S05.E08: Choices, Okay?!

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

Issa finds herself at a crossroads in both her career and relationship. Molly spends an emotional day getting her parents' will in order.

Original air date 2021.12.12

[Marley]

This episode annoyed me. I don’t like imaginary scenarios like that.

Issa needs to just move on from Lawrence. It would be dumb for them to get back together. Easier said then done I guess but I’m over them.

[Amethyst]

Well, that was something.  I was ok with the first dream sequence, but then they just kept going...

Damn, Issa is still hemming and hawing over Lawrence vs Nathan.  Please end this.  The farther she goes with Nathan, the more apprehensive she is.  At this point, she and Nathan will be speaking their vows at their wedding and Issa will still be wondering if she belongs with Lawrence.

Now Crenshawn sees that Issa really does care about her community and is doing well.  More importantly, he realizes how hard it is to do these kind of events on his own and now he wants her help.  Uh-huh.  This is the same man who was openly badmouthing Issa to potential clients and smugly had her groveling at his office.  Regardless of Issa's decision, she deserves a real apology instead of that sorry assed "My bad, so you still want to work together?" version from Crenshawn.  I really hope she rejects his proposal.  Crenshawn needs Issa more than Issa needs him.

The fact that Taurean sent the food and wine to Molly's house instead of sending himself over said a lot.

Looks like Kelli has found her calling.  I can see her starting her own business assisting seniors with writing their wills/end of life plans.  She clearly enjoys it and has a personality that endears people to her.

I can't believe they brought Ahmal back so briefly.  I missed him and Kelli together.

[Irlandesa]

17 minutes ago, Amethyst said:

Damn, Issa is still hemming and hawing over Lawrence vs Nathan.  Please end this.  The farther she goes with Nathan, the more apprehensive she is.

Yeah.  I think Issa's ILY was a spontaneous utterance.  Once she said it, she didn't want to take it back.  She pushed him to say it because she wanted a win.  Now, I think she's on a path with him that she's not mentally or emotionally prepared for.  And even though she has questions about Lawrence, I don't even think he's the bulk of her doubts.

1 hour ago, Amethyst said:

The fact that Taurean sent the food and wine to Molly's house instead of sending himself over said a lot.

Just curious, do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing?  I thought it was sweet, especially since they're only at Date 2 stage. 

 

[Marley]

I thought it was cute he sent over food and wine. Would seem kind of pushy annoying if he just showed up after she told him she wasn’t up for it.

[Amethyst]

6 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Just curious, do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing?  I thought it was sweet, especially since they're only at Date 2 stage. 

Definitely good thing!  Sorry, I was rushing, lol. Taurean is clearly interested, but I like that he’s genuinely offering support and space while Molly is going through this crisis.

[Empress1]

6 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Just curious, do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing?  I thought it was sweet, especially since they're only at Date 2 stage. 

I thought it was very sweet. I agree with @Marley that him showing up at her door would have been presumptuous. Sending food and wine says he’s thinking of her but still giving her the space she requested.

Issa knows Nanceford isn’t the guy.

Quoia might be my favorite tertiary character.

[Joimiaroxeu]

"Totally rad that you're here." Quoia code-switching like it's her job. Oh wait, it is. 😉

Molly cheesing like she's on some macaroni.

Sexy-ass apology. But it's Crenshawn though. 🙄 Of course he's is all up on Issa now that he wants something. He needs put it on social media the way he did when he was trashing Issa so hard.

AFAIC, Mirror Issa needs to mind her business instead trying to steer Issa back towards Lawrence. Things are going fine with Nate, if also a bit boring. He's clearly not Mr. Right but I think he's fine as Mr. Right Now.  

Sigh, Issa's determined to have unfinished business with Lawrence. Whhhyyy?

