‘Insecure’ Season 3, Episode 3: How To Self-Sabotage, According To Molly And Daniel

For possibly the first time in “Insecure” history, Issa made the best decisions out of anyone in the entire episode. But fret not, Molly and Daniel were trash enough for the entire crew.

This week, Molly started her first day at Hayward & Associates, a black-owned law firm, making bad stereotypical jokes to her new boss and co-workers. Stepping into this new role, Molly is unprofessional, informal and, at times, just downright rude. She’s so hung up on the luxuries she had at her old firm ― a place where microaggressions and pay inequity thrived ― that she can’t get past her own anti-black biases and see her new firm as just as valid and professional.

Meanwhile, Daniel is stuck in a pattern of self-sabotage sponsored by his own ego and fragility. Khalil does him a huge favor by setting him up with studio time with Spyder. This would be a much-needed win for Daniel, but he compromises his chances and the producer’s ties to Spyder by playing his beat without Khalil’s changes. Daniel knows he messed up but still lashes out at Issa when she tells him he should apologize.

Then there’s Issa, who’s making strides to get back in her element. We see her growing tired of being tokenized and unfulfilled at We Got Y’all, tired of not having her own space and tired of not being able to talk her rap shit in the mirror. This is her rock bottom. On top of that, she’s grappling with her feelings for Daniel, who is subtly trying to keep her under control for fear of losing her again. In this episode, Issa begins to awaken and recognize that she is a woman who cannot be contained.

On this edition of “Run That Back,” Julia Craven and Taryn Finley discuss anti-blackness in black spaces, being tokenized yet undervalued in the workplace, and how offering dick isn’t a real apology.

Taryn: Good day to everyone except Issa, Daniel and Molly.

Julia: I would like to make a brief statement to our readers.

Julia: Now that I have seen Daniel and Issa hooking up, I’m upset and don’t like it and I regret everything I said about wanting DanIssa to be a thing. That’s all I gotta say. Also: Eating Hot Cheetos while getting top isn’t a bad idea.

Taryn: I’m glad you got that off your chest. Unlike some of the characters in this show, you know how to admit when you’re wrong and grow from it.

Re: Cheetos, he better not ask for any cause nobody needs flamin’ hot dust on their pussy.

Julia: Except maybe Molly, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Taryn: Oh boy, won’t we get there. Grabs boxing gloves. Cause I’m ready to knock out more than one person after this episode.

Julia: I got three hits ― one for Molly, Daniel and Issa.

Taryn: You being generous cause Molly and Daniel getting several two-pieces and that’s just a warm up.

Julia: Shockingly, Issa has the least harsh drag this week. Good for her.

Before Molly even starts her new job, she’s making jokes about the office having shea butter dispensers. This would be fine if her entire attitude surrounding this black-owned law firm wasn’t based on stereotypes and comparisons to her last workplace, a predominately white firm. When she notices that Hayward & Associates doesn’t have DocuSign or an off-site storage facility, she forgets that less privilege comes with less resources and she’s reluctant to adapt. When Malcolm isn’t present at the start of her first morning meeting, she assumes he’s on CPT when in reality he usually attends the meeting later when he needs to take a call. Her new beginning at this office quickly uncovers Molly’s internalized anti-blackness.

Julia: With y’all friend Molly though, I do want to start from the beginning and walk my ass-whooping through the episode, because idk how else to dig into her ass. So I wanna be methodological. 

And the first thing she did that irked the fuck out of me was when she mentioned that there will probably be shea butter dispensers in the office bathroom of her new, all-black law firm. Now, I know it’s a joke … but she’s going into a new job with a very stereotypical view of blackness and I ain’t like that. 

Taryn: Honestly, fuck her. Molly’s bougie ass deserves her wig dragged across the floor while singing “Lift Every Voice” because how dare you show up to this new job you were begging for and treat your black co-workers like second-class citizens. She made me so sick.

It’s really evident that she put whiteness on a pedestal out the gate. I understand that there’s a familiarity that we have with our colleagues who look like us, but professionalism should always be on top. The fact that you don’t think the lawyers at this all-black firm deserve the same respect as the white men who gave you a crusty-ass award instead of a raise is extremely telling of how you view your own blackness, sis.

Julia: Her mind never went to a difference in resources for black firms since black people don’t have the same generational wealth that white ones do. Like, OK. There’s no DocuSign. But you could also adjust your work routine so that the courier won’t be an issue. That’s part of being an adult. If you know the courier might pick up at 12:30, make sure there’s enough time for your client to get back to you. And the constant references back to her old firm … like do you wanna go back to shuckin’ and jivin’?

