The Jacket

"**The Jacket**" is the tenth and final episode of the first season of *Atlanta*. It is the tenth episode of the series overall. It was released on November 1, 2016 on FX.

## Premise

Yo last night was 10 crazy. I bout lost my mind, Quita lost her phone, and this fool Earn lost his jacket smh. Who cares tho (laugh-crying emoji).

## Plot

Earnest Marks awakens alone in a man's house following a night of partying with Alfred Miles and Darius. He stumbles towards the front door, hung over, and realizes his jacket is missing, the man hosting them having not seen it. Earn phones Al and asks if he picked up his jacket the night before; he did not, Earn decides to retrace his steps and look for it himself. He notices the people around him are all dressed in cow costumes, and realizes it is free chicken sandwich day at Chick-fil-A. He gets one for himself and walks to the strip club he was at the previous night but is stopped by the bouncer. When the bouncer does not find his jacket inside after Earn explains his predicament, he reluctantly pays the entry fee and goes in himself. He and a stripper try to figure out who he was with last night by describing her appearance, but she confirms that she does not know anyone like who he is describing. He leaves after she convinces him to take her phone number in hopes of being in one of Al's music videos.

He flips through Al's Snapchat stories and finds that when they left a bar and got in their Uber, he was still wearing his jacket, but was not wearing it at the strip club. He meets up with Al and Darius and they talk about the previous night, Earn noting that Al insisted on documenting their evening on Snapchat. Al states that they had to keep up appearances for his lifestyle, but Earn counters that they should make more money before they start showing off. Earn takes Al's phone and contacts the Uber driver, finding that he has the jacket, but wants money to drop it off. Earn convinces Al and Darius to drive him to the driver's house so they can get it instead. As they wait outside his house, Earn gets a call from popular rapper Senator K, who wants to do work with Al, while Al looks around at the quiet, empty street, visibly uneasy. As they move to leave, several Atlanta PD squad cars surround them and they are ordered out of the car. As the police frisk them and ask if they are there to purchase drugs or weapons from the driver, Earn sees the driver fleeing the area wearing his jacket. The police shoot him several times in the back as he tries to get away, killing him. As neighbors arrive on the scene, Earn asks the officer searching the driver's body to check his jacket pockets, but he finds nothing.

As they drive away, Al offers Earn his condolences, but he brushes him off and states he is not upset about the jacket. They arrive at Al's place and Darius, having eaten their two blunts when the cops arrived, staggers inside. Al gives Earn his pay cut and invites him inside, but he politely rejects him in favor of spending the night with Vanessa Keifer and Lottie. Al tells him that "you did good" and "I'll catch you." Earn makes dinner for Van and Lottie and watches a movie with Van on the couch after putting their daughter to bed. Earn's coworker knocks on the door, having what Earn was looking for in the jacket: a key that Earn gave him for safekeeping before he went out partying. He says hello to Van and quietly asks Earn if it would be weird to try and date her if they broke up, and Earn affirms it would be before saying goodbye to him. Earn gives her Al's payment, calling it "that thing we always need," and Van chuckles, asking if he is a drug dealer. He initially pretends he is before laughing, and Van jovially tells him she hates him, but that he is a good father.

As Earn leaves, she offers to have him stay the night, but he rebuffs her and tells her he will call her tomorrow. Earn walks across the city while listening to OutKast, arriving at a self storage facility. He uses his key to unlock a unit and steps inside, revealing that he has set it up as a small living space. He gets into his makeshift bed and takes the remaining cut of his payment, two hundred dollars, out of his shoe and stares at it before setting it down and turning off the light.