232: On And Just Like That: Better Than Sex

Summary

Podcast Summary: Every Outfit – Episode 232: "On And Just Like That: Better Than Sex"

Release Date: August 2, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 232 of the Every Outfit podcast titled "On And Just Like That: Better Than Sex," hosts Chelsea Fairless and Lauren Garrone delve deep into the latest developments of the "And Just Like That" series finale. Building upon their sharp fashion insights and cultural commentary, Chelsea and Lauren offer a comprehensive analysis of the show's concluding season, exploring character arcs, plot twists, and the overarching narrative that wraps up the beloved Sex and the City universe.

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Series Finale Announcement and Reactions

The episode kicks off with the hosts addressing the significant news surrounding the end of "And Just Like That," as announced by showrunner Michael Patrick King.

Michael Patrick King [00:24]: "It's done. It's over. There's no more."

Chelsea and Lauren reflect on the abruptness and finality of the announcement, likening it to the feeling of receiving negative STD test results—sudden and relieving.

Chelsea Fairless [01:11]: "I totally relate to the feeling that that caller is describing regarding a negative STD test."

The hosts discuss the public's reception to the cancellation and speculate whether the series finale was a premeditated decision or a response to fluctuating viewership metrics.

Lauren Garrone [02:06]: "I don't believe that they actually wanted to end on this season."

They express concern over the suddenness of the announcement and its impact on the dedicated fanbase, emphasizing the potential loss of jobs for the show's extensive cast and crew.

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Carrie Bradshaw's Storyline: Novel and Relationships

A significant portion of the discussion centers around Carrie Bradshaw's evolving narrative, particularly her endeavor to pen a historical romance novel and her tumultuous relationships with Duncan and Aiden.

Carrie Bradshaw [15:17]: "The woman is womaning. Her hours turned into days, her days turned into weeks... She had done all she could."

Chelsea and Lauren dissect Carrie's character development, noting her struggle to balance personal growth with romantic entanglements.

Lauren Garrone [16:07]: "But Samantha Irby wrote this. She's clearly someone that actually does watch the show."

They critique the portrayal of Carrie's relationship with Duncan, questioning the authenticity of their chemistry and the abruptness of Duncan's decision to return to London.

Chelsea Fairless [25:46]: "And also, why doesn't Aiden know that Carrie slept with Kathy?"

The hosts also touch upon Carrie's fashion evolution in the show, highlighting her transition from a "publishing hot" ensemble to the quintessential "Carrie Bradshaw hot" look, complete with a stunning Vivian Westwood dress.

Chelsea Fairless [26:34]: "What should we talk about next? Miranda Moanda. Oh, man."

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Miranda's Pregnancy Plotline and Reactions

Miranda Hobbes' storyline, involving her unexpected pregnancy with Brady and her interactions with Mia, garners substantial attention. Chelsea and Lauren express mixed feelings about the portrayal of Miranda's character and her abrasive behavior towards Mia.

Lauren Garrone [40:09]: "It's bizarre for her to make that point because she, too, got pregnant from a hookup where a condom wasn't used."

They critique the writing decisions that led to Miranda's harsh treatment of Mia, particularly her invasive questioning and the absurdity of her eventual reaction.

Chelsea Fairless [24:40]: "The words 'Fuck Miranda' coming out of Charlotte's mouth is one of the most shocking things that's happened on this show."

The hosts also discuss the broader implications of Miranda's actions on her character development, suggesting that her behavior might alienate long-time fans who remember her as a more composed character.

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Charlotte and Seema's Storyline

Charlotte York's subplot involving a psychic energy cleanse and her strained relationship with Seema Patel is another focal point of the discussion. Chelsea and Lauren analyze the symbolism and effectiveness of these storylines in contributing to Charlotte's character arc.

Lauren Garrone [48:35]: "This begins as, like, oh, no, another hooey storyline for Charlotte."

They comment on the show's handling of Charlotte's personal growth and the seemingly disjointed narrative choices that leave viewers questioning the character's intentions and development.

Chelsea Fairless [49:35]: "Yeah, but we've all made some regrettable decorating choices. You know, sometimes you need to see what you've done to realize that it's not a good idea."

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Giuseppe and Anthony's Storyline

The dynamic between Giuseppe and Anthony offers a blend of humor and tension, particularly with the introduction of Giuseppe's marionette-making roommate. Chelsea and Lauren appreciate the creative direction of this subplot but also critique its execution.

Lauren Garrone [61:07]: "Another thing that Michael Patrick King has been trying to work into the series forever was a marionettist."

They highlight the show's attempt to balance comedic elements with character-driven storytelling, noting that while some scenes work seamlessly, others feel forced or out of place.

Chelsea Fairless [61:37]: "With a huge dick, of course."

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Final Thoughts and Speculations on the Series Finale

As the episode wraps up, Chelsea and Lauren ponder the possible directions the finale might take. They speculate on unresolved plotlines, such as Carrie’s lingering relationships and the potential for future spin-offs or holiday-themed episodes.

