Insecure – Hella Disrespectful

This episode follows everyone around for a few days leading up to Derek’s birthday dinner where all of the shit ultimately hits the fan and sets the characters toward new beginnings and personal growth, that is if they don’t end up regressing in the season finale.

Let’s get Lawrence’s deal pre-party out of the way. He shows up to work being all vague about what he & Aparna did/are now – we saw them make sex eyes at each other last week, if you’ll recall. He says they just chilled and hung out and she looks hurt by it, like she expected more…girl you’ve been on one date, chill. She still agrees to have drinks with him later though. Upon realizing that he has to go to the birthday party, he tries to push back the “drinks thing” but homegirl just invites herself instead & Lawrence doesn’t think to be like no I don’t think I should bring a girl I just started seeing to a dinner where my ex and all her friends will be…he just goes “sure.” #men

 

Speaking of men being daft, Daniel calls Issa to apologize for the surprise facial. She tells him it was embarrassing and degrading and he seems to truly regret making her feel like shit. While he’s apologizing, he has to open his dumb beautiful mouth and say that at least now she knows how he feels. Issa snaps and thinks he came in her eye ON PURPOSE to get even. I didn’t know #RevengeFacials were a thing but if that’s what Daniel was doing he was being messy AF and I need him to not. It still seems like he just had an accident though, and now it’s being overblown (hehehe). The fact that he does all this RIGHT BEFORE the birthday dinner doesn’t help Issa’s mood and reactions to the whole Aparna thing.

At least things are finally going well for Issa at work though. She sees a Latinx student on the bus and invites him to We Got Y’all’s PST tutoring. The kid informs Issa that the principal told him the program was full. She finally starts to see the Frieda was right in calling out Gaines’ anti-latinx-ness and that they shouldn’t have given him a free pass. More often that not white people are wrong in these situations, so we can’t totally blame her (teehee). She apologizes to her work wife and comes up with a plan to get more Latinx kids involved with the program. While they’re handing out flyers at the school, she even confronts the Vice Principal about his racism but he laughs in her face and walks away, leaving Issa & Frieda to exchange side-eyes.

The rest of the episode is less of a win for her. She starts out telling Molly about the facial but they sort of get into an argument when Molly shares that she’s still seeing Dro. Issa’s just trying to look out for her friends heart but Molly wants to do her and she’s grown so we let her.

 

Molly isn’t doing so hot either. She had a meeting with her bosses but they refused to budge on her salary or her position. She sits in that meeting and holds her own, listing all of her qualifications and everything she does for the firm just for them to be like thank you but you should be happy where you are. Not a single POC was in that room, just some white men acting on their biases and not recognizing Molly’s true potential. She leaves frustrated and still making less that White Josh from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. This is a clip they should show all men who say “if the women were more assertive they’d get the raise” and “they just have to ask” and my personal favourite “we don’t have privilege, it’s all based on merit, maybe men are just better.” barf barf barf times 600. M is also annoyed at her situation with Dro, because she’s really falling for him but Candice is still his wife so it’s not like this can actually go anywhere at all. She gets salty when she learns that Candice will be at the party but like bush duh.

Honestly the only person winning at this party is Kelli. I want her to be my life coach! Tiffany is being annoying and trying too hard to fit some perfect bougie mould while Derek seems to give absolutely zero fucks about any of it. You already know Lawrence brings Aparna and makes everything awkward, but what we haven’t talked about yet is the fight he has with Issa. She heads out after the birthday toast and he follows her. She confronts him about bringing a date and about how he blocked her on Facebook. He yells at her about Daniel and frames himself as a much better dude (smh). She hits back by attacking WootWoot (RIP) and he calls her a whore. Aparna, queen of timing, walks out and they storm off together.

Molly is frustrated that she can’t hang out with Dro and is being hella awkward around Candice. Guys didn’t it seem like Candice has no fucking clue about any of this? I’m starting to think Dro might have made this whole open relationship thing up, or it’s real but it wasn’t her idea, OR it was but she didn’t mean GO HAVE AN EMOTIONAL AFFAIR WITH YOUR BFF FROM CHILDHOOD. Anyway Molly follows Dro into the bathroom for some quality time and to be like waaaaaaah pay attention to me so they end up fucking in the bathrooms of this fancy ass place. He leaves right after and asks her to wait a few minutes before coming back & her face drops instantly.

Issa’s waiting for her when she comes out of the bathroom, helping her adjust her dress and her hair. They have such a special bonding moment that’s so real to all friendships, where you’re there for each other when you’re needed, even if you’re fighting. The importance of portraying a friendship like this between two black women is huge – typical representations tend to veer into racist and antagonistic displays but Insecure so far has shown it in such a real and beautiful way.

This all ends when Issa goes home, annoyed at Lawrence and her overall situation, finds a rent increase notice taped to her door and LOSES IT. She starts throwing book shelves and flipping tables and breaking bottles…I do not want to be her in the morning when she has to clean up.

The season finale of Insecure airs tonight on HBO. It is a super sized 45 minute episode, but you have to wait until 11pm to see it.