Insecure season 3 episode 1 review: Better-Like

In the season premiere of Insecure, Molly and Issa step up their “know better, do better” game, but are they really doing better than last season?

Issa figures out life AL (After Lawrence)

The season 3 premiere of “Insecure” picks up two weeks after the events of the second season finale. Issa is crashing on Daniel’s couch and getting an earful of his passionate trysts with his new girlfriend Vanessa. Issa also deals with being demoted at We Got Y’all and is driving Lyft part-time to save money to move out of Daniel’s house. Issa’s Lyft driving seems to go well until two passengers get into a fist fight in the back of her car.

Though she’s grateful for having a place to stay, Issa finds herself unable to cope with Daniel’s new relationship. She confronts him about having sex with other women right under her nose given their history. Daniel doesn’t take Issa’s honesty well and resorts to passive-aggressively ignoring Issa and calling her “roommate” as the episode closes.

You were kidding yourself if you expected Issa living with Daniel after the way they ended things in season 2 to be anything other than completely awkward. Issa and Daniel are both being dishonest about the true motives behind their cohabitation. Hopefully, the two of them can come to some mutual understanding and be straightforward with each other before the cold war between them spirals out of control.

Daniel’s petty side, which we got (no pun intended) an eyeful of last season, is coming out full force in the season 3 premiere. Daniel knows Issa still has feelings for him and is going out of his way to make her uncomfortable during an already low point in her life. To be perfectly honest, at this point, I don’t know what Issa sees in Daniel. He’s not mature enough to be upfront about his feelings for Issa or acknowledge that he was hurt by the way she treated him after the BJ incident. I get the feeling that he doesn’t really care about Vanessa, and he’s only using her to get back at Issa, which is, of course, all types of messed up. For all the ways Lawrence behaved like an utter ass during season 2, at least he was capable of acknowledging when he was being a, to quote Tasha, F— N—a, even if it sometimes took a while. It is a sad day when Daniel is being such a jerk he’s actually making me defend Lawrence.

When it comes to Issa’s work situation, it’s interesting to see the fallout from her previous mistake at We Got Y’all. While I still believe that Issa should suffer consequences for her negligence regarding VP Gaines, I’m extremely bothered by Freida. Freida was just as involved in the events that led to Issa’s demotion but she’s come out ahead and now isn’t even willing to go to bat for Issa to get her back on the field. She’s also perfectly okay with upholding We Got Y’all’s racially insensitive marketing and outreach. At this point, Freida has left “well-intentioned white girl” territory and is quickly making her way into the “passive suburban racist” zone.

The scene where Joanne basically gaslights Issa after she tried to take initiative by speaking with the organization’s former clients also made my blood boil. It’s becoming clear that Issa’s complacency is leading her to stay with an organization that has some problematic (read: racist) practices both internally and externally. A big question for me this season will be whether Issa stays where she is, leaves We Got Y’all altogether or decides to try and change the organization.

Molly negotiates in the office and in the bedroom

Molly is negotiating the terms of her contract at her new law firm and still seeing Dro (so much for doing better). Though she and Dro are still sleeping together, Molly begins setting boundaries for their relationship. This includes no phone calls and asking Dro to return her house keys. Dro is upset at Molly’s new attitude and angrily leaves her apartment after an argument about him and his wife Candice.

Molly doing well professionally is unsurprising and it’s great to see that she didn’t let her old law firm get away with patronizing her.

What did come as a shock was how quickly Molly was able to switch things up on Dro after it seemed like she was catching feelings last season. While the best decision for Molly would be to simply stop seeing Dro, her insistence that they choose between being friends or acquaintances with benefits at least sets a tone for a relationship with far fewer gray areas.

It’s been nice to see Molly not be so rigid about the way she dates and the men she dates, but I don’t buy that she’s really okay with casual flings. I still think this is a reaction to finding out her parents’ marriage wasn’t as perfect as she thought it was. Once Molly fully comes to terms with that realization, she’ll be more capable of having a healthy relationship that actually meets her needs.

I was surprised to find out that Dro wasn’t lying about his relationship with Candice being open, but I’m still side-eyeing him, hard. Dro seems more interested in Molly when she has feelings for him than when she’s actively trying to protect herself by setting boundaries. It’s also trash that he would suddenly get defensive about his relationship with Candice when he’s the one who brought the topic of open marriage up with Molly in the first place. I’m positive this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Dro, and I’m wondering if his true colors will show this season for better or for worse.

Other thoughts:

• Maybe I’m still harboring some season 2 anger, but so far, I don’t really miss Lawrence. His story arcs were more cringe-y than interesting and I felt like we got sufficient closure with his character.
• Daniel’s beats are trash.
• I’m sad Molly didn’t want to be long distance with Pastor’s Body (aka Quentin aka Lil Rel), but I will still ship them.
• Instead of Due North (which I still want to be an actual show), Insecure introduced a new show-within-the-show this season called Kev’yn, which so far seems to be an homage to Martin with a smattering of Living Single (complete with a cameo by Living Single alum Erika Alexander) — hopefully it’s as funny as the two shows it emulates.
• I kind of want to know what happened to Molly’s vase.