Did you know that Carrie Bradshaw loves dark berry lips?
But unlike the incompetent journalist profiling Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) on this week’s episode of “And Just Like That,” who centered Carrie’s cosmetics on an interview about her husband’s death, we won’t dare waste another second on Miss Bradshaw’s lip color. .
Not when this episode is chock full of breakups, make-ups, and Charlotte the condom fairy (more on that later).
Episode 6 offers several major plot points all at once in an unexpected fortune, or maybe we should say snowfall.
Just as last week’s episode found the ladies inexplicably celebrating Halloween, this week features a mid-winter blizzard.
While we may not understand the timeline, no seasonal event can take Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York-Greenblatt (Kristin Davis), and Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker) by surprise.
In their separate plots, each dons a voluminous coat and treats the snowy streets of Manhattan as her own personal catwalk. So what’s important enough to get you out of your designer pajamas in the middle of a snowstorm?
For Miss Bradshaw, it’s WidowCon. WidowCon is like “a rock concert, but for sad people,” complete with merch in the form of vibrators (aka “Widow Wands”) and entertainment (a comedian memorably known as “the Don Rickles of death”).
Carrie agrees to be the keynote speaker at WidowCon at the urging of her editor, later learning that the convention is hosted by an old colleague (played by the incomparable Rachel Dratch) who has less than fond memories of Carrie’s professionalism.
Carrie’s trepidation about the event turns out to be unwarranted: she shocks the crowd with a reading of her new book, and the whole experience somehow brings her to the brink of emailing her ex-fiancé Aidan Shaw (John Corbett), Who has not done it. She hasn’t been seen in the “Sex and the City” orbit since 2003.
After rambling to her Gmail desk, Carrie hits send at the end of the episode.
In a nice return to Aidan’s arc in the original series, Carrie also smashes her laptop in this episode.
When Carrie’s computer crashed in the original series, loyal viewers will remember that her subsequent breakdown turned into one of her biggest fights with Aidan.
When her laptop falls on a shoebox to her death during the ill-fated “dark berry lip” interview, Carrie audibly sighs “Oh, thank God.”
And so, people can change!
Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) fans are in trouble this week as our favorite legal eagle suffers not one, but two breaks.
After Che’s (Sara Ramírez) TV pilot is cancelled, Miranda’s partner spends the time eating Pirate’s Booty and snuggling under the covers, which sounds like sleep, until Miranda suggests that Che has barely left the house in four weeks.
Miranda’s reprimand inspires Che to say yes when Carrie invites them as escorts to WidowCon, the hottest ticket in town. At the convention, Che gets some much-needed perspective on the difference between the death of his soul mate and his canceled TV pilot.
Meanwhile, Miranda receives a long-awaited (verbal) reprimand from Steve, who says she’s been walking around like a “kicked puppy” ever since she left him for Che. When Miranda asks how the search for her apartment is going, she explodes.
“This is my home!” Steve yells at a stunned Miranda. He accuses her of not wanting a life with him, of not even wanting her child, until she is almost out of tears.
Steve immediately apologizes, and the two share a horizontal hug in their old bedroom.
It looks like they’ll be able to keep going, until, what’s that? Miranda finds a condom wrapper, berates Steve for sleeping with someone else in her bed, and runs off in a fit of self-righteousness.
That’s when Che drops the bombshell that, just as Miranda laments the fact that she and Steve have lost their chance to be friends, Che suggests that maybe “friends” might also be the right label for their relationship.
This would be a tragic moment for viewers interested in the Che-randa romance, if there was one.
This week’s final main story, as promised, features Charlotte as a one-woman sexual protection pony express.
When Charlotte’s daughter, Lily, declares to the entire family that she’s ready to—excuse the pun—be deflowered, Charlotte launches into a fountain of athletic wisdom about birds and bees.
Char drops the subject when Lily declares that she “went from positive sex to annoying sex”, but dutifully tracks down a trojan box when Lily says that her boyfriend, Blake, didn’t take protection into account.
Across town, Lisa Todd Wexley spends her precious screen minutes speaking at MOMA about her work as a black filmmaker (where her interviewer is wearing the same Loewe style Beyoncé wore on the Renaissance tour).
LTW doesn’t get much to do in this episode, but he deserves an honorable mention for the glorious moment adjusting his wig in a public restroom after walking across town in a blizzard.
When Lisa says the show must go on, you can be sure she’ll deliver.