We see him struggling with this life he built in some key ways...

at one point, he tries to connect w/Earn, his cousin..his friend, but he realizes that he can't...at least not like before. it shines a spotlight on how when you "come up" and all the jobs around you are filled by the people closest to you, the "job" becomes bigger than you expected it to be in that person's life. Earn was almost fired for being a shitty manager so now he is now a competent and skilled artist manager, which means its damn near all consuming. Earn's anticipating of his needs/wants really drove this home for Alfred.

then later, he dismisses everyone from the room cuz he only felt safe to share his most vulnerable self with someone who wasn't them...he found the words that he can't any other time, with Earn and Darius...and we found out that he's struggling...that he don't feel the same about rapping..that he feels its too late to do anything else...that he's trapped, essentially.

Brian Tyree Henry is at the top of his game as an actor. every single thing i see him in, he's excellent...even his little small part in If Beale Street Could Talk

anyway, this episode was pivotal and I think Paper Boi is gonna quit the tour.


d


I don't speak to provoke. I speak because I think our time is short and each moment that we are not our truest selves, and we say what we do not mean because we imagine that is what somebody wants us to say, is wasting our time on this Earth - C. Adichie