Obsessed-Like: Season 3, Episode 7 Recap

This post is in partnership with HBO. As always, thoughts and opinions are my own.

MIA – It’s been a week since Issa has heard from Nathan and she cannot stop thinking about him. Molly finally accepts the date with Andrew and it seems to be going well. She admits to him that she turned him down so many times because she was embarrassed by her festival shenanigans. But, she has to go to work that day and she asks him out for the day after. Ok den!

Chad wants to go clubbing that night but Lawrence says he can’t go because he plans on going to church the next morning. WHAAAA? Look at this heathen. Chad wonders if his friend is in crisis but says he’ll go with him, not to be a supportive friend or for holy purposes, doe. He’s going because there are hella women there.

Cracking – Issa wants to remind Nathan how cute she is, wherever he is, so she posts a selfie on IG. The only comment is from her brother, who sees her thirst through the post. She’s in her own head, going through all the convos with Nathan, picking out where they coulda gone wrong. She goes through his IG and sees a pic of her and a beautiful woman and when she is about to go off, she realizes that’s his mom. Black surely does not crack.

Issa is working on the block party deck when she logs into IG using the stalker account her and the girls established and sends Nathan a “you’re cute. Are you single?” message. She deletes it seconds after, though.

Saint – At church, at first, all Chad can do is spot the beautiful women. The sermon is about bondage and temptation, and Lawrence seems out of place. When the pastor asks who will recommit to Jesus, Chad is the first one out his seat, in tears, getting blessed. A saint is just a sinner who fell down. Lemme find out this sinner is getting up.

Chad was really touched by the sermon and is already planning on being back. But Lawrence wasn’t so moved. A woman (Deniese) walks up to Lawrence to ask how he liked the service and they strike up an easy conversation.

Honesty – Molly gets a call from Torian to say he has to postpone their presentation, because he needs to be in court and wants to check her work. When she meets Andrew for dinner, she complains that her colleague is trying to micromanage her. They talk about what they told each other while tripping on molly, and while they forgot a good amount, they remember the sweet tea. He remembers her admittance that she slept with her married friend and charges it up to “Grime recognize grime.” Stuff takes a turn because his assessment that Dro led her on hits her below the belt. She leaves in a huff before they can even order. Oop.

Exception – Issa is asleep and gets a call from the building owner because she’s late meeting their foreman. Nathan is still deep on her mind and he hasn’t updated his IG but she did see someone tag him to thank him for cutting their hair. OH WORD? At work, Molly’s boss asks when Torian will be back. She says she’s willing to do the presentation herself in his absence. Issa, in her pajamas, jumps in her car and calls Molly (who apparently, slayed the presentation). A bit later, Issa has convinced Molly to join her on a nutty adventure where they bring desserts to Andrew’s to see if they can get any info on Nathan’s whereabouts. Molly is still pissed at Andrew so she’s only doing this on the STRENF of their sisterhood.

Searching – The two knock on his door and he opens, wholly shocked to see them standing there.

They say they were in his neighborhood, so they thought to drop by. He says he’s home alone, but Issa doesn’t believe him, lying that she needs to use the bathroom, so she can have an excuse to go in. She skips his downstairs bathroom and goes upstairs, and I’m embarrassed for everybody here. Molly tries to distract him as Issa goes creeping in Andrew’s house to see if she can find Nathan. She says she came by to talk about their date, and that she forgives him. Nahhh. She left the whole date. He says he keeps meeting different versions of her and he doesn’t know which is real. “Are they all this f*cked up?” Bruh, let’s fight (but he’s not wrong).

Issa walks in a room she thinks is Nathan’s. He isn’t there, but she starts going through his drawers. NOOOOOO, GIRL. No. She finds his festival wristband and sees his computer is open, so she tries to log in by guessing his password. Girl. “Houston” fails. Her attempt at a 3^rd try is foiled by Molly, who shows up.

The Real – In Issa’s car, Molly asks what is really going on with her. Issa wonders if it’s her fault that Nathan ghosted her because she showed him too much of her true self. Her bestie says if he can’t deal with who she really is, then he is not worthy of her time. FACTS. Why is Issa bugging this hard? Because he made her failures feel small, and that made her feel good.

Lawrence grabs ice cream with Deniese, the woman from church. They talk about the pastor who tries very hard to connect with the youth using metaphors. She says it did take her more than one visit to feel it, including going to bible study. It’s been a year since and that is her church home.

Move Forward – Issa is in bed, not sleeping, because Nathan is all up on her brain. She is truly obsessed. Finally, she gets up, showers and then erases traces of him: unfollows him on IG, deletes his number and her call logs. It’s been 9 days. Operation: Move Forward has begun. She goes to an entrepreneur workshop and starts getting serious about making the block party a reality. At work, Torian ices Molly out when they see each other in the hallway. Uh oh.

Call Out – Lawrence gets a text from Deniese asking if he’ll be at bible study. He says he’s not sure. He does, however, meet up with Issa, who wants to thank him for letting her know about the entrepreneur workshop. She asks when he’s off and if he has time for coffee. He does. She mentions she drove Thug Yoda and got all the Dunes tea from him. Issa gets real honest about how rough the months have been, with her couch hopping and driving Lyft. But she realized she has to be able to stand on her own, including with the Block Party. Lawrence calls her out for always being in her own head and talking herself out the game. In turn, he admits that he went to church, but he wasn’t necessarily feeling it. She tells him to just find another one and stop exiting things out because he went to one.

Issa was completely out of her mind for the idea of going to Andrew’s place to bum-rush Nathan if he was there. Like, my girl. Don’t do that. You are better than that. Furthermore, why didn’t she just ask Andrew where Nathan was? Why play Sherlock Holmes, coming up on nothing, when you can ask one of his closest friends? Instead, she’s sneaking around the dude’s crib as if she was gonna have a A-HA CAUGHT YA moment.

I get it. Being ghosted is the worst.

There is no closure and you’re left with all these questions but no answers. It is an awful place to be in, especially when you feel like you were beginning something that could be special. It is uncomfortable and unfair. However, Issa didn’t handle it well and the moment you find yourself rummaging through someone else’s house in an underwear drawer is the moment you gotta tell yourself you are doing too much.

For some reason, I think Nathan is in jail, or something. I don’t want to believe he just straight left her hanging without a good excuse. Maybe it’s the optimist and romantic in me. DON’T DO HER LIKE THAT, NATHAN!!

It is interesting that she found herself calling Lawrence again. Sure, it is convenient to say she just wanted to thank him for the workshop tip but it seems like the need for something familiar might open up feelings that were technically not fully resolved. Tread lightly, Issa.

Our girl Molly keeps making missteps at work, even when she does well. Her doing the presentation without Torian now has her with one more person who isn’t on her team. However, I cannot say I’m mad at her for making the presentation solo. She’s anxious to prove herself and she has a micromanaging coworker who acts like her training wheels. She made herself useful and his ego cannot deal. Honestly, GO MOLLY! Team work isn’t always the best work. Sometimes, you gotta go about something yourself and she did that. I wonder how the Torian fall out will affect work.

I find it completely hilarious that Chad ends up in church and one sermon got him saved. That floozy there. I’d love to see what a righteous Chad does. Meanwhile, Lawrence is like a broken compass. He doesn’t know what he wants to do or where he wants to go. Still. Bless his heart.