Faulty, Okay?! – Insecure Season 5, Episode 4 Recap

Photo Credit: Glen Wilson

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

Awkward Beach Girl – Nathan is throwing a beach day to celebrate his barbershop. There’s no food yet and the host is getting nervous.  

Issa, Molly and Kelli show up to the beach and there is gorgeous melanin everywhere. Molly’s FINEASSMEN radar is up and she’s scoping the place out. The girls see Nathan a distance away and Issa tells them they haven’t really spoken since the week before, when she cried after he kissed her. Sooo she’s nervous about this encounter. 

Her phone buzzes and it’s a notification because she announced that her company is partnering with “Nothing But Water.” The first response is a shady emoji from Crenshawn. Uh oh. The girls tell her not to pay attention to it. 

They get to where Nathan is standing and Issa turns her awkward meter to 10, making the most terrible small talk and just doing the most. Molly and Kelli are low key appalled when, thankfully, Nathan’s friends and fellow barbers show up to interrupt. They offer to show the girls to the bar, leaving Issa and Nathan alone. That only lasts a minute cuz Nathan quickly excuses himself. 

Kelli makes Issa a drink and tells her to loosen up and they’re all challenged to a game of Spades. Well, not Issa, cuz she doesn’t know how to play, and nobody wants to teach a grown up how to play Spades. That’s just the way it is. 

Photo Credit: Glen Wilson

Sand Chemistry – Aric and Johnny against Kelli and Molly gives Molly two men to add to her competition. The winner might get to see her nekkid. As they’re getting on with the game, Issa’s eyes are fixed on Nathan, who is across the beach with Resha, from the barbershop. The way they’re interacting, and their chemistry, got Issa thinking they are definitely smash buddies. Her mood changes, and she goes to get another drink. When she does, Resha calls her over, excited to see her. Sis looks good too, in a tiny gold bikini. She runs into the water and all Issa can do is stare. 

Standing there with Nathan once again, things are weird. She asks him if they’re good, and if they’re still friends. He says the most unconvincing YES ever. They’re interrupted when Suge shows up with the food. Instead of hot dogs and burgers, he shows up with 10 boxes of pizza. WOMP. Right then, there’s a short earthquake and Nathan drops all the pizza boxes. An announcement is made that they need to evacuate the beach, so Nathan tells everyone the party is moving to a bar nearby and drinks are on the barbershop. 

Issa asks the girls if they should go. Molly says YES cuz she’s still scoping out which one of Nathan’s friends gon’ see her butt nekkid. 

Photo Credit: Glen Wilson

Friend Zone – The boys are in the car headed to the bar when Aric wonders if Molly was feeling him. He thinks it’d be cool if he starts to date Nathan’s girl’s girl. But Nate clarifies that Issa ain’t his girl and tells them about cry-gate the week before. He says he left after she fell asleep. His dudes point out that maybe she felt comfortable crying in front of him because he let himself be friend zoned. OOP.

The girl’s (plus Resha’s) Lyft driver to the bar is a hotep, which tracks, based on their luck. Issa gets a notification and it’s a social media post from Crenshawn calling her a fraud. SHEESH! Bro is in his feelings, and she calls Quoia, who is pissed and ready to ride. Issa tells her assistant not to worry, cuz they good. 

In the back seat, Resha and Kelli are getting their wellness chat on as Issa and Molly text. She says Nathan was acting funny cuz he’s with Resha. Molly interrupts the convo happening between Kelli and Resha and asks Resha outright if she’s f**king Nathan. Absolutely not. And if SHE wants to, Resha is willing to set em’ up. The lesson for Issa: ASSUME NOTHING. Now there’s no one to blame, Issa. Whatchu gon do?

Light Leaf – At the bar, Aric shows up and sees that Johnny, the other Molly candidate, is already in the building trying to win this competition. SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS. Nathan hands one to Issa, who apologizes for the other night and wonders why he left. He says it was because he didn’t know what to do. They both say sorry for their parts in it, when in walks Thomas, Nathan’s cousin, and his wife Velma. Seems Velma has some unspoken tension with Nathan? Issa asks how long they’re in town, but they aren’t visitors. They live in town. Issa just ain’t know. 

