We’re just one episode away from the second season finale of HBO’s hit comedy series Insecure, and it promises to be full of drama. On Sunday night’s episode, Issa (Issa Rae), Molly (Yvonne Orji) and Lawrence (Jay Ellis) each faced the reality of their situations and what they saw wasn’t too pretty.
After wrecking her car, Issa is forced to take the bus and spots a student from the school she works at. When she strikes up a conversation with the kid, she learns that Vice Principal Gaines has been actively discouraging the Latinx kids from attending tutoring because he told them the program was full. Issa develops a plan to get more Latinx kids involved and decides to confront VP Gaines, but he accuses her of being down with #AllLivesMatter and just laughs off the accusation that he’s purposely keeping some of his students out of the program.
While Issa and Frieda (Lisa Joyce) make amends after Issa admits she mishandled the VP Gaines situation, her relationship with Daniel (Y’lan Noelle) appears to be a wrap. On the previous episode, Issa freaked out after their romantic encounter went way left, and she left in a tizzy before Daniel had a chance to explain. When they finally talk, things seem to be turning around —Issa explains her embarrassment, Daniel apologizes and they almost end with a joke— until Daniel quips that they’re now even because Issa’s feelings of disrespect mirrored his own feelings when she cast him aside in favor of Lawrence. Once again Issa overreacts. She accuses Daniel of being vindicive and tells him to never call her again. Issa’s entire hoe-tation is in shambles, and her season of getting down with no strings attached has been a complete bust. Thankfully things at work seem to be looking up, which is more than we can say for Molly.
Sunday night, Molly finally got up the nerve to ask her bosses for a raise, but despite putting together a presentation that touted all of her professional assets and contributions to the firm, they brushed her aside, telling her she’ll have to negotiate for more money during her annual review. Molly is a go getter, and waiting her turn and hoping it will all work out isn’t typically her speed. Though she’s taking the initiative to assert her worth at work her rational brain seems to short out when she’s dealing with Dro.
Despite knowing that she isn’t cut out to play second fiddle to anyone, Molly continues to sleep with Dro (Sarunas J. Jackson)—even though she knows his wife comes first, no matter what. Things come to a climax —pun inteneded— at a dinner thrown by Tiffany (Amanda Seales) for her husband, Derek (Wade Allain-Marcus) where Dro, his wife Candace (Gabrielle Dennis), Issa, Kelly (Natasha Rothwell) and Lawrence are in attendance.
Things get very awkward with Molly jealously eyeing Dro and his wife all night. When Molly and Dro finally get a moment to talk, the pair end up having sex in the bathroom while his wife —and the rest of their friends— are enjoying dinner.
After they get busy, Dro treats their tryst like an affair. He slips out of the restroom and instructs her to wait before doing the same. The moment alone allows a chance to Molly to get real: This isn’t for her. Later, she calls her mom and asks why she decided to stay with her father after he cheated and Molly’s mother served up a truth bomb that might just save her daughter some serious heartbreak too: “He made me feel special more than he hurt me.” While Dro does make Molly feel special, knowing she will never be the number one woman in his life definitely hurts. But it remains to be seen if it’s so much pain that Molly puts an end to her situation with Dro before she gets in any deeper.
Derek’s party also reunites Issa and Lawrence for the first time since their breakup sex. Unfortunately for Issa, Lawrence shows up to the party with his coworker, Aparna (Jasmine Kaur). The pair are apparently dating and Issa is not too pleased to see another woman with her ex. When she heads out of the party early, Lawrence catches up to her to chat, but the pair end up in a verbal smackdown with each one hurling the most hurtful words they could possibly think up to one another.
Issa disses Lawrence’s defunct app, WootWoot, while Lawrence accuses Issa of cheating on him with multiple men. Instead of a calm, grown-up reunion, the pair spiral into yelling, screaming and lobbing insults at each other like two kids having a tantrum. After that scene it’s hard to see how Issa and Lawrence could ever fix their relationship —not that it should be mended at all.
After almost an entire season of Insecure, Issa, Molly and Lawrence are just as jacked up as they were when the series started, but that’s real life. Sometimes it takes people a while to get it together, and sometimes they never do. Either way, this season of Insecure has held a huge mirror up for a lot of people, and hopefully they’ve been getting a healthy dose of reality right along with the show’s main characters.