Even when she found out they were using her office for storage, she immediately talked about what her old firm did. What her colleague said in response was very telling though: “It’s convenient once you get used to it.”

She’s not even giving herself time to adjust. She wanted a white firm with black faces.

Taryn: Folks (even black folks) NEVER want to consider the institutional obstacles at play when it comes to resources for black businesses. And the judgment from that ends up spilling into how they believe the company can run effectively. It’s really unfortunate because she couldn’t look past the luxuries that she didn’t have anymore to actually see how blessed she was to be at a firm that would treat her better. No, you don’t have DocuSign, but your salary is better and you’re surrounded by folks who won’t treat your hair like a petting zoo. In Kelli’s grandma’s words, she’s looking a gift horse in the dick and it ain’t cute.

You know what, I really don’t care about the success of Molly anymore cause she obviously doesn’t. She continues to self-sabotage. Even when her new co-worker was trying to get to know her a bit more by going to lunch, she seemed a little too dismissive. I understand you got work to do, sis, but you look like you think you’re too good for everybody else. Like you’re too good for blackness.

Why would you say, to your new boss’ face, that the office looks like a McDonald’s commercial? Why would you assume that Malcolm was late because of CPT? Why do the anti-black views you’ve been conditioned to believe as law prevent you from exhibiting professionalism? And I know we joke about CPT, McDonald’s commercials and other stereotypical shit, but I’m not going into a place of business that happens to be run by black folks talmbout, “Hehe, y’all know how we do.” Yes, our spaces hold a special place to us because they feel more welcoming and familiar, but that doesn’t mean that formalities go out the door.

Oooooo, she just makes me so mad.

Julia: THAT PART!!!!!!!! When she asked if Malcolm was on CP time, I visibly cringed. “I love us! We so black up in here we can’t even start on time.” BITCH, WHAT???????? Even like she said at dinner with Issa, Kelli and Tiffany, “Why do black businesses have to be on the struggle?” It’s like she expected a stereotypically black experience but she also expected the firm to have white privilege, which is so fucking weird.

It’s very telling of how Molly sees herself and how her blackness fits into corporate America.

I was disgusted, tbh. She was so judgmental and negative instead of focusing on the ways her career are better now.

Taryn: I knew once we saw her paying for a blueberry facial for her dog Molly was finna be on some high siddity shit this episode. She irked me more in this one episode than Tiffany has in all of this show’s history. I’d rather she go back to fucking a married man with expectations of a relationship (even though she denies this is what she wants). Fuck up your own shit, don’t project that self-hate unto others. 

Julia: I wondered if she ever would have said that shit about a white dude. If a white man was late, would she have assumed he was being lazy?

Taryn: You know she wouldn’t have. She had more respect for that mediocre white man who was undeservedly making more than her than she has for her black co-workers and boss combined.

Molly is such a weak bitch. I wanna teleport into this show so I can see her in the streets and knock her down a few pegs. She’s so damn condescending, narcissistic and unrealistic. That’s why she keeps doing fucked-up shit.

Julia: And I want more from her character. I really, really do. I want her to do better and be better, but she stays in this loop of bullshit. It’s gotten to a point where she’s doing this to herself and I’m tired.

Sorry, that spirit bubbled up in me.

Taryn: You downplayed Dro’s open marriage in the first episode and now you’re downplaying the value and validity of this firm. And if you wanna go back to Season 1, you downplayed the fact that men can have sexually fluid experiences and still be a good partner. You do this without even trying to grasp onto shit outside of your house of understanding. You do the same thing and make the same mistakes over and over again expecting a different outcome. You know what that’s called, sis? That’s called INSANITY. You got this nice lil office, you take your dog to get pedicures and you live in an apartment my broke ass would die for, but you ain’t no boss. YOU’RE A FUCKING INSANE WEAK ASS BITCH!

Julia: She’s quite bizarre. Incredibly. She knows better, too. That’s the thing that drives me up the wall.

Taryn: And I wanna say it’s crazy that you’d treat blackness like this but it’s not. And it’s not uncommon. TOO many black people measure success and worthiness with whiteness and white privilege, and that is the worst measuring stick. Whiteness is literally built on the backs of melanated folks who’ve been murdered, lynched, raped, displaced, robbed, abused, kidnapped, etc. They don’t realize it, but THAT is the metric they’re using to try to replicate the kind of success that Jim, Bob and Rebecca have. It’s wild, bruh.

