The Homeliest Little Horse

A woman named Lisa Mahn (Brooke Bloom) receives an e-mail from a person named Gordon Rosenbaum. It states that a manuscript written by her was reviewed, and he wants to meet with her. She is thrilled by this. Meanwhile, Earn (Donald Glover) drives his car while talking to Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) on the phone, saying he is attending therapy. Alfred laughs at the thought of spending his money on therapy.

At the therapy session, Earn is reprimanded for constantly using his phone and not opening up more about himself. The psychiatrist, Everette Tillman (Sullivan Jones), convinces him to talk about his feelings and trust issues, with their conversation even revealing that Earn was abused by a family member. Earn also reveals that Princeton University, from which he dropped out, wants him to speak as an alumni at a seminar and receive an honorary degree, which he refuses as he thinks they are profiting off him. Meanwhile, Lisa goes to a literary agency, where she meets Rosenbaum and his secretary, revealed to be Tracy (Khris Davis). Impressed by her children's books, Rosenbaum agrees to be her agent but reveals they are on a deadline and begins preparing her to read part of her book at a library. While eating lunch with her best friend, Lisa reveals that she quit her job to fully focus on being an author. While her friend is happy for her, she states she can't keep loaning her money due to other bills, prompting an angry Lisa to leave.

During the next therapy session, Earn talks more about Princeton, revealing that he had a close friend named Sasha and both were RAs. Earn was preparing for a job interview when his crush asked him to come with her to a party, with Sasha agreeing to keep his suit for the interview when he comes back. When Earn returned, he texted Sasha about his suit, but she didn't respond for hours until she said she was not around. Desperate as the interview was nearing, Earn used his master key to enter her dorm room and get the suit. Sasha was angry and informed the Dean, with the incident quickly spreading across college and ruining Earn's reputation. As Earn breaks down, he says that he never talked to Sasha again and when he left Princeton, he set out to "prove everyone wrong". Tillman concludes that by not going back, he is proving something to Sasha but not to himself and draws a parallel between Sasha's breaking his trust in her and the abuse that an unspecified family member inflicted on Earn.

During another therapy session, Tillman gives Earn a floor pillow as a gift as he prefers to lay on the ground during their sessions. Earn states that after re-considering, he agreed with the idea of the Princeton offer. However, after confirming his attendance, he planned to go with Van and Lottie but when they were at the airport, he got into a conflict with an airport employee who denied their entry due to his passport being worn out, though Earn knew it was due to racial profiling. Another employee helped them in getting past the inspection, but TSA officers intercepted them when they were nearing the gate, prompting Earn to just give up and not go. He is less disappointed with the thought of missing Princeton and more on how he wasted time and wasn't able to connect with Van and Lottie. He decides to take some time off from therapy to which Tillman agrees.

Lisa arrives at the library with a new makeover, but the librarian forces her to leave her service dog outside despite having the approved paperwork. As she begins reading her book "The Homeliest Little Horse", the kids mock her story and most of them leave the reading, forcing a devastated Lisa to read the book in a near empty room while being filmed. At a bar, Earn meets with Alfred and Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) while the screen shows Lisa at the reading. He reveals that Lisa was the airport employee who ruined his trip and that he orchestrated the reading by paying actors (including Tracy) to ruin her life and humiliate her. Alfred and Darius seem unimpressed with his actions. As Earn stays alone to drink, he watches some footage of Lisa crying. He smiles but then concludes that he should go back to therapy.

In August 2022, FX announced that the second episode of the season would be titled "The Homeliest Little Horse" and that it would be written by supervising producer Ibra Ake and directed by Angela Barnes. This was Ake's third writing credit, and Barnes' first directing credit on the series.^[1]

Okayplayer saw comparisons in the episode to the third season episode, "Trini 2 De Bone" on the topic of the whiteness theory, using the character of Lisa as an exploration of the theme.^[2]

The episode delved into Earn's past, explaining the reason behind dropping out of Princeton University, an event that has been alluded since the series' debut. Consequence explained, "The conversation reveals the ongoing struggle with which Earn continues to wrestle, a battle between trying to prove himself and not letting other people's doubt consume him, and his therapist helps him unpack the way childhood trauma and racial trauma in his adulthood have informed his choices more than he's aware of."^[3]