Atlanta Recap: Don't Forget Your Drug Test

Atlanta

Value

Season 1 Episode 6

Editor'southward Rating 4 stars

ATLANTA --

Atlanta

Value

Season one Episode 6

Editor'southward Rating 4 stars

Zazie Beetz as Van. Photograph: Guy D'Alema/FX

Take you ever felt pangs of jealousy while reading Baller Alert, Lipstick Alley, or The Shade Room? During Van's awkward and (somewhat) contentious dinner with an old friend, I certainly felt that mode. In this world of wage stagnation and student loans, who wouldn't want to be like Teairra Mari and avowal nigh having a sponsor?

We larn a lot about Van through Jayde, a friend she's known since childhood. As "Value" makes clear, these women take taken entirely different directions with their lives. For Van, it was making a baby with the Princeton dropout who manages a guy who'south the Coke Zero equivalent of Rick Ross. As for Jayde, she's pretty much guaranteed to state a spot on WAGS or Basketball Wives L.A. She only does two things: date rich athletes and savor the perks that such a life entails.

Nosotros see Jayde at an upscale Thai eatery — presumably of her choosing — as Van arrives tardily. When Van sits downward, Jayde compliments her pilus before request if she got information technology did at Fernando's, as per her recommendation. Van did not, noting that Fernando's is probably too expensive anyway. While the two settle into modest talk, we acquire that Jayde flew into town on a private jet. "Not similar the nice PJ," she adds. "Ane of those rent-a-PJs." How humble of her to play down the fact that she flew private, only not the premiere way to fly private.

Jayde is in town to see a special NBA friend, but no, non that last NBA guy she mentioned to Van. This is new haul, a new line of credit. Afterward she leaves Atlanta, she'll be heading to London, though she hates London because the rainy conditions makes her hair frizzy. She loves Paris, though.

Offset to go the idea? The waiter comes by, and Jayde orders a canteen of wine rather than beverage past the glass. Van rolls her eyes equally soon equally the words exit her friend's oral fissure, just, girl, if she'due south paying, enjoy that free liquor. That said, Jayde is quite snooty. When Van requests chopsticks, she snickers and explains that Thai people don't use chopsticks — only Americans recollect such a empty-headed thing. The condescension practically drips from her voice. Van should've told Jayde to shut her black ass upward then and there.

Van's patience does wearable thin when the subject of Earn comes up. Shady or not, I was with the homegirl when she quipped, "Y'all are funny. Yous two are funny." Deplorable, but it's true. Van and Earn are funny because they aren't together, but they sleep and live together. It would seem wise to accolade the "no sex in the champagne room" dominion for such a state of affairs, just dissimilar strokes, I suppose.

As Van gets defensive, Jayde gets a bit more than lethal. "Yous used to make fun of girls similar you," she says. So comes the sermon: "Women demand to be valuable. Black women accept to be valuable." Bring it home, Janye! "Why are you messing around with this broke-ass nigga?" In this moment, she sounds like so many Kandi Burruss songs penned for TLC and Destiny'south Child.

Jayde too flips her bang and gets cocky as she defends her way of life. Van seems skeptical, so she lays it all out. "The NBA players I fuck with fuck with me because I provide a service and I am worth information technology," Jayde says. "I am cultured, intelligent, and beautiful and that is hard to come by."

Okay, now she sounds similar the woman who Jazmine Sullivan was singing about on "Mascara."

Van pops back, reminding Jayde that not everyone shares her values. It is similar watching a Kardashian group chat try to take on Solange'southward new album. An bad-mannered silence follows, as Jayde carefully takes her phone, checks for good lighting, and snaps a photo of the repast for Instagram. Earlier, she pulled up her IG business relationship to show off photos from all the places she's visited. Girl, you know damn well Van saw them already.

