Insecure season finale review: The ghosts of Issa and Molly’s pasts

What do the Insecure season finale and Halloween have in common? Cemeteries, candy, and ghosts–lots and lots of ghosts. At least Issa’s ghosts are friendly.

The season finale of Insecure opens with Issa visiting local Inglewood businesses trying to find vendors, restaurants, and musical acts to partner with for her block party. Unfortunately, the people she asks are less than enthusiastic about participating. Discouraged, Issa gives up on her dream and starts sending out résumés to get a new job. We also learn that she blocked Nathan on social media.

Issa interviews with the Beat Crew, the company she saw at the job fair back in episode 3. The hiring manager seems impressed with her and agrees to get back to her as soon as possible.

Issa’s 30th birthday is coming up and she wishes for nothing more than a drama-free celebration. Molly tries to make her wish come true. When Molly arrives to pick Issa up for her birthday outing, she sees Nathan walking up to Issa’s door with flowers. Molly angrily sends him away and doesn’t tell Issa he came by. Molly takes Issa to her birthday surprise — an outdoor screening of The Last Dragon at a cemetery (hey, problematic faves).

Lawrence is also at the screening and runs into Issa. During the movie, he brings Issa her favorite candy and the two talk about Issa’s business. Issa says that she’s just trying to make the right choices from here on out.

After the screening, Issa approaches the organizer, Condola (the friend she met at Tiffany’s baby shower), to ask how she was able to put on such a dope event. Condola shares that she encountered many of the same hurdles Issa did, giving Issa new inspiration to pursue her block party idea.

During a sleepover with Molly later that night, she tells Molly she’s giving her block party another chance, though Molly is less than enthusiastic. Molly also lets her know that she shooed Nathan away. Though she appreciates Molly’s intentions, Issa is angry and chastises Molly for always assuming the worst in people.

Issa meets up  for coffee with Condola the next day and the two decide to partner on Issa’s Inglewood event. Issa leaves the meeting reenergized and excited, only to arrive home to find flowers from Nathan. She invites him over to talk.

Nathan explains that he ghosted her because he went back to Houston. He then reveals that he sometimes gets depressed and can’t talk to anyone — but apologizes profusely to Issa and says he’s back permanently. Issa is understanding but frustrated because Nathan pursued her and then disappeared like it was nothing. She decides she needs space. The episode ends with Issa finally moving into her apartment and decorating.

Issa’s storyline had probably the most satisfying conclusion this season. After completely losing her mind over Nathan in “Obsessed-Like,” we see an Issa that is newly focused on her goals and wants to make better choices for herself. The best scene in the show was the end scene, which showed Issa doing things on her own terms and not needing a man to boost her up anymore. Issa’s exchanges with both Lawrence and Nathan were two sides of the same coin. With Lawrence, we see that Issa’s forgiven herself and can be friends with Lawrence without getting her hopes up, or continuing to feel guilty about cheating with Daniel. With Nathan, Issa is still hurt by his ghosting, but also realizes that it doesn’t have anything to do with her and is able to walk away from him, without looking back.

Insecure has always painted a realistic picture of the way people behave in dating situations, and Nathan was no different. Despite the off-the-wall assumptions people had about why Nathan disappeared (he’s married, he’s in jail, he and Andrew are secretly together, etc.), Nathan showed that he was really just like most guys, unable to process or communicate his own feelings. Issa was caught in the crossfire of his tangled emotions and ended up getting hurt. While his return and apology were more closure than most ghosting victims usually get, they showed that on Insecure, just like in life, there isn’t always a big plot twist. Sometimes people just mess up.

It was also great to see Issa branching out to get help making her event a success. Condola seems like she’ll be a really great partner, for now. But we know things will get much more complicated once Issa learns that Condola is dating her ex. Guess we’ll have to wait for season 4 to see how that pans out.

Molly’s lonely at the top

Molly’s still in the dog house with Taurean after bogarting their presentation. Issa suggests that she break bread with Taurean to show that there are no hard feelings.

