It was the fight heard ‘round the world…or at least around Issa’s block party. This episode kicks off with us in Issa’s expertly decorated apartment with her still thinking of the argument between she and Molly at the end of her successful event. Neither one of them have reached out to each other and it seems like neither of them will.
Issa’s lazing in bed, basking in the “afterglow” of her event looks a little something like what sis is giving. Once you’ve reached a goal, you ever look around and be like, “Ok, what’s next?” And just when she peels herself out of bed and realizes she can self-care Sunday on her own, even though it’s a tradition that she started with Molly. But of course when Issa starts organizing her life, our light-eyed bae Nathan calls. Side-note though, Issa cleaning with the bandana over her face is hella triggering.
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Back to our boy Nathan. He was calling from her job at the barbershop–also triggering. Remember barbershops? Nathan is giving Issa support system realness and told her, “You needed help and I wanted to help.” You know Issa instantly thought of how Molly didn’t want to help her with her event. She wanted to clear with Nathan that her intent wasn’t to use him when she asked to be connected to Andrew so that she could book her headliner through him.
And suddenly help becomes the name of the game for Issa. During one a quick store run for some wine (you know, essentials) Issa runs into a pregnant woman who needs someone to buy her groceries. Despite mirror b*tch appearing in the grocery store and telling her not to, Issa decided to help pay for a pregnant woman, but realized she couldn’t help the woman because she couldn’t help herself. MESSAGE.
“The gift you’ve given me to today is perspective,” the pregnant woman said to Issa as she walked off sans groceries. When faced with another scenario to help someone–an old man who missed the bus–mirror b*tch still tries to lead Issa away from the choice, but again, she chooses to help. This man yells to Issa, “If you gonna give a n*gga help, then help the n*gga!”
This man feels like one of those random people pulled into your life’s orbit to send you a message because he stayed saying things that didn’t seem to make sense, but somehow made sense. One of those things was, “I guess I should have seen the sign. There’s always a sign when sh*t doesn’t last.” And even though Issa was irritated by the man’s temperament and demands, that made her think. Was there always a sign that she and Molly wouldn’t last?
In light of self-care Sunday, Issa booked herself a spot at a Paint & Sip event. Ah wine. Always brings women together. Issa meets three close friends at the event who are celebrating Kyla Pratt getting married. They instantly become friends because they forgot to BYOB and Issa has the biggest bottle of red wine anyone’s ever seen. Because of how these women are treating her, Issa is instantly confronted with the idea of strangers being more supportive and interested in her life than her real friends. Issa saw those women as the energy boost she was looking for from her friends–that blew up in her face, didn’t it?
Wait–did they sit on the toilet?
Now that Issa has been completely played by strangers, she’s in a rage…in her head, but also in her heart. She calls someone, asking them if she could come over … her momma, who is more than happy her baby called her. It’s a good thing there’s always momma, her hugs and her gumbo in the freezer to go home to.
Momma can make it all right again, especially after so much has gone wrong alongside things going right. Being able to have a real talk with your mom about what’s going on in your life is freeing. And Issa finding out that she was a mistake that her momma figured out gave her some insight into her own life and the mistakes that she can give herself grace and time to figure out. Let’s hope she sprinkles that lesson on top of her friendship with Molly. Momma Issa explains to Issa that she’s reaching a new season in her life, to which Issa asks, “Fall? Because it hurts.” It’s growing pains momma Issa offers.
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When Kelli and Issa finally connect, Kelli needs to know what’s going on between she and Molly. “So that’s it? That’s a wrap?” She asked Issa after Issa explained neither of them have reached out or spoken. “So if she don’t call, y’all just gonna never speak again?” Kelli asked. Basically that’s what it boils down to. Someone has to figure out how to be the bigger person and close the gap that they’ve created in their relationship.
And just when we think our girl just might reach out to Molly, she goes home to her home. Her sanctuary, especially not that she cleaned up before she set off on her day. So many of us had to have felt seen with Issa coming home and leaving all her issues to the weed. *exhales* When she sits down to answer comments about her event, she responds to someone asking for more events like the block party, saying, “I got you. Coming soon.” Could this mean our little “cultural curator” has cracked the code on what she wants to do next?
With weed comes the munchies, so Issa decides to go pickup some food at her favorite Ethiopian restaurant. Aww, we’re taken back to the place we first saw Molly and Issa vibe from season 1 when she and Molly went out to dinner for Issa’s birthday. And guess who’s in there, chilling, looking at her phone and not texting or calling Issa? Molly! Issa decides to ignore that as a sign to talk to Molly. Maybe it is over between the two of them? They need to learn this lesson spotted in a tweet: An expired friendship is not a beef.
