Spoilers below.
A lot changes very quickly for a few characters in And Just Like That…’s latest episode. Carrie is really trying to be one of them. In an effort to bring herself into a new circle of readers, she sets up a Zoom interview with some sort of book influencer that is an absolute disaster. The social media star hasn’t read Carrie’s seminal work, Sex and the City, nor her successful follow-up, Men-Hattan. She is entirely unprepared to learn Carrie’s most recent work is about death.
Few new readers are influenced before Carrie’s computer falls to the floor, probably driven to jump by the awkwardness.
Happily, this isn’t the only opportunity Carrie has this week to promote her new work. “WidowCon” or “Life After Death: a widow’s storytelling event” is welcoming her with open arms. But the event is run by Karen More (Rachel Dratch) who goes by Karrie these days. She and the original Carrie used to work together until the SATC writer bailed on a final pitch meeting with a studio producer. Karrie does not let things go and seems convinced Carrie will not be showing for her reading either.
A lot of people have obligations that may not be met this episode. Lisa is scheduled to speak at MoMA about her documentary the same night Herbert has a city comptroller event. After some loving debate over who should pop in at whose event, they’re derailed by seeing Rock’s Ralph Lauren photo in the New York Times.
Yes, of course the York-Goldenblatt family have seen it and already have ten copies. Lily still manages to steal the show from her sibling by announcing at breakfast that she plans to loose her virginity to her boyfriend Blake today, while his folks are in Connecticut. Except now she can’t, because Charlotte didn’t make reservations for the young couple at Nobu. Perfect virginity-loss-day ruined!
Naturally, Charlotte is a sex-positive mom, but she doesn’t seem any more comfortable having The Talk with Lily than most kinds of moms after this declaration. She does manage to mention condoms before the 17-year-old shuts her down.
“You’ve gone from sex-positive to sex-annoying,” Lily says, reminding Charlotte she’s been hearing about condoms since the fifth grade.
In Brooklyn, Miranda wakes up in her single bed in Nya’s apartment, before discovering her roommate arranging her own no-fault divorce papers for Andre Rashad. Apparently, Miranda has still not brought up the idea of divorce to Steve, feeling like it’s all her fault.
She’s having trouble communicating her feelings in general, and back at Che’s place in Hudson Yards, she can’t even get any sleep. Che is deep in a depression hole after their pilot has crashed and burned. All they can do is makes Cameos to keep the money flowing. It’s not clear why they have to do that next to Miranda in bed, but it inevitably leads to a fight.
For once, Miranda really sticks up for herself where Che is concerned, saying she’s been nothing but supportive after Che gets snippy with her. They agree, and decide to take some time to cool down from each other.
Charlotte and Carrie join Nya and Miranda for dinner, eating home cooked paella and providing Miranda with some non-alcoholic wine. Talking about past relationships, Carrie reminisces about Aidan, the third angle to her series-long love triangle. He is apparently divorced, living in Virginia, and has sold his furniture company to West Elm. Social media actually is good for something.
Carrie also reveals to Miranda how Steve told her he would “never” take off his wedding ring months ago, so it may be up to her to move things forward. Taking it to heart, Miranda decides to approach Steve on the topic of him finding his own place. It leads to a blow up so big it scares them both, and they end up spooning in heir marital bed like that rich elderly couple that went down on James Cameron’s Titanic.
Once she’s calmed down, Miranda notices a condom wrapper on the bedside table where she hasn’t slept in ages. Yes, Steve might be wearing his wedding ring, but he has moved on to boinking the Whole Foods girl, who only eats organic. Released from her guilt to some degree, Miranda tells Steve she’s filing for divorce.
On the big day of Carrie’s WidowCon appearance, Lisa’s MoMA panel, and Herbert’s fake political thing, the stakes are raised even higher when Lily tells Charlotte that she and Blake have decided that they’ll be taking each other’s flowers that afternoon. His parents are trapped in CT by the snowpocalypse, which is shutting down everything.
And yet, the ladies persist. Lisa takes off her signature bob wig, packs it up in a glamorous case, and treks to the museum after leaving Herbert with the Tahoe.
He later surprises her by bailing on his event early to join the audience. At least someone’s relationship is going right.
Carrie throws on the most impractical looking parka you can imagine and hauls ass through the snow.
And Lily makes it to Blake’s. The only problem is that they each thought the other would buy condoms. These kids! In a pinch, Lily calls her sex-positive mom, who goes on an arduous journey to find a drugstore that will sell her condoms and is still open in the snow.
While on this quest, Charlotte calls Carrie to see if she has a few rubbers to spare and the sex columnist reveals she doesn’t use condoms. She’s not afraid of getting pregnant at her age and apparently thinks she can tell by looking at someone if they have an STD.
Charlotte finally triumphs and brings her daughter a variety pack. They share a sweet hug and then Charlotte stands outside the townhouse, looking longingly up at the window as her eldest child has a milestone experience.
Also triumphant, Che has managed to leave the house and join Carrie at WidowCon as promised. They share some jokes over the popular vibrator the “Widow Wand” being on back order, but Carrie’s not laughing after she sees the act she has to follow. Betty Thomas, author of Ice Cream For Dinner, is a widow who really knows how to bring the house down. Surprised by the levity in the room, Carrie dreads reading from her notably sad book.
However, Love and Lost goes over well. Sometimes you need a laugh and sometimes you need a cry.
“You don’t move on because you’re ready to,” Carrie tells the crowd. “You move on because you’ve outgrown who you used to be.”
This turns out to be what Che needs to hear, too. The next time they see Miranda, they’ve moved on a bit from the pilot failure, and they’ve also moved on from Miranda. Facing her second break up in a day, Miranda lets Che spoon her one last time.
Back at home, Carrie decides to send a carefully crafted email to her old flame, Aidan, because some relationships are meant to stay in the past and some aren’t. See ya next week, buddy.
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.