Lauren Garrone [63:40]: "What a house swap. Well, where Carrie goes to find Duncan wherever he lives, and it's like Christmas Eve or some."

They express a mix of anticipation and skepticism about how the series will conclude the various character arcs, emphasizing the hope that the finale provides satisfying resolutions for long-time fans.

Chelsea Fairless [63:37]: "Let this woman not chase after another man. My God, what has this woman learned?"

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Chelsea Fairless [00:24]: "It's done. It's over. There's no more."
• Lauren Garrone [01:28]: "How very Samantha Jones of you."
• Carrie Bradshaw [15:17]: "She had done all she could."
• Charlotte York [24:40]: "Fuck Miranda."
• Lauren Garrone [48:35]: "This begins as, like, oh, no, another hooey storyline for Charlotte."
• Lauren Garrone [61:07]: "Another thing that Michael Patrick King has been trying to work into the series forever was a marionettist."
• Lauren Garrone [63:40]: "What a house swap."

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Conclusion

Episode 232 of Every Outfit delivers a thorough and engaging exploration of the finale of "And Just Like That." Chelsea Fairless and Lauren Garrone navigate the complexities of character developments, narrative decisions, and fan expectations with their characteristic wit and insight. For listeners who haven't kept up with the series, this episode offers a detailed overview of the show's concluding moments, making it a valuable resource for understanding the final chapters of this iconic television saga.

Transcript

[Carrie Bradshaw]

I spent $40,000 on shoes.

[Lauren Garrone]

What's the matter, Morty? Floral the spank. Time to buy our own dress. Floral the sting. Great gowns. Beautiful gowns.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Fashion has changed. No, it hasn't.

[Michael Patrick King]

It's done. It's over. There's no more. And just like that, after season three, and honestly, not an ounce of me was upset about it. Even though I watched the show religiously, hearing that it was ending gave me that same feeling of when you go get tested for STDs, and then you get all your results back and they're all negative, and you're just like. It's just like this, like, instant, like, satisfying, like, I'm healthy, you know? All right, well, that's that. And just like that. And just like that is done. Bye.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, that caller really said it all, didn't he? I'm Lauren Garrone.

[Chelsea Fairless]

And I'm Chelsea Fairless.

[Lauren Garrone]

And welcome back to the Every Outfit podcast.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I totally relate to the feeling that that caller is describing regarding a negative STD test. Like, it is truly, like, you feel a lightness. You know, you feel affirmed in your sluttiness. Like, you can just keep being a whore. Fore. And nothing bad will ever happen to you.

[Lauren Garrone]

How very Samantha Jones of you. I just want to thank all of the Fuckettes who have slid into my DMs this morning, asking me how I'm doing. Is this the best day of my life? And you know, come on, guys, the birth of my son, getting married, those are the best days of my life. But this, this might come in third.

[Chelsea Fairless]

And all of that happened practically within a calendar year. What a year you've had, Lauren.

[Lauren Garrone]

The woman has had quite the year.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah. I think that it's time.

[Lauren Garrone]

Do you? I feel the exact opposite, Chelsea. Because in learning that this is the series finale event, just like that makes this season feel even more pointless.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I would be more generous. I wouldn't say pointless. I would say confusing. I don't believe that they actually wanted to end on this season. Although the statement that Michael Patrick King released that announced the end of the show kind of contradicted that. Do you want to read the statement in full?

[Lauren Garrone]

Yes. For the Fuckettes who've been living. Living under a rock, this is the Instagram post that we woke up to. And just like that, the ongoing storytelling of the Sex and the City universe is coming to an end. While I was writing the last episode of In Just like that, season three, it became clear to me that this might be a wonderful place to stop, along with Sarah Jiska Parker, Casey Boyes and Sarah Aubrey. We decided to end the popular series this year. He had to get in the phrase popular series, didn't he? With a two part finale and extended the original series order from 10 episodes to 12. SJP and I held off announcing the news until now because we didn't want the word final to overshadow the fun of watching the season. That feels like a threat, but okay. It's with great gratitude we thank all the viewers who have let these characters into their homes and their hearts over these many years.

[Chelsea Fairless]

But definitely not those two cunts, Chelsea and Lauren.

[Lauren Garrone]

You know what it feels like. That was the original draft and someone was like, maybe don't call out your number one haters. Be above that daddy mpk. And he was like, you're right. Okay. So it was confirmed to us last week that the past two episodes which felt very random and short, were indeed one episode that were split in half. So this idea that one the season was originally supposed to be 10 episodes and that it was only after writing the final episode that he decided to do a two parter series finale does not feel true. It feels like HBO canceled the series and because they have a great relationship with Michael Patrick King, they were like, you can announce this any way you would like. If you would like to make this your decision decision, you can.

[Chelsea Fairless]

That's how I interpreted it.

