosing love over her own pride? The show does offer glimpses of the truth, but the audience mostly has to fill in the rest. The finale simply restates the kind of series Atlanta always has been.
Was Atlanta All A Dream?! What The Final Shot Really Means
In a sense, the Atlanta finale, one of the show’s best episodes, is a dream. Consider what happens in it: Darius and a former flame named London (Naté Jones) get stopped by a police officer, and they get through the situation unharmed. At another point, Darius makes a scene and the worst thing that happens to him is that he’s asked to leave. As the episode closes, Darius rescues his friends from eating potentially poisonous fish. He arrives in a stolen pink Maserati and the group enjoys some Popeyes after. It’s this last caper that has Darius declaring to his friends that they’re all just characters in his dream.
Earn, Vanessa, and Alfred dismiss his claims and leave him momentarily to enjoy a smoke, which sets up Atlanta‘s last shot. The show sets up a world, ultimately, where Black people can experience life-threatening situations on multiple occasions and survive. It’s a world where Earn, Vanessa, and Alfred have achieved more than believed possible in Atlanta season 1, not stopped by the legacy of racism and its limitations on excellence. It’s not to say that the FX series lived in a fantasy where racism in America – and elsewhere – doesn’t exist. Atlanta addressed those issues and showed them for what they were.
However, Atlanta wasn’t defined by those issues. Atlanta was mostly about joy, absurdity, and hijinks. Darius’ smile could be his realization that nothing is real, though that’s a simple answer. His smile might mean the realization that he’s living what Donald Glover described as a Black fairytale with the people he loves.
Vanessa & Earn’s Atlanta Ending & Likely Future Explained
Vanessa and Earn’s story comes to an end in the Atlanta season 4 episode “Snipe Hunt,” in which Earn confesses his love for Vanessa and his commitment to their daughter Lottie. It’s a deeply vulnerable moment for the pair and Vanessa agrees to move to LA with him though she was unsure about the decision at first. She’s sure of the fact that she loves him. In the finale, they seem quite happy and at ease with one another. It’s an ending that seemed impossible just a season ago, but the duo grew closer since Atlanta‘s European trip.
Alfred’s Ending Is Perfect For Him (& Paper Boi)
In the penultimate episode before the Atlanta finale, Alfred goes to stay at a “safe farm.” Ever since the beginning of the series, but even more so as part of season 4, Alfred has repeatedly feared for his life. He takes the advice of a fellow rapper, none other than Soulja Boy, who cameoed as himself, in another clever Atlanta cameo, to buy a farm for safety purposes. Continuing his streak of bad luck, Alfred is attacked on the farm by a feral hog. Alfred survives the dangerous encounter, but he’s visibly injured in the finale. Still, he’s in good spirits and his relationship with Earn is in a great place.
Atlanta makes a point of showing the cousins laughing and connecting more than they had in the past. It looks like Alfred will continue to make music, but he’s also made some sort of peace with the fact that his Paper Boi rapping persona will gradually fade from relevancy. The farm ending, with one last harrowing near-death situation, is the perfect end for a character who has never seemed too much at ease around large groups of people. He gets to live out his days in peace, away from annoyingly adoring fans and the hustle of the rap industry.
Why Atlanta Season 5 Isn’t Happening
Series creator Donald Glover has talked about why Atlanta ended with season 4. He explained that he actually wanted to conclude with season 2, indicating that he didn’t want the story to get to the point where storylines got stale. Nonetheless, he found that the fourth installment offered the show a perfect ending. In the same vein, Glover said he’s open to revisiting the series in the future: “If there’s a reason to do it, of course.”
It’s too early to say if any revival will happen. What can be said, with certainty, is that there was nothing quite like Atlanta on television. It took big swings, always willing to break its formula and refusing to adhere to expected story structures. Though it influenced many prestige comedies that debuted in its aftermath, it was singularly notable for its talented lead foursome and exceptional creative team.
The Atlanta Cast Is Keeping Busy
Though Atlanta ending was sad for fans of the show, it is satisfying to see that the main cast of the series have all built incredible careers which continue past the finale. Though all had experience as actors before being cast in Atlanta, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beatz, and LaKeith Stanfield broke out thanks to the show’s success. The same year that Atlanta ended, Henry earned his first Oscar nomination for Causeway. He starred in the thriller series Class of 09 and will be lending his voice to the cast of Transformers One. He also returned as Jefferson Davis in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and starred in the MCU’s Eternals.
Beatz has followed up the ending of Atlanta by appearing in a trio of television projects with Black Mirror, History of the World Part II, and as lead of the cast of Max’s Full Circle. She will also reprise her role as Sophie in Joker: Folie à Deux. Stanfield continues to be an exciting actor, appearing in the Disney adventure Haunted Mansion as well as starring in the upcoming thriller The Changeling and the star-studded historical adventure The Book of Clarence.
Donald Glover also continues to be one of the most impressive multi-talented actors working in Hollywood with his music career as Childish Gambino, his acting work, and creating his own projects. Glover is expected to return as Troy Barnes in Community: The Movie and will soon debut his Atlanta follow-up series Mr. & Mrs. Smith. It was also recently announced that he would reprise his role and write the upcoming Lando Star Wars project.
