‘Atlanta’ Writer Stefani Robinson Unpacks Van’s Nervous Breakdown and That Urination Scene in the Season 3 Finale

SPOILER ALERT: Don’t learn except you’ve gotten watched “Tarrare,” the Season 3 finale of “Atlanta.” 

The Season 3 finale of “Atlanta” is styled after the quirky and comforting French rom-com “Amélie,” although this model is weirder and grosser.

The episode is titled “Tarrare” after the 1700s French solider who was well-known for a medical situation that made him always hungry — he was in a position to eat his personal physique weight in meat, and was additionally rumored to have interaction in cannibalism. In “Atlanta,” that starvation belongs to Van (Zazie Beetz), who turns into so uncertain of who she is that she has a nervous breakdown, engulfing herself in a French alter ego full with an accent, a boyfriend, an house and a job in a butcher store that serves human arms.

Nearly all of Season 3 takes place in Europe, specializing in Earn (sequence creator Donald Glover), Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) and Alfred aka Paper Boi as the latter excursions the continent as a rapper. This premise gave the writers a puzzle: how may they hold Van, Earn’s on-and-off associate and the mom of his daughter, part of the story?

“She’s an enormous a part of the present. It wouldn’t be ‘Atlanta’ with out her,” says Stefani Robinson, who government produced the season and wrote “Tarrare.” “However the actuality is that she’s not hanging out with Darius and Alfred. I don’t even suppose that Darius has her quantity in his cellphone.”

So that they determined to work backwards. Entrenched in her French life in the finale, Van runs into Candace (Adriyan Rae), an previous buddy from Atlanta who’s solely appeared in one episode earlier than, in addition to new characters Xosha (Xosha Roquemore) and Shanice (Shanice Castro). They comply with her by occasions together with, however not restricted to, an affair with Alexander Skarsgård (“Such an incredible cameo. He was so recreation to make enjoyable of himself,” Robinson says) and a bloody struggle in a museum the place she makes use of a stale baguette as a weapon.

All of it lastly comes aside when Candace asks Van the place her daughter Lottie suits into this life. Van begins hyperventilating, throwing issues and sobbing: “What the fuck am I doing right here?”

With “Tarrare” out now through FX and Hulu, Robinson informed Selection about dropping hints at Van’s psychological state and the 47-second stream of urine at the finish of the episode.

In Seasons 1 and 2, each different character is portrayed as unreliable or mysterious whereas Van is the dependable one, however Season 3 disrupted that dynamic. How did you conceptualize her European journey?

There’s so many clues all through prior seasons which might be pointing that [toward Van’s breakdown]. After we do see Van, it’s in the context of different individuals being very a lot themselves, and [she is] reacting to that. Like, in the episode in Season 1, the dialog she’s having together with her buddy Jade about, “What’s your worth, Van? What do you carry to the desk?” And in the Juneteenth episode, you see her pretending to be married [in front of] this bougie group of those that perhaps she will be able to herself match into. You see her interrogate what it’s to be an individual. I don’t suppose she actually is aware of who she is, so it’s fascinating to discover the cause being that she’s having this psychological breakdown and identification disaster. A part of her is reaching for something, an excuse to interrupt out of who she is. We had been hinting at that all through the whole season with a few of her extra erratic habits.

If you wrote these smaller moments of erratic habits, had you already deliberate the full extent of the delusions she experiences in the finale?

The cult-y factor was already established [by the time the finale was written], however once more, the massive query was the underlying factor as to why she’s there. As soon as we had been in a position to isolate what the subject was, it was a lot simpler to return to all these episodes and carry [Van’s issues] to the forefront. Like how she will get on the airplane. She was all the time having to get on the airplane, however we simply [further fleshed out] the manner in which she was doing so. And the ceremony. She’s making an attempt out a brand new persona; she’s like, “Let’s see how far we will go!” And seeing her at events throwing somebody in the pool, these had been all [written] after we knew the place we needed to land the airplane. We had been extra intentional about tips on how to illustrate how different individuals noticed her. Like, what’s going on together with her? Why are you right here?

These questions from the different characters additionally reveal an fascinating dichotomy with the male characters. As Van factors out, nobody asks Earn about his duties again at house.

