Warning! SPOILERS for the Atlanta season 4 finaleAtlanta season 4 director Hiro Murai discusses whether Darius has been dreaming throughout the whole series. Staying true to itself, the FX series remained delightfully absurd right up until its parting shot. In its series finale, Atlanta splits up the main four characters — Earn (Donald Glover), Vanessa (Zazie Beetz), and Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) have made plans to eat at a Black-owned sushi fusion restaurant, with Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), the main focus of the finale, to meet them later. First, he has an appointment at a sensory deprivation tank. That's where things get really weird, leading to a closing shot that has sparked a lot of discussion among fans.

The setup, centered on Atlanta's weirdest main character, culminates with an ambiguous series ending. In the show's last scene, Darius tells Earn, Vanessa, and Alfred that they're all characters in a dream that he's having. The trio tries to reassure him that he's living in reality, but the story ends without confirmation in one direction or another. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Murai shed light on the finale and what he hopes viewers will take away from it:

VF: If it had been a regular episode, I might have watched it differently. But because it was the series finale, I couldn’t help putting weight on the image of the closed drawer. It looked like it belonged in a morgue rather than a sensory-deprivation tank spa, so it left me wondering: Is Darius dead rather than dreaming?

Murai: Our show’s always been sort of obsessed with existential angst, you know? So as ridiculous as the concept is, it’s also about: Does any of this mean anything in the long run? Is it all ephemeral, like a dream, or is this something that we can treasure and have it have meaning in our lives? I think that’s always been the balance of the show—to do something kind of silly and maybe semi-meaningful at the same time.

VF: It also felt like it was referencing classic TV tropes, like Newhart’s dream ending or The Sopranos’ notoriously ambiguous ending. It leaves us wondering, is he or isn’t he?

Murai: Definitely. The finale is doing all those things we’re talking about. I hope it’s a Rorschach test! I think people are going to take it with different levels of seriousness.

VF: If Atlanta were a different kind of show, you would’ve planted all kinds of Easter eggs and clues along the way.

Murai: We were always redefining what our world was as we went along. We’ve always lived a couple of inches off the ground of reality. And so what does it all mean: Is this a parallel universe, is it subjective absurdism, or is it all inside Darius’s dream? So we’re kind of playing with those expectations as well.

Related: Atlanta Season 4 Ending Explained (In Detail)

What Atlanta's Final Shot Really Means

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The episode, which is directed by Murai and written by Donald Glover, is cheekily titled "It Was All a Dream." Audiences are welcome to take that in any way that they prefer, as Murai indicates. Darius usually remembers that he's in reality by looking at Judge Judy (who gave her permission to be included in the finale). If the TV judge looks thicker than usual, he explains at one point, if her body looks different, that means he's dreaming. But if she looks as she usually does, that means Darius is in reality. As it so often has, Atlanta avoids an easy answer. The camera cuts to black with Darius smiling, though we don't actually see what's on the television.

For fans who need an explanation for the inexplicable strangeness that the Emmy-winning series sometimes dipped into, like the invisible cars or the "Teddy Perkins" episode or the anthology detours, those can now be hand-waved away as a part of Darius's dreams. Viewers have noticed how it's mentioned that Darius spends about thirty minutes in the tank, once per week. That's conveniently the length of a typical Atlanta episode. So, in one reading, Darius may have dreamt up everything weird about Atlanta.

But there is another reading. It's possible, and in fact quite likely, that Darius smiles because Judge Judy looks the way she normally does. He realizes the happy and understated moment he's sharing with Earn, Alfred, and Vanessa is as real as anything. Though they've each gone on their separate paths, he's good and they're good. That would certainly be worth one last smile in Atlanta.

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Source: Vanity Fair