And Just Like That...: Seeing the Light
February 3, 2022 7:47 AM - Season 1, Episode 10 - Subscribe
The final episode of season 1.
Carrie and Peter's third date ends platonically. Carrie then calls Seema, who has been spending a passionate three days with Zed. Carrie thinks Big is sending messages, making her feel guilty about seeing other men. After several rabbis cancel, Charlotte locates a trans rabbi to officiate at Rock's "They" Mitzvah. Che is offered a TV pilot in California and asks Miranda to come with them to L.A. Che's new opportunity ends the podcast, however. Miranda tells Nya she is considering finishing the school semester remotely and declining a prestigious internship with Human Rights Watch to be with Che. Nya confides to Miranda that she and Andre are spending time apart. Podcast producer Franklyn offers Carrie her own podcast. Rock, no longer identifying with any religion, refuses to participate in the "They" Mitzvah ceremony. Charlotte, a Jewish convert who never had a Bat Mitzvah, takes Rock's place. Miranda decides to go to L.A. with Che. Nearing the one-year anniversary of Big's passing, Carrie dreams that Pairs is where he wants to be. After spreading his ashes in the Seine River, Carrie texts Samantha, who agrees to meet up for a drink. Back in New York, Carrie's first "Sex and the City" podcast is a success, after which she and Franklyn share a romantic kiss.
Carrie and Peter's third date ends platonically. Carrie then calls Seema, who has been spending a passionate three days with Zed. Carrie thinks Big is sending messages, making her feel guilty about seeing other men. After several rabbis cancel, Charlotte locates a trans rabbi to officiate at Rock's "They" Mitzvah. Che is offered a TV pilot in California and asks Miranda to come with them to L.A. Che's new opportunity ends the podcast, however. Miranda tells Nya she is considering finishing the school semester remotely and declining a prestigious internship with Human Rights Watch to be with Che. Nya confides to Miranda that she and Andre are spending time apart. Podcast producer Franklyn offers Carrie her own podcast. Rock, no longer identifying with any religion, refuses to participate in the "They" Mitzvah ceremony. Charlotte, a Jewish convert who never had a Bat Mitzvah, takes Rock's place. Miranda decides to go to L.A. with Che. Nearing the one-year anniversary of Big's passing, Carrie dreams that Pairs is where he wants to be. After spreading his ashes in the Seine River, Carrie texts Samantha, who agrees to meet up for a drink. Back in New York, Carrie's first "Sex and the City" podcast is a success, after which she and Franklyn share a romantic kiss.
Updating to say that I read a Deadline article where the producers say they have no idea why John Corbett talked about being on the show when they never did. So I guess he was just screwing with us!
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:51 AM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:51 AM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
If that is—and not just the producers playing the long game with a scene that got shifted to next season—that is HILARIOUS. Bravo John Corbett!
posted by Ian A.T. at 1:07 PM on February 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Ian A.T. at 1:07 PM on February 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
Hmm. I've been enjoying the series over all but didn't love this episode. Something about it seemed off- maybe because they cut scenes? (Chris Noth and John Corbett?) It just seemed a little...flat. Can't say I hated it though.
Miranda was super annoying in this episode, and she hasn't been annoying me as much as she seems to be annoying most viewers, so far. It really bothered me that she was arguing with Carrie about the afterlife stuff.
Rock could not have said they didn't want the "they-mitzvah" before all that money was spent? Seems like such a pointless waste.
The kiss at the end with the producer seemed... weird and tacked on, to me.
I will be watching next season, though, of course.
posted by bearette at 5:44 PM on February 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
Miranda was super annoying in this episode, and she hasn't been annoying me as much as she seems to be annoying most viewers, so far. It really bothered me that she was arguing with Carrie about the afterlife stuff.
Rock could not have said they didn't want the "they-mitzvah" before all that money was spent? Seems like such a pointless waste.
The kiss at the end with the producer seemed... weird and tacked on, to me.
