Simmering Tension Between Friends Explodes on “Insecure”

Yvonne Orji as Molly and Issa Rae in 'Insecure' Season 4
An increasingly rare light moment between best friends (?) Issa and Molly.
Photo courtesy of Bustle.

By Terrance Turner

In the first of a weekly series, tonight’s entry looks at “Lowkey Movin’ On”, the fifth episode of Issa Rae’s HBO series Insecure. Here’s a summary:

Issa’s block party is finally here — the event that she’s been working on for weeks. (And now she’s working on it without Condola — who ghosted her (because she and Lawrence broke up?!?). As the date approaches, Issa’s headliner Schoolboy Q drops out. She scrambles to find another artist, going through her contacts and calling them one by one. She asks Molly (Yvonne Orji) to help with that search by talking to Molly’s new boyfriend Andrew (Alexander Hodge) for connections. (He works at Live Nation, apparently, and would presumably know artists). Molly eventually refuses, saying that she wants to have “boundaries” in her professional and personal lives. (But why didn’t she run these “boundaries” past Andrew?)

Issa leverages her connections by going through Andrew’s roommate Nathan (Kendrick Sampson) to secure the headliner. But when Molly later finds out, she feels disrespected. And when she confronts Issa (at the event!), several weeks of miscommunications and misunderstandings build into an explosive fight.

I have questions.

Condola and Issa have been working on that project for months, but suddenly Condola dropped out because she and Lawrence broke up. (And she seemed surprised when Issa said she didn’t know about the breakup.) What does the breakup with Lawrence have to do with Condola working with Issa in professional contexts? And why would you show up at the event only to check in “with vendors”, as Condola claimed? To disappear on a project for weeks and then pop up for a perfunctory hello seems…unprofessional?
Was ISSA the reason for the breakup?

What’s going on with Tiffany? She literally just had a baby daughter. She should be aglow with the joy of new motherhood. Instead sis is double-fisting martinis at a block party! And when her husband Derek went home to be with the baby (who wouldn’t stop crying), Tiffany CHOSE to stay and continue turning up. And did y’all hear her say “I only like her when she’s chill” about her own DAUGHTER? Something in the buttermilk ain’t clean.

Why is Kelli faking an accent to be with a man? Especially one who thinks that there are only two branches of government (and that one of them is Bank of America? (Who raised him?) And what accounts for that weird tension between Kelli and Issa’s brother?

Finally, I get why Molly was upset about Issa going behind her back to talk to Andrew. But Molly completely overreacted. Technically, Issa was doing what Molly asked (leaving her out of it) and was able to secure talent for her event. What is the issue? And why in the world would Molly confront her about it at the event? I would NEVER remain friends with someone who picked a fight with me at an event that I’d worked so hard to pull off. Especially if the fight (almost) turned physical.

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