[Lauren Garrone]

I don't think it's our fanfic because if you've watched the preview for next week's episode, first of all, we're in the fall, which we'll get into that when we get into this episode. I thought this was about summer in the city. Chelsea.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Okay, well, they can't have three episodes in the fall.

[Lauren Garrone]

Sure. But I don't know. The preview of next week's episode doesn't feel like the first part of a series finale. It's not giving American Girl in Paris Part un, you know.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, see, I haven't watched the preview, so I have no clue. I'll take your word for it.

[Lauren Garrone]

They're. They're at Thanksgiving. It doesn't matter. Yeah, I guess I don't need to engineer a second pregnancy so that a maternity leave coincides with the fourth season event. Just like that.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah. It is really fascinating because having watched the last season, it's not like this is tying up all the loose ends. We're two episodes away from the show ending for good and it seems like everything is up in the air.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yeah. I also have my doubts that this is the last time we're seeing Carrie Bradshaw.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Oh, for sure. Sarah Jessica Parker posted on Instagram. Very long and involved and poetic, frankly. Post about the end of this show and a lot of other people have reported this is the end of Carrie Bradshaw. It is not the end of Carrie Bradshaw. I don't believe that for a second. Sex in the City never goes away. If there's one thing in this life that I am confident about, sure of, Sex in the City comes back, you know, like flowers creeping through the cracks of the sidewalk.

[Lauren Garrone]

That's beautiful. Chelsea, I thought you were going to say that Carrie Bradshaw lives in all of our hearts. Again, this is perhaps beside the point and I might be splitting hairs here, but did you notice that in Kristen Davis's Instagram post about the ending of and Just like that and Sarah Jessica Parker's, they have different numbers of crew members like Chris.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yes.

[Lauren Garrone]

Kristen Davis thanks the 400 casting crew and artisans. And Sarah Jessica Parker, thanks 380 people. Do we think that Sarah Jessica Parker, like there are indeed 400 people on the casting crew, but Sarah Jessica Parker has beef with 20 of them.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I think it's more likely that Kristen rounded up.380 is kind of a random number, right?

[Lauren Garrone]

To just be making up.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Maybe that's like inclusive of like the interns or something. I don't know. Some craft services people.

[Lauren Garrone]

That's true. Top to bottom. That's everyone that makes and just like that work.

[Chelsea Fairless]

That is a lot of people working on and just like that. And that's the thing that I don't delight in. Whenever a show gets canceled or allegedly.

[Lauren Garrone]

Canceled, a show is not coming back.

[Chelsea Fairless]

When a show is not coming back, I don't like the fact that people lose their jobs. That sucks.

[Lauren Garrone]

I also, and again, perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but frankly, that's what we do. We've built an entire career on that. But when I read Kristen's caption that was like, I am profoundly sad. I love our whole beautiful cast and crew. 400 artisans working so hard on our show with deep love. I was like that to me feels like it's non consensual that the show is not coming back.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah. And Cynthia just reshared the Michael Patrick King statement on stories because the Gilded Age has been renewed for season four. When that announcement came out, which came what, two, three days ago, something like that, I was like, oh. And just like that is canceled also.

[Lauren Garrone]

I don't know if you've been noticing I'm behind on the Gilded Age, but I've noticed that the last few weeks there have been these stories about how the viewership has grown week to week and we didn't exactly see that for and just like that. So that also made it feel like the writing was on the wall.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, I feel like this season of and just like that was a little different. And a lot of people actually did stop watching it.

[Lauren Garrone]

For whatever reason, you guys stopped watching, but started listening to our podcast. And we appreciate you and we hope that you stay along when we stop talking about and just like that and start talking about our pop culture bullshit.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Again and start talking about Sex and the City again. A show I never tire of talking about.

[Lauren Garrone]

For those new to the podcast, we do monthly re episodes of Sex and the City that are completely out of order to entertain ourselves. But guys, when we come back to that, we need a banger Sex and the City episode. So please call our hotline with your request because I'm not sure we need to do an all time episode to get us back on track.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I agree. I am grateful that they announced this news an hour before we're recording this.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yes, I did see several fuck ads DM and be like, oh my God, have you guys recorded already? And it's like, no, thank God. We could record ahead of time. But we have made the decision because we want to be. We want to include your calls to record as late as humanly possible. Sometimes I've cursed that decision, but this morning I was like, oh, this is a blessing.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, it really is. The question is, how are they gonna wrap this up?

[Lauren Garrone]

I mean, there's already been several hilarious tweets about how this show could wrap up. You know, does one that would be delightful and funny, but is never going to happen is that, you know, Samantha wa up from a three year coma and goes, oh, I had a terrible dream. We're not getting the like Saint Elsewhere ending to this show.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Carrie could move to London.

