Why Issa Rae Changed Several Elements of ‘Insecure’s’ Series Finale Ending
Insecure fans are still grappling with the reality that the beloved HBO comedy series is over. Rae ended the show after five successful seasons, giving each character the happy ending they deserved. Her character finally ended up with her longtime on-and-off love, Lawrence. But Rae reveals that the ending was different. She also opens up about some of the other changes she made in the final episode.
Issa and Lawrence were not going to end up together
Going into the final season of Insecure, Rae had no intention of reuniting Issa and Lawrence for good. Her mind was set on making Issa and Nathan work. But as the season progressed, she felt it was a necessary ending to the show.
“And you know, we had different endings in mind,” she told The L.A. Times’ The Envelope podcast. “And as the season progressed and I became Issa Dee — you know, it’s one thing to write for her and then to become her — I found myself missing him. And I found that, in a sense, we were denying Issa her happiness. One of our writers, Laura Kittrell, was just like, with that episode we basically said that they’re soulmates, and to deny Issa her soulmate is, in a sense, denying her her happiness.”
There was also another ending that was void of Lawrence. Rae explained: “There was a scenario where she ended up with Nathan, and there was a scenario where she came home and you heard a voice, but you didn’t know who it was,” said Issa.
Motherhood was a possibility for Issa Dee
One of the elements that Rae wishes she could have incorporated for her specific character is motherhood. Throughout the show, Issa doesn’t mention children. It’s only when Lawrence becomes a father and it disrupts her ideal life with him that children are brought into the plot. And obviously, Issa’s friend Tiffany becomes a mother.
“I do wish we could’ve explored motherhood through Issa. And deciding to or not to. That is something super real that we discussed in the room: Women having this ticking time clock that’s so unfair that men will never experience,” she said in an interview with Vulture.
She continued, explaining that it’s a time frame Black women have to abide by. With the characters being in their 30s, it’s something that’s a real issue. “They can be like, Yeah, I’m 53, it’s time to have kids. And we really have a time to decide,” she added.
“You can freeze your eggs, you can do all these things, but there’s just something,” she explained. “There was an interesting discussion that happened in the room that men were enlightened by — annoyingly so — that the women in the room really bonded over: Oh my God, you feel this way, too? Even if you don’t want kids, you still feel that clock. And there’s such a pressure in the back of your mind of having to decide.”
The final episode was initially to be filmed in Morocco
Fans of the show remember Issa and Molly’s longstanding dream of a girl’s trip in Morrocco. The trip was supposed to be in celebration of their character’s 30th birthday, but due to life’s circumstances, it didn’t happen. Morocco was strongly considered to be the location for the final episode.
“That was just something that I visualized, and he executed it so perfectly and beautifully, but the elements of the finale definitely changed. At one point, we wanted to jump five years into the future and show Issa and Molly in Morocco and tell that story,” she told Deadline.
Ultimately, Rae opted to have it centered in LA. “It did not feel like the right ending, especially spending so much of our finale away from LA, which has been a character in the show,” she continued.