Molly meets with Taurean and the partners at her job where they ask the two to co-lead their newest case. Molly is thrilled that her hard work is paying off, but Taurean is less than enthusiastic about working with her.

At the screening, Molly runs into Jared. Initially, the two happily catch up, but when Molly sees Jared with another guy, her biphobia rears its ugly head, and she runs back to tell her friends he’s gay. Unfortunately, Molly is proven loud and wrong when Jared reveals that the guy is his brother and he has a girlfriend, who happens to be another chocolate sister just like Molly.

After her fight with Issa, Molly returns to work ready to collaborate with Taurean. She learns that Taurean gave her complete control of the firm’s new case while he works with Molly’s other two former female allies. Molly’s left with no co-lead working on a huge firm case — a bittersweet success as she realizes she’s completely alone at work.

At the end of her story arc, Molly calls Andrew to apologize for her selfishness and negativity. Though initially chilly to Molly, Andrew becomes more receptive after Molly shows remorse for her recent behavior.

Molly’s character has been difficult to watch this season, due in no small part to the things Issa lists when she reads Molly after the movie screening. Molly’s love life went up in smoke in episode 1 after she ditched Dro and she’s been trying to move on and pick up the pieces. But you know what they say: “hurting people hurt people.” Molly did just that with Andrew.

Though I still think Andrew’s comment about Molly being messed up was out of line, I also think she was right to apologize for her selfishness. It also wouldn’t hurt Molly to apologize to Issa for projecting her negativity about her personal and professional life onto her. Molly’s lack of enthusiasm for Issa’s business idea and her desire to keep Nathan away from Issa’s birthday had almost nothing to do with Issa and everything to do with Molly’s feelings about her own situation where working with people has proven futile, and all men (at least according to her) are trash.

What’s unfortunate about Molly’s situation at work is that she actually seemed to finally be getting the fact that she needs to work with Taurean instead of elbowing him out of the way. But, as is often the case in real life, Molly’s revelation came too late. Hopefully next season will show her trying a bit harder to fit in with her coworkers. Molly’s progress has been slow and incremental, and she truly needs to work on herself a lot more in the coming seasons.

Lawrence chases his happily ever after

Lawrence meets his dad for lunch (and to fulfill every millennial child’s duty of showing their parents how to use their cell phones). Lawrence’s dad asks about his love life and Lawrence shares that he’s struggling with dating because he wants a woman with no baggage. The elder Walker advises Lawrence that he has to do the work to make the happy ending he wants.

After running into Issa at the screening, we learn that Lawrence has been seeing Condola, and the two seem to be hitting it off.

Although one of the big “ooooooh” moments (next to Nathan’s return) of the finale was Lawrence dating Condola, Lawrence’s key scene in this episode was actually his lunch with his father. This is for two reasons. First, we finally learn a bit more about Lawrence’s family. Second, we get to see how his passivity impacts his relationships. Much of Lawrence’s character development on the show has focused on his (in)ability to get up and actively do things for himself, from starting his business to getting a job. We also saw it affect his relationship with Issa when he forgot her birthday in the series premiere.

Lawrence, like Issa, gets comfortable with things and expects them to just continue working without any additional effort. It’s safe to assume that had Issa not cheated, their relationship would have remained on the same plateau forever until one of them decided to do something about it. Lawrence wants things to just happen for him, and his father (played by the wonderful Harry Lennix) was a necessary wake-up call that nothing ever falls into place by itself. Condola provides a fresh start for Lawrence to be the best partner he can be. Hopefully, he takes his dad’s advice.

Other thoughts:

• Though I thought Kelli’s comment about her abortion was abrupt and in slightly poor taste, I’m glad the stigma around the topic is being removed and we can hear Black women talk about it on network TV.
• Speaking of Kelli, even she made progress over the last few episodes. She’s the godmother of Tiffany’s baby, and she’s learned how to avoid fights over space at outdoor events.
• Even though people seemed anxious for Tiffany to have her baby, if you look at the timeline of the show, she’s probably only about 75 percent through her pregnancy.
• Outdoor Black film nights need to be a thing, who can I see about this in Chicago?

What did you think of the Insecure season finale?