This season of "Atlanta" has essentially been split into two shows: a standalone, anthology-style format focusing heavily on the ins and outs and "what-ifs" of racism in America, mostly told from a white perspective (save for the first episode "Three Slaps"), and the portion that focuses on the exploits of Earn, Al, Darius, and Van while they’re on Al’s European tour. In this episode (directed by Donald Glover and written by Jordan Temple), we return to the anthology format. Here, we meet oblivious white parents who've just learned that their caretaker from Trinidad and Tobago, Sylvia, has passed away. They receive the news early in the episode when, after wondering why she hasn't shown up to take their five-year-old son Sebastian to school, they get a call informing them she won't be coming because she has passed on.

Not only do they skip out on family photo day, but Sylvia's the one who walks the little one to class, rubs his back when he's afraid, and introduces him to seasoned food, like the spicy curry mango he asks for after he complains that the food his mom ordered for him is bland. Curious, the dad tries the sauce and can't handle the heat at all, while young Sebastian chows down on it without blinking as he watches The Proud Family.

Distraught about how to tell Sebastian that Sylvia has passed away, the dad ends up blurting out the truth following a convoluted, confusing conversation about dinosaurs and extinction. At one point, the parents contemplate how they're going to find another caretaker, and after noting the significant influence Sylvia has had on their son (and how difficult it is for them to understand Sylvia's relatives), the mom suggests that maybe next time they should hire someone more "metropolitan." The dad replies that it sounds expensive, and that Sylvia was much more affordable. Meanwhile, little Sebastian still feels Sylvia's presence, so much so that he says goodnight to her while looking at what should've been an empty rocking chair.

Eventually, the parents decide that Sebastian probably needs to attend Sylvia’s funeral for closure, plus they want to return some of the clothes she left at their place to her family. At the funeral, we witness a series of shenanigans. They meet a white man in his 20s (Chet Hanks) who was also cared for by Sylvia and sports a thick Trinidadian accent, even though he's not from there.

They encounter a family member who tries to persuade them to let him take over Sylvia’s job. They observe their son, Sebastian, behaving as if he were Sylvia’s own child — he's completely at home in the church, singing along to the praise music and muttering "amens" with the congregation just like a 70-year-old Black man.

Additionally, they discover that Sylvia’s daughter is resentful of the fact that Sylvia spent her time raising white folks' children while seemingly neglecting her own (her son is more understanding, mentioning she was just doing what she had to provide). The daughter, in her grief and anger, starts beating on Sylvia’s casket, prompting a family member to jump up, open the casket, and attempt to get inside, leading to a scuffle among family members. This chaos prompts the white family to hastily leave the scene.

All the while, the white family has strangely been receiving the same package addressed to Sylvia at all times of the day and night. Following the funeral, there’s knocking at their door in the middle of the night, and once again, there’s the package left in front of their door. Finally, the dad opens it— it's pictures of Sylvia and Sebastian taken at his school’s family photo day, the one the parents were too busy to attend.

Although still indulging in the ghost theme of the season, this episode strayed completely from Atlanta’s typically eccentric, wry perspective into something else entirely. Out of all the episodes, “The Big Payback” included (previously the weakest of the season before this one), it felt the most unlike Atlanta, as if it’s not sure what exactly it wants to be. Next week, it thankfully looks like we’re back in Europe after we were left hanging when Earn wakes up alone in bed after spending the night with Van, whose behavior this entire season has been a bit unhinged.