Darius is kind of like Hurley in Lost - left to protect the island (Atlanta) for all eternity.

The opening to Season 3 was probably the most important scene in the whole series. “Atlanta” is an abstract, mythological place (space?) that projects the absurdities and tensions of America's (the world's?) relationship to identity, specifically racial identity, hyper-specifically in this post internet, post Worldstar social media landscape, to be played out and “worked through”, so to speak. Essentially our collective unconscious. “There is a town under the water. They’re all mostly black”.

Darius is a sad loner who lost his parents and his brother. He cannot cope with the absurd tragedy of life and the unforgiving chaos and unfair way that we are made to feel like pawns in someone else’s twisted game. He goes off the deep end, turning to partying and living an empty hedonistic lifestyle with his wild codependent gf, struggling to resolve not only his brother’s passing, but especially feeling connected to the spirit of his mom, who he knows would be disappointed with his current decisions and longs to feel he is living in honor of and making proud.

Darius goes to a float tank spa to try and rebalance. Through this meditative flow state, he taps into the underwater mirror world of Atlanta. Earn, Al, and Van are all fragments of Darius’ raptured psyche trying to heal in the wake of what feels like cosmic betrayal. Each of them have a piece of the answer but not the whole thing. With the exception of the Season 3 "real world" eps, our time spent in Atlanta essentially amounts to Darius in the tank, deceiving himself into thinking he is not in a dream. He is able to deceive himself because while he has his "Judge Judy" trick, he hasn't shared this knowledge with anyone else in his dreamscape. He is relying on only himself -- until the finale.

Earn represents the part of himself that cannot get past the bitterness of being karmically wronged and carries that chip on his shoulder at all times. To the point that it may spill over and affect others in his orbit. Still, he is able to maneuver in a way that brings him success, maybe not the most respect at times by his peers, but the ability to maintain loving, reciprocal relationships.

Al represents the part of himself that internalizes the unfairness of life, meets it with begrudging acceptance, and does not let his problems spill over to anybody else. He is able to maneuver in a way that brings him success, respect, but crucially, cannot open himself up to loving, reciprocal relationships.

Van represents the unresolved relationship with his mom, and consequently, women in general. Caught up in those feelings are that of being the "other" and being made to feel like you are the supporting character in someone else's story, powerless and alone.

The story, if there is an overall through-line, in "Atlanta" is Darius' unconscious trying to build trust between our four characters and and foster an understanding between them all that is real and permanent and doesn't buckle under the pressure of a cruel, strange, comically ironic world. We see this in the Season 2 finale with Earn and Al solidifying their familial bond over all the other BS, we see this in small, mostly unseen squabbles between Darius and Al that end with the two of them quietly offering the other a hit of a blunt as a stoic sign of forgiveness after cooling down. We see this with Earn and Van finally coming back to each other as a family unit.

Season 3, IMO, was what happens when the mythical "Atlanta" under water dimension starts bleeding in with the real world. It is not a coincidence that the absurdities bubbling up from below the surface start seeping into real life stories (the "one-off" episodes in S3) only when our characters venture out of their pre-ordained Atlanta cage and into a scary, foreign world that seems unwelcoming. It represents things going off the rails -- our characters being truly tested. Van is a rudderless ghoul on some kind of psychological break. Al's naïve attempts of casually fitting in to "high society" spiral into new levels of malice. What is that? -- are Darius and Van about to hook up? But shouldn't he know that is Earn's girl...I thought Darius was a homie? -- It all comes back to this idea of trust and what it takes to truly build trust and friendship between people, groups, etc.

So that brings us to the S4 finale. Darius has achieved his "task". Through the trials and tribulations, our four characters are still a cohesive unit when we arrive at the end of the season. And yet, they are still flawed in their unique ways, stuck in their own personal loop. Al gets his peace on the farm but has nobody there to share it with. Earn gets the job and the family but you can sense that chip on his shoulder is still gonna follow him. Van finds stability, but is it conditional on other people's choices or is she completely in control of her destiny?

The only one who is able to truly work past all these conflicting pressures, is Darius, in the real world. He meets the "big bad" at the bottom of his subconscious grief, the spirit of his mom, at a pharmacy, and shares with her the knowledge of his Judge Judy trick. Once that happens, the rules are different now. Darius is not alone. He cannot deceive himself anymore. He has opened himself up, in a way, to the spirit of his mom and is calling upon his desire for connection. He now has to finally leave his "friends" behind, and wake up to be the man he knows he can be, and truly heal.

But without Darius as the "Neo" of this Atlantan matrix, our three other main characters are doomed to die. This is shown as one more masterful cosmic joke that captures Darius' dilemma, a perfect storm of fated irony --

Al, the recluse, humors Earn with the sushi restaurant and wouldn't be in there if it weren't for Earn.

Earn, in a show of stubborn obligation, tries to support the business but ultimately defers to Al's practical mindset rather than idealism, upsetting the chef.

Despite each character "doing their best" they were still meant to be killed by the sushi chef, as poetic justice or a sacrifice for the social ills that "Atlanta" is powered by.

Darius wakes up from the tank to the real world in a haze at a certain point, but cannot accept the death of his friends, whether they are real or imagined. He goes back into the tank, and drowns himself. Real world Darius dies, but "Atlanta" world Darius appears magically, just in time, to save his friends from imminent death in fantastical glory with a convertible and Popeye's. He has saved his friends from death, but is now stuck in this "Atlanta" purgatory forever. The last scene of the show is his silent acceptance that he is in a dream now, and will be, forever.