'Atlanta' Season 2 Premiere: The Best Earn, Paper Boi and Darius Moments Before Air Date

It's been a year and four months since viewers last saw Earnest "Earn" Marks, Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles and Darius crushing a plate of lemon pepper wings on FX's Atlanta. But alas, the boys are finally back in town for Season 2 of the award-winning series, and the wings are expected to be extra wet this time around.

Considering all the months, days, hours, minutes and seconds that have passed since Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) handed Earn (Donald Glover) that wad of 100 dollar bills in the Season 1 finale—seemingly paying Earn his dues for helping get his rap career off the ground—it's likely you've probably forgotten the many aspects and instances of Atlanta that brought Donald Glover critical acclaim in the first place.

To help jog your memory, we've compiled a list of a six standout moments the cousins and their philosophical stoner friend Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) endured during Season 1, just in time for the Season 2 premieres on Thursday night at 10 p.m. ET.

1. The first episode of the show titled, "The Big Bang," sees the Earn and Alfred involved in a confrontation in a convenience store parking lot. Alfred is pissed after a man tears a mirror off his vehicle while Earn unsuccessfully tries to calm him down. Before you know it, gunshots are fired. A flashback to earlier in the day reveals Earn is a young, broke, Princeton-dropout of a father attempting to manage Alfred's rap career, although he hasn't seen his cousin since Alfred's mother's funeral. It would seem Earn is just a leech, looking to latch on now that Alfred's single, aptly titled "Paper Boi," is gaining traction in the streets. But Earn proves he may be an asset after all when he manages to get the song radio play.

2. In episode two, "Streets on Lock," Earn and Alfred find themselves in jail due to the parking lot shooting. Earn's never been in jail before and his clean record results in Alfred, a local weed dealer who's spent a plenty of nights in the tank, to be released ahead of him. The timing of the cousins' jail stint couldn't of come better for Alfre as his status as a "real rapper," becomes even more amplified. His heightened notoriety becomes even more apparent when he goes to out to eat and is presented with a special, glowing order of lemon pepper wet wings—i.e. lemon pepper wings with the sauce—simply because the waiter appreciates him for not being a "singing-ass rapper."

3. Alfred isn't any more conformable with his newfound fame by the fourth episode, "The Streisand Effect." In fact, he's being trolled online by social media influencer who can't stop talking trash about him. Meanwhile, Earn's relationship with Darius begins to flourish as the run the streets together in attempts to help Earn get some quick cash. Earn wants to pawn his phone for money but is convinced to trade the phone for a sword on Darius' promise he could help him get much more money. This leads to an adventure of sorts, during which they drive all over Atlanta, trade the sword for a dog, then drop the dog off outside of town to a dog breeder. The puppies are expected to sell for at least $2,000, and Darius promises Earn will get half of the proceeds. The only problem is that cash won't come until after the dogs mate and the puppies are born in September while Earn needs money right now.

4. It would seem like Earn and Alfred catch a break in episode five's "Nobody Beats the Biebs," but in the end, they don't. It starts with the cousins arriving at a celebrity charity basketball game, which Alfred is set to play in. A white woman mistakes Earn for a black man named Alonso, and his decision to play along results in him gaining access to a VIP room filled with important people in suits and their business cards. However, just moments after ordering a Hennessy and Grand Marnier at the open bar, the same woman approaches "Alonso" again but this time under much harsher pretenses. She calls him a "faggot cocksucker" and blames him for ruining her career while he tries to make a hasty exit. Meanwhile, Alfred is ecstatic to be playing in the game but his happiness is cut short when Justin Bieber—the black Atlanta prototype of the Canadian singer—shows up and starts trash talking him on the basketball court. The tension between Alfred and black Justin Bieber becomes so intense that a fight breaks out.

5. By episode eight, "The Club," Alfred has finally made it—well, sort of. Earn manages to book him for an appearance at a club, which in the hip-hop world is one of the first key signs of making it. The bottles of rose are flowing. Girls are (kind of) flooding Alfred's booth. It's a great time, except it isn't because another, more popular, rapper shows up and completely overshadows Alfred. Only making matters worse, the sketchy club promoter tried to shiest Earn out of the money they were initially promised because Alfred exceeded his bar limit and because Alfred is a "thug," so extra security was needed. When Earn relays the message to Alfred, he's—as expected—infuriated. He marches into the party promoter's office, beats him up and takes the money he's rightfully owed. Just moments later when Earn, Alfred and Darius arrive at a restaurant, Alfred's face comes flashing across a TV screen as a news reporter explains he's wanted by the police for an armed robbery connected to a shooting outside of the club they just left.

6. The season finale, "The Jacket," finally attempts to provide an inkling into Earn's past. It starts with Earn—hungover from a party attended by Alfred, Darius and himself the night before—on a mission to locate his jacket. He's hell-bent on finding it and retracing his steps from the previous night leads him to a strip club and eventually to an Uber driver. The driver will only return the jacket if Earn pays him $50, so Alfred offers to take Earn to meet the driver. While they're waiting in the car another Atlanta rapper calls Earn to work out a tour deal with Alfred, but their excitement quickly turns to fear when police approach them with guns drawn. It's not Alfred and Earn they want, though, but the Uber driver, who attempts to run—wearing Earn's jacket—when he spots the officers outside. They shoot him, and without offering a flinch, Earn informs the officers that the driver has on his jacket and he needs to search the pockets for something. Turns out, he's looking for his keys, but the now dead Uber driver didn't have them anyway. A friend, whom Earn gave the keys to for safekeeping the night before, finally returns them, and the episode ends with Earn using the key to open a large storage unit filled with all of his belongings, where the then proceeds to sleep.