[Lauren Garrone]

That's what I'm thinking. And sort of worrying that we're going to get the. It seems in the realm of Samantha, there's a real like having your cake and eating it too, where even though they don't fudge with Kim Cattrall, they can have Samantha. And so yes, it does feel like it could end on Carrie moving to London for Duncan. And you know, it ends with her at the airport texting Samantha.

[Chelsea Fairless]

True. But also because they didn't know they were going to get canceled when they wrote that episode. It could be just very open ended.

[Lauren Garrone]

I think we will get a sense of if our theory that the show got canceled. And this is Michael Patrick King announcing it the way he wants to announce it, that this was a preordained decision on his part. I think we'll really get that sense when we start listening to the writers room episodes for the next two episodes, because I'm pretty sure those are recorded ahead of time. So I think that will let us know if this is indeed a two parter. Which did he forget, by the way? Last season's season finale was also a two parter. Remember the Last Supper appetizer and the Last Supper entree?

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah. And it seemed like then they didn't know if it was going to get canceled or not, which is why they had that episode. Although they did end with that very open ended. Aiden needs to take a five year break kind of detail. If you took that out, the show could have just ended there also.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yes. Because she sold Perry street to Lisette. I think that I'm less in shock that the show is coming to an end because I was more in shock two years ago when the show got renewed because that really felt like they were setting up a place that made sense for the show to come to an end.

[Chelsea Fairless]

But we have been suspicious all season about this because of the amount of money they sort of threw at the events, like the premieres promoting the show. This year they went all out, comparatively.

[Lauren Garrone]

I know this doesn't make sense because we've truly cyberbullied this show within an inch of its life. But like, Aiden, I'm sad. I thought. I thought we were gonna make it this time.

[Chelsea Fairless]

You're not actually sad. Don't fucking lie.

[Lauren Garrone]

I'm thinking about that. Am I sad?

[Chelsea Fairless]

Look, the biggest gift of. Of this show has been the fact that it is united Sex and the City fans. And we've had a really fun time talking about it. Like, we've had a fun time talking about Che Diaz, Aiden jerking off and Richard Burton getting canceled and what else happened on this show. Harry and Carrie pissing themselves and not.

[Lauren Garrone]

One, but two prosthetic penis gags. The second one occurring in this episode every day.

[Chelsea Fairless]

So it's been a gift. But now that I look at the show, all of this kind of makes sense because we know that season one was basically just the Sex and the City 3 script reworked into a series.

[Lauren Garrone]

With Samantha taken out.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah. And then season two was kind of an extension of that, a follow up of that, but still dealing with the same sort of. When it got to season three, they were like, we don't know what to do. Anymore?

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, yeah, because the stand in for the Carrie voiceover, which would be her having a podcast. I would love to know why that was dropped because it just feels like they did not enjoy writing her as a podcaster.

[Chelsea Fairless]

To be fair, I wouldn't enjoy writing that particular podcast either. What was it even called?

[Lauren Garrone]

The first one or the second one?

[Chelsea Fairless]

The first one.

[Lauren Garrone]

You, Me and they. X, Y and me.

[Chelsea Fairless]

No, was something like that. X, Y and Shay.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yeah, it was called X, Y and Me.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I understand why writing that would have sucked, right?

[Lauren Garrone]

And it's very clear that they do enjoy Carrie as an author. And only in this episode have we sort of discovered what the journey for Carrie is, which is she finally feels smart.

[Chelsea Fairless]

And she's always been smart.

[Lauren Garrone]

That was crazy. Okay, do we have anything else to say about the cancellation or. Sorry. And just like that coming to an end. I can just imagine. This is the thing that gets us a cease and desist from Daddy Mpk, where he's like, the show wasn't canceled.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I know when I posted those photos of like Carrie in her Mexicoma on our Instagram, I just wrote the caption like, like when I heard that and just like that got canceled. Then I was like, fuck. I can't actually say that it's going.

[Lauren Garrone]

To, you know, ruffle some feathers.

[Chelsea Fairless]

To ruffle too many feathers. I got to got to make it less, less bitchy.

[Lauren Garrone]

Guys, you're learning how the. The social media content sausage is made even for us. Sometimes we're too bitchy.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Well, I avoid posting on anxious like that on Instagram because I don't want to be too bitchy and because it's one thing to have a podcast and say your opinion. Once you have like people commenting, like hundreds of people commenting about things, you can like lose control of them sometimes and it gets too nasty.

[Lauren Garrone]

That's true. My pitch for, for what we should have posted was just the HBO logo, but as a flag being flown at Half Mask, because that's how it feels in my heart.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Okay, let's talk about this episode, which I was kind of into actually.

[Lauren Garrone]

I was going to say this is going to sound shocking, but I enjoyed this episode.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Not every part of it, obviously. Like when I'm with Charlotte, it continues to feel like I'm incarcerated.

