To celebrate Lottie’s sixth birthday, Earn, Van, and Lottie embark on a camping trip in the woods. With a show like Atlanta, watching a Black family enter the woods to go camping immediately put me on edge, especially after season three. But it would be too predictable to use the woods as a site to lean fully into the horror genre. Instead, the trip brings the family closer than ever. This isn’t to say the writers didn’t dabble in horror with a few spooky moments (what exactly did Lottie catch in that pillow case?), but in true Atlanta fashion, the story takes an entirely less cliché route.
“Snipe Hunt” is also a much more heartfelt episode than I would have expected. Atlanta is known for its experimental nature and Afro-surrealist energy, so episodes like this sometimes fall flat for a viewer like me who is eager to dissect every twist and turn. But the episode seems to anticipate this reaction by producing an unsettling energy that keeps the viewers anxious about what’s next. There’s a moment when Lottie looks out across the river toward an assemblage of trees that create an opening to the forest. The sounds of the insects and wildlife swell until the scene is broken by the harsh metal-on-metal sound of Van hammering one of the tent poles into the ground. Scenes like this, and Lottie catching the snipe, take us right to the edge without diving into true horror, choosing to pivot to a sweet calmness instead. This mirrors the intensity of the emotions displayed within the episode, specifically Earn’s declaration of love and Van’s initial reluctance. Vulnerability is one of the scariest things in the world, and the buildup is hell, but it’s also how we get to the softest parts of ourselves.
While the episode is somewhat sleepy, it’s nice to see Earn and Van’s relationship grow and evolve to this point. The possibility of a move to Los Angeles for Earn’s job opportunity looms between them as he presses her to decide if she wants to join him. He broaches the subject as they build the extravagant tent he bought for the occasion. Now that Earn has surpassed financial stability and is in a tax bracket that allows him a considerable amount of disposable income, he’s able to splurge on Lottie. Not only has he reserved the entire grounds for just the three of them, but he also purchased the most expensive tent at the store, one big enough to house 12 people. Van points out that they’ll be freezing and unable to amass enough body heat to insulate the space, but she doesn’t dwell on this hiccup, sensitive to the fact that Earn is excited to create the best experience.
As they assemble the tent, Earn asks Van if she’s thought more about the move. Taking her time to produce an intentional answer, she tells Earn she’s thought about it a lot but she’d rather talk about it later. They explore the wilderness, walking along the river and eventually stopping to catch frogs. Earn, noticing how Lottie has been exceptionally moody, asks his daughter if she’s enjoying her special day. Without directly speaking to him, she sullenly proclaims that she doesn’t like her birthday.
Van writes it off as Lottie being tired and “in one of her moods,” but she adds some extra fun to their day by telling Lottie they’re going snipe hunting. She says a snipe is a rare, nearly extinct creature with red eyes that only comes out in the moonlight. But while Lottie is ecstatic about the idea of catching a snipe, Earn is concerned that Van is pranking their 6-year-old. She tells him snipe hunting is a tradition she participated in during her short-lived time as a Girl Scout, but I’m with Earn: When I first read that this episode was called “Snipe Hunt” and saw they were entering the woods, my mind immediately leapt to The Purge and Get Out.
They continue the day as an idyllic family; Earn tells Lottie a silly story while Van smiles and listens before the trio sets off onto the river in a small canoe to go fishing. As they sit on the water, Lottie says she misses her grandparents, perhaps longing for the people who cared for her while her parents were in Europe attending industry parties and beating people with baguettes. Earn, trying his best at the father role, reminds her how it’s rare for the three of them to be together alone. Being alone with Van and his daughter is an important moment for Earn as he seriously considers the move to the other side of the country. As they roast hot dogs over a fire, he asks again if Van would want to come. They’re unable to continue the conversation, though, because as the moon creeps into the sky to take the sun’s place, Lottie is ready to hunt for a snipe.