Taryn: Girl, I got a headache cause I’ve been frowning the entire time we’ve been talking about this bitch.

Julia: Whiteness cannot be the metric with which we measure ourselves. It cannot. Because, as you said, it wasn’t a metric created for us. And I don’t want people to think I’m shitting on Molly’s ambition. I’m not. That’s one of the (few) things I love about her. She’s incredibly driven. I love that. But she’s very simple-minded. Her behavior reminds me of Season 1 when that black girl temped at her #OldFirm and she tried to stop her from being “ghetto.”

Whew, what a fucking gag.

Taryn: Yup. I thought about that, too. Smh.

Julia: You can’t be stereotypically black in white spaces but you can be that way in black spaces? Oh. I see how you view blackness, bbygrl.

Taryn: She’s a true clown. Molly the kinda bitch that RT’d Nicki Minaj’s tweet comparing herself to Harriet Tubman.

Julia: jkudfhjdbfeywtfdhvsd BYE ! 

Taryn: And she got the nerve to have a dog named Flava Flav. As in “Fight the Power” Flava Flav. Girl, bye. Somebody call DeRay so he can remind Molly that he loves her blackness and his.

Taryn: Me too, at this point. Oh, one more thing: FUCK MOLLY!

Issa and Daniel are at the laundromat washing clothes and doing some light flirting. The chemistry is undeniable, yet there’s a slight shift in Daniel’s energy when she tells him she’s considering taking a property manager position and moving out. He laughs it off, but Daniel’s living situation with Issa is the only thing that’s going right in his life right now and he’s frustrated at the idea of losing that, too. Khalil invites him to his house to play a beat to present to Spyder. Daniel raves about the Nordic sample in his instrumental, but Khalil suggests that he makes a few tweaks because Spyder likes his vocals to be the main melody. When the two finally get to the studio to play the sample for Spyder, Daniel plays his original beat, ignoring Khalil’s guidance. Khalil is pissed, and Daniel may have just shut a door that could have led to something big. When he tells Issa about it over dinner, she advises him to apologize. His pride gets in the way and he dismisses her and her career advice because of her current situation.

Taryn: I’m so sorry but I just hollered and I really need to share this with you. I know you peeped this lady on “Ke’Vyn” handing this white lady a jug of pigs feet.

But let’s gon head and drag this nigga, too, cause I can’t tell who won the headass of the week award between him and Molly. It’s close. The self-sabotage is real and I expected better from him. But, alas, you can’t expect shit from anyone on “Insecure.”

Julia: Not one person is shit. And it’s sad. Except Jada. I like her.

Taryn: And Kelli. The only grounded adult in this show.

Julia: Daniel really gotta grow up and get over himself. He’s not Darkchild.

Taryn: He keep doing the Bow Wow challenge. That’s why he ain’t further in his career. “We got a table, too” headass nigga.

Lowkey, he’s exhibiting a similar thought pattern that Molly is. They both think they’re highbrow but they aren’t. Daniel keeps shitting on the “ratchet” and “simple” shit and raving on and on about how his Nordic sample is true musicianship but nobody really gives a fuck. If he’d stop looking down on what’s popular and actually experimented with the shit, he’d finally have the range to walk the big shit that he talks.

Like, Khalil is offering you valid critiques on your beats. You’re delivering this to an artist who Khalil has worked with before so he knows his taste. If he likes his 808s, loop the fucking bass, bruh. Sometimes you have to compromise on what you want for a project now for the sake of opening up a bigger door for yourself later. Daniel doesn’t know how to play the long game, and we honestly should’ve realized that when he walked into an LA club with a wool cardigan on. He reaching for the glitter and not the gold.

Julia: He also doesn’t understand how to cater to an audience, and the minute you isolate an audience you’ve isolated your work. Like you said, Khalil knows what Spyder wants, and if that nigga likes for his voice to be the main melody then construct him an appropriate beat.

When he was going on about Khalil taking the “musicianship” out of the song, I cringed again. He’s reluctant to play the game in order to get to where he can be in life, which is equally telling for him as it is for Molly. And to call trap music “that simple shit”? Once again, we’re having a conversation about devaluing blackness just because it doesn’t look like you want it to look.

Trap is a subgenre of hip-hop. A damn good one. Period.

I understand that playing the game is tough when you have big ideas. But you have to solidify yourself in a way that allows you to do what you want to do at work. And if you play it well enough, you’ll gain range along the way and be in your own niche in three years or so.