I will be watching next season, though, of course.
posted by bearette at 5:44 PM on February 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
Just wrapped up the full AJLT series. I was a regular, but not zealous, watcher of SITC. What's disappointed me most about this series is the lack of connection and graciousness between the three (re)main(ing) characters to explore different points of view. It may be nostalgia speaking, because I haven't rewatched any of the original series, but I remember Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte having very different points of view and choices from each other, but always curious, amazed, inspired to learn something from each other. Even if what they learned was that someone else's choices weren't the ones they would make themselves, they still had their worlds expanded and enlivened by each other.
This series seems to pit Carrie and Miranda against each other in petty ways without much evidence of the scaffolding of their deep, existing relationship. The arguments feel petty, even though they're about much weightier issues. It just seemed sad and unbelievable that Carrie and Miranda couldn't have a solid conversation about, for instance, Miranda giving up her internship and what it does to you to give up personal goals for a relationship, alongside Miranda's realization that she hasn't let herself follow this instinct of hers. Instead we get a bitchy, judgy, defensive, interrupted conversation. At this point in their (our) lives, these two women should be able to have a compassionate, direct, supportive, and yet still challenging conversation about these sorts of things.
I read some articles about how Che isn't going to be able to give Miranda what she wants and that falling in love with Che sets Miranda up for disappointment, a la just another "boyfriend." So what might we have seen if Miranda challenged more directly the place that conventional relationship models have in her head and her worldview? Could she have embraced the sense of openness and not-knowing that this queer relationship was presenting, explore and choose that with gusto, rather than trying to play her old scripts out on a different person than Steve? Again, the chorus of Carrie, Charlotte, (Samantha), and possibly now Nya, could have given a variety of fascinating points of view, ideas, challenges, and support to make this internal question explicit.
Ditto Charlotte. She does a lot of swooning about Rock's identity and choices, but we see very little of how Charlotte's own identity and choices have shaped her outlook, how & why Rock's actions affect her, reflective conversations with Harry or C&M about them. And certainly nothing about Charlotte's path to overt Judaism that culminated in the last episode. That journey, and the conversations and choices around it, should have been rich fodder for three mid-life women. And agreed, that afterlife conversation between Miranda and Carrie could have been so much more, especially if Charlotte's religious identity has been growing over the last 20 years. It was also another lost opportunity for Carrie to show some depth around Big's death. For the most part she alternates between anxiety about dating and playing the death card when anyone else talks about relationships, so that Big's death trumps and shuts down other conversation. What an interesting conversation it could have been about the afterlife, how death affects our view, how our care for loved ones changes & extends after their death, and how to allow our friends to be their multitudes.
Overall, I think the show would have been served by more brunch table conversation, with the supporting characters (Che, Nya, Seema, Lisa, Anthony--or even Natasha, Lisette, Jackie!!) joining the fray to shake up the conversation, relationship dynamics, gender and age assumptions, to call shit, and to show they're more than simple mirrors for their respective main characters.
I'd probably watch a show that reveals that for the last 20 years Steve, Big, Harry, Stanford, and Anthony have been hanging out every few weeks, and now extending the group to Andre, Jackie, and Herbert, after all meeting at Big's funeral. We could hear their takes on relationships, midlife, mortality, fashion, and lights that flicker on and off mysteriously.
posted by cocoagirl at 5:54 AM on February 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
This series seems to pit Carrie and Miranda against each other in petty ways without much evidence of the scaffolding of their deep, existing relationship. The arguments feel petty, even though they're about much weightier issues. It just seemed sad and unbelievable that Carrie and Miranda couldn't have a solid conversation about, for instance, Miranda giving up her internship and what it does to you to give up personal goals for a relationship, alongside Miranda's realization that she hasn't let herself follow this instinct of hers. Instead we get a bitchy, judgy, defensive, interrupted conversation. At this point in their (our) lives, these two women should be able to have a compassionate, direct, supportive, and yet still challenging conversation about these sorts of things.
