Insecure so far: What Issa and the gang have been up to

Picking up about halfway through the season, let’s look back on where we left Insecure’s characters last.

We’ve officially passed the halfway point of season 2 of Issa Rae’s hit show Insecure.  Since I’m new to the Culturess team and haven’t been able to recap the season from the beginning, I thought I’d do a little “How far we’ve come” post to highlight what Issa, Molly, and Lawrence have been up to from the season premiere “Hella Great” to the current episode “Hella Blows” and what we have to look forward to for the remainder of the season.

Shall we?

Great! You brought snacks.

Episode 14 (season 2, episode 6), debut 8/27/17: Issa Rae.

photo: Justina Mintz/courtesy of HBO

Issa’s Hoe-tation throws off her rotation

• Episode one, “Hella Great” picks up few months after Issa ends things with Lawrence. Issa is trying…(unsuccessfully) to date again but initially still wants Lawrence  to at least talk to her or want to see her.

•  Issa finally gets her wish when Lawrence drops by to get his mail and a few other belongings. Lawrence kisses Issa and the two get down and dirty–for exactly 44 seconds–yes, I timed it.
• After learning about Tasha (Teller Bae), and receiving confirmation from Molly that Lawrence isn’t interested in getting back together,  Issa decides to begin casually dating guys.
• Issa forms a “hoe-tation” featuring
  •  Eddie a.ka, “Neighbor Bae”
  • Nico–an older gentleman who seems genuinely interested in Issa
  • And Daniel. Yes, that Daniel.
• Issa puts the brakes on by letting Daniel know that she’s seeing other people.
• Daniel goes along with it until Issa surprises him with a blow job in episode six, and gets angry after Daniel’s *ahem* excitement, hits her eye.

We Got Ya’ll…But Issa ain’t got Freida

• Issa and her work bestie Freida struggle to get students at a new high school to participate in “We Got Y’all”
• Issa and Freida involve the vice principal in their efforts to increase attendance but Freida is taken aback by the principal’s prejudice against the school’s latino population and wants  to take action. Issa, not wanting to rock the boat and interfere with the program’s sudden success, refuses, much to Freida’s frustration.

My thoughts: I appreciate Issa trying to see what’s out there and pursue her singleness in constructive, honest ways that don’t hurt people. I actually like the chemistry that she has with Daniel and wouldn’t object to seeing them together some day, but not now. Issa’s going through a breakup and needs to focus on herself for a bit before jumping into anything. I think her initially missing Lawrence is normal but it’s nice to see her not dwelling on her relationship with him and instead perusing the other fish in the sea.

With regards to Issa’s work storyline, I’m actually super interested to see how this pans out because of how Issa’s attitude toward her job has changed over two seasons. We saw her go from being indifferent, to actually being motivated to do well at work, to starting to give up again, to wanting to succeed at all costs.

The vice principal’s comments are indefensible and Issa is wrong for just letting them slide, but I’m also not sure Freida should be the one to call her on it. Issa’s non-Black co-workers are constantly doing and saying problematic things in Issa’s presence in the office and Freida never steps up to her defense. Now that the perpetrator of discriminatory behavior is Black, she feels empowered/compelled to speak up? I’m interested to see how Issa ultimately responds to Freida and how it affects her career.

I also want to address the controversy surrounding the ending scene of “Hella Blows.” Yes, that one. While my initial reaction was in line with what seems to be the majority of viewers who think Issa completely overreacted, on second-and third–watch, I’m not so sure. It was very clear that, at least until the very end, Daniel was holding Issa’s head down, which gives the impression that what happened was on purpose. His bewildered, “I thought you were into it,” further gives the impression that this wasn’t just an issue of poor aim. An accident is one thing, but purposely engaging someone in a sexual act without first ensuring their consent or comfort is beyond trash and if that’s what actually happened, I’m all for Daniel being cancelled.

Episode 14 (season 2, episode 6), debut 8/27/17: Issa Rae, Yvonne Orji .

photo: Justina Mintz/courtesy of HBO

Molly deals with her issues…and then gets some new ones

• Molly is in therapy (yay self care!) and trying to unpack her issues.
• She also begins to take her dating life more seriously and look for a guy she can settle down with.

