Insecure Finale Recap: Ghost Like
And so we come to an end of yet another too short but fabulous season of Insecure. The season finale ended with an episode entitled Ghost-Like where Issa and her crew encounter romantic partners of ye old day and we finally got an answer as to where Fuck Boy Nathan has been. Where last week’s episode was triggering on so many levels for anyone who’s ever experienced ghosting; the ghosts present in this episode helped lay some story lines to rest while opening up opportunities for what we might find in season 4.
The episode opens with Issa going around her neighborhood to find local businesses to partner with for her block party, but she gets rejected from all of them. Later she tells Molly that she’s giving up on the block party idea because she keeps on getting rejected; plus the only person who had faith in her pulling it off had ghosted her. After we witnessed Issa spiraling out of control in the last episode, it was hopeful to see her take that shower, literally washing her past and all her stress down the drain, and get back on her feet throwing herself back into this passion project. It was disappointing to see her give up so easily on her block party; granted she wasn’t prepared at all for the task. Lawrence Hive has been harping all season about the double standard of Lawrence being down-and-out in the first season compared to Issa this season; I was team Issa on this, but now I’m not so sure.
Later we see Lawrence meet up with his father and his father gave him some sage advice on dating. Lawrence shared with his father that all the women he’s been seeing come with some form of baggage and why couldn’t he just meet someone and get married as easily as his parents. He’s father replies that both he and his wife came into the relationship with baggage but they worked on their relationship to help sort everything out. He gave his, “yougins don’t want to work for nothing these days especially a relationship,” speech. Where’s the lie though? I find that my generation likes to play the waiting game: waiting to get their stuff together before we could commit, waiting for the perfect spouse, waiting to have the perfect set up to stunt on Instagram without considering the type of work it takes to get that set up.
At work Molly wants to smooth things over with Taurean but then gets pulled into a meeting with the partners and Taurean. The partners want Molly and Taurean to take the lead on a high stakes case. This is a win for Molly who’s only wanted to prove her worth at the firm, no matter who she stepped on to do so. We see that Taurean is still salty as hell about Molly doing the presentation without him. Unpopular opinion, I’m not mad at what Molly did to Taurean because he was definitely flexing that male privilege and treated Molly like she was his assistant. I will say though, what Molly did with the other female lawyers was not cool. It would have been smarter for her to align with them and not Taurean. I also think this backstabbing ploy might have worked at the white firm she used to work at, but at a black firm, I could imagine collaboration might go a little further.
It’s Issa’s 30th birthday and Molly planned a surprise gathering for her. She pulls up to Issa’s home only to see Fuck Boy Nathan approaching with flowers. Molly pulls a, “not today Satan,” and sends Nathan packing. Molly’s a real one, but we have questions!! Where the fuck you been Nathan?! And you need to come with more than some flowers! More on this later though.
Molly takes Issa to an outdoor movie in a cemetery and they meet Kelli there (s/n: I need every piece that Issa was wearing on her bday!). Fittingly, at the cemetery is where we encounter ghosts of past love interests. Lawrence runs into Issa in line for the movie and they have a cute nerdy exchange. They’ve been building up a will they/won’t they vibe with Issa and Lawrence for the past two episodes and the chemistry at this point is palpable. Lawrence meets his boys inside the cemetery including Chad who shares that he managed to get his fiancé back (I swear fuck boys have it so easy). This has Lawrence wondering, “Can he have that old thing back?”
Meanwhile Molly runs into Jered, aka Bisexual Bae; remember him ya’ll?! Molly and Jered are having a pleasant catch up when a man approaches Jered who Molly thinks is Jered’s boyfriend. This had Molly thinking she dodged a bullet but turns out homeboy was Jered’s brother and Jered has a cute new girlfriend. Also Jered has a thing for dark skin girls, you go Jered! But this leaves Molly out here looking like a fool, ain’t nothing new.
Lawrence finds Issa during the movie and they chat. Issa shares that she’s given up on the plans for the block party and Lawrence looked disappointed. There was something about Issa taking a chance on life, her dreams, and pursuing something on her own that attracted him back to her. Same way Daniel making moves with his music attracted Issa to him and turned her off to Lawrence sitting on the couch. Score one for Lawrence Hive.
Later we find out that the movie night was hosted by Condola, the same girl who was chatting up Lawrence at Tiffany’s baby shower; I knew we were going to see her again. Condola and Issa link up and Condola shares resources with Issa on how she can get her block party up and running. After their meeting Condola meets Lawrence for a date; season 4 is about to be messy ya’ll!
After the birthday party, Molly and Issa have a sleepover when Molly shares that she stopped Nathan from ruining Issa’s birthday. Issa doesn’t appreciate this and would have liked the opportunity to handle the situation on her own. Issa points out to Molly that she’s been burned, badly, but that doesn’t mean she can project her bitterness on everyone else. This had me wondering if Molly was still in therapy. Her therapist looks expensive as hell, yet it’s Issa that always comes through with the bomb advice for Molly. At work Molly witnesses firsthand the consequences for her actions when Taurean tells her that she’s on her own for the case they were assigned and he goes off to partner with the two women that Molly burned. Later, Molly calls Asian bae (with his hair down...oh Lordt!) to apologize. There might be hope for her yet.
Issa meets up with Nathan later allowing him to explain himself; she doesn’t even let him go inside, smart move Issa. Nathan explains that he went back home to take care of some personal things and that sometimes he shuts down and doesn’t like to share or let people in. That is not an excuse! Fella’s take care of your selves! Women can’t be the only ones practicing self-care, going to therapy, and making ourselves emotionally available to barren wastelands called men. Issa points out that she didn’t ask for this, Nathan made it seem like he was all in. Both men and women need to be careful about handling someone’s heart. Don’t go looking for a connection if you can’t handle it. Same way your parents wouldn’t get you a puppy knowing you weren’t responsible enough to take care of it, don’t go looking for a relationship if you can’t handle the responsibility.
In the end we see Issa unpacking her apartment and symbolically getting her life in order. For a season that was centered around “knowing better, doing better,” it was fitting to have the final episode be titled Ghost-Like. Ghosts, unless appropriately addressed, will continue to haunt us; but if we face them head on and learn from them, then we’ll grow and progress. I feel in some way all of our central characters learned from their ghosts in this episode. Although ghosts have been laid to rest, doesn’t mean life doesn’t have plenty of drama in store and I’m sure there will be plenty of drama in season 4.