Welcome to the third recap of the second season of And Just Like That…, a spin-off of erstwhile ’90s/’00s comedy Sex and the City, a show about a sexually adventurous PR agent who cured a cold with Fanta and cough syrup over ice. This week’s episode was the season’s most coherent thus far, stocked with fish-out-of-water hijinks including the always-delightful occasion of Carrie Bradshaw attempting life outside of the Manhattan city limits. Everybody’s struggling with big mid-life issues: showing up authentically in their relationships, balancing career and family, negotiating unexpected professional pivots, and figuring out what to do when your husband pees his pants at the club.
We open in Carrie’s mansion, where Carrie delights her literary agent by revealing she’s working on a new book, then disappoints her agent by revealing that although it is fiction — it is not romantasy. Also Carrie’s been invited to speak at SXSW in Austin, also to Google in Palo Alto and also on a panel about memoirs in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Carrie jumps at the chance to visit Virginia because that’s where Aidan lives. I hope her panel is at Colonial Willamsburg because she has the PERFECT hat for that occasion.
We then transition to the soft hard launch of Anthony’s Sexual Bakery, Hot Rolls Hot Boys Hot Fellas Hot Toddies (something like that), the concept bakery absolutely nobody asked for. If you’ve ever turned down a nine AM croissant because it wasn’t handed to you by a man in a skin-tight, low cut denim onesie with a prominent penis bulge, let me know in the comments!
So you just stick your whole finger right in his butthole?
Carrie needs a pal to accompany her to Virginia, lest her boyfriend think she’s going there to spend time with him, a truly absurd thing for a girlfriend to want to do with her boyfriend! These are the kinds of games we played with boys in the early 2000s when we were in our twenties, how is Carrie still doing this in 2025? Are straight women okay?
Everybody’s too busy to meet Virginia for an on-brand reason: Miranda has a leadership training, Charlotte’s attending an Artsy McArt Art Show of Artsy Art and Seema is too posh to even go to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Aidan’s wife calls Carrie with a really embarrassing request and unfortunately it’s not for Carrie to find a tampon that got lost inside her — it’s for Carrie to possibly shake down her New York City pharma connections to procure a bottle of 30mg Adderall XR for Wyatt because the Nationwide Adderall Shortage has dried out Virginia’s local supply. This is like the most realistic storyline they’ve had so far.
You know, I was thinking about what you asked me before — about doing a threesome with me and Aidan just for the plot?
You were?
Luckily, LTW and the Hot Moms have arrived at Hot Fellas Bread-n-Bagels and you bet your ass these entrepreneurial mothers have the hookup. Despite a shortage that surely is impacting their own children as well, Charlotte’s able to score a dime bag of Addies immediately so Wyatt will be able to focus more intently on why his Dad is being so weird. Women can do anything they put their minds to!!!
Lisa Todd Wexley’s co-producer Grace, who has worked tirelessly for LTW and her ten-part docuseries for eight years — despite its original projection of being a one-year project — has been invited to work on Steve McQueen’s next documentary! This is great news for Grace but ultimately it’s terrible news for LTW, ’cause Stevie needs Grace immediately.
Oh my god there is a haunted poster for She-La behind me isn’t there
LTW is devastated and angry about Grace leaving her for Steve McQueen. Later at home she decides to mash some potatoes about it and talk to her husband Herbert.
It’s all right, you wanna fight. You’ve got a hunger. I was just like you when I was younger — head full of fantasies of dying like a martyr?
Dying is easy, young man! Living is harder!
Herbert reminds her how patient Grace has been for the past eight (8) years and made space for LTW to have babies. Much like Charlotte in this episode (you’ll see), LTW’s struggling to accept that there might be aspects of her professional life compromised by her family life. I think the mashed potatoes are going to turn out really good though.
Although Miranda has refused to accompany Carrie to Old Dominion, she will be cat-sitting Carrie’s marvelous tiny beast, Shoe, because that’s what lesbians do, they hang out with cats. (Not me personally because I am allergic, but speaking generally.) It will be a big week for Shoe because Carrie purchased Shoe a gorgeous playgym. It will also be a big week for Aidan because Carrie is continuing to add additional elements to her story of why she, Aidan’s girlfriend, needs to have lunch with Aidan, her boyfriend: she’s gonna give him a key to the house they own together! Romance.