[Lauren Garrone]

Oh yeah. I mean, I don't think it's a good episode for a sequel series to the beloved Sex and the City. However, if you think of it as like a mid level, zany streaming series about a group of five women and one gay gentleman of a certain Age, who for some reason, all exist independent to each other's storylines. I felt like a lot of these plot points made sense. And you know what? I gasped several times during the episode.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, Samantha Irby wrote this. She's clearly someone that actually does watch the show. I always love to see what she sort of chooses to bring back from Sex and the City into the end, just like that world. And I feel like the choices that she made in this episode were interesting. Shall we start with Carrie's whole sitch? Sure.

[Lauren Garrone]

The woman is womaning.

[Carrie Bradshaw]

Autumn was here. And as the leaves turned gold and the air turned crisp, the woman returned to herself. Her hours turned into days, her days turned into weeks. Her pain turned into productivity. The family that would never inhabit her home or her heart faded from her life the way the golden leaf faded to brown at her feet. She had done all she could. She had done all she could. She had done all she could.

[Lauren Garrone]

Is this gonna become the new I am. I am. I am tattoo? You think once this novel comes out, people are gonna be tattooing? She did all that she could. She did all that she could. She did all that she could.

[Chelsea Fairless]

You know who ate that shit up was Duncan.

[Lauren Garrone]

Again, I continue to be like, the reveal is gonna be that he doesn't think this is a good novel, and he's been doing this just to bed her. And it's like, no. He legitimately is enthralled by her historical romance novel.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah. Like, when he found out that the Aiden Stand in made it home safely from the war, but died of an untreated wound from a previous his battle, he was seriously impressed.

[Lauren Garrone]

I have a question about that, which is, like, so what? Like, he comes home from the war and there's, like, gangrene on his leg, and they, like, sleep together for the first time, and then he dies. Like, what I need. I don't want more of the novel, but, like, I kind of need more of the novel also. I'm so sorry. Does Duncan no longer sleep during the day? Was it that the whole schtick. He's up all night writing Margaret Thatcher, sleeping all day.

[Chelsea Fairless]

He's changed his schedule.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, before we get into Duncan, Carrie's apartment is now fully furnished, which was spoiled for us during the Architectural Digest video that we took. We talked about on a previous week during the Writer's Room podcast. We got our answer about what happened to Aiden's table. And the answer is she just got rid of it. And to show the passage of time and the fact that she couldn't immediately Go from breaking up with Aiden one week to being with Duncan the next. They now just pushed it into the fall season to also explain how she was able to decorate her apartment.

[Chelsea Fairless]

But isn't it crazy that we finally get the reveal of the apartment in the third to last episode?

[Lauren Garrone]

The third to last episode of the series.

[Chelsea Fairless]

So these production designers had to furnish like this entire set just for this last couple of episodes. Really.

[Lauren Garrone]

They also discuss in the writers room podcast that Michael Patrick King from the beginning of this season was like, and her apartment is going to be unfurnished till the very end. And all the other writers didn't think basically thought he was lying. No, he was absolutely correct. Only in you're right, the last three episodes is this apartment going to be decorated. Also, the hill that they're dying on is the fact that like, she got rid of her. And Aiden's table. He never liked the table. He bought it for her as a. Like, I'm sorry that I wrote about, you know, I sent you a. A bad emoji. Like, yeah, I thought the whole thing.

[Chelsea Fairless]

About the table was that it was like her style and not his style.

[Lauren Garrone]

I mean, or just like, I thought it was a metaphor. I thought where they're. They were going was that it is a metaphor for how they're not well matched in their coupling. Again, where her thought is like, this is very you. And he's like, no, it's not. And I have to. God damn it, I have to agree with Aiden. We also learn that Duncan has five best selling books, which Carrie goes, I have seven. Which was lovely to hear. And Duncan asks her, he wonders what he would be reading if he. He being Aiden was still here. And Carrie goes, I don't know. I wouldn't be as far into my novel. So Carrie is. Yet again, she's in her season one shut in widow memoir mindset.

[Chelsea Fairless]

She's a full shut in, which is why it was so satisfying to see her leave later in the episode.

[Lauren Garrone]

You mean when she's having a drink with Seema somewhere in the West Village during a rainy night?

[Chelsea Fairless]

No, I meant when she went to the party. But anyway, the thing that I learned.

[Lauren Garrone]

From the writer's room podcast as well is I could almost not focus on what Carrie was wearing in this episode or even what she was saying because of her new wild hairdo, which is her hair is very curly all to one side.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, it's like curly, but it's also like very brushed, if that makes any sense. She looks great. And I liked this scene with Seema, she said something very revealing, which is that before Duncan, she had never experienced a man that saw her as smart first.

[Lauren Garrone]

That was crazy. So I watched these episodes twice that completely went over my head the first time. And when I was rewatching it, I was like, wow, that is a very interesting self aware Carrie moment and would be incredibly profound except for the fact that I feel like in the 25 years we've watched Carrie Bradshaw, all of the men have thought that she was smart. Honestly, that might be the issue is that they wanted a less complicated woman. True.