Molly wants her things

• After mistakenly learning that one of the less professional, white, male (seeing a pattern?) lawyers at  her firm earns more than she does, Molly also sets out to climb the ranks at her job by cozying up to her firm’s Chicago wing to get higher level assignments.

Molly keeps an open mind

• Molly meets wonderful bae contestant, Lionel (played by This is Us‘ Sterling K. Brown), but isn’t quite feeling him.
• Her feelings are further complicated when she runs into her childhood friend Alejandro “Dro” and his wife Candice. Dro later drops the bomb that he’s in an open marriage.
• Molly initially rejects his advances, but gives in after learning that her father cheated on her mother early in their marriage.
• “Hella Blows” shows Molly learning the pitfalls of sharing a man when Dro has to leave their romantic rendezvous to let Candice in their house.

My thoughts: I love the growth the writers are showing with Molly this season. I also appreciate how Molly demonstrates that growth and personal development aren’t necessarily linear and continuous. As fine as Dro is, I think we can all agree that Molly dropping out of therapy and  deciding to participate in an open relationship knowing full well that ultimately isn’t what she wants is a backslide.

There’s also something off about Dro’s confession to Molly. Based on their conversations, my guess is that Molly is “the one that got away” for Dro and he’s trying to have his cake and eat it, too. I don’t buy for a second that it’s as simple as him and his wife being free to pursue other people. His relationship is either not open at all, or it will suddenly not be as open once Candice catches wind of Dro and Molly’s involvement. We’re already seeing that when it boils down to it, Dro will always prioritize Candice over Molly and, knowing Molly, that won’t fly for long.

Lawrence Walker takes more “Ls” than “Ws”

• Lawrence starts out the season homeless and crashing on his friend Chad’s couch while still carrying on with Tasha on weekends.
• Lawrence muddies the waters and ultimately loses Tasha by taking her on a date, confessing to his tryst with Issa, and attending Tasha’s family barbecue only to ghost her for drinks with his work friends.
• There’s also a failed threesome (that I won’t talk about here because I refuse to re-gross myself out).
• Lawrence starts to have second thoughts about his new player lifestyle–even driving by Issa’s apartment in a moment of weakness and Facebook stalking Daniel after seeing a recent photo of he and Issa together.
• In “Hella Blows” we see Lawrence focusing on work more.
• Sparks also seem to fly between Lawrence and one of his coworkers, which we’ll maybe see more of in later episodes.

My Thoughts:  If you’re hoping for a really optimistic blurb about Lawrence from a member of the #LawrenceHive, this isn’t the place to look. Lawrence is currently my least favorite character on the show because he’s trash  because of his lack of self awareness.

Tasha’s assessment of Lawrence in episode 3 was spot on. He truly is a F#$& N&*#$ who thinks he’s a good dude. I’ll take it a step further by saying that Lawrence is a F#$& N&*#$ that thinks he’s a good dude, who has been wronged. So all of Lawrence’s crappy behavior this season has been him acting on his feelings of being hurt by Issa while accepting no blame for his part in the demise of their relationship, which, if you’ve been paying attention,  happened long before Issa went in that studio with Daniel. The lack of ownership Lawrence shows for his part in the breakup is frustrating, to say the least. It’s also irritating to see Lawrence trying to be a player. He’s not good at it and because of that he always ends up trying to “do the right thing” at the last minute to save face. But his inability to take responsibility for himself makes his attempts at being a good guy seem insincere.

I do appreciate that, like Issa, Lawrence is surrounded by people who care enough about him to tell him the truth. I definitely slow-clapped for Derek when he finally told Lawrence what I and a bunch of other people were thinking. It goes without saying that Issa was wrong to cheat, but when you take into account how much work she’d continued to put into her relationship after Lawrence checked out, it’s easier to see why she strayed.

Next: Let’s speculate about the new Outlander S3 photos

Also hats off to Lawrence’s coworkers for finally telling him that his app–you know the one that he was “working on” while sitting on the couch for two years–sucked.