I read some articles about how Che isn't going to be able to give Miranda what she wants and that falling in love with Che sets Miranda up for disappointment, a la just another "boyfriend." So what might we have seen if Miranda challenged more directly the place that conventional relationship models have in her head and her worldview? Could she have embraced the sense of openness and not-knowing that this queer relationship was presenting, explore and choose that with gusto, rather than trying to play her old scripts out on a different person than Steve? Again, the chorus of Carrie, Charlotte, (Samantha), and possibly now Nya, could have given a variety of fascinating points of view, ideas, challenges, and support to make this internal question explicit.
Ditto Charlotte. She does a lot of swooning about Rock's identity and choices, but we see very little of how Charlotte's own identity and choices have shaped her outlook, how & why Rock's actions affect her, reflective conversations with Harry or C&M about them. And certainly nothing about Charlotte's path to overt Judaism that culminated in the last episode. That journey, and the conversations and choices around it, should have been rich fodder for three mid-life women. And agreed, that afterlife conversation between Miranda and Carrie could have been so much more, especially if Charlotte's religious identity has been growing over the last 20 years. It was also another lost opportunity for Carrie to show some depth around Big's death. For the most part she alternates between anxiety about dating and playing the death card when anyone else talks about relationships, so that Big's death trumps and shuts down other conversation. What an interesting conversation it could have been about the afterlife, how death affects our view, how our care for loved ones changes & extends after their death, and how to allow our friends to be their multitudes.
Overall, I think the show would have been served by more brunch table conversation, with the supporting characters (Che, Nya, Seema, Lisa, Anthony--or even Natasha, Lisette, Jackie!!) joining the fray to shake up the conversation, relationship dynamics, gender and age assumptions, to call shit, and to show they're more than simple mirrors for their respective main characters.
I'd probably watch a show that reveals that for the last 20 years Steve, Big, Harry, Stanford, and Anthony have been hanging out every few weeks, and now extending the group to Andre, Jackie, and Herbert, after all meeting at Big's funeral. We could hear their takes on relationships, midlife, mortality, fashion, and lights that flicker on and off mysteriously.
posted by cocoagirl at 5:54 AM on February 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
Just noticed that HBO has added an 80 minute documentary about the making of this show.
posted by Clustercuss at 6:23 AM on February 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Clustercuss at 6:23 AM on February 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
I thought that I was going to hate the Charlotte plot line, but I was pleasantly surprised. Still, the they-mitzvah was a head scratcher. How do you not have a rabbi? They’re held in synagogues. Did they rent a space? Where’d they get a Torah from? Do people in New York rent torahs and rabbis? !
Also, bat means “daughter of” and bar is “son of”, so they makes little grammatical sense. We are planning a B’nai mitzvah for our kid (children of, so plural of bar), so I am way too invested in the details.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 6:36 PM on February 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
Also, bat means “daughter of” and bar is “son of”, so they makes little grammatical sense. We are planning a B’nai mitzvah for our kid (children of, so plural of bar), so I am way too invested in the details.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 6:36 PM on February 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
I really enjoyed it and watched every episode as soon as it came out. A worthy sequel. Looking forward to the next one (tentatively; I'll never get over the horror of the 2nd movie).
posted by h00py at 10:45 PM on February 4, 2022
posted by h00py at 10:45 PM on February 4, 2022
Yikes. This ep felt so rushed. I think it really suffered from the Chris Noth cuts. I did find the bridge scene very moving though. SJP is astonishingly good at restrained heartbreak, and the physical shifts of those emotions.
The They Mitvah was, just weird. Rock seems so solitary - at least part of this plot should have evolved through some conversation between Rock and their peer group - lily, or friends or just other kids preparing for the ceremony, otherwise it just made no sense that a lack of belief would call a halt at the last minute. Also - would there not have been some counsel between Rock and the Rabbi? Not to convince but to accept? I don't have a lot of knowledge of Judaism so maybe this was not required detail but some nods to the tradition would have been interesting.