Van gives Lottie a pillowcase and instructs her to place a marshmallow inside as bait, scratch the ground with a stick to attract the snipe, then hit it across the head to capture it. They leave Lottie alone to hunt and retreat back to the fire, again starting a conversation around the move. Van opens up about what’s holding her back, saying she’s afraid Earn is asking only because he doesn’t want to be alone in L.A. Personally, I expected this conversation to be more about Lottie and her needs, but Atlanta has never been a show about parenting. (I mean, how much screen time has Lottie even gotten in the past?)
Their talk is once again cut short by Lottie as she proudly yells to her parents that she’s caught the snipe. Frightened by what Lottie could’ve possibly captured, Van carefully tells her to drop the pillowcase and run to safety. After making sure Lottie is safe, Earn moves closer to prod the pillowcase with a stick, and out jumps something that makes a creepy noise and slithers away. Van anxiously asks, “What was that?” and Lottie says definitively, “It was a snipe. I got him.”
Somehow encountering what could be a real snipe doesn’t frighten them enough to go home, and they end the evening with a makeshift birthday cake for Lottie in the form of a s’more with a candle on top. They start to sing Stevie Wonder’s rendition of “Happy Birthday,” but Lottie shuts it down, melancholy as ever, asking for no singing before blowing out her candles and making a wish.
Trying to fall asleep in the massive tent, Earn’s teeth chatter as he shivers in the dark. Hearing him suffer, Van offers Earn space where she and Lottie are sleeping. With Lottie completely asleep, he uses this as an opportunity to talk about L.A. without interruption. He reassures her that she’s not simply a security blanket — if he wanted to find someone new he would, but what he truly wants is for his family to be together. Van, still uncertain, says she can’t pack up her whole life just because he loves her as an extension of his daughter. Earn gets up, signaling a more serious talk, and bears his soul to her, telling her he’s in love with her and has dreamed about her since Amsterdam. The fact that she’s also the mother of his child makes him “just fucking burst.”
For the most part, Van sits silently listening to his proclamations of love, but Earn keeps expressing himself, officially asking her to go to L.A. as his partner, not merely a co-parent. She finally agrees, allowing Earn to let out a breath as he joins her next to their sleeping daughter, whom he refers to as the manifestation of the best parts of each other.
The next morning, they wake up realizing rain is coming. Anyone who is a fan of Afro-surrealism and Black media understands the significance of water in our stories and spirituality. It’s a common but important trope with a rich history: Water holds memory, ebbs and flows, and has the power to take and give life. As Toni Morrison once said, “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.” To me, the rain began at a perfect time, as Earn and Van came full circle in their relationship. Langston Hughes was also known for his use of water as symbolism. One of his most well-known lines is, “My soul has grown deep like rivers,” a line I thought of as Earn, Van, and Lottie brushed their teeth in the morning. Over the past four seasons, we’ve seen extraordinary growth and depth from Earn, who, as he said himself, “never fights for anything.” But now he’s fighting for Van, something he wasn’t capable of doing years ago.
The family drives away from the campsite while playing Sade’s “Love Is Stronger Than Pride” (what a perfect soundtrack choice) as the rain falls on the car windows. Lottie watches her parents from the back, noticing a spark in their banter and chemistry in their body language, and finally cracks a smile, reminding me of many late-night drives in my own childhood with my still-in-love parents blasting Sade and holding hands. Earn is so right: “What else are we doing it for, if not that feeling?”
Atlanta After Hours
• Another fun wink to the obvious horror elements of the episode is the interaction with a slightly uncomfortable yet coldly friendly older white man when they first arrive on the property. Earn’s guess that there’s an 8 percent chance of him killing them in their sleep felt about right to me even though Van thought that was a high estimate.
• Hiro Murai’s eye for composition is immaculate; the way his directing complements the storytelling makes for such a full experience while watching that sometimes I forget these episodes are only half an hour. My two favorite moments are the wide shot of the family on the river fishing and the scene shortly after in which Earn and Van are out of focus with the fire behind them positioned between their heads as Lottie plays in the camera’s focus.
• While I was waiting for a jump scare, the bread crumbs of Van being the reluctant one in their relationship and Earn wanting to take the leap were scattered throughout the episode. Looking back, her telling Earn to slow down on the way to the site and her insisting the river is too intense to cross are symbolic of her pulling back to save herself. I’m glad she didn’t in the end, though.