This feels so much larger than the Rabbit, don’t you think?
ALSO it’s gonna be a big week for Miranda ’cause she asked Joy from the BBC out for drinks, under the guise of needing advice for future on-camera invitations.
Carrie: Do you really have to play those games?
Miranda: I don’t know, maybe I should just hop on a plane and surprise her with a key to a house she’s already been in twice?
Carrie: It’s his house, and can I please get a cease and desist on the Aidan wisecracks?
Miranda settles out of court. I remain unsettled!
At the Art McArt Gala, Charlotte’s young, cool Gen Z employees are hungover from raving and selling art all night at the club. Meanwhile boring old Charlotte, noted Wife & Mother, missed out on all the networking opportunities because she was at home roasting chickens for her family.
At the klerb, we’re all fam
That’s so interesting!
Later that evening over a dinner she has prepared, Charlotte tells her family — and also Anthony and Giuseppe — that her inability to keep up with Gen Z, due to the invisible and visible labor she is obligated to perform for them, is preventing her from going dancing all night with her co-workers, which is where all the big art deals are taking place.
Be honest Mom these are Trader Joe’s bagged Haricots Verts and you didn’t *need* to leave work at 5 to put them in the microwave
Harry agrees that he, too, is lacking the level of cool he needs to exude in order to keep up with the Jaydens at his law firm. Charlotte suggests they reinvent themselves and try going out to party. In other news, Anthony says Guiseppe is neglecting Hot Buns Hot Ones by focusing on his poetry instead of trying to sell sourdough rolls with his Kielbalsa if you know what I mean. Also Rock is dressed like a little sailor and it’s adorable:
Charlotte every day you dress like you’re about to board the Good Ship Lollipop, of course you must have known your child would do the same one day
Harry doesn’t have cool enough clothes to go party so Carrie gamely takes him to the shoppes to acquire some hot fashions.
🎶 I’m dudin’ up my shirt front
Puttin’ in the shirt studs
Polishin’ my nails 🎶
Charlotte your husband is singing Fred Astaire at Standard & Strange again can you please come pick him up
Seema’s shoved forcefully into a Career Crossroads this episode when her boss Elliot reveals that not only is he somehow 90 years old, but he’s retiring and has sold his company shares to a guy named Ryan.
C’MON TOSS AN OLD MAN A JUNIOR MINT
Elliot’s disrespect of Seema’s excellence is uncalled for, and further salt is poured onto the wound when Ryan arrives with a little hate and a bottle of champagne. Sima decides to take all of her vacation time ASAP to reflect on her life and her choices and her future. Her first step will be to visit WIlliamsburg, Virginia, with her dearest friend Carrie Bradshaw, so she pulls up to Carrie’s brownstone just in time to meet Adam Gardens, the Garden Guy.
May I interest you in a bed of plants? They are poisonous.
Get in the car, little boy, I’m in the mood for a little arsenic
There’s a little promising banter between Adam Gardens and Seema that hopefully will evolve into hot sex for Seema in the future.
Somehow Seema and Carrie are flying coach to Williamsburg. The plane experience is disappointing to Seema because even though there’s an empty seat in between them — the height of luxury if you ask me — the flight attendant won’t get her a tequila until she’s at cruising altitude.
“Why does no gay man ever give me what I want?” asks Sima. This is how I feel about the gay man who is the executive producer of this show.
I downloaded six episodes from the third season of The West Wing before we took off, you in?
Later that evening, Seema and Carrie have dinner in Williamsburg. Seema says she’s considering striking out on her own and starting her own firm, The Patel Group. The restaurant owner stops by to thank Carrie for being such an incredible panelist and Seema asks for recommendations from the menu and then he realizes they have the wrong menus because the restaurant used to have Hearty Southern Fare like fried chicken but now it has sweet potato reductions.
