But then, in Sunday night’s premiere, Molly (played by Yvonne Orji) mistakenly receives the paycheck of a white male coworker at her law firm, Merrill, Johnson & Schwartz. What’s implicit in her shocked facial expression in the moment is that Travis’ earnings ($6,991.54) are far higher than what she makes. This is officially a professional crisis that’s especially appalling because Molly knows that dude is a slacker.
This is also the point where you probably felt a sharp stabbing pain on the right side of your body because wage gap statistics are now ingrained in our spirits, particularly the inequity between white women and black women. The disparity becomes an even deeper offense for Molly because she works harder and because it comes with an emotionally hostile corporate environment. We see this in Sunday’s episode during a conversation about the firm’s Chicago office when Molly’s white male colleague says, “Do you think the cold has anything to do with how violent it is out there? ’Cause I get it.” He clearly doesn’t. In a nice twist of irony, this Get Out-style moment includes a coworker played by Lil Rel from Get Out. And these are the moments where Insecure works its magic subtly and becomes deeply accessible.
Later on at the event, Molly tries to subtly extract information from Travis at the bar (did he recently receive a raise?). After he rudely suggests that the firm’s partner Hannah transferred to Chicago because she “couldn’t handle the pressure” and blames a lack of initiative, Molly defends Hannah’s work ethic and brings up the importance of feeling valued: “Right, ’cause everyone automatically listens to a woman when she opens her mouth.” We all there’s no satisfying response to his mansplaining, but can Molly just get what she deserves? As this narrative evolves throughout the second season (disclosure: I watched the first four episodes via HBO screeners), Insecure continues to do something rare on television, outlining Molly’s internal professional battle with sad familiarity.
