The series is set in Atlanta and follows Earnest "Earn" Marks, as he tries to redeem himself in the eyes of his ex-girlfriend Van, who is also the mother of his daughter Lottie; as well as his parents and his cousin Alfred, who raps under the stage name "Paper Boi"; and Darius, Alfred's eccentric right-hand man.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.487 million household viewers and gained a 0.2 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
At the concert event, they run into Clark County (RJ Walker) and his manager Lucas (Matthew Barnes).
Suddenly, Violet dumps beer on Alfred for talking with another girl, prompting an angry Tracy to confront her and push her down the stairs.
They reach a frat house (mostly consisting of white boys) where the fraternity members give them marijuana and invite them to enter.
Earn finds that his laptop is missing and tries to enter Violet's dorm room, even going as far as to activate a fire alarm.
In March 2018, FX announced that the ninth episode of the season would be titled "North of the Border" and that it would be written by Jamal Olori, and directed by executive producer Hiro Murai.
[1] The silk pajamas Earn, Alfred and Darius wear throughout much of the episode bear a strong resemblance to those worn by TLC in the music video for "Creep".
The question is how long it will take to mend his relationship with Al."[8] Hanh Nguyen of IndieWire wrote, "With two more episodes left in the season, it remains to be seen if this experience will push him to finally see the world through a more realistic lens.
He very well could follow the trajectory of another tragic hero, Oedipus, who after fulfilling his grim prophecy, stabs himself in the eyes, bringing his blindness full circle.
"[10] Bryan Washington of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "At their current trajectory, the split was bound to happen.
"[11] Leigh-Anne Jackson of The New York Times wrote, "After last week's brutal onslaught of life lessons, Al is ready for a change.
"[13] Miles Surrey of The Ringer wrote, "If we're handing out an LVP award for the season thus far, it has to go to Earn: He broke things off with Van in a way that was disconcertingly apathetic, and aside from a jarring meeting at a virtually all-white Spotify-esque company, he hasn't been leveraging Paper Boi's nascent rap stardom nearly as well as he could have.