B.A.N.

"**B.A.N.**" is the seventh episode of the first season of *Atlanta*. It is the seventh episode of the series overall. It was released on October 11, 2016 on FX.

## Premise

*Montague*; Special guest Paper Boi and Dr. Deborah Holt.

## Plot

The episode is presented as a segment on the fictional talk show *Montague*, a show hosted on the B.A.N., (Black American Network) with multiple fake commercials for both fictional and real products interspersed.

A Dodge Charger commerical depicts a happy, confident man driving in the car, inspiring awe in those he passes. The commercial's narrator wraps it with "The Dodge Charger: the official car of making a statement without saying anything at all."

*Montague* host Franklin Montague introduces the new episode as a show on sexuality and its effects on black culture, his guests being Dr. Debra Holt, a white woman well versed in transgender issues, and Alfred Miles, facing allegations of transphobia after making Twitter comments about Caitlyn Jenner. As Al explains that Jenner and her gender is unimportant to him, Montague reads a lyric of Al's again involving Jenner. Holt cites rap culture's general dislike of the LGBT community as an issue with masculinity and self-identity. She reads one of Al's lyrics and tries to equate it to being pro-sexual fludiity, but Al rebuffs her, stating he just raps to get paid, the same reason he came on the show. Montague points out that he is not being paid for his time, causing Al to gesutre at an off-camera Earnest Marks in frustration. As Al and Holt start to debate and Al misgenders Jenner, Montague tells the crew to cut to commercial.

A young man buys an AriZona Iced Tea and realizes he is being overcharged fifty cents for it. He and the cashier agree that "the price is on the can, though." The AriZona logo fades in, the text under it reading "The price is on the can, though."

At a party, a masked man spots a pretty woman from across the room and orders two Mickey's Fine Malt Liquors. He weaves across the room and gives her a glass, and they clink the glasses as they smile at each other. The tagline under the logo reads "You're drinking it wrong."

Another Dodge Charger commercial shows the same man seeing another woman in a red Charger. The two lock eyes and grin at each other before driving off. The narrator says "The Dodge Charger. Make a statement without saying anything at all."

Montague plays a segment presented by a show correspondent, Nathan Wielder. The title text introduces the segment as "'TRANS-RACIAL' A MONTAGUE SPECIAL REPORT". The report follows Harrison Booth, a transracial young man born Antwoine Smalls, black but identifying as a thirty-five year old white man from Colorado. He claims the epiphany about his identity came from when he felt he was "not getting the respect I deserve" as a black man. Harrison laments his community and family's misunderstanding of his identity, claiming race to be "a made-up thing" and dressing in Patagonia and talking about *Game of Thrones* to embrace his white identity. Wielder also interviews Dr. Samuel Vergara, a dermatologist specializing in performing transracial surgeries. Harrison affirms that he is getting along one day at a time and tells kids going through things similar to him to "just be you at all costs. But also, stop dressing so crazy."

Actor Devyonne Johnson and several other men star in a commercial praising Swisher Sweets cigarillos, some of them replacing the tobacco in them with weed. Johnson recommends the viewer buy "pre-dumps" as well. The Surgeon General's warning is glitched out to make it intentionally hard to read.

Al bemoans cancel culture making it difficult for him to say what he wants, and Montague tries to equate lack of a father figure to homophobic and transphobic beliefs, which enrages Al. He states that no one respects him as a black man, so he does not see why he has to respect Jenner while still misgendering her. Holt asks that, if he feels that way, why he does not care about other marginalized groups, and Al counters that he does, just that he should be able to comment on something. They realize they are agreeing with each other and sit in silence until Montague tries to spark debate by stating Al's music is detrimental to black culture and that he hates women, leaving both his guests staring at him in confusion.

The man Earn met on the bus (identifying himself as "Ahmad White") promotes his self-help business using a green screen that has to do with chakras and Nutella. All of the people in the commerical insist that "he works, he really, really works!"

The Dodge Charger commerical continues, the man pulling up to a gas station to refill his car. A mechanic tells another mechanic that the man's wife cheated on him with his brother and sued for divorce, the only thing the man said during the trial being "leave me my Dodge Charger." The man is shown filling up his car with no pants on, having driven around the neighborhood in a circle for a week straight. The other mechanic observes that he still has a nice car as the man drives away. The narrator says "The Dodge Charger. Keep it in the divorce."

An animated commercial for the cereal "Chocolate Crunch-O's" shows three black children and a white cop entering a pyramid and seeing the cereal displayed on a pedastal. The cereal's mascot, a brown wolf, tries to run to the cereal, but he trips on his own mummy wrappings. The kids triumphantly tell him that only children are allowed to eat the cereal. The wolf runs towards the kids but is violently tackled by the cop, who begins to aggressively arrest him while sitting on his back. The children protest while the cop address them all as "sir" despite two of them being female, and they engage in a standoff when they try to stop the wolf from being detained. The commerical cuts to the end card before the outcome is shown.

Montague has Harrison video call in, who is now wearing a blonde wig, which Al mocks and laughs at before being shushed by Holt and Montague. Montague asks Harrison if he feels the hip-hop community is intolerant of his transracial identity, and Harrison states that Al is just telling a story with his lyrics. Holt asks him if he feels Al's response is indicative of a larger problem in the black community and equates transracialism to homosexuality and transgenderism, and Harrison shocks everyone watching by spouting homophobic and transphobic rhetoric. Aghast, Holt tries to debate him while Al laughs hysterically. Montague awkwardly plays out the show while a joyous Al continues to mock Harrison.

## Commercials

* Dodge - The three car commercials feature a man driving a black Dodge Charger through Atlanta. By the third commercial, however, he stops at a gas station, only to be seen with nothing but a shirt on. A mechanic explains the man's story to a coworker: His name is "Victor Wallace", his wife left him for his brother and he lost everything to his wife in a divorce settlement except for the Dodge Charger, which he's been driving around the neighborhood for a whole week.
* Arizona - The commercial features a man buying an Arizona tea, but when the cashier scans it, it comes out to $1.49, even though the price is 99 cents on the can as they both come to that realization.
* Swisher Sweets - The commercial features a spokesperson and several other people cutting the cigar, only to take out the tobacco and save the flavored paper part of the cigar.
* 1-260-33Quest - The commercial features Ahmad White (the person that Earn interacted with on the bus from the first episode) telling people to call a number so they can get the answers that they need, with three people telling how he changed their life.
* Coconut Crunch-O's - The commercial is a parody of animated cereal commercials with a dash of social commentary. A wolf (a parody of both the "Trix" rabbit and Chip the Wolf from "Cookie Crisp") is violently detained by a white police officer in front of 3 African-American children while attempting to steal their cereal. They offer to give him the cereal themselves, but the cop refuses to listen, resulting in a standoff between the children and the officer.
* Mickey's Malt Liquor - A parody of alcohol commercials, the commercial features a man trying to get a glass of malt liquor over to a woman while crossing through some people on his way over to her.

## Cast

* Brian Tyree Henry as Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles
* Alano Miller as Franklin Montague
* Mary Kraft as Deborah Holt
* Niles Stewart as Antwoine Smalls/Harrison

## Gallery

### Videos

Season 1 Ep. 7 - B.A.N. TrailerCoconut Crunchos CerealCall Ahmad White
## Trivia

* This is the first episode to not have Earn appear entirely in it, as he only appeared for a short cameo in the previous episode "Value".
* This is also second episode in Season 1 not to feature Darius and Van.
* Donald Glover won the Emmy Award for "Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series" for this episode, also making him the first African-American to win.