[PrincessPurrsALot]

To me, whenever Lawrence and Issa it a rough patch, they break up.  Rough patch #1 was long and drawn out with Lawrence on the couch not working and seemingly too down to try.  It doesn't speak well to their long term prospects when they don't seem to know how to support and help each other.  Maybe we're supposed to see the growth Lawrence has shown as a father and in mutually working through issues with Condola as a sign he will now be better in difficult situations.  We've also seen growth in Issa. However, for me that ship has sailed. 

I liked Taurean being understanding with Molly and Molly using her words effectively.  She too has grown from the self-sabotaging character we started with.  

[Sheenieb]

20 hours ago, Amethyst said:

Now Crenshawn sees that Issa really does care about her community and is doing well.  More importantly, he realizes how hard it is to do these kind of events on his own and now he wants her help.  Uh-huh.  This is the same man who was openly badmouthing Issa to potential clients and smugly had her groveling at his office.  Regardless of Issa's decision, she deserves a real apology instead of that sorry assed "My bad, so you still want to work together?" version from Crenshawn.  I really hope she rejects his proposal.  Crenshawn needs Issa more than Issa needs him.

Yup! Issa should chuck the deuces up at Crenshawn. He needs to put the same energy into apologizing that he had when he was trashing her on social media.

She should take MBW's offer and go from there. In the Crenshawn scenario, she was still property managing. It's way past time to level up, Issa. I could understand going with Crenshawn if he were a pleasant person to work with, but considering he doesn't know how to use his words when he's upset, she's better off with the corporate company. 

Molly's dad saying that he's worked for 50 years with nothing to show for it hit me in my chest. I'm glad that Kelli didn't miss a beat telling him that it's never too late to start saving. 

Edited December 14, 2021 by Sheenieb

[Empress1]

25 minutes ago, Sheenieb said:

Molly's dad saying that he's worked for 50 years with nothing to show for it hit me in my chest. I'm glad that Kelli didn't miss a beat telling him that it's never too late to start saving. 

Me too. I loved Kelli there - she wasn’t judging, she was very kind and she infused her brand of humor. As someone said, I think she’d be great if she transitioned from using her skills (is she a CPA? Financial planner? Both?) to help rich white men get richer to using them to help her community build wealth. (Also if they own that house, that’s not nothing.)

[tennisgurl]

Awww I thought Taurean sending Molly wine and wings was so sweet, it showed that he cares about and supports her while also respecting that she needs some alone time. I might not be thrilled about either of Issa's romantic prospects, I think both of those ships have long since sailed, but I am happy that Molly has worked on herself and found a possibly healthy relationship. 

I also agree with him that whisky is too aggressive for tapas. Tapas call for a nice red. 

Oh yeah, now Crenshaw is all about Issa and asking to work with her again, after he realized that doing this himself is hard and he needs her again. If he really wanted to apologize he should spend as much time telling all of his Instagram followers how wrong he was about Issa as he did dragging her all over the internet. I am sure she will give him another shot and hopefully he has some perspective now on how this is going to work, but she should be careful, he's already established himself as an untrustworthy and immature person who will throw a temper tantrum if he doesn't get his way.

[aghst]

I don't quite see working with NBW and with Crenshawn as being separate paths where she can do one or the other.

Why couldn't she do both?

She's worried about selling out?  First she's excited to get the email from NBW to see how much they'd offer her.  Then she sees a big ad for NBW on a bus running through Inglewood.

Isn't that what she was positioning BLOCC as, helping companies access the market she knows so well?

She seemed to like living in a nice house, though maybe not with Nathan there necessarily.

Even if she ultimately wants Lawrence, it shouldn't affect her professional decisions.  And again, there is no reason why she can't work with Crenshawn and local artists as well as with a corporate sponsor like NBW.

That is unless I missed something and Crenshawn and Anthology Collective both told her they won't work with someone who represents corporations.

If she had to choose between clients, NBW may make more sense while Crenshawn may not know about how to get permits and doing all the little things to open stores and so forth, it's something he can eventually have employees do those functions.  She would be a middleman with maybe not a long-term prospect.

