‘Insecure’ Star Y’lan Noel Talks Issa and Lawrence’s Future After ‘That’ Happened in the Studio

In the latest episode of “Insecure,” Issa gets down and dirty with her ex Daniel after they reminisce on their past in a music studio.

Issa hasn’t been happy with her current relationship with Lawrence, and Daniel’s the “one who got away” in her head.

Issa while initially happy about her steamy moment with her ex Daniel, but guilt kicked in when she remembered she actually has a boyfriend and they just agreed to work on their problems.

Viewers can’t help but wonder what will now happen to Issa and Lawrence’s long-term relationship.

The actor who portrays Daniel, Y’lan Noel, opens up on the crazy situation in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly:

On Daniel and Issa’s relationship:
Daniel has real feelings for Issa. I think that’s the most important thing I can say. When we first meet Daniel, we don’t know much about his shared history with Issa. That’s why when we see him respond adversely to Issa’s feelings about being in a relationship, it’s easy to automatically assume his attraction to her is purely physical. It becomes clearer, though, that’s not the case — by episode 5, Daniel has taken time to think about what she said that night, and he shares those same sentiments. He asks her, “Why’d you never give me a shot?” So, he’s obviously been asking some of his own “What if?” questions. They were more than just some old fling — that’s communicated by the way he’s looked at her since the beginning of the season — and he finally decides to seize the moment and express that verbally. I mean, sometimes these things take time.

On the fact that Issa has a long-term boyfriend, and where Daniel fits in:
Unfortunately, Issa’s in a relationship, but I don’t think that’s something Daniel pays attention to because he knows his previous place in her life. Plus, she seems to be very receptive to his energy, which makes it hard for him to pay any mind to the fact that she currently has a boyfriend. He heard her say that she has a boyfriend, but he sees the way she looks at him, and it’s the same way she always has. The audience sees Lawrence struggling to become better and trying to make his relationship work, but Daniel doesn’t see any of this. He doesn’t even know Lawrence’s name! He only knows that it’s always been natural to feel this way in Issa’s presence, and he thinks it would be quite unnatural not to act on it. Hard, but true.