Has there ever been a show with an audience so devoted to watching every episode, but who also desperately wishes for its cancellation? As we hit the halfway point of And Just Like That season 3, I’ve never felt more furious about the hold this terrible show has on me. From Carrie’s shocking response to Aidan cheating on her (“You expected me not to sleep with anyone else for five years?”) to a somber funeral featuring “Magic To Do” from Pippin, I feel the same way I did when I watched the episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 where the Gosselins renewed their vows: impressed by their optimism (perhaps oblivion is the better word), while angry that they were too foolish to see how bad things at home really were. I think Michael Patrick King and Sarah Jessica Parker are Jon and Kate in this analogy? We, the audience, are the Plus 8. Mom and Dad have lost the plot and we are the ones suffering.
Anyhoozle. Carrie and her downstairs neighbor Duncan Reeves (Jonathan Cake) have made nice, despite Carrie’s irrational commitment to wearing heels at home and so this week, we find them enjoying a nice mutton stew together in his apartment. This seems surprising, that they’ve mended fences this quickly, but it turns out that these two writers could use each others’ help. He’s working on a Margaret Thatcher biography that could use a woman’s perspective, she’s working on a piece of historical fiction that’s what would happen if you typed “make Edith Wharton roll over in her grave” into ChatGPT, and she could also use some guidance. Sharing their work seems surprisingly intimate, and in the first few minutes of the show, I admit I was worried that it would create an issue between Carrie and Aidan. It doesn’t.
You know why? Aidan barely remembers Duncan is a character on this show. While Carrie tells Aidan about her dinner with Duncan (making jokes like “Now I have acid reflux of the lambs,” a joke so nonsensical I had to pause to see if there were more layers to it – there aren’t), I have to applaud John Corbett for what happens next: we get to watch Aidan apply Rogaine while tells Carrie he’s planning to visit her. This is a specific choice, and I appreciate the nuance! For once I’m not being sarcastic.
Aidan’s son Wyatt, the one who you don’t want to play Apples to Apples with, has decided to go to a nature camp in Wyoming (presumably because Aidan is still witholding ADHD meds and escaping his family is the next best thing), so with Aidan’s week now free, he’s coming to visit.
When Aidan shows up to Carrie’s house, he immediately becomes a true menace when, in attempt to be charming and throw a pebble at her window, he sends a rock straight through her leaded, historically-accurate-because-it’s-actually-historic glass window pane. Yes, this was their “thing” back when she was a renter and he wanted to announce his arrival to her apartment, but you don’t go throwing rocks at mansions on Gramercy Park. Carrie is rightfully furious. (I generally err on the side of “Relax, man, it’s just STUFF” but Carrie makes a valid point about the irreplaceability of these old-ass windows).
(P.S., allow me to be further infuriated by this show as Aidan picks up all the broken glass off her floor – as a barefoot Carrie watches him, not helping – and he’s like, “Why are you not wearing any shoes?” Is this really how people in this universe live? Perpetually be-shoed indoors? Carrie explains that Duncan prefers no shoes.)
Carrie guilts Aidan into feeling like shit when she tells him that the glass he broke is wavy and makes rainbows when the sun hits it, something your average Renewal by Andersens just can’t do. Because if there’s one thing that makes Aidan feel like shit, it’s being responsible for crushing Carrie’s poetic view of life. That’s why he’s so squeamish about crushing her even further by admitting that he slept with his ex-wife Kathy. ONE NIGHT EARLIER.
It was all because Wyatt freaked out as he was leaving for Wyoming and refused to go, but Aidan and Kathy forced him to, it was a whole traumatic family event. The whole situation made Kathy upset, and one thing led to another and here we are. “We were just trying to comfort each other. It just happened. And it was a mistake,” he explains.
Some women would freak out about this, maybe break off the relationship. Others would need some time to process it. But Carrie? A woman who has put her life on hold for five years while she waits for the great love of her life to address the needs of his kids? She is easy breezy as can be about this. “I understand how that could happen,” she tells Aidan.
“I’m so sorry I betrayed you,” he says, and she responds, “What do you mean you betrayed me?”
“Well, because we agreed to wait for each other and I slept with someone else,” he says. Here’s where things get confusing. Carrie responds, “I didn’t agree to that.” Carrie tells Aidan that what she agreed to was that she would be here waiting for him, but that she never pledged some vow of celibacy while she waited. “You expected me not to sleep with anyone else for five years?” she asks him incredulously.
On the one hand, I appreciate this interpretation of what’s happening between Carrie and Aidan, especially when she laughs and says, “Oh my God, this is so male or medieval, I don’t know.” What I don’t appreciate is how very out of character for Carrie this actually is to say!
