‘Insecure’ season 4 episode 3 recap: A Case of the Ex

Lawrence and Condola's relationship is tested, while his 'ex' status with Issa may be more complicated than anyone realized.

Brooke Obie

Apr 27, 2020

It’s Thanksgiving — two months away from Issa’s block party — and it seems like everyone has a lot to be lowkey thankful for.

Lawrence and his new love Condola have progressed from baecations to celebrating Friendsgiving together; and exes Issa and Lawrence seem to have found a happy friendzone to occupy.

Of course, none of these good vibes lasts for long.

When Issa happens to run into Lawrence and Condola it tests the sturdiness of all of their relationships.

“Sorry I stole your spot, I just love it so much,” Issa tells Condola of why she happens to be at the same coffee shop Lawrence and Condola are at for their date and it seems like a call-back to the first episode of the season.

Back in episode one, Issa finds out that her new friend Condola is unwittingly dating her old-ex Lawrence and asks Condola to give her the names of some of Condola’s exes so Issa could run up on them like Condola ran up on Lawrence.

They both laughed it off at the time, like they laughed off running into each other at the coffee shop this episode, but maybe subconsciously, Issa does want to “take” something from Condola to even the score, after all.

Issa isn’t ready to get real about this with her best friend, Molly, though. As they shop for Thanksgiving dinner, Issa describes her run-in with Lawrence and Condola as “all love,” but Molly is skeptical.

As has become their norm, Issa and Molly start taking cheap shots at each other until they both acknowledge that their relationship has been off for months and the two need to hash things out. They agree Issa will stop by Molly’s family Thanksgiving during dessert time.

On Thanksgiving, Kelli has once again been relegated to the jokes section of the show, with a small cameo via Instagram Stories with her arm-wrestling aunties. Molly is still giving her dad the cold shoulder from last season when she found out he cheated on her mom and I wonder where she got the confidence.

On a positive note, Molly’s mom gave some great advice to soothe the insecurity over being “too much” for a guy she likes: “If he’s right for you, he won’t think you’re too much.”

Meanwhile, Condola’s Friendsgiving is popping off and Lawrence is there early to help her get set up. He makes a corny a joke and Condola doesn’t get it, which heightens her insecurity about their run-in with Issa back at the coffee shop. Issa and Lawrence were cracking all kinds of jokes and they just got each other. Condola and Lawrence are only three months in and still finding a rhythm.

Issa is rolling with her brother Ahmal up to their mom’s for Thanksgiving, and neither are that interested in hanging out with her new man Stanley and his twin daughters. Lucky for them, Stanley “slipped on some loose gravy” (WHAT?!) and has to go to the emergency room in an ambulance.

Issa and her brother dip out (“I don’t fuck with adult twins,” Issa says) and have their own Thanksgiving at a Mexican restaurant where Issa can finally let her guard down and be real.

She confesses that seeing Lawrence taking Condola in a lovey-dovey moment has her feeling some type of way. He’s paying for Condola’s lunch and courting her like he never did for Issa.

“I got the nigga with potential,” Issa says of her five-year relationship with Lawrence. “I feel like she’s reaping all the benefits of his time with me.”

But is Lawrence really a benefit to anyone? Sure, he bathes every day now, can afford a two-bedroom apartment, has a job, pays for dates and wears silk shirts to Friendsgiving, but he’s still deeply insecure.

When Condola mentions her leaky faucet, Lawrence pretends to know how to fix it to impress her and ultimately ends up making the sink worse than it already was. Condola had also planned a lovely Friendsgiving for herself and her friends, but Lawrence invites himself along and then ends her lovely evening with an argument after he takes offense to something her drunk friend told him.

The argument ends with the tense stand-off between Lawrence and Condola, each on opposite sides of her kitchen. He’s pressing her about her feelings for her ex-husband, which gives her room to bring up his continued relationship with Issa.

“If she hadn’t cheated, would you still be together?” Condola asks and Lawrence has no answer, which is exactly the answer Condola fears.

Elsewhere in Inglewood, Molly and Issa’s relationship continues to fizzle out but with much less fanfare. “You aint gotta do something just because they say you’re supposed to,” Ahmal tells Issa, leading her to blow off her talk with Molly via text.

Yet when Lawrence does the bare minimum and sends Issa a cry-laughing emoji in response to her Thanksgiving Instagram Story, she immediately begins responding to him, as Mya’s classic 2000 jam, Case of the Ex, plays us into the credits.

This does not lend high hopes that Issa will prioritize fixing relationships that aren’t romantic or that — when Issa and Lawrence inevitably get back together — she’ll ever demand more than minimal effort from Lawrence.

Brooke Obie is an award-winning film/TV critic and author of the Black revolution novel, Book of Addis: Cradled Embers.