The HBO series returns on Sunday, after 18 months off the air.
Issa great time to get back into Insecure.
Eighteen months after season 3, the HBO comedy returns for its fourth season on Sunday, leaving fans hella excited and but also lowkey trying to remember what exactly went down the season prior.
Well, it's a lot. The season 3 finale, titled "Ghost-Like," showed Issa's (Issa Rae) new love interest, Nathan (Kendrick Sampson) returning after ghosting her -- but Issa rightfully told him that she needed "some time to figure out what I want."
Issa had a transformative season 3, as she quit her job at We Got Y'all, became a property manager, started driving for Lyft and putting her creativity toward planning a block party for the community. Little did she know, the woman helping her with her block party, Condola (Christina Elmore), had a date with Issa's ex, Lawrence (Jay Ellis).
Lawrence and Issa spontaneously reconnected in a 7-Eleven midway through season 3, while she was on her EPIC Coachella trip with Molly (Yvonne Orji), Kelli (Natasha Rothwell) and Tiffany (Amanda Seales). Issa later said she thinks she's over Lawrence, but he just keeps popping up, so we're not ruling out another reunion.
Molly went through career changes of her own, and found herself trying new things in the romantic arena with her new "Asian Bae," Andrew (Alexander Hodge).
"I would like her to go higher and do better, all around," Orji said of Molly in a 2018 interview with ET. "I think Molly is still shell shocked, because she thought leaving [her old job] would give her some sort of freedom to be herself, but now she's finding out... now I gotta hustle."
"I think she's going to learn some interesting lessons, and there's going to be some maybe not so good things to come from that. But how she bounces back still remains to be seen," she added.
Kelli and Tiffany's friendship, meanwhile, hit a speed bump at Tiffany's baby shower -- but Rothwell was more concerned about Molly and Issa.
"I think Molly needs to get out of her own way. I think she's a self-saboteur," the actress offered. "And I think Issa has a hard time of letting go. So I think one needs to let go and one needs to get free."
"I want Lawrence to come back in a very -- they didn't break up mutually. Circumstance required they break up," she noted. "I wonder what happened if they left knowing that they tried everything."
In a 2018 interview with ET, Ellis said that he anticipated Insecure's season 3 finale would leave fans with "two feelings."
"One is hopeful, and two might be the first time in the show where we've actually felt calm," he said.
"Between Issa, Molly and Lawrence, I think it's going to be the first time where we might actually feel a sense of calm, because we've never seen that on this show before. We've never seen these characters in a peaceful place," Ellis explained. "Everything is always chaotic and crazy, to some degree... they're experiencing the highs and lows of life, and everything in between."
"What does it look like if they find a baseline?" he asked. "And can they keep it?"
For executive producer Prentice Penny, the theme of season 4 is, "Are these relationships in my life for a season or a reason?" he told reporters at HBO's Television Critics Association winter press tour in February. "All our characters are asking that of themselves in their journey."
"It is about our characters leveling up," Rae hinted, sharing that in season 4, Issa will be focusing more on her career, Molly will be exploring her "first real relationship in a long time," and Lawrence will be trying to have it all.
Season 4 of Insecure premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. See more in the video below.
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