Anyway, Van dips afterward the NBA friend and his not-so-beautiful buddy bear witness up. ("He'southward like a lawyer or something, I think," Jayde offers.) Every bit she walks through the parking lot, Jayde rolls up and tries to convince her to stay. Van reminds her that she would e'er set her upward with the ugly i. Yep, she seems like the blazon. Why are these two people even friends?

Later Jayde begs Van to stick around and hang out — despite her pleas that she has to become to work the next twenty-four hours — she hops in the machine and they smoke weed together. When Van wakes up in the morning, she is greeted by a very specific phone alarm: "Drug Examination Today." That'due south when things really get interesting. While Earn adorably plays with his daughter (these ii are very cute together — I wish Atlanta would show us more instances of blackness fatherhood) while she tries to figure out what to do.

First, she calls Jayde asking for aid. Jayde says she'll ask one of her athlete friends for advice, just we all know she's lying. With her options dwindling, Van turns to Alfred, who answers coldly before mentioning her judgmental jabs about weed and what he does for a living. Van reminds Alfred that they both know he won't be paying Earn anytime soon, so he needs to help. "I can't lose my chore because I am all that we accept," she explains. He suggests that she buy some piss to pass the drug test.

With Alfred'south communication in mind, Van spots a bag of her girl'due south dirty diapers and hauls them back into the apartment. Though a very elaborate process, she extracts urine from those diapers, funnels information technology into a prophylactic, and tapes that rubber to her leg. It is disgusting every bit hell. When Van really takes the test, it gets fifty-fifty worse: She struggles to open up the condom (with her teeth!) and the piss blows up in her face.

"Value" reveals that Van works at a school, where she deals with an interesting fix of characters, similar a black student who shows up to grade in white face. When she fails to produce a urine sample for the drug test, she'due south called into her boss's function and immediately blurts out the truth.

And this is where she does herself in.

"Well, urine samples aren't sent off," her boss says. "The canton can't afford quarterly drug tests for its employees and then afterward the outset ane, they're really simply to keep people on their toes. Listen, everybody smokes weed. The system isn't made for the kids to succeed and you gotta shake it off somehow.  I get it."

Coolest dominate ever, correct? But as Van sighs relief, the adult female continues: "Only unfortunately, y'all accept admitted the use of an illegal substance to a superior, so I gotta fire you to cover my own ass as well equally the school's."

Damn, homie. At to the lowest degree the dominate offers a sliver of pity. "Okay, let's say nosotros had this conversation Friday. That'll give you the week to get your things together, okay?" And so she goes, "You lot alright? Come here." They hug. "Yeah, y'all are."

But I guess Van didn't shower well, because her dominate pulls back with one terminal observation. "Whew! You are loud," she says. "It's all in your hair." I love this woman. It's a shame Van got herself fired because I want her former dominate to be a series regular.

As Donald Glover has fabricated clear, Atlanta doesn't go out of its way to offer g statements about race or class. All the same, Van's ordeal in "Value" tells an especially smart story near the burden of single mothers — especially black mothers who agree their families together. It's easy to understand why Van desires a night of release, and it's deplorable how chop-chop she gets punished for indulging such a momentary pleasure.

On the other paw, Van needs to check her impulsiveness. You lot don't walk in with omissions of guilt, beloved. She has every right to be stressed out, but she has got to retrieve more rationally.

Right after getting fired, Alfred texts her, "How did it go?" Her response? "Fine. How much for an 8th?" Alfred doesn't budge: "I don't sell. Save my name as someone else. Girl, you sloppy af."

It's fine that Van doesn't want to be like Jayde — she's certainly gratis to judge her friend for sleeping with NBA stars to fund her lifestyle — but at to the lowest degree the woman knows what she wants her life to be. At least she executes that vision. I'chiliad sure Jayde'southward life has its own challenges, just she is definitely playing better than Van is correct now. At the very least, she'll get a reality star. What is Van's life going to look like in a few years? Bless her center.

Atlanta Recap: Don't Forget Your Drug Test