[Chelsea Fairless]

But I also feel like especially someone like Big saw her as a sort of fun girl about town, maybe before a smart person, at least in the beginning.

[Lauren Garrone]

Fair enough. I mean, here's what I won't miss with and just like that, going away is like the writers constantly gaslighting us because they are holding onto this idea to the very last second that no, Carrie has never seen Duncan as a sexual person. Didn't feel that they had chemistry or are the writers trying to make us feel that? Actually, yes, she does feel that, but she wants to keep it platonic because what, he won't think she's smart anymore if they have sex?

[Chelsea Fairless]

I think it's more because they want her to be like this morally pure person that didn't do anything to Aiden. And that's the other shocking thing. I'm like, oh my God. So they set up this whole love triangle with Duncan and Aiden. They've also set up the whole thing with LTW and her editor. Is there just no cheating that will ever happen? Why not? People do cheat.

[Lauren Garrone]

And I got news for you. And just like that, there are series that are going to give us that and it's called the Hunting Watch.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Thank you. Thank God for that show, honestly.

[Lauren Garrone]

So we can tell that Carrie is letting Duncan in because he's finally made his way to the second or third floor. Who knows how big Carrie's apartment is? I hope at the end of the day we get that answer of like, do we get to see the rest of the floors? But we have Duncan. Why does Duncan go to a room? Oh, that's right. She is having trouble with the printer. So he comes up finally and he is introduced to her closet, her girls. And I truly, I thought the subversion was going to be, oh, Duncan is gay. And it's because he begins talking into Carrie's shoe. Oh, look at her.

[Steve]

Hello.

[Michael Patrick King]

What's.

[Lauren Garrone]

What's that? Your cross that I've kept your mummy cooped up inside lo these many weeks.

[Steve]

Starved you of glamorous parties and was that opulent dinners?

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, let me make it up to her.

[Chelsea Fairless]

It's true. He did just turn into Rert Everett in My Best Friend's Wedding.

[Lauren Garrone]

Also, what's not helping it is that like, like, Plucky Chris Columbus Home Alone music in the background.

[Chelsea Fairless]

You know what? I'm gonna miss that. I'm gonna miss this score. He invites her to this party that his publisher is throwing or something. Some literary soiree.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yes, his publisher, slash ex wife, as we will learn. Carrie will go, only there's some joke about I'll pay you. Yeah. And also there's a running gag, which truly I hated of like. Hold on one second. Rewrite incoming. Yes, it went over just like that, Chelsea.

[Chelsea Fairless]

So Charlotte comes over because she has to go on that zoom. But we'll get into that later. Her and Carrie are kind of talking about Duncan. And again, it feels like this very sensitive topic for Carrie. And she admits that.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yeah, I mean, this is the first time we're seeing Carrie actually revealed. Maybe she has feelings for this person.

[Chelsea Fairless]

But she's trying to suppress them out of spite because Miranda already sort of called her out for that.

[Lauren Garrone]

Which was a wonderful acknowledgment. And then we get a truly insane exchange.

[Carrie Bradshaw]

Oh, boy. If anything happened between Duncan and me now, my gosh, I would never hear the end of it from Miranda.

[Lauren Garrone]

That's not true.

[Chelsea Fairless]

And even if it is, fuck Miranda.

[Lauren Garrone]

Wow.

[Carrie Bradshaw]

Somebody needs an energy cleanse.

[Lauren Garrone]

Whoa.

[Chelsea Fairless]

The words Fuck Miranda coming out of Charlotte's mouth is one of the most shocking things that's happened on this show.

[Lauren Garrone]

Honestly, the biggest character development is Charlotte's unbridled hate for her long term friend Miranda.

[Chelsea Fairless]

But also, it's not fair because Miranda, like, wasn't a bitch at all to Carrie about it. It would be one thing if Miranda was, like, a gossip, or like, Miranda was whatever. We know that she had no ill intent.

[Lauren Garrone]

I'm still confused because Carrie is acting. It feels like up until the last moment of this episode that there is no chemistry between her and Duncan. Like, it feels like it's just coming to her in this moment of sort of like a Cher when she realizes she has feelings for Josh at the end of Clueless and she's like, oh, my God, I think I do want to have sex with Duncan.

[Chelsea Fairless]

When he gave those Jimmy Choos the Rupert Everett treatment was when her panties just dropped.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, also to your point of, like, she's almost not going to sleep with Duncan just so that Miranda will not be Proven right. And it's like, what are you talking about, girl? You didn't even tell them that Aiden slept with Kathy. Like, just don't tell Miranda that you slept with Duncan.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Oh, we're never getting that scene. We're never getting that scene.

[Lauren Garrone]

I. I suppose in Daddy MPK's mind, he's like, all of those things happened. And selling Aiden's table in the months between these two episodes.

[Chelsea Fairless]

You know what would be funny? If Carrie went to Miranda and was like, I him.