Here at Colonial Williamsburg we invite you to visit the farming plot near the windmill where farmers are growing large-scale plots for our authentic colonial dishes
I LOVE WINDMILLS
Once again Seema wonders why gay men won’t give her what she wants while I wonder how on earth they are distributing inaccurate menus to guests??!?! This would never happen at The Olive Garden. Later that same evening, Carrie’s timidly interacting with Aidan about their evening plans while Sima has been out in the streets doing the lords work, acquiring a delicious dish for them both:
There’s one straight man who always gives me exactly what I want and his name is Colonel Sanders
Back in Manhattan, Miranda is enjoying world’s best tonic water at a sexy lounge with Joy from the BBC while mining her for those allegedly necessary on-air performance tips. Joy says what Miranda really must do is breathe better. This is what my swim teacher told me at the YMCA before I stopped going to Swim Lessons because they wouldn’t graduate me from Tadpole to Guppie and it was getting embarrassing.
Joy puts Miranda’s hand right on her chest and warms her clavicle so Miranda can feel how to breathe up close.
So, we’re gonna try a breathing exercise, okay? When I breathe, you breathe.
Miranda adores the breathing demonstration. The moment the heat of Joy’s palm makes contact with her breastbone, Miranda is floating at the very edge of climax, deeply aroused and wholly prepared for future on-camera invitations.
Do you feel this, Shane? Most people don’t have this. This is rare.
Miranda, more than any of her tragically heterosexual friends this episode, is truly leaning in to the possibility of a romance that challenges her and meets her where she’s at, intellectually. Miranda tends to date adults with child-like energy who pull her out of her own self-seriousness, but she could actually go toe-to-toe with Joy in a real way. she’s also intimidated by Joy, which provides just enough sexual tension to keep her on her toes. Lesbianism is healing.
Once the demonstration is over, Joy instructs: “Now — imagine doing that while talking about famine.”
Charlotte and Harry’s Big Night Out is going well insofar as they are, in fact, out, and it is seemingly quite late. Everybody’s doing cocaine and buzzing about after-after-parties. Despite their exhaustion, Charlotte and Harry are determined to continue hanging and hopefully selling a painting to this Dutch man who looks like he would play a Secret Service member in a low-budget movie about aliens invading the Pentagon. Also Lela wants to have sexual intercourse with the Dutch man.
You know Charlotte York was always my favorite character
Charlotte feels just moments away from selling art to Dutch and thus plans to attend the after-after-after-party. But when Harry goes to the little boys room for a pre-location-change pee, he can’t get his fancy stiff jeans off and he pees his pants. That’s ok, this happened to me in elementary school when we were eating graham crackers with frosting and I was so excited about eating frosting that I didn’t want to go to the bathroom and then I peed everywhere and then tried to cover it up myself by cleaning it off the chair with those awful brown paper towels they always had in school and it didn’t work so they had to call my Mom to bring me a change of clothes but they didn’t tell her I peed my pants so she didn’t bring fresh underwear, she just brought me my Brownie pants, and I had to wear pants without underwear for the rest of the day and to Brownies and probably that’s why I have mental health issues now.
Harry, it’s okay, you’ll survive, one time Riese peed in her pants and had to wear Brownie pants all day with no underwear
Charlotte’s not sure how she’ll make it through the evening without Harry but after a few Espresso Martinis she is an aggressively delighted version of Charlotte and it’s really cute actually!
Charlotte, high on her own success, thinks she’s got a shot at selling art to Dutch and at getting him to hook up with Lela, who’s crushing hard. Dutch misreads Charlotte and tries to kiss her on the mouth. She screams like a bunch of rats just invaded her garden and tells him that she is a wife and a mother! Charlotte attempts to recapture her youth and succeed in a space where she no longer belongs has backfired, and she ends up re-affirming the identities she resented earlier, embracing them anew.
Ultimately it’s genuine connections, not forced ones, that snag Charlotte the sale — a fellow wife and mother beelines directly for hungover Charlotte at the show the next morning and says she’s ready to drop some coin on the art Charlotte didn’t sell Dutch.
Worry no more my exhausted friend, I’ve got a baggie of cocaine stuffed inside me like a tampon
Let’s do a line!!!!!!
It’s suddenly Grace’s last day even though merely 24 hours have passed since she announced her job offer, and LTW issues a formal apology, admitting she’s not sure if she can do the project without her.