You can also remain unique while you play! That Nordic shit was dope as fuck and new and interesting and different. All Khalil did was loop the 808s.

Taryn: It made me more frustrated than anything in the first scene when they’re at Khalil’s. I could tell Daniel thought the tweaks would compromise his artistic integrity, but they didn’t! But it took me over the edge when he went behind Khalil’s back and played his original version for Spyder. That was so weak and so disrespectful to the person who was trying to put you on.

Humility is a hell of a drug and Daniel acts like he hasn’t been introduced to it. Yes, you’re good, but until you chill that egotistical shit out, you won’t be able to climb. I need Daniel to get a fucking grip because he’s spiraling in this episode.

Julia: Daniel also could have compromised Khalil’s business connection with Spyder if Spyder had been a diva about it. It’s so embarrassing to attach your name to someone and then they come in and try it like that.

Also the way Khalil was staring at Daniel reminded me of this: 

But Daniel was so deeply unprofessional. It was wild as fuck to even watch. 

Taryn: Khalil is really a nice man, because Daniel’s energy towards him was off from jump. Maybe it’s because Daniel taught him how to make beats back in the day, but Khalil really should’ve cussed him out.

Also, I don’t like Spyder, but that’s mainly because his character is abusive on “Greenleaf” and I’m still not over that. But their commentary in the studio had me dead. “Y’all know who got titties? Viola Davis.” I died cause it’s like y’all niggas are really dumb af and I know people be in the studio saying stupid shit like that lmao. I imagine Young Thug saying some shit like that before a session.

Julia: Nah, not Thug. He too serious. Lil Durk would though.

Taryn: Girl I had to look up which one that was. That’s Dej Loaf man, right?

Oh shit, I just Googled. They broke up I guess. Wow, see how old and apathetic I am these days.

Julia: You are as old as sin, my God.

Taryn: You ain’t wrong, sis. But you know who is? Daniel for how he treated Issa.

Julia: Daniel got a lot of fucking nerve coming out of his mouth to slander Issa like that. I know she often warrants a slandering, but she didn’t this time. He was mad that she was right. Daniel DOES owe Khalil an apology because it WAS a good opportunity that DANIEL fucked up with his pride and fragile ego.

I was livid. And then, just like a nigga, he tried to apologize with dick. All men are literally the same.

Taryn: First off, I think his attachment to her living under his roof is a bit unhealthy. It feels like he’s trying to make up for old time, but if he really wants to build something sustainable with her, he needs to not be salty when she tells him she’s looking to move out. Let her do her thing, bruh. Issa is trying to help you more than she’s trying to help herself at this point, and you decide that her advice isn’t valid because she’s fallen on hard times? Nigga please.

Julia: That’s how a lot of people are. They think that in order for someone to give advice they have to be Beyoncé, Oprah or Michelle Obama, and that isn’t true. For example, I can weigh 230 lbs. and tell you that eating cookies every day is bad. Just because I’m 230 don’t mean I’m wrong.

This is like somebody telling me not to tweet something stupid and I tell them to get out my face bc they only got 12 followers. Granted, would I say that? Absolutely but that don’t make the person wrong!

Taryn: We’ve talked about how Issa is using Daniel this season, but we haven’t really gotten into how Daniel is using Issa. Right now, she’s his security blanket because shit ain’t going right in his life. He isn’t where he wants to be professionally, Vanessa isn’t into him like he’s into her and he’s just all around Insecure. Issa is the only constant who he can depend on right now, and when she leaves, he feels like he won’t have that when she moves out. 

He’s frustrated at the thought of this and anything else in his life that he feel like he can’t control. So that’s a big reason, imo, that he’s going off on Issa and Khalil when they offer advice. Because he doesn’t have shit under control, he spirals and makes horrible decisions at the expense of others. I want him to see a therapist because he has some internal shit that will only hold him back if he doesn’t address it.

Julia: I do like how his character is representative of many a human who does that. I, too, have a tendency to lash out at advice when I’m in a place where it feels like everything is out of control and I can’t breathe. I characterized it once as life feeling loud. And when things are loud, you can’t think. You can’t control anything around you and you fucking spiral. The difference is that I email my therapist ASAP and set something up so that I can regain my focus.

So I know what Daniel is going through very well. But it’s not OK to lash out at the people who are trying to help you. I doubt that Khalil and Issa don’t see how flustered Daniel is. They have to see it. And they’re trying to guide him, but he’s in that space where he doesn’t want help, and that’s always a dangerous space to occupy.

