Recap: “Love Is__”: Love And Its Daily Leaps
Season 1, Episode 3: (Her) Questions| Grade: 8.6/10
Writer: Mara Brock Akil | Director: Tanya Hamilton
Love Is__ has excited viewers and critics since its premiere on June 19 with its refreshing take on the love story of creators Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil. Entertainment Weekly proclaimed that it’ll “just might make you believe in love again.”
In “(Her) Questions,” Nuri (Michele Weaver) and Yasir (Will Catlett) have fallen deeper into infatuation with one another after their first date during the jazz concert in the last episode, “First Date.”
Those 18 hours they spent together afterwards, as “Wiser” Nuri described, set the stone for their relationship.
We see the younger Nuri (Michele Weaver) and Yasir (Will Catlett) passionately kissing across the floors of her home to Keith Sweat’s “Nobody” as she stops herself remembering it’s Ramadan — respecting his religious fasting. She expresses that Ramadan is a blessing to her as she doesn’t wanna have sex with anyone in her home that isn’t her husband. (In regards to his physical attraction and sexual nature bubbling for her I loved his thoughtful response to his “friend” leaving: “He’s a good listener when a woman says stop.”)
“There’s this phase of courtship that I love. I call it the ‘cocoon phase.’ Every caterpillar has to go through that moment to become a butterfly, and I think every couple needs to go through that phase as well. To forget about the outside world and just focus on what’s happening in the inside.” — “Wiser” Nuri
We see more into the complexity of Yasir balancing his complicated world that’s woven together by his pride to protect his truth, his faith, and the longing for something new. He’s in love with Nuri who’s a breath of fresh air but he has yet to really reveal the truth of himself, which is understandable early on in their relationship. He’s broke, unemployed, away from his son, and now homeless but he declares with a smile that despite “hanging on by a fingernail” that those 18 hours with her was his lifeline.
“Man, one minute I was on top of the world! I had this beautiful woman in my arms falling more in love with me and then my car wouldn’t start,” “Wiser” Yasir remembers.
Their cocoon phase buzzes like teenage love as they playfully imagine their life together and later lay in her bed as she reads one of his scripts as he drifts to sleep. Their coziness is interrupted in the morning when the phone rings and Nuri panics, remembering that she got Angela (Idara Victor) to cover for her as she ditched her job in the previous episode to meet Yasir at the jazz concert. It’s her boss Norman (Kadeem Hardison) who have given the writers a day off much to her relief.
In their bliss, Nuri’s plethora of men from her various romances make their appearance as one after the other, after the other…after the other leaves a message on her answering machine. Keith, a network executive who works at her job reminds her of the ski trip he’s inviting her too and they debate about his true intentions. Nuri seems a little naive in believing that sex won’t be had while Yasir spoke my thoughts out loud and the obvious sign. A ski weekend with snow and frigid temperatures is the excuse to have sex. It’s the original yet richer version of Netflix and Chill.
The struggle is incredibly real as their bliss comes to an end. He waits as Nuri drives off to push his car down the street and walks to a phone booth in the city to contact his friend Sean.
A nice little departure from Nuri and Yasir’s love cocoon phase was Angela (Idara Victor) calling to alert her that she’s meeting a guy from online at the hardware store. The whole encounter is very awkward as he is nuttier than a bag of Planters peanuts and didn’t match his profile information much to her disgust. Like a good girlfriend, Nuri interrupts with a “hey, girl” and begins feeling him out as they trade side eyes. Desperate times calls for desperate measures as Angela bangs the wheel of the cart onto Nuri’s foot on purpose to get out of the encounter. Hilarious and the art of the girl code: finesse your way out by any means necessary.
“Hammer time!”
Anyway. As his seven o’clock date with Nuri draws near, Yasir sneaks back into Ruby’s apartment as suggested by Sean to find her AAA card to tow his car. He instead finds something unexpected: Ruby (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing) in a compression garment with urinary catheters. She got lipo suction on her body due to the pressure she feels to compete with the skinny yoga instructors to grow her business in Los Angeles.
“There’s not enough black people trying to do yoga for me to make a living. I had to do something. I do not have the body my white clients want,” Ruby tells Yasir.
That moment broke my heart because how many times my black sisters, including myself, have felt the pressure to conform to Western beauty standards from lightening our skin to rhinoplasty. She has voiced before in the premiere that her idling dreams of owning a successful yoga business are simply “leotards and business cards” but the pressure has made her regret her decision as she cries in his arms.
Yasir is visibly caught between a rock and a hard place by not wanting to abandon his ex-girlfriend in her dilemma and being there for Nuri. Nuri’s mother (Tammy Townsend) returns, questioning what she truly knows about him as she cannot even answer simple questions about his last name and his birthday.
“Sweetheart, you have a generous heart. And there are times when it’s just wide open and that’s a good thing but you do have to be discerning about who you give it to. All I’m saying is put it on layaway and let him earn it!” — Nuri’s mother.
Nuri’s neighbor Pearly knocks on her door to show her Yasir’s car parked in front of her house, revealing that she saw him pushing it down the road from her window. Emotional and embarrassed that she’s in love with a man she doesn’t fully know as he has kept things guarded from her hits her in that moment. Plus, I love how Pearly was the one to answer her question of his last name, where he lives, and that he’s living out of his car: he’s Yasir Omar who lives at 1739 Klondike Street Apt. 9. Get you a real one like Pearly, Private Eye.
Nuri follows her instincts by coming by unannounced and finding Yasir at Ruby’s apartment. Upset for being stood up and discovering his shocking truth, she wants to know more, most importantly, is he using her to get ahead. Offended, he still doesn’t open up but assures he’ll answer in due time. He shockingly shuts the door on her and walks away. What a bold (an even insensitive) move. Closing the door on the woman he loves leaving her hurt and questions unanswered to protect Ruby.
“If I were to answer Nuri’s questions and let her see all of me, I couldn’t do that at Ruby’s. That would’ve been disrespectful to both of them.” — “Wiser” Yasir
Seeing Yasir bathing Ruby, she also has questions on who the visitor was but he says he’ll tell her later but from the look on her face she knows. As the season unfolds, how will Yasir be honest with the two women in his life and particularly make amends with Nuri?
Love Is__ airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
