According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.126 million household viewers and gained a 0.05 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
The episode received extremely positive reviews from critics, who praised Brian Tyree Henry's performance, Murai's directing, character development, tension and cinematography.
Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) practices at a shooting range in the woods, ignoring Earn's phone calls.
[a] Alfred discovers an abandoned tractor nearby and sets out to repair it using a tutorial from a YouTuber named "These Backhoes Ain't Loyal".
He questions a hardware store owner, Clyde (Steve Coulter), about the events and he deduces that a feral hog was responsible, that wants to eat Alfred's cultivation.
He continues working on the tractor, discovering a dead mouse in an engine and often missing vital parts of the tutorial that nearly cost him his life.
[1] The title of the episode is a reference to Andrew Wyeth's painting Christina's World, in which a woman poised on the ground looks up towards a grey Colonial Farmhouse on the horizon, the Olson House.
The painting is partly re-imagined in the episode for a scene in the climax, where a wounded Alfred crawls towards a house, only to be stopped by a river across him.
Strip away the unpredictability — shifting genres, impeccable needle drops, surrealist flair, and gorgeous filmmaking — and Atlanta's about a group of people making their way from a life of hustling to a future of some sort of peace and calm.
"[6] Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone wrote, "That final exchange includes a much weightier line than Earn intends, when he tells Al, 'Atlanta's not going anywhere, y'know?'
And just as 'Snipe Hunt' felt like it was putting a button on Earn and Van's story, this one plays as if it could easily be the conclusion to Al's.
The man is a bona fide movie star, and it will be bittersweet to see him walkway from the role of Paper Boi.
The episode ends with a reminder of the wholesome brotherhood Earn and Alfred have as they argue over if Black people can get sunburned over Facetime featuring the soulful tunes of Ray Charles' 'Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying.'