I think I said this earlier but Daniel and Molly are both in these weird spaces where they’re shitting on a facet of blackness that differs from theirs but also need to see a therapist because some internal shit is bubbling up.

Taryn: Yup. That’s exactly right. Like I told you earlier, I get what Daniel is feeling. Seeing folks around you soar when the bulk of your Ws are yet to come sucks. But that’s when you gotta step back and look at the bigger picture. Which is very hard (can you tell I’m talking to myself at this point). I really do want Daniel to win because I think he’s genuinely a good person, but he has to cut this music elitist bullshit and understand the importance of the space trap music occupies.

Julia: I’ve learned through my own journey that, sometimes, the Ws come after a humbling and several Ls. I had to learn to stop limiting myself as a writer and looking down on work I considered valid but “less serious.” My editor (Hi, Tommy!) got me out of that after many a conversation about why I was frustrated with my career. Eventually he just snatched my wig off and told me that it wasn’t my actual capabilities that were lacking but the way I perceived journalism.

Sometimes we need a dragging. Daniel needs a dragging and to see that it isn’t the industry. It’s him.

Taryn: WHEW! Amen to that. Draggings save lives.

Julia: If it weren’t for my Mama, my Nana, my therapist and my Tommy dragging me, I’d be Molly, tbh.

Taryn: And in this moment, that’s one of the worst things you can be.

Julia: Nana in 2012 when I first started dabbling in journalism: “I know you got a lot of mouth and wanna run it but you need to learn how them white folks move first.” And what was she besides correct?

Taryn: Nana be knowing. Older black women be knowing.

Julia: Like Daniel’s mama peeped game when he said Issa was staying with him. She knew from JUMP what he was on.

Taryn: Girl, that was his sister. ?

Julia: Black women of all ages carry wisdom.

Taryn: I got that wrong at first, too, just because she son’d tf outta him.

Julia: She really did. That’s why I thought she was his mama ?

Taryn: The moral of the story is listen to black women.

Julia: Including Issa, in this case.

Taryn: Issa really gives good advice. She just doesn’t listen to her own wisdom a lot of times.

Julia: So basically Issa is all of us.

Taryn: In a metaphorical way, yes. But I ain’t setting myself up for the okey doke over and over again like her dumb ass.

Julia: habdcfegfejfgsjahd

Taryn: But I think that’s why this show is so successful. We can really see snippets of ourselves in more than one character. So when they fuck up, we get riled up cause it feels close.

Julia: Absolutely. I also love shows about regular-ass black people.

Taryn: Same. Annalise Keating is a bad bitch and we need characters like her on screen, but she ain’t me.

Julia: But Daniel? Daniel is me. Sometimes — not overwhelmingly.

Issa’s storyline begins with a fantasy of her and Daniel having sex while she munches on Hot Cheetos. She’s snapped out of it when he asks her in real life what her heart wants. Instead of giving in to her fantasies, she quips about needing to be at work on time and turns her back to him. Issa’s time on screen this episode is spent doing better, or at least trying to. She works the booth at a career fair only to venture off in search of The Beat Crew, a nonprofit that better aligns with her passion for music. She tours an apartment building and gets offered the property manager gig on the spot. Then she sits in on an interview with a black applicant for a We Got Y’all position. When Frieda leaves the room, the woman asks Issa how things are at work for her. “You know, they are how they are.” The woman says she knows before asking Issa how long she’s worked there. When Issa says five years and the woman’s eyes light up, exclaiming “Wow! You must really like it then!” we see our antagonizing protagonist’s face freeze. She goes back to her desk and starts looking for other jobs. Later, at dinner with Daniel, Issa shares that she took the property manager gig, to his disdain. She offers him sound career advice and he lashes out, saying she doesn’t have a passion. The episode ends with her stopping Daniel from apologizing with oral sex and, again, making the best decision for her.

Julia: Anyway, Issa. I don’t have a bad dragging for her this go-round. She made the most sense.

Taryn: She really did. You know what that is? 

Julia: What is that, auntie?

This isn’t the same Issa we met two seasons ago, and as frustrated as I am with her most of the time, I’m really excited to see where she goes. I think big things are in store for her.

Julia: Same! I love that she’s beginning to reckon with the fact that she is unfulfilled at work and that, possibly, being back in the field ― at the job fair ― isn’t enough. She doesn’t want to recruit because she doesn’t want to be there.

