Season 5, Episode 9: ‘Out, Okay!?’
Almost everyone is carrying around some kind of emotional burden. Most of us have learned to compartmentalize, if only to move forward. What happens when people let go and take a chance? When you tell the person you love how you feel? When you decide to leave everything behind for a chance at something different? Life is what happens.
In “Out, Okay!?,” the penultimate episode of “Insecure,” several characters let out what they have been holding inside. Lawrence confesses that he loves Issa. Tiffany says goodbye to her friends in Los Angeles to start a new journey with her family in Colorado. Molly and Taurean cross the line from work friends and casual hookups to something else.
While everyone is making big moves, Issa is still pretty grounded. She has not yet decided if she is going to take MBW’s offer or take her chances with Crenshawn. She is looking at apartments with Nathan but has not signed a lease yet. She seems to be in a limbo of her own making. They’re leaving all the resolution for the final episode, and it is enticing.
We know that she still has some type of feelings for Lawrence, because she has not been able to stop thinking about him since she learned that he moved back to Los Angeles. We know that she wanted to reach out for closure until Molly stopped her.
At Tiffany and Derek’s goodbye party, Nathan and Lawrence meet for the first time. There is obvious tension. The two go back and forth over whether Los Angeles or Houston has better barbecue. It is a petty argument that is more about ego. It is Lawrence sticking his chest out to the man Issa is planning to move in with.
Lawrence did not go to the party alone — he showed up with Elijah and Condola. When Condola heads to the kitchen to grab a bottle for Elijah, she bumps into Molly, Kelly, Tiffany and, potentially most awkward, Issa. But the girls are cordial: Issa congratulates Condola on Elijah and Condola congratulates her on her latest community walk. Lawrence and Condola had started seeming like a blended family but when they arrived at the party, Condola noticed Lawrence looking at Issa with his swoon eyes on. She seemed disappointed, so I’m not calling Condola, Lawrence and Elijah the Smiths just yet.
Molly and Taurean take edibles without telling anyone. (Molly eventually confesses to the girls.) It seems to be what the doctor ordered — I don’t see how they would have dropped their guard with one another otherwise. When they do, it’s beautiful. Taurean softens; Molly becomes a bit goofy and honest. After bingeing the hors d’oeuvres in secret, they find themselves inside a pantry.
“A part of me is kind of worried how much fun I am having with you,” she tells him. “This is easy and feels real natural, and that scares me.”
“Why?” Taurean asks.
“Because at some point when people get close, I mess things up,” she answers earnestly.
“With me, it’s the opposite,” he reassures her. “I hated you at first, but now I’m starting to like you. I’m not going to get tired of you, Molly,” Then he kisses her and they hook up.
I’m not mad at this for Molly — Taurean did send her wine and Postmates after a very hard day, which is the modern equivalent of a sonnet and flowers. They might get some trouble from their colleagues, but I think they can make it work if Molly can find a way to let herself be loved.
At the end of the party, things finally come to a head between Lawrence and Nathan, who get into a sort of fisticuffs after Nathan finds Lawrence professing his love for Issa. Issa repeatedly asks Lawrence to maybe talk to her another time but Lawrence can’t contain himself. He lets it all out.
“When you ended things, I understood,” he tells her. “But things are different now; I’m different now. I would hate to leave here tonight knowing that I didn’t say something that I should have, like I didn’t fight hard enough for you.”
“I don’t know that fighting will even matter,” she replies.
After Taurean breaks up Lawrence and Nathan’s confrontation, Nathan yells at Issa. She reaches for his arm and he pulls away from her, asking her to give him a minute to cool down. It did not feel right that he yelled at her, regardless of how hotheaded he may have been. It felt like in that moment, she stopped being the woman he loved; she too was the opposition.
Here’s hoping Issa stops playing the middle of the road soon.
