I Love You Issa, But I’m Team Lawrence [SPOILERS]

The new hit HBO series, Insecure, has just wrapped on Sunday and the internet is going crazy.

If you’re unfamiliar with Insecure, it is a steaming pile of hot, dirty, hilarious, messy mess. Created by Black superheroes Issa Rae and Larry Wilmore, they tell a compelling story of best friends Issa and Molly as they stumble through life. We watch Issa and Molly juggle life, love, and career as they brilliantly turn racial and gender stereotypes and norms on their heads.

Ever since the season finale aired Sunday, the internet has been in a frenzy. Black Twitter is divided like no other. It wasn’t this bad when the Birth of Nation flopped and they tried to blame Black women. It wasn’t this bad when Beyonce dropped Lemonadeand natural hair and shea butter lived, while I-don’t-play-my-child-support Twitter was big mad. It wasn’t even this bad during the (many) HBCU v. PWI debates.

I highly suggest you snag an HBO GO 30-day free trial and binge watch it, but if you plan to, I suggest you stop reading now because there are spoilers in this post. You’ve been warned.

If you’re still reading, but haven’t watched Insecure, let me break it down for you.

The season starts with Lawrence down on his luck. He lost his job and seems to be in somewhat of a depression. He laying around the house in sweats that looked like they haven’t been washed in a month of Sundays, and has a general disposition of “my life sucks.” He messed up Issa’s birthday night by not following through with the plans they made, and Issa is over it and him. She has had enough and is on the verge of breaking up with him, and semi does in a very ambiguous way.

During this time, Issa’s ex (Daniel) has been contacting her via Facebook messenger. You know that one ex that always pops back up at the most inopportune times, well that’s Daniel.

Issa conveniently runs into Daniel during a night out with her best friend, Molly, the night she vaguely breaks up with Lawrence. They flirt throughout the course of the night and end up kissing at the end of the night. She doesn’t tell Lawrence.

Fast forward a few days and Issa has returned home (she’s been sleeping on Molly’s couch for a few days). She and Lawrence decide to work it out and everything is good. Except she has yet to tell Lawrence she kissed her fine ass ex.

Fast forward some more weeks and Lawrence has gotten a job. Not the job he wants, or probably desires, but he takes it because he’s trying to get himself together for the sack of his relationship. Sounds like a good guy, right? I agree.

During the course of Lawrence getting himself together, here comes Tasha aka “The Chase Hoe” dubbed by my fav Crissle from famous podcast The Read and InsecuriTEA, the recap podcast for Insecure. Tasha has been throwing herself (for lack of a better term) at Lawrence for a while now, even asked him on a date after he telling her several times that he has a girlfriend. Sounds like a good guy, right?

Back to Issa.

After the night Issa kissed Daniel (still hasn’t told Lawrence), she has still been in contact with him. She invited him to Career Day and even called him when there was a broken p*ssy crisis (you have to watch the show to get that pun). Issa ends up given Daniel a ride back to work (he’s a producer). She goes inside, has a few drinks, and one thing leads to another and Issa sleeps with Daniel on the studio couch.

Yes, sex.

Full blown penis-vagina sex (Grey’s Anatomy reference).

Yes, while she has boyfriend.

A boyfriend that has been slippin’, slidin’, and hidin’ from Tasha who is visibly ready and willing to jump on him given the opportunity. And in typical Issa fashion, she does not tell Lawrence that she just slept with her ex.

And of course, we all know, what happens in the dark comes to light. Lawrence finds out about Daniel and is pissed!  He actually doesn’t really find out. He has a hunch. Between mysterious texts on Issa’s phone, and her shady-ness (that’s not a word) earlier that night, he puts two and two together and asks her, “Who’s Daniel?” Where she tries to lie, but her guilty face tells her truth. He storms out of their apartment leaving Issa in a sleeping-with-a-broken-heart moment with her tears on their living room floor.

More time passes and Lawrence has gotten a brand new tech job with a good salary and nice benefits. Issa comes to visit him at work (bold move) where he tells her that “he’s done.” That weekend, Lawrence decides he will not be sad behind cheating ass Issa, calls up his boys and heads to the strip club.

Side note, partying sadness/depression/heartbreak away never works. Just trust me on this.

Lawrence finds this out fairly quickly and calls Issa. She informed him that she will be out of town for the next few days, and he can go back to the apartment where he’ll be alone. He also says he misses her. Which can get confusing, but we’ll get there. He also says that they should talk when she returns home, she agrees.

Issa races home where she hopes to find Lawrence so they can have said talk. She finds Lawrence’s keys and his Best Buy work polo (ouch), but no Lawrence. The very next scene we find Lawrence having very aggressive sex with The Chase Hoe, Tasha, to the surprise and dismay of most of the viewers. And here is where the division lies.

Some people (mostly men) think that Lawrence did nothing wrong, and he was justified in his actions. I’m one of those people. And others think that Issa made one mistake (she actually made several), and Lawrence did her dirty by calling to say “I miss you,” but then going to buss down Tasha. I say Issa made her bed and now she’s has to lie in it.

Some men gave very sexist reasons as to way Lawrence had the right to link up with Tasha. And while I hate to agree with a bunch of misogynistic men, I agree that Lawrence is justified in his actions. He was no longer with Issa when he broke Tasha off a piece.

It only gets iffy when Lawrence gets knee deep in his feelings and calls Issa. So let’s talk about that. “I miss you” does not mean “let’s get back together.” It doesn’t even mean “I love you.” It means “I miss your presence in my life,” but that doesn’t mean Lawrence is forgiving Issa in this moment. As a friend of mine stated when we were discussing this episode, “People can say ‘I miss you’ while laying up with the next person. I means nothing.’ And “I think we should talk” doesn’t mean “I want to talk about getting back together.” He could have meant, “we need to talk so we can discuss breaking this lease so I can move out.” We don’t know what Lawrence meant by “we should talk.”

Then there people saying, “Well how did Lawrence get Tasha’s number, something must be up.” To that I say, that there are so many forms of communication in this information age we live in. That man could have contacted her in so ways that don’t involve a phone number. We’re looking for ways to vilify Lawrence when he has proven to not be “that guy” people are trying to make him. I think it’s unfair to try to place blame on Lawrence for a situation that Issa manufactured with her secrets and lies. And if the shoe was on the other foot, and Lawrence would have bussed down Tasha while Issa was at home being faithful, I would feel the same exact way.

Right is right and wrong is wrong, and Issa, you wrong sis.

Predictions from season two:

• Issa and Lawrence will get together, but it’s going to take some time
• Molly will focus less on finding a man, and more on way she thinks she needs to find a man so bad (I hope so at least)
• The Chase Hoe is going to be mad that she was just a rebound and will do something sneaky and vindictive. I’m not sure how that looks yet, but I feel it in my spirit.
• Tiffany and her perfect marriage will be exposed as a fraud. I think her husband is gay and I’m sticking by that
•  Jared returns in some way (I hope so at least)
• Issa leaves “We Got Y’all” to pursue her passions

Again, if you have not watched Insecure on HBO, please do! It is excellent.