[Lauren Garrone]

You know, she just hands him 20 bucks. She's like, you were right. No. She comes over with two Mexican Cokes. She's like, you know what? You were correct in this.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Okay? But we're getting ahead of ourselves because.

[Lauren Garrone]

Carrie puts on a slutty frock, not the Vivian Westwood we saw in the closet. And goes to some restaurant in Lincoln Square and meets up with Duncan and his ex wife, who was his publisher.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Okay, but can we talk about, like, her first outfit versus her final outfit?

[Lauren Garrone]

Sure.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Because she first puts on this, like, skirt suit, not dissimilar from what she married Mr. Big in and not that.

[Lauren Garrone]

Dissimilar from her second Vivian west skirt suit. At the end of the Vogue idea. Gray pinstripe.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Exactly. Fully in that world. And then she's like, you know what? Fuck it. Imma be me. And she puts on her full, like, Vivian Westwood poofy dress, her corset, her, like, taffeta trench coat of some kind that I thought was fabulous. I loved this outfit, actually.

[Lauren Garrone]

I love this outfit. But also, the first outfit wasn't matronly. Like, it was equally hot. It's a different version of hot, but.

[Chelsea Fairless]

It'S more like publishing hot. Whereas this is more like Carrie Bradshaw hot. But to Samantha Irby's credit, I love that she wrote this in that, like, we get this, like, big sort of reveal. The Carrie Bradshaw, like, walking like, it looked like there's a fucking wind machine. There probably was, right?

[Lauren Garrone]

Yes. And her curly hair is blowing in the wind.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Because we're simple people. Like, that's kind of all we want.

[Michael Patrick King]

Want.

[Chelsea Fairless]

You know what I mean? Is scenes like that. And then to have her look so cunt. Walk into this space with all these, like, fabulous, intelligent people. And to have a woman be like, is that Carrie Bradshaw? She looks amazing.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, that and also that woman being Duncan's publisher slash ex wife, who's like, I've been trying to sign her for.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Years in that answered a question that we've had for this whole show, which is like. Like, she still is Culturally relevant.

[Lauren Garrone]

She's culturally relevant. She's successful. You know what? Chelsea makes me sad. I wish Cari could hear how others perceive her. Because in this episode, it's like, well, Duncan is the first person to think that I'm smart. And it's like, no, other people think you're smart, you're cool. They want you as a writer in their publishing house. And because of that, it is a little weird, right? It does feel like Duncan is now down to Carrie, now that his ex wife, who was his editor, like, co signs on her.

[Chelsea Fairless]

No, it's true. But also, he genuinely didn't know that she is part of the cultural elite in New York. And now that he's seen it firsthand, he's turned on.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, now that he's seen it firsthand, he's like, I gotta go back to London.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Which, frankly, seems really abrupt. But whatever. After we get this beautiful moment, truly a healing moment for me. Maybe the most satisfying thing that's happened all season. Honestly, carrying that outfit. Just carry in that outfit. And then getting sort of recognized by someone.

[Lauren Garrone]

Right?

[Chelsea Fairless]

It, like, healed something in me.

[Lauren Garrone]

It's been a few episodes. It's been, I don't know, almost since the beginning of this season. We haven't had Lizette, who's the only other person, as a sort of bookend of Carrie Bradshaw's relevance.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Well, I think we're gonna get Lisette again because remember, we saw paparazzi photos from when they were filming the show, what feels like 10,000 years ago, and there were those shots of her looking up at her stoop. Again, no. And someone wrote a really good tweet that was like, girl, move on.

[Lauren Garrone]

Was it the man that owns that brownstone?

[Chelsea Fairless]

So she's. She's going back there. I don't know if she's seen Lisette, but she's going back there before this season is done.

[Lauren Garrone]

God, she buys Lisette out of the apartment yet again. She's back in that apartment for the fifth time.

[Chelsea Fairless]

If she ends up back in that apartment, that's. You know what? That's equally plausible as her going to London.

[Lauren Garrone]

And I'm sure it's going to be none of these options.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Her and Duncan get home. He's talking about his writing process, which honestly sounds horrible.

[Lauren Garrone]

He also tells her he's done for the night, which in the writers room podcast, Michael Patrick King was talking about how the actor that plays Duncan, who, by the way, is married to the actress Julianne Nicholson, dance mom from this season of Hacks. Oh, wow. That I was like, how did I not know this? And also, he's gotten much hotter. Just gonna say. From a. From a press photo that I saw of the two of them. The actor who played Duncan was sort of playing it as if it was matter of fact, of like, well, I'm done writing for the night. And Michael Patrick King was like, no, that's a sort of like, if you know anyone who's interested, because I'm done writing for the night. He was like, oh, that's brilliant.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, it was suave.

[Lauren Garrone]

I thought, well, yeah, once he understood the subtext of it.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Well, he was like, to be clear, I would like to. Is basically the subtext. And then. And then when Carrie rejected him, I was like, I'm gonna kill her.