Miranda and Che's story leaves me cold. Too many set ups that go nowhere. What was tthat whole intern thing? Did we even know about that? I seriously thought I'd skipped an episode where we find out what happens when Miranda shows up in Cleveland - but no. What the hell was that for then?
Oh that final kiss! It was so clumsy and aukward. Surely it would have been better to just let them stand there, looking and acknowlege the attraction. Maybe taking hands? Possibly I've spent too much time in A03 but that 'passion' was in no way earned and it just came off as fake.
I quite liked the Samantha text. If we didn't know about the off-stage drama this would have worked fine for me as a plotline. Maybe not the 'she left because of me!' angle (although that could just be a a reveal re: Carrie's narcissisism and actually had little bearing in the choice to go) but certainly that Samantha would be living somewhere else and the closeness have faded over 20 years, whilst the connection remained true. SJP and Kim Cattrall are not their characters - so I thought it was a neat way to manage the absence.
All in all it felt like full season's worth of plot aqueezed into 10 episodes. Maybe they thought they wouldn't get another go so just showhorned in the entire enchilada?
But yes. It remains meaningful to me in some thoroughly maddening fashion because of the afore-mentioned women post-50 being something other than standard TV tropes. So, I will continue to watch if there's another season, just hope they can calm it down a bit - get some focus and give the characters a bit of breathing space.
posted by freya_lamb at 4:51 AM on February 5, 2022 [7 favorites]
The They Mitvah was, just weird. Rock seems so solitary - at least part of this plot should have evolved through some conversation between Rock and their peer group - lily, or friends or just other kids preparing for the ceremony, otherwise it just made no sense that a lack of belief would call a halt at the last minute. Also - would there not have been some counsel between Rock and the Rabbi? Not to convince but to accept? I don't have a lot of knowledge of Judaism so maybe this was not required detail but some nods to the tradition would have been interesting.
Miranda and Che's story leaves me cold. Too many set ups that go nowhere. What was tthat whole intern thing? Did we even know about that? I seriously thought I'd skipped an episode where we find out what happens when Miranda shows up in Cleveland - but no. What the hell was that for then?
Oh that final kiss! It was so clumsy and aukward. Surely it would have been better to just let them stand there, looking and acknowlege the attraction. Maybe taking hands? Possibly I've spent too much time in A03 but that 'passion' was in no way earned and it just came off as fake.
I quite liked the Samantha text. If we didn't know about the off-stage drama this would have worked fine for me as a plotline. Maybe not the 'she left because of me!' angle (although that could just be a a reveal re: Carrie's narcissisism and actually had little bearing in the choice to go) but certainly that Samantha would be living somewhere else and the closeness have faded over 20 years, whilst the connection remained true. SJP and Kim Cattrall are not their characters - so I thought it was a neat way to manage the absence.
All in all it felt like full season's worth of plot aqueezed into 10 episodes. Maybe they thought they wouldn't get another go so just showhorned in the entire enchilada?
But yes. It remains meaningful to me in some thoroughly maddening fashion because of the afore-mentioned women post-50 being something other than standard TV tropes. So, I will continue to watch if there's another season, just hope they can calm it down a bit - get some focus and give the characters a bit of breathing space.
posted by freya_lamb at 4:51 AM on February 5, 2022 [7 favorites]
I wish they would add the text message exchanges to closed captioning, because the shots of phones are absolutely unreadable on my TV, on this and pretty much every other show.
posted by jimw at 8:32 AM on February 5, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by jimw at 8:32 AM on February 5, 2022 [5 favorites]
Yasmin Nair (previously) on the tokenism of the new non-white BFFs
posted by larrybob at 8:37 AM on February 6, 2022
posted by larrybob at 8:37 AM on February 6, 2022
I think cocoagirl's comment here is spot on, thank you for saying all that! Especially:
>> I remember Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte having very different points of view and choices from each other ... Even if what they learned was that someone else's choices weren't the ones they would make themselves, they still had their worlds expanded and enlivened by each other.
