Lowkey Happy – Insecure Season 4, Episode 8 Recap

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

Face Plant – Lawrence is at a bar waiting, when Issa walks in playing her part as the stunning Lady in Red. Sis got her shoulders out and is looking FAHN AF. She sees him and walks towards him but face plants right in the middle of the place! LMAO because she is always awkward. It’s the type of fall that hurts your dignity more than your knees.

Changes – When she finally gets up, Lawrence has her fave drink waiting for her: Prosecco. She tells him she actually takes it with vodka now. But, ain’t no glass of Prosecco going to waste here.

So, they catch up. He couldn’t be at the Block Party because he was in San Francisco doing a series of meetings and interviews. Might our boy move? Issa brings up Condola, and he tells her it’s a subject they ain’t gotta broach.

He mentions his encounter with Molly at the airport, which felt awkward, and she says it’s because they are no longer friends. At first, he thought she was joking, but she clearly isn’t. He tries to get the explanation, but the bar gets really crowded and the music gets loud. They decide to leave and go elsewhere. He asks if she wants to go to a Spanish restaurant, they used to say they wanted to try out, and she’s down for it.

Black Love – Lawrence calls a Lyft Black. OH OK, DEN!!! We doing black cars now? I see you, Best Buy Bae! Their Lyft driver is chatty AF, which Issa dreads (I feel you, sis), but I dare you to not have a conversation with Auntie if she’s the one at the wheel. Hey Marla Gibbs!

Lyft driver starts asking them about Black Love, and if they’re on their first date. Lawrence says no. So, she says well if they’ve been at this for a while, they should get married. Lawrence jokes and says he got a ring, as they get to their destination.

This Spanish spot? Issa’s actually been there. He asks if she went there on a date and she says, “Let’s not do the tip toe sh*t tonight.” What does he really want to talk about? Lawrence is dragging out whatever it is, but they get a table and it’s outside, under the lights. This looks mad romantic and cute!

Taking Control – They’re looking at the menu and Lawrence doesn’t know what to get. When the waitress comes, Issa says she got it and places their whole order, including the whiskey Lawrence likes as his signature drink. She’s so confident and assured as she does all this and you can tell our boy really likes it!

She asks him again about what he wanted to tell her.

Well, he’s been thinking about them, and how their relationship ended. “What would have happened if we stayed together?” She admits that she wished he hadn’t given up so easily on them.

He asks, “Why Daniel?” She said it was because he gave her the attention she wasn’t getting at home and how he made her feel wanted in a way Lawrence didn’t. This surprises Lawrence because he didn’t know how bad things had gotten between them that drove her to cheat.

She admits that she was heartbroken when they broke up, because he didn’t want her. He tells her it’s not that. He gets really vulnerable about how hapless he was feeling at that point because his career was not it and seeing her go to work every day made him feel resentful. “When everything went down with us, it was easier to blame you.”

COME ON, VULNERABILITY!!! YES!

The Ring – So she asked him if he was really kidding in the Lyft or did he actually buy a ring at some point. YUP. He had. Whew, that made this all come back for her. She excuses herself to go to the bathroom and says “I really wasn’t sh*t. But I’m the sh*t now.” I love it. And she is.

Lawrence pulls out his phone and there’s a text from Condola. He replies that he’s out at the moment and can’t talk.

After dinner, Issa and Lawrence go for a walk when they here “BRAH BRAH.” It’s TSA bae (Calvin), who’s with a woman named Mazda. He asks if she got the prawns at the Spanish spot. Ahh, so this is who she first came with. Lawrence asks how they know each other, and he is not shy about saying they used to get down. HA!!! Bye, Calvin!

Grown Walk – Issa asks if Lawrence wants to go to Art Walk and he pulls out his phone and says he gotta bounce. He kisses her on the cheek and leaves her looking slightly stunned. But, 5 seconds later, he comes back cuz he was playing.

The Art Walk is lovely, and they have a really good time. They talk about happiness and she digs into how she’s been doing the work to figure out what happiness looks like for her. Is he happy? Yes, because he’s realizing that he doesn’t NEED to start anything of his own. He likes being a builder and team player. And when she talks about doing more events, he tells her she got this! In the words of Kelli, “this is what I call… GROWTH.” AAWWWWW matured Issa and Lawrence are outchea!

His phone rings and it’s Condola but he doesn’t pick up. He tells Issa that him and his ex have been talking, but he’s not sure what will happen between them.

They pick up a few pieces of art (because; grown) and they decide to share a Lyft. Turns out they’re neighbors, and what she calls his bachelor pad isn’t far from her place at all. Bachelor pad, huh? He tells her he’s much too grown for that. In fact, leave the Lyft running and come check it out right quick.

Shameless – When Issa steps into Lawrence’s apartment, it speaks to his growth. There’s pics on the walls, actual décor, and it’s clean! Homeboy said he got a housekeeper now. She sees that green couch they used to own together. Aww. Best Buy Bae has grown up for real.

Issa excuses herself to go into the bathroom. Lawrence steps outside and calls Condola, telling her he’s wrapping up his night and he might be able to see her that night. When he hangs up and goes back in, Issa is by the door. She heard it all. Sh*t. He tries to apologize, and she says it’s cool but as she’s leaving, she turns around. “What if I wanted to stay?” She tells him she’s not ready for the night to end and that he makes her happy.

Then they kiss and make all the sex! HEY NOW!

The next morning, they both wake up looking happy in Lawrence’s “got good thread count” sheets. She asks about San Francisco. Is he really gonna go? Who knows? Smiling, she gets up and puts on clothes. She’s gonna walk home, and her walk has no shame. YES.

I want to sing a song of praise, because this beautiful episode showed us the power of growth and vulnerability, without pretense. Everything about how things unfolded and about the evening spoke to all of those things. There were several points in Issa and Lawrence’s conversations where if one person took the route of pride, it would have shut down any forward movement or depth in the rest of the evening.

Issa falling flat on her face is some sort of metaphor, and it definitely broke the ice for the evening. After you physically fall on your face, what is there to even have pretense about? But whatever it was that allowed both of them to open up to each other about their mistakes and faults in their breakup was a bomb. They both owned up to the parts they played, bragged on their growth and showed that change can be good. Honesty is sexy AF.

At the end of the night, when Issa could have chosen to be upset about Lawrence calling Condola back before she even left, she chose to speak about what she was feeling, and risk being rejected. And it worked out. Again: lessons in vulnerability.

What I loved most of how they left each other. They promised nothing, expected nothing and reveled in the fact that the evening could not have gone any better.

And about the ring issue. The fact that Lawrence had bought a ring speaks to how deeply he loved Issa, but that Lawrence from back then was in no shape to be a husband. Neither was Issa ready to be a wife. IF they end up back together, he’s probably gonna need to find her a new ring, since she’s changed. He’s changed too.

This might be my favorite episode of the season so far. It felt like one big win.