[Read our recap of the Season 2 finale of “Atlanta”]

There were a lot of callbacks — the couch where the guys hang out, the airport credit card kiosk where Earn worked in the premiere, Darius’s Benny Hope T-shirt and the gun. Do you have fun scattering Easter eggs like that?

It’s never the main thing we prioritize, but whenever we can make it feel like the world exists even when you’re not watching it, we like to do that. I always say, especially with Darius’s Benny Hope shirt [a reference to the musician in the “Teddy Perkins” episode], I was saying how much I like the idea that none of the other characters knew what went on in that episode. Darius went through this very crazy experience and he’s just sort of keeping it to himself. I like stories where it feels like you’re only seeing a small window of a bigger world.

This season had a lot of horror elements to it, moving even further away from straight-ahead comedy. Did you always know it would get darker as the story went on?

When we talked about the season breakdown, I could sense that things were going to get harsher. Even the funny episodes this season have a type of tension and anxiety in the air. That’s all part of the “Robbin’ Season” theme for us.

The first season, we shot all during the summer and spring season. So visually it was really lush and green and had a vibrant palette. Having seen Atlanta in the fall and winter seasons, I know that it’s a little gloomier and everything they were setting up for made sense to me. It felt like the right time to tell these stories and certainly there was tension in the air, socially and politically.