Taryn: And I don’t blame her. I mean, how mind-boggling is it to be demoted and on thin ice at work and then to show up at a job fair where your face is next in line to the boss’ photo on the marketing board. She’s the only black woman in this office and y’all think her voice is invalid but you’re happy to parade her around for show. That’s tokenizing and it’s fucked up.

Julia: The Story Of The Token Black. It’s frustrating. They want black faces to represent them but they don’t want black people to talk.

Taryn: I hope Issa starts working for The Beat Crew. She’s so unfulfilled at We Got Y’all. I’m also sad that we haven’t heard one of her freestyles yet this season. Like you said two episodes ago, she’s out of her element.

Julia: That’s why I knew she was gonna take that property manager gig when she saw herself in that mirror. I just hate that Daniel acted such a fool when she told him.

Taryn: I know it’s not in Issa’s character to actively boss up on niggas, but I really need her to remind Daniel that she doesn’t owe him shit but rent.

Julia: And according to him she don’t owe that, so.

Taryn: Look at you reminding me of the facts. So there it is. Pack your shit and bounce, sis.

And while you at it, call ya girl Molly up and tell her to get her head from outta her ass.

Julia: She’s always telling Molly that as we saw at the dinner where Molly was mad she works for black people. I do wanna talk about that scene at work when it was just Issa and the other black woman left alone. I loved it.

Once again, the whites are showing off their token black employee.

Taryn: She tells her in a very passively Issa way, but I need her to shake the table like when she told her she needs to go to therapy. Cause Molly has hearing issues, clearly.

So this is the first time that we’re seeing two black women occupy space in this conference room. Granted it’s for an interview, it’s telling about how white work environments are for black people on a larger scale and about when it’s OK for black people to speak their minds without judgment (when they’re with each other and no one’s around). In that scene, it was clear that Issa was a little embarrassed that she’s been putting up with the shit for five years. Issa is admitting ― more so to herself ― that she’s been in this unfulfilling, emotionally abusive relationship for that long. I’m tired for her.

Julia: I loved that we finally got to see Issa interact with another black woman in a work setting and that it gave insight to how we talk amongst ourselves. The head nod, the facial gestures, how Issa’s body language relaxed once she saw that the applicant wasn’t ashy. It reminded me of how in some offices there are private slack channels where black folks, people of color, etc., can talk amongst ourselves. (Here’s a link so y’all know I ain’t snitching: https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/06/21/481408485/workers-find-safe-spaces-in-private-slack-channels-but-how-safe-are-they)

And I get the embarrassment of feeling like you’ve put up with some bullshit for too long, but the way job instability is for black women, I don’t blame Issa for not quitting her job. There’s also that element of fear of failure. What if her chasing a dream or a passion doesn’t work out? It’s always easier to remain complicit.

Taryn: It really is. Especially when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. Or when your credit score is 425.

Julia: Right! That will also keep you hindered. She also held her ground a lil bit at dinner.

Taryn: She did. Up against Daniel’s ungrateful ass. I’m glad she didn’t have sex with him. It was a switch from when we saw her fantasizing about it earlier in this episode. She had a huge awakening this episode, which was long overdue. 

Julia: I am so so so so glad she stopped him. He was trying to give her sex instead of actually apologizing and I’m glad she peeped game. 

Taryn: He half-ass apologized, which is the same as not apologizing. “I’m sorry… you know I was just upset” is not a real apology. She peeped game and she’s tired of Daniel taking shit out on her. 

Julia: It’s also so telling when people throw things that they’ve done for you back into your face. I’m glad she’s decided that she doesn’t want someone like that in her vagina.

Taryn: I want to see more of this Issa. She’s asserting herself more and taking less shit. This is crucial for her getting out of the rut that she’s in and finding happiness.

Julia: It also shows that she’s making her own decisions no matter how off they may seem to others. Daniel was so anti the prop manager job ― for his own selfish reasons ― but I feel like Season 2 Issa would have listened to him instead of to herself.

Taryn: Season 2 Issa was lowkey pick me af.

Julia: Incredibly. And sure she had just gotten out of a long-term relationship but STILL.

Taryn: Right. Glad she’s seeing that life ain’t all “Love & Hip Hop” makes it out to be.

Julia: I still can’t believe that Issa had the most sense this episode.

Taryn: I’m proud of her for that. She needs to keep this same energy all season, but I feel like if she does and Molly stays stagnant, they’ll fall out. 

Julia: They always falling out. Might as well fall out again. I want smoke like Khalil almost smoked Daniel for nearly compromising his reputation.

Taryn: You know what, you right. What’s one more beef? I’m all for drama. I’m here for it.