The fourth episode of the third season of Insecure takes friends Issa, Molly, Kelli, and Tiffany outside Los Angeles to the sands of Indio, California for the Coachella Music Festival. Excuse me, Beychella Music Festival—the chosen name when Beyoncé headlined the festival in 2018 and the only reason why four Black women would voluntarily go to the desert.
Scene-wise, there are many gems. Your BFF’s BFF Kelli gets high and catches herself laughing at herself. Your ride-or-die chick Molly gets high on molly, and names herself Molly Squared. Your overly dramatic friend Tiffany has a dramatically-appropriate heart-to-heart with Issa foreshadowing her struggle with depression.
But the crowing jewel of “High-like” is Issa’s trip up a Ferris wheel with her new guy, Nathan.
Thus far, Issa and Nathan have shared a kiss after a day-long Before Sunrise tryst around Los Angeles. The Issa and Nathan storyline distinguished itself during that first date, when Issa admitted to Nathan that she raps to herself in the mirror. Only the audience knows of Issa’s preferred coping mechanism, and we’re protective of her. We were all nervous for Nathan’s opinion. We felt relief when he nodded and stared spitting his own bars as encouragement.
At Beychella, Issa, also high on molly, does her usual break-the-fourth-wall rap sequence—only this time, she’s so high she doesn’t realize Nathan sees her too. He responds again with encouragement, continuing her rap verse with his own.
Squeal. Nathan is different. He sees Issa for who she really is. He supports Issa for who she really is.
And that is how we are primed for the Ferris Wheel Scene. Then there’s nerve- and drug-induced laughter. Thick sexual tension. “Yours” by Leven Kali, a wavy soul song that channels Kali’s Santa Monica upbringing, starts.
Issa and Nathan give and take, put down and pick up, reach for and pull in each other to the percussive and bass-heavy first verse of “Yours.” The scene is 30 seconds long. Short enough to memorize.
Issa grabs Nathan. Issa and Nathan sensuous kiss. Issa straddles Nathan while he holds her butt in perfect place. Kiss. Issa yanks off Nathan’s shirt. Nathan sucks on Issa’s boob. Issa groans and pants, “I want you so badly right now.” Kiss. Eye contact. Nathan dares, “SHOW ME.” Issa obeys. She unties Nathan’s shorts. Nathan slides down his underwear while moving Issa’s out of the way in rapid succession. (Fake) Penetration. Kiss. Issa rides. Nathan gropes. Issa strikes the glass of the enclosed passenger car in unbridled passion. Scene.
I watched the Ferris Wheel Scene on loop. I like to follow a new body part every time. My favorite is Nathan’s hands. I like how he knows exactly where to put them. I like how he’s gentle but also rough. I like how comfortable his hands look on different parts of Issa’s body.
Those are parts I like. Here are the parts I love:
The extremely hot nonverbal consent. We observe Issa consenting. She wants Nathan so badly. But she doesn’t say that for the first 20 seconds. She shows it. She pulls him in. She straddles him. She leans forward just enough for him to pull down her shirt. She sighs. She groans. And then—though we’ve been thinking it the whole time—she says “I want you so badly.” It’s cathartic.
“SHOW ME.” All caps because that is how it’s delivered. But Nathan’s not yelling. He’s forceful. Emphatic. It’s not the typical response to “I want you so badly.” It communicates that he feels the same while giving the agency to Issa. SHOW ME how badly you want me. Nathan does not center himself. There’s no “I” in that demand. There’s only “you.” You take charge. You SHOW ME.
Their hips. In most straight sex scenes, we can’t see the woman’s body. We might see her face as she’s (fake) penetrated and, without fail, lets out a huge gasp. We might see the man moving up and down on top. Never his hips or hers. Here, we saw both hips moving, riding, dancing.
Two Black bodies. It’s always the whites who get to lust. Who get to ride. Who get to enjoy the ride. Not here. I watched one female Black body that looked like mine. I watched one male Black body that looked decidedly average—scrawny legs, no discernible muscles. A body
who we might’ve thought couldn’t handle that female body. But Nathan could handle it. He demanded more of it. SHOW ME.
The director, writer, and actors made a thrilling, realistic, and sexy sex scene without nudity or profanity, without merely showing the woman being penetrated and gasping with fake pleasure.
Issa and Nathan gave and took pleasure, they danced and desired. They showed us.
Ofelia Brooks is a Black, Latine, first-generation writer and lawyer. A writer all her life, including her first chapter book at age seven, she’s just recently begun submitting her creative work for publication. Her work appears in Drunk Monkeys and Amplify. She is on Twitter @ofeliabrooksesq.