“Hella Shook” is one of Insecure’s best episodes. Even though last week’s episode felt unevenly paced, Insecure has always done an incredible job of hitting emotional highs while moving the narrative forward. A lot of conflicts are finally addressed, and it sets up a lot of exciting possibilities for the rest of the season. We’ve been waiting to meet Molly’s family, and the moment does not disappoint.
The scenes with Molly’s family are wonderful. It’s not hard to see why she wants a relationship like her parent’s. That’s the thing though––Molly wants that, and she won’t settle for less. She passes on Dro’s offer by saying that’s not the way she sees her life going. It’s a callback to the moment Molly’s therapist asks her if she’d be okay with her life working out in a way different than she expected. Finding out that her parent’s marriage isn’t perfect is enough to make her consider altering her life plan. She immediately reacts by drastically changing her dating expectations. Like, immediately. She ditches Lionel and takes Dro back to her place. We all thought Lawrence was cold-hearted, but Molly just showed us how it’s done.
Of course, Molly and Dro have beautiful sex together––their chemistry is amazing. It’s great that Molly is readjusting her expectations, but this is clearly a rash decision that’s only going to hurt her. Dro was there for her in an emotional moment, but Dro can’t support her emotionally. While Molly may accept that she’ll never have a perfect marriage, she isn’t willing to be someone’s side chick. She wants to be supported and loved, and Dro can never give that to her. The show makes it clear that Dro is in an open marriage; he’s not polyamorous. He casually sleeps with other people, but it doesn’t seem like he has a connection with them beyond that. Obviously, that’s not the case with Molly, and we don’t know how Dro’s wife will feel about that. Dro should’ve laid out the structure of his relationship before blowing Molly’s back out.
She’s going to be hurt when she realizes she fell for someone who’s emotionally unavailable to her in the way she wants, and I don’t think she can handle that right now. That’s also the case with Daniel. Poor Daniel. Issa is again using him and trying to ignore the reality of the situation. It should be clear to her that Daniel has feelings for her, and if she actually cares about those feelings, she shouldn’t use him during this ho, “no feelings” phase of her life. Issa tries to lay it out for Daniel, but she doesn’t do a good job of really telling him what’s up. Honestly, I’m more concerned about Daniel being played because it’s already clear that Issa is going to mess this up again.
Issa has never been a perfect character, but season two is holding her accountable for her flaws and mistakes. This is particularly clear when we look at Issa’s job. Issa is wrong. A lot of readers have been upset about Issa’s actions at the school. Frieda is right––she should be making their program as diverse and intersectional as possible. Issa’s attempts to defend herself are weak. She knows she can be prejudiced (she calls herself racist at the beginning of the episode), but we also have to understand that Issa sees it as another concession she has to make at her job. We Got Y’all is not a good program. The instructors in the program are Issa’s racially unaware and prejudiced co-workers (who don’t even believe in students’ dreams).
The show has made it clear that they’re full of prejudice and stereotypes. The program’s logo is literally a group of children of color in a white hand. Issa sees these errors more than anyone, but works with them anyway. Overall, she thinks it’s better for kids to have the program than not, so she overlooks the casual racism of it. This is a concession Issa has to make every day, so she’s more willing to overlook the school’s racist principal if it means some kids get access to the program. Frieda isn’t used to that, and she is being a bit naïve about it. Frieda and Issa don’t even speak Spanish—how much does she really think she can help people she can’t even communicate with? If she really wanted to help Latinx students, she’d ask We Got Y’all to hire instructors who actually speak Spanish. So, she’s right to call Issa out, but her callout is steeped in a bit of privilege she doesn’t quite see, and Issa is having a hard time explaining that.
Then there’s Lawrence. Lurking Lawrence finally gets the read he needed from someone. Derek finally makes Lawrence confront what everyone has been saying. He deserves some of the blame for his relationship issues, and he should be a bit more understanding of Issa’s experience. He’s finally able to asses the situation instead of just getting angry about it, and I don’t think he was as done with Issa as he initially thought. It’s also great that his lurking gives us that amazing video of Kelli eating a ghost pepper.
Stray observations
- Where is Tiffany? I need more of her. What’s she up to?
- I hated the one-liners during Issa’s date. The horchata line was awful.
- Molly’s relationship with her brothers was so real and adorable. I hope we get to see more of them.
- We got more of the amazing slave show! I’m convinced this show is actually just HBO’s Confederacy.
- I have the biggest crush on Dro.