With Insecure, Isae Rae’s most valuable talent as a writer seems to be her ability to coerce conversation—to fool us through humor and wit into projecting our personal lives onto fictional characters, inspiring self-reflection and cross examination so pressing, not watching her show would leave you estranged from one of the more intimate areas of “the culture.”

Spurred by conversations written into each episode, throughout season two, fans have discussed rebounds and fuckboys, threesomes and hoe phases, and divorce and polyamory. These exchanges have been mostly entertaining, if not surprisingly insightful. One conversation this writer of this recap will absolutely not engage in, though, is anachronic blowjob discourse.

With Issa (the character) and her teetering unwillingness to perform oral sex at the heart of this episode, certain scenes in “Hella Blows” felt uncharacteristically regressive. Ironically, the scene that fit this description the most took place at a sex expo.

As Tiffany, Kelli, Molly and Issa all confessed their histories with sucking dick (sorry), certain sentiments felt oddly passé. Between the four women—four adult, college educated women—it was suggested that Tiffany gives head as a result of having attended a predominately white school, her learned interest played some role in her marrying Derek, and the white women who influenced that interest manage to seduce black men into “chasing” them because black women just can’t get with the program.

The opposing sides of this debate—a fight I have not a single dog in, by the way—were simple. “I just don’t understand black women and their hang ups about oral sex,” Tiffany confesses.

“Guys see black women as disposable after you give them head, like you’re forever a hoe if you do it,” Issa explains.

The whole thing felt silly, and I doubt most black women actually have these discussions (or “hang ups”), but given the fact that I’m not a black woman myself, it’s not my place to express why I feel this way.

What I do think I’m at liberty to discuss is Issa’s decision to go down on Daniel without first communicating an exit strategy, and her consequential disgust in getting caught in the eye with an oncoming projectile—but I won’t touch that either. Because as a grown ass man watching a grown ass show, I refuse to unpack a grown ass character’s failure to read the terms and conditions of fellatio. So instead, here’s a roundup of everything that happened last night unrelated to the events leading to Issa sitting in the back of an Uber pool with a napkin over her eye:

Shirts: Issa wore a pretty fire statement sweatshirt that read “FBI killed Fred Hampton” (much more palatable than her $160 “Niggas” sweatshirt from ‘Hella Great’), and this fool Dro wore a tie with a very ugly short sleeved button-up. I feel like that’s an important thing to note.
Work: Continuing an ongoing practice of white people being insufferable in the office, instead of telling him the app he’s been developing is underwhelming, Lawrence’s bosses resorted to being patronizing and creepy in their hesitance to give it to him straight (apparently, black folks can be told how to protest the state sanctioned murder of their unarmed children, but we’re far too fragile to handle critique at work). Fortunately, this nonsense brought Lawrence closer to his subtly sexy coworker, Aparna (Jasmine Kaur), who seems to be his superior both in intellect and maturity—which means he will somehow find a way to fuck this up.
Rejections: In 2017, Issa really pulled up to her neighbor’s apartment without texting first, hoping she could get a walk-in dick appointment, and wound up with her feelings hurt upon finding out another woman had him booked for the day. Shortly thereafter, once Niko buttons her cardigan back up as if he were sending her out to the store on a snow day, she learns not every man is interested in jumping in her “hotation.”
More Rejections: Early in the episode, Molly started acting all “what are we?” with Dro as if she didn’t know he was married— open relationship or not—before sleeping with him last week. Later in the episode, he leaves her soaking in the soapy residue of poorly thought out decisions as he departs mid-bath to let his wife into the house.
Frank Ocean: With “shut the fuck up, I don’t want your conversation,” Insecure continued its streak of Frank Ocean references this season, similar to the homages to Drake Rae included in each episode last season.
Thug Yoda: This nigga pronounced Kleenex “Bleenex” even though it doesn’t start with a ‘C,’ because a blood can never be too bareful.

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