I’ve filled this bag with every statement necklace you ever wore to work, and I hope you can look at them all together and remember how much you love them, and also me
Grace says she’s confident LTW can do it and you know what — so am I. And so is Herbert, I bet! Maybe she will hire me to be her editor.
Meanwhile in Virginia, Carrie’s managed to reserve a rental car despite lacking the required paperwork, and must be sadly informed at the desk that her drivers license expired in 2017 and she will not be driving off the lot today.
I have it on good authority that the last time you had access to a motor vehicle you used it to drive to a Frozen Cup drive-through and ordered a strawberry shake, a cheeseburger, fries and a Cosmpolitan, is this true?
Who told you that? Samantha Jones?
Luckily, Seema’s drivers license is current and the ladies hit the road for Aidenville Poundtown Party of Two. Seema’s still deciding whether or not she should start her own agency or keep working for Ryan with the tiny hat. She really needs a sign!
Speak of the devil — Ryan calls! Carrie asks Seema to pull over to take the FaceTime because I personally will die if the point of this Adderall subplot is for Carrie to get arrested with a sandwich bag of pills she could’ve easily stashed in an actual pill bottle. Unfortunately, when it comes time to pull out of the parking lot post-call, Seema backs up over a row of “Don’t Back Up” spikes, and the rental car is donezo, leaving Carrie and Seema stranded across the street from a 24-Hour Fitness in Virginia.
The good news is that the “Don’t Back Up” sign was the sign Seema needed — she’s gonna change her path and move forward and start her own firm! This honestly seems like a lot of work but I think Seema can do anything. For example, just earlier in this episode she said she would never go to Virginia and now she’s in Virginia.
Never fear — AIDAN IS HERE!!!
Pardon me, do you have any Grey Popoun?
I thought you’d never ask!!!
Just as Carrie hoped he would, Aidan invites her to spend the night — the kind of agenda-change only a woman of Carrie’s leisurely lifestyle could adjust to at such short notice, but okay!
Thus, Seema goes to the airport, ready to start all over at the age of her age, and Carrie drives back to Aidan’s farmhouse estate in rural Virginia, ready to sleep alone in the guesthouse ’cause he’s not yet told her kids that she’s in town. Probably if he explained that she’d just come on a casual girl’s trip with her friend Seema to be on a memoirist panel in Willamsburg and also hand-deliver a key, they would understand. Actually probably if she told Wyatt she had 25 Adderall XRs in her bra, he’d be pretty relieved to see her.
You know what I could’ve sold these for at NYU, Big Man?
Judging by Aidan’s underwhelm regarding Carrie’s triumphant drug score, I get the feeling Aidan and his ex-wife aren’t aligned about Wyatt taking medication — something unspoken is afoot. Anyhow, the episode ends with Carrie alone in the guest house on her laptop, just like Lizzie Borden’s maid, Bridget Sullivan.
Oh, if you were worried about Anthony’s Hottie Tottie Bakery, worry no more!!! Guiseppe caved and donned his tiny outfit so Anthony can sell more eclairs.
Nothing gets me in the mood for a hot bagel like a hot man holding a basket of hot bagels
Pages: 1 2See entire article on one page
Thrilled that Seema is going to fuck Trey Atwood !! And that Miranda called out Carrie even if she immediately apologized.
Lily with the Haricots Verts, Miranda with the rabbit – the captions are once again perfect. This recap was an even better delight than the episode
My remaining question is how Carrie got through tsa with that giant sandwich bag in her bra
legit every move she made with the adderall was more alarming and befuddling than the last, from not putting it into a medicine bottle (as seema suggested) to begin with, to slipping it out of her bra and into her purse post-TSA, while on the plane (she did tell seems to “shied her” but not until mid-movement), to every additional minute that passed in which it was in her possession and i kept thinking it was chekov’s gun and i was just already annoyed at how it might go off. but it didn’t! so that i suppose is a small blessing
BIG shoutout to Trader Joe’s bagged Haricots Verts
“Lesbianism Is Healing” t-shirt, size L, add to cart.
I’m a bit worried for Miranda, that hand-on-chest thing is such a fuckboi move