Is this what closure looks like? After last week's epic confrontation, Issa (Issa Rae) and Lawrence (Jay Ellis) have a candid and emotional talk on Sunday’s season two finale of Insecure.
The 40-minute episode, which was expanded for the big finale, shows the same 30 days from the perspectives of Lawrence, Molly, and Issa, and viewers finally get to see just how much the exes lives are still intertwined.
Although Lawrence hasn’t been dating Aparna (Jasmine Kaur) very long, the romance is already showing signs of distress after he learns that she and their co-worker, Colin, had a sexual relationship.
What’s more, Lawrence can’t stop being reminded of Issa. Besides seeing Molly during dinner with Aparna, he spots his ex, and her bestie, in a crowd while running a marathon with his new flame.
Thanks to some pretty terrible advice from Chad (Neil Brown Jr.) and Derek (Wade Allain-Marcus), Lawrence attempts to confront Aparna about Colin, but his post-breakup trust issues come to the surface.
While Aparna tries to convince him that there’s nothing going on with Colin, he blurts out that he doesn’t like “liars.” Ironically enough, Issa calls during the car conversation, causing Aparna to hop out of his vehicle, leaving Lawrence alone with his jealous thoughts.
Meanwhile, Lawrence eventually listens to Issa’s voicemail message (more on that later) and ends up back at the apartment that they used to share.
Photo: HBO
READ: 'Insecure': Issa Stumbles Through the Single Life, Molly Scores a New Man
But if you thought Lawrence had work and relationship drama, he has nothing on Molly. Her dreams of equal pay in a predominately white and male law firm are effectively shattered when she gets a “rising star” award instead of a salary bump.
Her personal life isn’t much better either. She attempts to keep Quentin (Lil Rel Howery) in the friend zone, but a therapy session changes her mind.
“He just doesn’t seem like the guy I should be with,” Molly tells her therapist, who encourages her to take a chance on Quentin.
Molly follows her advice and gets closer with Quentin than expected. But Dro (Sarunas J. Jackson) is still very much in the picture, and he conveniently sends her an “I miss you" text when she’s with Quentin.
Issa is finally ready to get out of her apartment, but after Kelli (Natasha Rothwell) and Molly remind her that she can’t afford to live alone, she opts to move in with her brother and hosts a garage sale to make some extra cash, yet she’s not willing to part with everything. She refuses to sell Lawrence’s stuff and their infamous blue couch.
After the garage sale, Issa leaves Lawrence (who's in the car with Aparna at the time) a voicemail message, to tell him that he can pick up his things while she's out of the apartment.
With her brother impatiently waiting in the car, Issa comes back to the apartment for a "quick" walk through and to drop her keys off with the manager, but Lawrence is there waiting for her, and he’s ready to make amends.
Photo: HBO
“I’m sorry for not being who you expected me to be, who I expected me to be,” he admits after telling Issa that he didn’t like the way that things ended between them at Derek's dinner party.
Issa retorts with a confession of her own. “I wanted to be better for you and because of you,” she tells him. “But somewhere along the way, I depended on you to be better for both of us.”
She also issues a mea culpa for cheating, even though Lawrence seems to have already forgiven her.
“I wish that I could somehow convince you that it wasn’t about you. You’ve only ever loved me and expected me to want the best for you and I promise I did — I still do,” she says as tears begin to well in her eyes. “Lawrence, I still love you so much.”
An emotional Lawrence replies with an “I love you too,” and you can probably guess what happens next: the seemingly amicable exes hug it out and say their goodbyes, but not before Issa has a daydream that includes Lawrence popping the question, their fictional wedding day and a baby.
Photo: HBO
EXCLUSIVE: It's Issa Rae's Time to Take a Bow, or at Least a Nap
As the episode comes to a close, Issa turns to Molly for a night of Moroccan food and drinks, and decides not to move in with her overbearing brother (he has a lot of rules) while she looks for a new apartment.
She also finds the fresh start that she was desperately searching for -- it just happens to be on Daniel’s (Y'lan Noel) couch.
Season three of Insecure returns to HBO in 2018.