BLOCC would be a middleman with BLOCC as well but that's a more common type of business relationship, where companies would pay to get access to new markets.  Potential for several other clients of this type long term.

 

Molly should know all about the importance of wills given her profession.  But she's more nagging at her parents, who can discount her repeated requests to take care of their wills somewhat.  So coming from Kelli, they seem more receptive to the message.

Still not sure if they are pairing Molly with Taurean because they always planned it that way or because they ran out of ideas and decided to use a minor supporting character as the man in her life -- at least as the series ends.

 

 

[Lois Sandborne]

Me at the end of pretty much every episode this season:

WHAT WAS THE REASON?!

I understand the storytelling concept of "show don't tell," but for that to work there has to actually be some story told, damn. Keeping plot wheels spinning while you push to the end is not telling a story. 

And enough is enough with the fantasies. I think by now the point has been made that Issa is ambivalent about her path forward and struggling with the right choices in her career and her social life. She's not sure Nathan/Lawrence/whoever will make her happy? She doesn't know how to level up with the corporate interests and still keep her roots in the community intact? We got that. We know. To have her still doing so much daydreaming about these same old questions makes Issa seem shallow and immature, like she hasn't really been doing any growing all this time.

What would've probably made a better season of tv and would definitely have made this a better episode is for Issa to actually do something about any of it. They could've picked up on that perfectly fine story arc they dropped in the premiere, when Issa was completely at sea on the panel. She's clearly come a little farther now in knowing where she wants to go, and there were good plot opportunities for her to synthesize her thoughts, use her words, and make a move. Instead, more dilly-dallying. And, to be fair, a very nice speech from Molly. Cool that her Mom bounced back from that stroke so fast. But Dr. Rhonda is clearly still somewhere doing some good work. Molly couldn't drop the facade with her parents, but I cheered a little when she turned off that fake voice and got real with Taurean.

Sidenote: agreed that Crenshawn can continue to kick rocks; how are you bashing me on front street but wanna apologize in the alley? At least bring me a free Integrity sweatshirt.

Another sidenote: I'm guessing it's a director's or a style choice for Issa and Nathan's love scenes to be so dry? But if I'm Nathan's actor, I couldn't go out like that.

Last one: I think lowkey the fantasy bits are supposed to be fanservice, which if so is making me think they have no clue what fans are looking for. At this point I really need it to be one hell of a finale.

[JohnnyGilda]

1 hour ago, Lois Sandborne said:

At least bring me a free Integrity sweatshirt.

LOL. For real, I'm gonna need more than that supposedly sexy-ass, way-late apology. Come with something customized, thanks.

Quoia's been a good addition for the comedy, and she seems really capable at her job.

[TVbitch]

What was that bit at the very end when Nathan said "That's what I want" and Issa said "what?" and Nathan walked into the other room and then a different voice said "you to be happy" and the music got super tense and creepy. Was that Lawrence's voice saying "you to be happy"?

Why do I still think they are gonna pair Issa with Crenshaw?

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

Was that Lawrence's voice saying "you to be happy"?

That's the way I interpreted it. If it wasn't his voice then I don't understand Issa's reaction.

Quote

Why do I still think they are gonna pair Issa with Crenshaw?

Oh no, let's not put that idea out into the universe. 😟

But given that the ending has already been filmed. I guess it doesn't matter; the show may have already gone there.

Sigh, I'm praying you won't disappoint me like that Issa.

[msani19]

All my thoughts, in no particular order:

As usual whenever Kelli is in an episode, I love every minute she's on screen.

Classic: "I'm gonna write a show about him, just so I can kill him off"...OMG I rewatched that scene multiple times because the acting between them was brilliant and with so few lines and same girl, same

Next: 'They call me the undertaker at work, mostly because I take naps under the desk but whatever" 

Kelli please come to my next brunch!! 

Issa and Nathan need to stop trying to make fetch happen, it's not. I'm beyond over Issa and Lawrence. Please show don't end with them!

