Lowkey Trippin’ – Insecure Season 4, Episode 7 Recap

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

The Run – Molly is at the Ethiopian restaurant being indecisive about her gluttony when she sees Issa come out the car. She hits that “look forward as if I see nothing” move we all know about but is then stunned when she sees her friend get back in the car and leave. Stunned!

Andrew’s talking to his brother when Molly walks in, all puffed up and irritated. She tells him she saw Issa, who basically ran away from her. It’s cool, doe. They have Mexico to look forward to, after she does a last-minute meeting at work. She packs for this trip, putting all types of bikinis in the suitcase since all she wants to do is chill and frolic.

The next day, Molly’s at work pissed about a last-minute assignment she had. Her assistant, Karen, dropped the ball and didn’t let her know til the night before. This meeting is why she almost misses the flight to Mexico. She has to run through LAX, in her Olivia Pope white, to catch the flight, as Andrew stands at the gate and begs them to hold the door for her.

Handsy – She makes it by the skin of her teeth, and they settle into their seats on the flight. Economy Plus is their balling status, and they order champagne and whiskey. Before takeoff, a new divorcee drops her problems on them, also using Mexico to escape.

Molly wants them to chill for the evening when they get to Mexico because she’s TAHD, but Andrew’s brother has a whole schedule of events for them. It’s cool. As they take off, the airplane blanket becomes the camouflage to their handsiness. OWWWW! Not fully the mile-high club, but it’ll have to do.

The couple gets to Mexico and the resort is beautiful! They’re met by Andrew’s brother, Victor, and his wife, Leah, who is immediately obsessed with Molly. Victor gives them a tight schedule for the evening, with plans of a cabana, massages and a restaurant. They tell him they’ll meet him up with him in an hour.

The Frolic – In their room, Molly pulls out what she brought, that she thought would excite Asian Bae, and it’s lingerie. When he doesn’t give the reaction she was expecting, she realizes he thought she’d be bringing more. Why? Cuz he brought a bunch of sex toys, like a vibrator, anal play balls, etc. When he tells her that he likes when she takes charge, well, she picks the balcony as the place they want to use to kick off this vacation. Long story short, they ain’t make it to the scheduled activities.

In the morning, they meet up with Victor and Leah for the hike that’s on the agenda. Mabel from the plane shows up, on day four of her post-marriage breakup. She’s all peppy. The hike up the hill is more like a job and Andrew and Molly struggle all the way to the top. When they get there and see the beauty, it is momentary joy. What comes next? Ziplining! Molly screams her way through it, but she loved it.

After a fun couple’s dinner, Molly and Andrew make it back to their room. Bae sees he has 3 missed calls from Nathan, so he Facetimes his roomie. What’s happening? He can’t get out the garage, so Andrew tells him where to get the clicker. As he’s hanging up, they hear Issa’s voice in the background. Molly looks up and gets really snarky. She comments about how her friend is back to her messy ways, but Andrew stops her. After him and Issa broke up, apparently, he had some sort of mental health struggle, and maybe this is helping him. Also, no more Issa talk on vacay. Them the rules.

Besides, vacay sex should be going down. Molly changes into her lingerie, ties up Andrew and lets him feast on her. Literally.

Throwing in the Towel – The next day, they’re in the pool with Leah, who gets splashed with water. Molly gets out to grab her a towel and the lady doesn’t want to give her one, since she doesn’t have a key card. Molly gets mad because the couple before her were white, and they weren’t asked to see their key card. The resort employee refuses to hear it, and our girl starts getting loud, when Victor shows up and shows his card so she can get the towel.

Molly is pissed when she gets back in the pool. Andrew asks her what happened, and she explains what she saw as a racist encounter. Victor, being witness to it, decides to play “devil’s advocate,” even though Satan never said he needed a public defender. He says that maybe the lady is doing her job, rejecting Molly’s lived experience, in order to sanitize what happened. She’s getting agitated and Asian Bae tells his brother to chill, in their language. This only makes Molly madder, because she’s like “Speak English.” Whew.

When Victor does a bit more victim blaming by hitting her with a “I too face racism, but I react differently” justification, Molly flips. “F*ck you. Andrew get your f*cking brother,” and storms out the pool. Whoops. Andrew follows her.

Meetup – Later that night, she can’t sleep as Andrew is knocked out. The next day, she wakes up to an empty bed. Right on cue, Andrew walks in with drinks. He suggests they hit the spa and she asks, “Aren’t they meeting his bro?” Nah, they’re doing their own thing that day, because his brother can be an asshole. I’m glad he knows, but Molly feels bad.

She goes on a walk on the beach and calls her therapist, Dr. Rhonda. She leaves a voicemail about needing a session, because it’s been a minute and she’s struggling a bit.

They land back in LA and Mabel is met by a man who better be that husband, because she’s tonguing him down at baggage claim. They run into Lawrence, and Andrew meets him for the first time. The encounter is awkward, and they end it quickly. Lawrence walks out the airport, making a call to someone who must be a woman he’s interested in, asking them to grab a drink with him.

Whew, lawd.

Ok, so Molly seeing Issa go the opposite direction on her had to hurt like hell. Yes, she seems angry about it, but the real feeling is hurt. It has to be jarring to know that your (former) best friend would rather go without her fav food than deal with you. It should also jolt her into recognizing that the point of no return is here. She keeps having snarky things to say, but I think it’s her way of trying to defend her heart from this platonic heartbreak that’s happening. We like to use anger since it’s easier to show pain, than to be vulnerable, and she ain’t good at it.

Now this Mexico vacay did not go the way it was supposed to. Molly and Andrew have had issues, but none were based on their ethnic dynamics since they live in a progressive city. But meeting family can often remove some of the rose tint. The showdown with Victor was some real tea on the dynamics of the hierarchy that society places on minorities. Victor talmbout he has experienced racism, as an Asian man, is tone deaf. He has no way of understanding Molly’s experience as a Black woman, because the “model minority” status that Asians are given comes with certain privileges. There is also the angle of Leah fetishizing Molly but being completely useless when it was time to stand up for her.

What I did like was Andrew not making excuses for his brother, and for going after Molly. He for real likes her, because he chose sides in that battle, and chose her. He’s not playing about her, and I hope she realizes it, instead of taking her feelings out on him. You know she’s good for that. But, there’s already tension and I hope it doesn’t fester.

Oh Molly. Call your friend. Stop being so bullish. And also, start directing your energy more productively, instead of constantly self-sabotaging. I hope her therapist calls her post-haste because she needs the kind of help a good therapist gives you. You know the kind where they sit there asking you questions that lead to you snatching your own edges? It’s amazing. And healing. And necessary.