On the other hand though, I think we ALL assumed Carrie was adhering to Aidan’s version of this agreement, no? In a season devoid of all sex, a season where I’ve been forced to imagine what it would look like for Carrie (or Seema, or, hell, even Duncan) to jump Adam the Gardener’s bones, Carrie is here telling us she might-could-possibly have been screwing around?! Aidan seems shocked and a little heartbroken to hear Carrie’s version of their agreement, and when he starts whining about how he assumed she would wait for him, her only response is how she can’t believe they haven’t had this conversation until now. They manage to have an adult conversation where Carrie says her only desire is to sleep with Aidan, but that, you know, life happens. Which is why she is being so forgiving. Sleeping with other people sometimes just happens. And then, they sleep with each other, finally.
Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) – and all of us – suffered at the hands of Che Diaz for two seasons and now, it is truly a thrill to see her in a relationship with Joy (Dolly Wells), who we can fully get on board with. The biggest sticking point in their relationship is Sappho and Socrates, Joy’s two dogs who don’t seem to love Miranda. Speaking of kids (dogs, kids, they’re basically the same), Joy is a little worried because her own track record around people’s kids is not great, and she’s worried what will happen when she meets Miranda’s son Brady.
Miranda is still looking for a new apartment with Seema’s help, and Joy’s dogs have been top of mind – obviously the relationship with Joy is new, but Miranda can’t help but consider a dog-friendly apartment just in case. When the perfect apartment comes up, Seema tells her the owner expects the prospective buyer to pay $150k over asking price and Miranda scoffs at this ridiculous greedy real estate practice (finally, a reminder of why I’m a Miranda!). But ultimately, she ends up giving in because it’s the biggest and best apartment she’s seen, and they allow dogs.
I wouldn’t have expected Brady Hobbs to be the real MVP of the episode, but when did he become this charming? After Joy expresses her concern that she’s awkward around kids, Miranda worries that this means Joy doesn’t want to have any sort of parental role if they get more serious. Brady, makes things easy for her, warmly snuggling with Joy’s dogs and immediately endearing himself to Joy.
Harry, still dealing with his new, secret cancer diagnosis, gets a bit of good news this week that his cancer is treatable with surgery. It may lead to some bowel and/or erectile dysfunction, but at least he’ll survive.
Unfortunately, it makes Charlotte a little nutty because she’s still harboring this information in secret, not allowed to confide his diagnosis to anyone and mortality is constantly on her mind.
Speaking of mortality, LTW (Nicole Ari Parker) endures one of the most heartbreaking situations of the modern age: missing a life-changing call because her phone was off. In this case, she was working in the edit bay with her hot editor, Man Marion (Mehcad Brooks), and set her phone to silent, only to later learn that her father suffered a stroke and died. If her phone had been on, she might have been able to see him one last time, and the guilt haunts her.
While this season has taken liberties with Carrie and Miranda’s friendship dynamic, it has solidified the foundation that exists between Charlotte and LTW. When Lisa calls Charlotte to break the news of her father’s death, she’s wracked with grief and guilt that she wasn’t there for him in his final moments. “I never got to say goodbye… because of work,” Lisa tells Charlotte, who responds, “Work that he raised you to do.” Charlotte has a whole other story line this week where she continuously puts her foot in her mouth around Bitsy von Muffling (Julie Halston), but in this moment Charlotte says just the right thing to her friend.
Lisa is forced to channel her grief into rage when she gets an email from Lucille Highwater (Broadway legend Jenifer Lewis), a colleague (maybe more?) of Lisa’s father who has taken the reins as funeral planner. Lisa confronts Lucille and tells her she doesn’t want her father’s funeral turned into some kind of performance, and Lucille retorts, telling Lisa, “You’ve got a lot of opinions for someone who was too busy to come say goodbye to her daddy on the last day of his life.”
The funeral is indeed a performance, though, as Lucille enters in full costume singing “Magic to Do” from Pippin to kick things off. I mean, if you’ve got Jenifer Lewis in your show, might as well make her perform for the stage!
But it’s a good thing Lucille has such a theatrical event planned because when it’s Lisa’s turn to deliver her eulogy, she freezes up. Herbert assists, but, in the end, Lucille’s “homecoming” service is exactly what was called for.
Charlotte, who lives uptown, decides to go to Carrie’s neighborhood to buy Harry the adult diapers he’ll need after surgery so her neighbors don’t see her, but she runs into Carrie who has either developed a Tums addiction or is still reeling from the mutton. And that’s when Charlotte breaks down and admits to Carrie that Harry has cancer. “I’m only telling you because you saw the Depends,” Charlotte cries. “I’m your vault,” Carrie tells her as they hug and Charlotte weeps in her arms. It’s a poignant moment, one that depicts two women who deeply care for each other, who are chosen family, who can cry together in the incontinence section of Duane Reade. That’s what the heart of this show has always been, and I guess that’s why I still watch, despite just about everything else.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.