The mirror raps written and mixed, Insecure is set to return to HBO for its fifth and final season on October 24. Looking back in the mirror into Season 4, the series delved further into its characters' insecurities and the insecurities of the show. This season covers an escalating fight between Issa (Issa Rae) and Molly (Yvonne Orji) throughout its ten-episode run.
The season opens on Issa talking on the phone and giving a cryptic statement about not being Molly's friend. This is really alarming because of the inseperable relationship the two women have shared up to this point. Part of their issues are explained through Issa's new business ventures: Issa is trying to organize a block party for her community. Issa has always been characterized as a fuck up in comparison to Molly, as well as her other friends Kelly (Natasha Rothwell) and Tiffany (Amanda Seales). However, in Season 4 she really attempts to get her life together, despite finding out that she is organizing the block party along with her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend. Issa needed Molly's support more than ever this season so that she could make her dreams come true.
Molly, on the other hand, treads similar ground to previous seasons but finds herself in a serious relationship. On paper Molly is a real catch, but she has had major trouble maintaining romantic relationships. This season, Molly was paired up with Andrew (Alexander Hodge), and she is finally being present with her partner rather than creating issues. Balancing Andrew in her life along with her work as a lawyer was new territory for Molly. This meant that Molly needed extra support emotionally from Issa when she met bumps in the road in her new relationship. Of course, Issa fails Molly in a simlar way that Molly fails Issa. The two characters are at different positions in their lives and aren't being supported by their best friends.
The building tension between Issa and Molly finally explodes in the fifth episode, "Low Key Movin' On." The episode takes place at the aforementioned block party, where Issa and Molly aren't on speaking terms. The entire episode teeters back and forward between tense interactions and tender attempts at mending their friendship. The characters ultimately reach a point of no return when Molly and Issa get into an argument that nearly comes to blows. This episode comes at the midpoint of Season 4 and separates Issa and Molly for the rest of the season, which can be read as the show exploring the idea that the leading cause of a friendship's demise is miscommunication. They both needed each other's support, but were too full of resentment to realize it.
Following the shift at the midpoint, the main cast's friendships continue to fracture as Molly and Issa each refuse to make the first move to mend their fallout. The remainder of the season imagines a show where Issa and Molly don't ever find their way back to each other, changing how many of the running gags present themselves. Kelly was concerned for people outside of her sex life, Tiffany unraveled her perfect veneer that usually communicated how she was above her friends, and even Issa's mirror self barely raps. The conflict between Issa and Molly touches almost every aspect of the show. Though Issa and Molly's drama made it seem like the show was no longer going to focus on their friendship at its center, the finale finds the two characters finally reconciling because the lives they had built up during the second half of the season crumbled. Molly and Andrew break up, and Issa, who had rekindled a relationship with Lawrence (Jay Ellis), ends up breaking it off when she finds out he is having a baby with someone else. The season ends on a somber note, with Molly and Issa working things out off-screen.
Insecure is a show that centers on black female friendship, and with the final season approaching there are high stakes for its finale. Friendship within the show functions best when communication is clear, though true to its title, the conflicts in Insecure stem from the lack thereof. Season 4 is important in that it plays to that feature of the show better than any other season that came before, but there is still a sense that this formula is a bit tired. This is most glaringly felt in Season 4's show within a show, “Looking For Latoya,” a true-crime documentary about the search for a missing Black woman, which was utilized sparingly.
The concept for the show within a show is meant to reflect the way that Issa and Molly have lost sight of each other’s needs, but there is something half-baked about how it unfolds within the season. Molly and Issa’s fight is similar in the empty moments between the insults where the characters wait for the other to say something substantial but often interactions either dissipate or are left ambiguous. The finale of the season was meant to provide catharsis in a final conversation that would contrast all of the false starts the two characters experienced, but the audience is disappointingly left out of the conversation. Overall, the season is littered with moments that feel inconsequential due to a greater catharsis that is stolen by having the two make up offscreen. Hopefully Season 5 will find Issa and Molly finally secure in their communication. Insecure returns October 24th on HBO.