Insecure
インセキュア
Discussed in the Journal
JournalYou Are Not Feeling Unworthy. You Are Feeling a Debt.Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Issa and Molly in Los Angeles; Black women's friendship as the primary relationship, men as weather.
After a disappointing twenty-ninth birthday, Issa Dee, who works at a non-profit for middle-school children of colour in South Los Angeles, begins to doubt her five-year relationship with Lawrence, who has been out of work since his start-up failed. Her best friend since Stanford, Molly Carter, is a successful corporate lawyer who cannot make dating work. Issa sleeps with an old flame, Daniel. Lawrence finds out, and at the end of the first season she comes home to find his things gone and his key left behind.
In the second season Issa dates badly and daydreams about Lawrence while he moves on. Molly discovers that a white colleague is paid far more than she is, starts seeing a therapist and sleeps with Dro, a childhood friend in an open marriage. Priced out of her flat, Issa finds Lawrence waiting there on moving day; they apologise, cry and say goodbye, and she goes to stay with Daniel.
In the third season Issa starts planning a block party for her neighbourhood and falls for Nathan, who then stops answering her calls. In the fourth the block party ends in a screaming fight with Molly, who refused to help and resents Issa's digs at her new boyfriend, Andrew; the two stop speaking while Issa and Lawrence find their way back to each other. Only when Tiffany, sinking into postpartum depression, goes missing do the friends meet again, at their old Ethiopian restaurant, just as Andrew leaves Molly and Lawrence tells Issa that Condola, a woman he was seeing, is pregnant and keeping the baby.
In the fifth and final season Issa ends things with Lawrence, who becomes a father in San Francisco, starts her own company, the Blocc, to showcase South LA's artists, and dates Nathan. Molly's mother has a stroke. At Tiffany's farewell party before her move to Denver, Lawrence tells Issa he loves her, and he and Nathan fight.
The last episode moves through several years of birthdays. Nathan leaves Issa. Molly falls for Taurean, and her mother dies. Kelli, who never wanted children, becomes pregnant. Showing Lawrence her new office, Issa admits that no one doubted her except herself, and they kiss. A year later Molly marries Taurean, with Lawrence as Issa's date, and that night tells Issa that as long as she is around, she will be all right. Issa comes home to a house she shares with Lawrence and his son, Elijah, who are baking her a birthday cake; she is wearing an engagement ring, and the last call is from Molly, on her honeymoon.
Starring
Issa Raeas Issa Dee
A South Los Angeles woman approaching thirty, unsure of her relationship and her work, who argues with herself in the mirror.
Issa Dee’s story
Issa turns twenty-nine unsure of Lawrence, of her non-profit job and of herself. She sleeps with Daniel, and Lawrence leaves. She dates badly, moves in with Daniel, quits her job and takes a building manager's job so that she can plan a neighbourhood block party. Nathan vanishes on her. The party ends in a screaming fight with Molly, and while they are not speaking she and Lawrence find their way back to each other, until he tells her that Condola is pregnant; after their college reunion Issa ends it. She builds the Blocc and dates Nathan, until Lawrence declares his love at Tiffany's farewell and the two men fight. Years later, showing Lawrence her new office, she admits no one doubted her but herself. She comes home engaged, to him and his son.
Yvonne Orjias Molly Carter
Issa's best friend since Stanford, a successful lawyer whose love life keeps falling apart.
Molly Carter’s story
Molly is the lawyer with a plan for everything except love. She ends things with Jared when he tells her he once had sex with a man. Learning that a white colleague earns far more than she does, she starts therapy, and keeps going back to Dro, a childhood friend in an open marriage, before she cuts him off. She drops her rule of dating only Black men for Andrew, who leaves her, worn down by her refusal to bend. Refusing to help with Issa's block party ends in a screaming match and months of silence, until Tiffany goes missing and Molly reaches out first. Her mother has a stroke and dies, and Molly marries Taurean. On her wedding night she tells Issa that as long as she is around, she will be all right.
Jay Ellisas Lawrence Walker
Issa's long-term boyfriend, stalled after his start-up fails, who leaves, rebuilds his life and keeps finding his way back to her.
Lawrence Walker’s story
Lawrence is still building an app of his own when he tries on engagement rings with Issa and, at her urging, takes a job he was offered. Then he finds Daniel's text on her phone, and when she admits it, he packs and leaves his key. He dates a bank teller, Tasha, sleeps with Issa and confesses it, and on the day Issa moves out waits in the empty flat so that they can apologise and say goodbye. At church he meets Condola. Back with Issa, he tells her Condola is pregnant and keeping the baby; Issa ends it, and he becomes a father in San Francisco. At Tiffany's farewell party he tells Issa he loves her and fights Nathan. Years later he lives with Issa and his son, Elijah, and she wears his ring.
Natasha Rothwellas Kelli Prenny
The loudest and most unashamed of the friends, who swears she will never have children.
Amanda Sealesas Tiffany DuBois
The married friend who seems to have everything in order, until motherhood brings on postpartum depression.
Kendrick Sampsonas Nathan Campbell
A man Issa falls for, who disappears without explanation, comes back, and becomes her partner in the final season.
Why it matters
Insecure grew out of Issa Rae's web series Awkward Black Girl, and when it launched Rae said it was not a hood story but one about regular people living life. That ordinariness was the point. Black women in South Los Angeles go to work, date badly, argue about therapy and, in Molly's case, discover that a white colleague is paid far more than she is, and the series never turns them into a lesson. The romance with Lawrence drives the plot, but the friendship between Issa and Molly is the real love story, and the fourth season is a close study of how two people who have both grown can fail to see it in each other. The title names the enemy: the voice in Issa's mirror telling her she is not enough. By the end it has almost nothing left to say.