Issa living her best life and her career taking off. I traveled extensively for work for several years until I said "enough", it's glamourous for exactly 2 seconds! The only thing I like is the status I still have from those days. But otherwise, nope. Travel is exhausting and not fun.

Crenshaw can eff all the way off. Yeah, it's hard doing that work, you unappreciative jerk. Get down on your knees and apologize like you know you should. Yeah, maybe that was a sexy ass apology, but not enough 😂 She's so forgiving, but I can understand she's not messing with the coin. 

Kelli is great at her job and I saw a previous comment about her being endearing to her clients. It's true. Plus, can she help me do this with my freaking parents! They act like they don't know what the hell I'm talking about. So frustrating. Parents, as much as they appreciate their kids and what they accomplished, have a hard time with listening to them like that. Molly I feel you (on this one specific thing!)

Really Tyra Banks. I laughed too hard. 

Taurean is a good dude. I like that Molly is actually able to be honest and plainly state where she was. Molly a couple seasons ago would have gone and put on her fake representative. Wine and wings sent to her was nice. Her therapy or whatever she's doing is working, definitely helps when you don't lie to your therapist. I really wanted to know what bottle he selected, it was a red, but which one??  I'm a burgeoning wine snob, that would be informative on his level of wine knowledge.

I don't need any of our girls to end up with a partner because that doesn't mean you will be happier in life, than without one. Taurean seems like a good fit for Molly. Issa has no one that I want her to be with. Tiffany is married and her husband seems solid. Kelli can do whatever she wants.  I still laugh when I think of how she pretended to be British with that absolute dummy last season. 

 

 

[TooMuchRealityTV]

11 hours ago, TVbitch said:

 

Why do I still think they are gonna pair Issa with Crenshaw?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that could happen. I don't want it to happen. It seems like a bad idea. But it would fit in with the theme of Issa's romantic interests seeming forced this season. She clearly isn't in love with Nathan. It seems like Issa and Lawrence have had enough chances over the years. It feels like they should stay apart. At this point I'm hoping she ends this single and happy and not in a relationship that will feel hobbled together because the series is ending.

I do love Molly this season. She seems to have taken therapy seriously and it shows. It seems like she is in a really good place to pursue a relationship with Taurean.

[DearEvette]

The first sighting of Ahmal this season and of course he is trading barbs with his best frenemy Kelli.  They are a gift.

Qoia is also a gift.  I love that she is always ready figuratively (and probably literally) to take her earrings and shoes off and go in for Issa. LOL.

Generally liked the episode.  I liked finally seeing the art walk happen (and of course Qoia code switching as she greets the participants).  One of my favorite parts of Insecure over the seasons has always been the way the show showcases and curates the parts of aspirational black life (art, restaurants, culture) LA to show to the rest of the world, that so many shows set in LA have never done. So ie njoyed this aspect of it.

But I am still very over Issa's waffling between Lawrence and Nathan.  I feel like my response  is lather, rinse, repeat after every episode.

On 12/13/2021 at 11:22 PM, aghst said:

And again, there is no reason why she can't work with Crenshawn and local artists as well as with a corporate sponsor like NBW.

At first I was puzzled why she felt like she has to choose between NBW and Crenshawn.  But then as I thought on the two fantasy projection scenarios, I realized it was not necessarily a choice between those two specific people but a choice between how she wanted the trajectory of her career to go.  Going with a big corporation like NBW means more money, bigger profile but it also means being disconnected from the types of community centered programming that was the building blocks of BLOCC.  Other the other hand, refusing NBW and staying working with Crenshawn and other local artists/entrepreneurs mean keeping her business local and community focused but the money/glow up just isn't there (hence her still in her old apartment and still dealing with toilet issues). 

And of course these are allegories for her choices between Lawrence and Nathan.  Which one will elevate her and which one will keep her grounded.

