'Insecure' Season 3, Episode 1 Recap
In case you were wondering, Issa’s life is still fucked up. The third season premiere, appropriately titled “Better-Like”, of HBO’s “Insecure” started off right where the previous season ended—— Issa being at Daniel’s house. But this time, Issa is awakened out of her sleep by the sound of Daniel having sex in his room, which becomes the main storyline throughout the episode. Very annoyed with the loud ass moaning in Daniel’s room, Issa decides to answer Lyft requests to kill some time, our first introduction to this season’s side hustle.. It makes sense that Issa’s picked up a side hustle, considering she’s practically homeless and has two weeks left to stay at Daniel’s crib. Issa picks up her first rider, and within seconds, he throws up all over her car. That pretty much describes Issa’s life for the rest of the episode—a huge pile of throw up.
Meanwhile, Molly’s life is the total opposite. She’s living her best life on some island while having a man cater to her. It’s when she returns that she decides that in order for her to continue to live her best life, she’ll have to be on some know better, do better shit ( a mood she describes to Issa as “bloopin, bloppin and blammin”). That mood dies down when she gets a call from Dro. And it becomes clear that Molly might not be ready to know better and do better with her relationship with him.
The next scene turns to Daniel in the studio with a new artist (played by singer Dawn Richard) who he calls “hella trash.” She happens to also be the cousin of a producer whom Daniel wants to work with . Remember that scene in “Brown Sugar” when Dre had to manage a wack ass duo who called themselves the hip-hop dalmatians. Daniel’s situation with this new artist is the exact same thing: going against his taste for the security of his job. Just add Richard’s character’s loud ass pants to the mix.
Daniel goes to get his guitar from his sister’s house. It’s during this scene that viewers are introduced to this season’s show within a show, “Kev’yn”. Starring Erika Alexander “Living Single” and Darryl Bell from “A Different World”, the show acts as a 90’s black sitcom reboot dream come true. Meanwhile, Daniel informs his sister that Issa is still staying at his house when she asks if he could watch his niece. That’s when his sister plants the idea (and this episode’s million dollar question) in Daniel’s head about the intentions behind Issa staying at his crib.
Issa is still in hot water in her position at the non-profit, We Got Y’all. She’s stuck on desk duty and under heavy surveillance from Joanne, her boss, and co-worker Frieda, who recently got promoted. While making follow-up calls to various schools about their partnership with We Got Y’all, Issa learns that schools refuse to work with the nonprofit because it’s viewed as racist— from complaints of a eurocentric curriculum to complaints of there being only one black employee (Issa) — information that Issa relays to Joanne, who totally shuts her down. It becomes abundantly clear in this scene that We Got Y’all don’t “got” Issa or any of the students of color that they serve, for that matter. And hopefully this white savior nonprofit sham storyline is revealed throughout the remainder of the season, and hopefully Issa decides to quit.
While Daniel is awkwardly jamming to his music at home, Issa walks in and acts in her usual awkwardly adorable behavior and sort of flirts with him. Daniel reciprocates the energy and leans in for a kiss, but Issa curves him, letting him know that they shouldn’t do it. Then, Daniel asks that question that viewers have been trying to figure out the entire episode: Out of all the places she could’ve stayed, why the hell is Issa staying with Daniel?
Issa said that she came there as a friend and his crib is closer to her job. She then informs him that she would like a head-up the next time he has sex. RUDE.
Meanwhile, it seems like Molly isn’t ready to know better and do better as she’s seen receiving head from him the night she returns from her trip. The morning after, Dro receives a call from Candice and tells her that she’s with Molly. Although it was hard for some to understand that this was the way of the show’s writers showing that Dro is indeed in an open marriage (because: niggas lie), Natasha Rothwell (Kelly) made it clear on Twitter Sunday night.
It’s clear that Molly is upset after Dro hang up the phone with his wife. That’s why she suggests that they have boundaries and only be acquaintances that fuck. However, it doesn’t seem like that’s all she wants from him when she agrees to go to dinner with him the next day.
Issa invites Molly to her“party Lyft” to save time while Daniel has sex again. During their trip, Issa and Molly pick up a fine nigga named Nathan who’s not from L.A. and a fat nigga who starts rolling a blunt in the car. When Issa tells dude to not smoke in her car, he responds with a blatant nonchalant, “nah, you good” and continues to smoke. Nathan comes to the rescue and throws his blunt out the window, beats the fat nigga’s ass and runs off, leaving Molly and Issa to care for the fat nigga. And Daniel never informed Issa if it was safe for her to come home.
Molly comes home and, to her surprise, Dro is there. He let himself in with his own key because Molly wasn’t responding to his messages. Then, Molly requests for her key back and informs Dro that she doesn’t want to be involved in the mess that he and his wife are in. Dro gets mad and leave, and Molly sits there looking stupid.
Issa returns to Daniel’s crib after the long ass night she’s had and picks a fight with Daniel because he never texted her back. Issa also tells Daniel that she still has feelings for him and cares about who he’s fucking. She also reveals that she’s staying at his crib because she knew he would be there for her. Daniel appropriately responds with an “Alright”, goes to his room, and shuts the door. Issa is left sitting on the couch.
The episodes ends with Issa watching “Kev’yn” on the couch and Daniel informs Issa that she’ll have the crib to herself for the night, adhering to Issa’s wishes.
My thoughts:
Issa is fucking up
Issa is wrong for so many reasons. The main issue is that she shouldn’t be upset with Daniel fucking someone else in his OWN crib. It’s his house. He shouldn’t have to walk on eggshells because she has feelings for him. If that’s the case, which she did reveal during the episode, then she shouldn’t be living there or she should’ve been upfront about her feelings when she first moved in. Instead, she told him two weeks later that she moved there because his crib was closer to her job. That was beyond rude. And when he acted on that energy that were hinting around, she declined. WHAT DO YOU WANT, SIS? She can’t have it your way, and you’re certainly not in the position to do that. You waited too damn late to tell Daniel how you really feel about it, so his behavior is completely understandable. He’s done nothing wrong.
Molly is fucking up, too
I’m not sure why Molly is upset with Dro. It’s as if she’s mad because she now has some sort of proof that Candice is still in the picture and she knows about Molly. I’m not sure why Molly was confused about that, considering that Dro told her about his open marriage at Kiss-n-Grind. Now is not the time for Molly to be dictating borders and boundaries because it’s pretty clear that this open marriage shit is something she shouldn’t be doing. Molly has feeling for Dro, and continuing to be in this relationship will only leave her feeling heartbroken, so hopefully she plans on not being with him, but it seems like it’s too late for that.