Which was almost totally missing in this series! And you're so right that it's specifically because in any instance where the conversation threatens to morph into an OG-brunch-style exchange of different points of view, Carrie shuts it down:
> For the most part she alternates between anxiety about dating and playing the death card when anyone else talks about relationships, so that Big's death trumps and shuts down other conversation
I kept waiting for her moment of switching over from this to something a little deeper, like maybe a hint of unexpected wisdom or empathy or making space for someone else (I thought that's where they were going with Seema confronting her a few episodes ago!).
I think this is the reason why it really bugged me that she didn't include Big's brother in the scattering of his ashes. I can't imagine how painful it would be for a sibling to be left completely out of something like this. Not saying they need to decide together and scatter remains together - I've known many people who divide the remains between close family members so each can have their own private moment, for instance, there are many ways she could have made sure he was included. She isn't even the center of her own world as much as the sole inhabitant of it. She's determined to inhabit an utterly isolated universe as far as death is concerned. Death is something that sets her apart from everyone and far away from everyone. (While this is a legit understandable stage of grief everyone goes through, the show treats it differently than just a stage.)
> Also - would there not have been some counsel between Rock and the Rabbi? Not to convince but to accept?
Right? I thought Anthony's tough talk would at least go somewhere. Just like I thought Seema and Nya and Lisa's stories would be going somewhere. I don't ask for much, I know what this show is and what it isn't! For example I was 150% satisfied with where Che's story ended up leading - it was recognizably a story arc for a character (which got me to 100%) and it affected the core storyline in a non-trivial way (which put me 50% over the top). In contrast, I can barely even tell Nya and Lisa and Seema apart, is how thoroughly interchangeable they are as characters. Couldn't you see Seema having marital problems due to infertility which Carrie says blithe shit about and gets called out on, or Lisa as the chain-smoking single mom who rules the PTA roost and makes Charlotte get all flustered about saying the wrong thing, and Nya being a "perfect" mom type overachieving college prof who keeps Miranda off balance in class? These three are totally interchangeable people. (Not so with Che: there's no other character who could be a pot smoking stand-up comedian who pulls one of the main characters out of their closet.)
As a total aside, speaking of Nya, did anyone catch the moment at which she changed her mind about having kids? In one episode she was totally heartbroken about her struggles with infertility and IIRC even talked about her longing for children, and suddenly she's throwing a fit over her husband expressing the same longing? I must have missed something?
posted by MiraK at 10:02 AM on February 6, 2022
>> I remember Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte having very different points of view and choices from each other ... Even if what they learned was that someone else's choices weren't the ones they would make themselves, they still had their worlds expanded and enlivened by each other.
Which was almost totally missing in this series! And you're so right that it's specifically because in any instance where the conversation threatens to morph into an OG-brunch-style exchange of different points of view, Carrie shuts it down:
> For the most part she alternates between anxiety about dating and playing the death card when anyone else talks about relationships, so that Big's death trumps and shuts down other conversation
I kept waiting for her moment of switching over from this to something a little deeper, like maybe a hint of unexpected wisdom or empathy or making space for someone else (I thought that's where they were going with Seema confronting her a few episodes ago!).
I think this is the reason why it really bugged me that she didn't include Big's brother in the scattering of his ashes. I can't imagine how painful it would be for a sibling to be left completely out of something like this. Not saying they need to decide together and scatter remains together - I've known many people who divide the remains between close family members so each can have their own private moment, for instance, there are many ways she could have made sure he was included. She isn't even the center of her own world as much as the sole inhabitant of it. She's determined to inhabit an utterly isolated universe as far as death is concerned. Death is something that sets her apart from everyone and far away from everyone. (While this is a legit understandable stage of grief everyone goes through, the show treats it differently than just a stage.)
> Also - would there not have been some counsel between Rock and the Rabbi? Not to convince but to accept?