Thomas and Nathan reminisce about times in college, and he tells the story of when Nathan abandoned him after a Chamillionaire concert. Velma makes a joke about how Nathan is a “light skinned leaf” who is often “gone with the wind.” Hmmm… I see a pattern. Issa chimes in saying that she’s glad the wind blew him to her cuz he has inspired her to put down roots. Awww.

Photo Credit: Glen Wilson

A Jason Derulo concert is happening, and they decide to keep the party going. However, Johnny gotta go home to let his cat out so he ain’t gon make it and forfeits the competition. Molly instantly turns to Aric and says she’s rolling with him to the concert. OOP. 

Who else going? Not Kelli and Resha cuz they’re in the middle of an Iyanla breakthrough moment. Thomas asks Velma if she wants to go, and she says no, but says he can hang out. He walks her to the car as Kelli is over there sharing hamster mom dreams. LOL she cracks me clean up!

Escalation – Five of em’ ride in a Lyft when Issa gets a phone notification. Crenshawn has continued his anger with Issa over to Twitter, where people are now officially paying attention to the brewing beef. If there’s one thing folks on Twitter love: it’s DRAMAAAA. Quoia is replying to him (cuz she a real one) telling him to chill. Issa gets upset and sends him a DM telling him he’s weird for doing this. Especially since she got him all that exposure. 

Aric and Molly are in the back flirting heavy when Issa gets another notification. Crenshawn screenshotted her DM and posted it to the timeline (because OF COURSE HE DOES). She screams F**K before she realizes it, and then lies to the folks in the car to cover it up. S**t. It’s getting real online. 

They get to the venue for the Jason Derulo concert and Ari is trying to get them all in (it’s like twenty of em’). Issa is texting Quoia, who tells her to let the internet get tired, as a way to deal with the backlash she’s getting over Crenshawn. 

Aric comes back and says the party is at capacity and he can only get one person in. He chooses Molly, cuz he got booty grab priorities. 

Kicking Out – Issa gets a text from Molly, who found them a door they can sneak in through. They head toward it, but Nathan notices that Thomas is walking away and follows him. He’s gonna go home and has already called his Lyft. Thomas is ready to go, and contrary to Nathan’s assumption, Velma doesn’t have him on a tight leash. She’s actually the one who encouraged him to hang with his cousin. “I know she don’t f**k with me. That’s why she kicked me out.”

OH! Let’s have some real talk then. 

Thomas says that it was him who did that. Wait what? Say more. Thomas said he is the one who made the decision to tell him to leave. Nathan showed up to them, unannounced, and would go missing for days at a time, just to show up in the middle of the night. There were kids in that house that Thomas needed to protect, so it was best he told cuzzo to bounce. Nathan tells his cousin, “That isn’t me anymore.” Thomas apologizes, and says Velma took the blame all this time, cuz it would be easier. He gets in his Lyft and leaves.

Issa walks up and Nathan walks away. He looks mad hurt. She follows him and asks if he’s okay. He admits he was manic when he lived with his cousin and his family, and that they hadn’t talked since he moved out. He wanted to prove that he got his s**t together, but you can’t change how people see you. He puts her in the mix too. She says her crying wasn’t about him. It was about her being overwhelmed. She feels like she’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Photo Credit: Glen Wilson

She admits that she doesn’t just wanna be friends with him. He says the same, and they kiss. Another quick earthquake happens, and they keep kissing on that hill. 

Sooo a part of me thinks Issa is only entertaining Nathan because she has no other options. The friend zone she’s placed him in was the right place, because she clearly hasn’t done the healing process to get over Lawrence. She didn’t cry because she was overwhelmed, I think she cried because the part of her that loved Lawrence deeply is still wounded by the fact that they aren’t together. It’s not because they fell out of love, but because of a circumstance that is bigger than both of them.

Nathan’s a good dude, with a lot of personal baggage he’s working through. And that convo with his cousin was painful because Nathan still walks away from it feeling victimized by family who tried to help him. Sir, you were coming and going all willy-nilly and leaving folks doors unlocked and wondered why they would tell you to pack your s**t and go. Yes, he realized he was going through a manic episode afterwards, but DURING, how did you think the people helping you will feel when they also feel like you’re putting their kids’ lives in danger, potentially? There’s a lack of accountability that Nathan engages in that he needs to fix. Similarly with Issa, doe. Also, I think Issa is going to break his heart again. Their romance is a romance of settling, both running back to each other because of proximity and convenience. We shall see, though. I’m willing to be very wrong.