The episode begins with a conversation between two friends, one Black, one white, alone at night on the still waters of what I suspect is Lake Lanier, or some fictional place inspired by it given the history lesson that white friend provides. “It’s s*** water,” he says, before elaborating further: 

“This whole lake used to be a town. Houses, farms, roads. There’s a whole raceway. Big government built a dam and flooded the place. Anyone who didn’t leave drowned. The town was Black too.” 

He then talks about the nature of whiteness as a social construct, saying the Black people that populated the now-drowned town were “almost white” in that they were wealthy and self-sufficient, stating that people have historically been able to buy into whiteness. Who gets to be considered white has shifted and changed throughout history based on class and convenience, and he says as much to his Black friend, commenting, “There’s no scientific basis for it. People just become white. It’s social. […] With enough blood and money, anyone can be white.” 

This character is essentially driving home the point that the lake is haunted, and by extension, society is also haunted, cursed even by the concept of whiteness and the way it operates, leaving even the privileged “cursed” by its existence. “We’re cursed too,” he whispers, his face unseen. Then he turns and looks back at his friend, smooth (white) skin in place of his eyes, and repeats it again, much to the horror of his friend who screams “OH S***!” as phantom Black hands reach up from the water and pull him under.

And then the young protagonist of the episode, who is neither Van, Earn, Alfred, nor Darius, wakes up. His name is Loquareeous, and he’s a young Black boy who dozed off in class, leading to his Jordan Peele-esque, racially-charged existential horror dream. It looks like the unnamed white classmate in front of him was recording him sleeping, but this doesn’t come up again in the episode. 

The teacher’s announcement that the class will be going on a field trip to see “Black Panther 2” fully awakens Loquareeous, who responds by getting up and dancing. The teacher calls for him to sit down, but he continues, seemingly invigorated by the cheering and encouragement of his classmates. Unsurprisingly, the next scene features him sitting outside of the principal’s office with his head in his hands.

Inside the office sits Loquareeous’ clearly annoyed mother, his grandfather, the principal, and the white guidance counselor. “First of all, I already told y’all to stop calling me down here,” his mother says, indicating that this is far from the first time he’s been called to the principal’s office. Because the episode is very much about race, it’s important to point out that the principal is a Black woman, while the teacher is white. The Black principal attempts to ease the tension by thanking Loquareeous’ mother for coming down, but she is cut off by the white guidance counselor, who takes over the meeting. She points out that Loquareeous has been in detention several times for disruptions, and that she feels that perhaps the material in class is too challenging for him, suggesting he be moved to remedial classes.

It’s important to note that she doesn’t provide actual evidence that he is unable to grasp the material, such as grades, test scores, or homework. She’s not even his teacher. She’s the guidance counselor. Given this, it’s understandable that Mom is not exactly on board with the idea, saying, “My son is not dumb.” Obviously, remedial courses aren’t an indication that someone is “dumb,” but given the context of the situation, her response, however crass, is not unjustifiable. She then states Loquareeous is not the first student to act up in class, and that pushing him back isn’t the answer to his disruptions, suggesting that detention will suffice. She exits the meeting, and we see her reprimanding Loquareeous in the hallway by making him dance the same way he was dancing in class, telling him that, “If you don’t start using your common sense and acting right, these white people, they’re gone kill you. KILL. YOU.”

Of course, the guidance counselor sees this and feels it’s time to intervene, which leads to her witnessing Loquareeous’ grandfather delivering him three not-very-hard slaps across the face. She then leads the young Black boy away, saying, “I’m gonna get you outta there.” We later find out that this means she made a call to social services, resulting in a social worker showing up at the family’s home, complete with police officers who are “just here as a precaution.” Predictably, this does not go over well with Mom, who responds by kicking Loquareeous out of the house. 

It’s not great, and it just goes downhill from there.