"Sacrifices are necessary, Darius."
—Teddy Perkins
When Darius goes to pick up a piano, he meets Teddy Perkins, a strange, eccentric man who makes him feel uneasy.
The Atlanta episode "Teddy Perkins" contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Teddy takes a picture of Darius, who then says he doesn't like pictures too much.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Teddy at one point enjoys what he refers to as an "owl's casket", a giant soft-boiled ostrich egg that he picks apart with both his fingers and a tiny mallet. The squishing noises and the sight of the giant runny albumen are unnerving, to say the least.
- Bottle Episode: Aside from the opening, the episode is mainly set in one mansion, with the only characters being Darius, Teddy, and Benny, with Earn having a speaking role and Alfred only appearing for a few seconds.
- Daddy Issues: Oh, Teddy Perkins has 'em. He's planning a whole museum to ambitious fathers, in tribute to his own father who abused him when his piano wasn't good enough.
- Day in the Limelight: Most of the episode is focused on Darius, with Earn and Alfred having minor appearances.
- The Dog Bites Back: Teddy’s brother, Benny Hope. That's because Teddy has kept Benny in their mansion's basement while likely subjecting him to physical and psychological torture. The second Benny gets a chance he blows Teddy away with a shotgun before turning it on himself.
- Intimidating White Presence: Teddy, obviously.
- Menacing Museum: Teddy Perkins wishes to turn his creepy old house into a museum, complete with gift shop. He has an eerie room dedicated to "great fathers", including a model of his own abusive father (unless you subscribe to the theory that "Teddy" is the father), whose face is blank.
- Murder-Suicide: Benny — or whoever the faceless captive may be — kills Teddy at the climax, then blows his own face off.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Teddy Perkins seems to be an analogue for Michael Jackson, being an idiosyncratic former musician with serious Daddy Issues. The framed photograph Darius looks at of his brother Benny — or possibly "Teddy" himself — meeting Chuck Berry is an altered version of Jackson and Berry together at a Grammys party in 1978
◊. - Resigned to the Call: Lampshaded by Darius when the elevator doesn’t stop in the parlor, and continues on to the basement, where he meets a desperate Benny."Fine, destiny."
- Shout-Out:
- According to director Hiro Murai, Darius' outfit from the episode was based on the clothes worn by James Caan in Misery.
- Among the luminaries planned for Teddy's planned shrine to abusive fathers with driven sons is Emilio Estevez's fictional dad from The Breakfast Club.
- Surreal Horror: The whole episode is essentially just the story of Darius being held captive by a psychotic Michael Jackson Expy.
- True Art Is Angsty: In-universe, a central theme of the episode, as the reason Teddy intends to kill Darius is because he likes Darius, and the tragedy will drive Teddy to create great music. Darius, understandably, disagrees.
- Uncanny Valley: Teddy Perkins, thanks to being played by Glover himself under about twenty pounds of prosthetic whiteface makeup. According to director Hiro Murai, the production team deliberately went for a very smooth, unnatural look with Teddy's face in order to make him seem even creepier.
- White Like Me