The problem, so far  is we don't know which is which or even which one she really prefers (being elevated or staying grounded)

 

On 12/13/2021 at 2:20 PM, Sheenieb said:

Molly's dad saying that he's worked for 50 years with nothing to show for it hit me in my chest. I'm glad that Kelli didn't miss a beat telling him that it's never too late to start saving. 

I felt that too.  Man.   So many people are in the same boat and it is depressing to think about.  But Kelli's response it not surprising. As an accountant for many years she probably has seen it all and she really isn't surprised at all.  When I was an academic advisor in college students would sometimes be embarrassed by their gpas or whatever situation they were telling me about and by the time I had bveen advising for several years, you really have heard it all.  You don't even need a poker face, it really doesn't surprise you.  You just go into a 'I hear you, I see you,  let me help you solve your problem' mode.

On 12/13/2021 at 11:22 PM, aghst said:

Still not sure if they are pairing Molly with Taurean because they always planned it that way or because they ran out of ideas and decided to use a minor supporting character as the man in her life -- at least as the series ends.

I don't think they planned it, tbh.   I know we are supposed to see Taurean as a symbol of Molly's growth and maturity in relationships as compared to her other high drama romances, but to me Taurean is an easy out and doesn't actually represent growth.  He is exactly what Molly wanted in the very beginning, he checks all her perfect boxes:  He is professional, has a great job, has a level of stature, is handsome, and is black.  And as we have seen in this episode is thoughtful and sensitive.  Taurean isn't a partner that we can look at and say he represents Molly finding the right person but rather  Molly finding the person who perfectly fills her checklist.

[Empress1]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

As an accountant for many years she probably has seen it all and she really isn't surprised at all. 

I was in my feelings about my finances one year and said something to my accountant about it and he was like “pfft, this is nothing. I’ve seen it all.” And it was a relief to hear. I thought Kelli was so great there. She and Molly could do well in an estate planning business.

[Hera]

On 12/14/2021 at 11:49 AM, Lois Sandborne said:

Sidenote: agreed that Crenshawn can continue to kick rocks; how are you bashing me on front street but wanna apologize in the alley?

I've never heard this expression ("bashing on front street but want to apologize in the alley") before, but I love it and am totally going to use it. I agree with everyone that Crenshawn needs to go back on social media to apologize to Issa. I didn't think his in person apology was all that amazing either. And while I don't think Issa should work with him again, I could see why she might. If they're not dealing with sponsors this time, then there's less chance for a repeat of the last time they collaborated. From what I can tell, Issa doesn't tell artists or vendors what to do or sell, except when the sponsor wants her to. If it's just the two of them working together, Crenshawn can have all the drummers and bikers he wants.

On 12/15/2021 at 4:28 PM, DearEvette said:

On 12/14/2021 at 4:22 AM, aghst said:

Still not sure if they are pairing Molly with Taurean because they always planned it that way or because they ran out of ideas and decided to use a minor supporting character as the man in her life -- at least as the series ends.

I don't think they planned it, tbh.   I know we are supposed to see Taurean as a symbol of Molly's growth and maturity in relationships as compared to her other high drama romances, but to me Taurean is an easy out and doesn't actually represent growth.  He is exactly what Molly wanted in the very beginning, he checks all her perfect boxes…

I agree with this. It wasn't planned and it's being done because there isn't time to introduce a new love interest for Molly. I think real growth would have been her falling for someone like the guy who worked at Enterprise whom she rejected a couple of seasons ago because she couldn't handle that (among other things) he once had sex with a man. Because it's Molly, I could see an argument for someone who's more ambitious than Enterprise Guy—in my head, it's someone who built his own business but didn't necessarily go to college—or at least not a fancy one like Stanford.

[LuvMyShows]

On 12/14/2021 at 10:16 AM, TVbitch said:

What was that bit at the very end when Nathan said "That's what I want" and Issa said "what?" and Nathan walked into the other room and then a different voice said "you to be happy" and the music got super tense and creepy. Was that Lawrence's voice saying "you to be happy"?

I had closed captioning on, and it definitely said it was Lawrence's voice.