Right? I thought Anthony's tough talk would at least go somewhere. Just like I thought Seema and Nya and Lisa's stories would be going somewhere. I don't ask for much, I know what this show is and what it isn't! For example I was 150% satisfied with where Che's story ended up leading - it was recognizably a story arc for a character (which got me to 100%) and it affected the core storyline in a non-trivial way (which put me 50% over the top). In contrast, I can barely even tell Nya and Lisa and Seema apart, is how thoroughly interchangeable they are as characters. Couldn't you see Seema having marital problems due to infertility which Carrie says blithe shit about and gets called out on, or Lisa as the chain-smoking single mom who rules the PTA roost and makes Charlotte get all flustered about saying the wrong thing, and Nya being a "perfect" mom type overachieving college prof who keeps Miranda off balance in class? These three are totally interchangeable people. (Not so with Che: there's no other character who could be a pot smoking stand-up comedian who pulls one of the main characters out of their closet.)
As a total aside, speaking of Nya, did anyone catch the moment at which she changed her mind about having kids? In one episode she was totally heartbroken about her struggles with infertility and IIRC even talked about her longing for children, and suddenly she's throwing a fit over her husband expressing the same longing? I must have missed something?
posted by MiraK at 10:02 AM on February 6, 2022
I’ve had a small but persistent feeling of something being off-kilter all season, and I only recently put my finger on what it was: the new episodes didn’t come out on Sunday nights! It feels weird to talk about a new SatC episode in the middle of the week.
I’m mostly joking, but not entirely. I do feel like the Sunday night timeslot is a part of the show’s legacy. These days Sunday night IS HBO night, and they have SatC in part to thank for that: it was one of the first—if not THE first— huge Sunday night “appointment TV” hits for the channel.
(And in general I wish streaming shows dropped new episodes in the afternoon or evening so that most of us wouldn’t have to spend an entire workday avoiding spoilers…)
posted by Ian A.T. at 3:59 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’m mostly joking, but not entirely. I do feel like the Sunday night timeslot is a part of the show’s legacy. These days Sunday night IS HBO night, and they have SatC in part to thank for that: it was one of the first—if not THE first— huge Sunday night “appointment TV” hits for the channel.
(And in general I wish streaming shows dropped new episodes in the afternoon or evening so that most of us wouldn’t have to spend an entire workday avoiding spoilers…)
posted by Ian A.T. at 3:59 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
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-- The podcast is tremendously unfunny, and also it was a dick move for Che to surprise their colleagues with the fact that they're bailing and it's ending.
-- Carrie talking to Big's cremains and the stuff with the lamp -- well, I did this sort of stuff after a loved one died, so I can identify.
-- Miranda being the absolute WORST while arguing with Carrie about there's an afterlife? I mean, fuck off.
-- The trans rabbi? I couldn't care less that they're trans, but why were they so bitchy and unrabbinical? The stuff in the bathroom couldn't make up for the stuff in Charlotte's apartment.
-- Anthony taking a hard line with Rock was great.
-- The weird relationship between Miranda and Nya, when Nya is actively Miranda's professor. -- Miranda...just in general...is...wow. Okay, good luck in LA, Miranda.
-- The "they mitzvah" -- the candy and stuff before the ceremony? Oh, please. Never.
-- The weird abruptness of cutting from Miranda in Brooklyn directly to Carrie in Paris. Also, you took your actor all the way to Paris during Covid and all we got was a couple of shots in the dark of night? Maybe this stuff suffered when they cut Chris Noth out.
-- Carrie and Samantha having met for a drink offscreen? Cool.
-- The sexy podcast producer is very sexy. Even though Carrie's new show seems just as awkward as the old show.
But also WHAT HAPPENED TO JOHN CORBETT?
And yes, I do hope we get a season 2. I'm here for the continuing adventures of middle-aged women, completely unlike anything else on TV, ever.
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:55 AM on February 3, 2022 [6 favorites]