There’s an implicit bias, like since you’re a mother and you’re a girl and you’re a Black lady, you’re gonna have all of it collectively, it doesn’t matter what. When [Van points that out], it’s so necessary. Why aren’t we interrogating the male characters about what’s happening? Why aren’t we fearful that Earn hasn’t seen his child? Why will we simply so readily settle for the incontrovertible fact that he needed to go off and go to work and go journey in Europe, whereas when Van’s right here … I don’t spend a lot time on Twitter, however I did see a pair tweets that had been like, “Who’s with the child?,” when nobody’s asking that query of Earn. Can’t she, as a girl, ebook a visit and go someplace herself and belief that she has a community of individuals to maintain her baby?

Of all the methods to script a psychological breakdown, why select to make Van delve into a completely new life with a French alter ego?

One in all Donald’s mandates is to make [episodes feel] like a brief movie. And there was one thing interesting about making this quintessential French “Amélie” episode, taking that whimsical, quirky, I’m-a-French-woman-with-a-cute-bob-haircut-and-a-baguette, stereotypical expertise, and turning it on its head a bit bit. One in all my favourite issues is when a personality turns into so entrenched in a special world so rapidly. Like, oh my god! See? She has her personal house, and she’s received a boyfriend and she met Alexander Skarsgård in the span of I don’t understand how lengthy! She’s been in vogue magazines! The unsettling nature of how deeply she dedicated to this character, and how rapidly, was actually necessary. And the cinema of all of it — the museum, the set items — as a lot as the story, the visible perspective was necessary. Being in Europe, taking full benefit of that and giving the character an opportunity to play in that world was thrilling to all people.

To me, the finale felt like a prequel episode to Episode 9, when Earn finds Van after not having identified the place she was. Is that the way you see it?

Oh, fascinating! I don’t know if that was intentional, however I like that learn on it. The enjoyable factor about “Atlanta” is that it may be no matter you need it to be. A lot of “Atlanta” occurs exterior of time. Our universe feels surreal. To suppose that [Van’s entire time in France] may have been only a week is simply humorous. We had conversations about how a lot time had handed, and we thought it was a extra fascinating alternative to not put a label on that and lean into extra nebulous experiences. The weirdness that we haven’t seen her for some time. The main points of her life [in France] are very nicely thought out and deliberate; she actually has deep roots. The extra jarring or unusual it felt, the higher, as a result of it was thematically in line with what she was going by emotionally.

What was in your thoughts whereas writing Candace, Xosha and Shanice into this episode?

There was dialog in the writers’ room about [whether] Earn and Alfred and Darius ought to be part of this narrative, however I felt prefer it was simply too handy for these guys to point out up. It wouldn’t occur that manner. There’s part of Earn that’s like, “She’s a grown lady. I believe she’s okay. I’m gonna hold calling her, however I’ve a job to do.”

I favored that it was characters we’ve by no means met earlier than. Van turns round and sees Candace, and you possibly can see in her face that she was not accounting for [someone] from her life to stroll in and name her out. It was necessary to have somebody who is aware of her from a really particular place in her life be like, “It’s Van! From Atlanta! She’s not the French lady who drives round with a baguette on a scooter. I went to highschool together with her!” To have a mouthpiece. However then to even have [Xosha and Shanice] to be the Greek refrain and level issues out, but additionally simply to be that counterpoint, like, “Yeah, we perceive, Candace, that you recognize who she is, however we don’t know, and we type of like who she is.” Having these differing opinions about them about the alter ego most likely [reflects] what’s going on in Van’s head. “Is that this me? Nobody is aware of me right here. I might be no matter I need to be, can’t I?”

My final query is about the ultimate shot of the season. Since Candace is busy consoling Van, Shanice has to take over her appointment with the man who has a kink for being peed on. Whereas staring out the window at the Eiffel Tower, she pees on him for a full 47 seconds… why?

You timed it?

I did.

What was your query once more?

Why so lengthy?

The humor of it for me was that Shanice has no finesse. She’s like, “Alright, I drank a ton of Powerade, let’s do that factor.” ​​It’s such a disgusting ending juxtaposed with the stunning, twinkling tower. It’s a special picture than how we usually see that romantic Parisian panorama. I like that it’s a bit uncomfortable.