Just like its first season finale, the season two premiere of Insecure ended with a bang.
After trying to persuade her ex to come home, and hopefully talk through their problems, Issa (Issa Rae) and Lawrence (Jay Ellis) ended up reuniting for a spontaneous, and furious, romp on the living room couch. The whole thing only lasted about 12 strokes, but when it was over, Lawrence bounced after kissing Issa on the cheek and without explanation. And Issa was, once again, left to wonder what the hell was going on.
The scene also set social media on fire, with folks debating whether or not the “smash and dash” was appropriate.
Predictably, the second episode, titled “Hella Questions,” leaves us with very few answers about what will happen next. It opens with Issa confessing to Molly (Yvonne Orji) that she and Lawrence slept together, but they didn’t get the opportunity to talk about it (you know, because smash and dash). Though Molly can clearly see through the B.S. quicky sex between Issa and Lawrence, she continues to be there for her friend, asking her the all important question, like: “How you feeling?”
Issa’s feelings are understandably hurt, but she still wants her man back and hopeful things can still work out, especially after they got busy in the living room. That is until she meets up with her girls at a gallery opening and Kelli (Natasha Rothwell) lets it slip that Lawrence is seeing someone else. Issa’s caught off guard by the news and plays it sorta cool in front of her friends who pull up Tasha’s (Dominique Perry) Instagram page and begin to point out the cute bank teller’s (mostly imagined) flaws.
As Issa reels from the news, firing off a fiery freestyle in the gallery’s bathroom, complete with the warning, “I do whatever to win. F–k going high, I’m going low,” Lawrence —the sexiest hobosexual on HBO— tries his best to do the right thing. While watching TV with Tasha he confesses that he slept with Issa and it quickly becomes clear —probably for the first time to Lawrence— that Tasha sees him as more than a sex buddy. They may have just been having fun, but after learning that Lawrence has slept with another woman, Tasha asks him to leave and he obliges, seeing her in a new light.
Insecure has become a fan favorite because the show is unapologetically BLACK and extremely relatable, especially to millennials who feel like something is missing from their lives. Fans relate to Issa and her friends because they’ve been in (or are in) many of the same messy situations and are trying their damnedest to sort it all out.
And this episode is certainly no different.
While Issa and Lawrence continue to wade through their feelings, Molly is on a mission to break into the boys’ club at her law firm. After finding out one of her male coworkers is earning more money than she is, Molly complains to her therapist that she should be getting paid what she’s worth. Her therapist challenges her to stop talking about how her life should be and start creating it, and Molly accepts the challenge. She decides to attend a Los Angeles Kings hockey game and spends time chatting up her boss. The next day, she continues the friendly banter only to realize he’s disregarded their what-should-have-been inside joke about lobster rolls. The sting was painful. Like many women in the workplace, looking to be recognized for their talents, Molly realizes that she’ll never be in this boys’ club.
Through it all Molly remains Issa’s biggest critic and her fiercest, and most loyal, homegirl. During a not-so-spontaneous run-in with Lawrence, Molly defends her friend, telling him, “Issa cheated, but she’s not a cheater. You know she still loves you.” As Lawrence contemplates her words, Molly asks him the question Issa (and all of us) wants to know most: Would he ever give Issa another chance?
Finally Issa gets the answer to the question that’s been swirling around in her head since she confessed her infidelity: No. He can’t get past it.
According to Molly, Lawrence doesn’t hate Issa but he also doesn’t think they can fix their relationship. Lawrence, for now, is done. The news is a gut punch to Issa, who has driven to Tasha’s job to get a closer look at her rival. Though it hurts, the news is what Issa needs to finally start moving on for real.
Lawrence —who’s become sort of a hero to dudes everywhere for his anti-Issa stance— is also in transit. After finding an apartment, he decides to take it, putting an official end to his homelessness and his past living arrangement with Issa. Though it remains to be seen if he’s really done with Issa after they were together for five years, his time in limbo (and on his friend’s air mattress), is finally coming to an end.
The episode closes with each person making moves. Issa cracks open Tinder and suggests a booty call; Lawrence apologizes to Tasha, who invites him inside for dinner; and Molly offers to divide her time between Chicago and L.A. —taking extra cases from a former woman colleague— in an effort to advance in her career.
This episode is a reminder that life is about change. Sometimes we are the ones leading the charge, and sometimes life forces us to change, even when we don’t want to.