[Lauren Garrone]

I'm gonna.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I'm gonna get on a plane. I'm gonna take a cab straight from JFK to Gramercy park and kill her. But thankfully, that was a psych out moment. Even Carrie Bradshaw, as she currently is, realized how fucking crazy she was being by not fucking this man.

[Lauren Garrone]

I think this is a terrible kiss.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I don't think it's terrible. I don't agree. It's very rom com, but I feel.

[Lauren Garrone]

Like she sort of. I feel like we need a second take. I feel like she doesn't make contact with the lips. She's, like, sort of off center. There's a little more cheek than lips going on in that kiss. Although, as Paul pointed out, he's like. It's very difficult to shoot because they are on location in Gramercy. It's not the set of the Gramercy apartment in very hard because Duncan's going into his basement apartment to shoot from that angle. So I'll give him that. And then. And then we get the hottest sex scene. Guys, for those of you who aren't watching the show. No, I'm with you. We don't. It immediately cuts to a post coital moment.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I would have loved to see the woman getting freaky down there, but no, the best part about this episode, actually, and I gasped when I first saw it, is like, they've just fucked. Literally just fucked. Doing, like post coital pillow talk. And he's like, what's gonna happen with the woman? I just have to ask. I'm like, you just came in this woman, like a minute ago, and now you're asking about the woman?

[Lauren Garrone]

Gay. It's giving. It's giving. Brendan Fraser and Bedazzled when he's. When he's the smartest man in the world, the author and the reveal is that he's gay.

[Chelsea Fairless]

It's even crazier. It would be less crazy if he was gay. The crazier thing is that he's just so obsessed with this book.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, also, the thing that I feel like I'm getting gaslit by as well is the fact that Carrie has yet to just be like, oh, I am the woman. The woman is me. When we talk about the woman, when Duncan's talking about the woman, it's code for, what am I gonna do?

[Chelsea Fairless]

Well, and that was kind of acknowledged when he was like, I wonder what the woman would be up to if Aiden was still here.

[Lauren Garrone]

We also get Duncan smoking a joint. Okay, okay. And then he also lets her know, like, I'm done. I'm going, and I'm never coming back. Which is like, wait, hold on.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I thought you came here to write.

[Lauren Garrone]

Is your lease over? Has she successfully kicked you out?

[Chelsea Fairless]

Or is it because you Carrie Bradshaw and because, like, all you'd now do is hang out with her, that this is no longer a place where you can, like, get away from it all?

[Lauren Garrone]

Or was this a long con by Carrie Bradshaw to get him out of the apartment? And finally she's like, this was my goal the entire time. Actually, that is the weird thing, right? She is with yet another man who is putting distance between them. Right. Big went to Paris, Aiden has this life in Virginia, and now this man is going to go back to London. But I guess it's okay because Carrie.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Carrie isn't in love with him.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, she's a woman of a certain age who's learned how to have casual sex again. Is that Carrie Bradshaw's arc for the season?

[Chelsea Fairless]

I would love that if. I would love if that had come a little bit earlier, earlier in this series.

[Lauren Garrone]

I do have to highlight the worst line of this episode, which really does feel like, well, Samantha Irby, I guess, wrote it. But it does feel like it's a line that came from the same man who's like, when Duncan goes, I missed a deadline, but you gave me a lifeline.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Okay. But even within the show, they make fun of how corny that is.

[Lauren Garrone]

Rewrite incoming.

[Chelsea Fairless]

So Carrie's journey ends with another voiceover.

[Lauren Garrone]

The woman's journey ends with this voiceover.

[Carrie Bradshaw]

The woman sat in her garden. Even though summer had come and now gone, she could feel the warmth of its lingering touch on her face and body. How wonderful. How wonderful. How wonderful.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I did kind of like how dramatic that was with all the fake leaves swirling around her and stuff. And she was like, in Duncan's cardigan again, right?

[Lauren Garrone]

Yeah. He must have left it.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Although we didn't talk about this on last week's show. She was wearing his cardigan in that final scene.

[Lauren Garrone]

Right. When she's in the Simone Rocha dress.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yes. When she's going into the restaurant. And it was then revealed that. No, this wasn't supposed to be a plot point. That it was his sweater. It was his sweater. But we weren't supposed to notice that.

[Lauren Garrone]

That I guess because they don't get how psychotic we are.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah.

[Lauren Garrone]

I've made this point that sometimes when you wear a frock, the only thing that will go with it is an old man sweater. And I'm not even being sarcastic. Right. Because they pulled Duncan's sweater because they were like, nothing really works with this. But that old cardigan.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Well, it's a very grunge kind of styling trope, you know, in a very Carrie Bradshaw.

[Lauren Garrone]

Right. And as I said, I think a reference to when she did the very same thing in season four. After going to Tao. Duncan is gone.

[Chelsea Fairless]

It's fall. We'll see what happens. I guess her book is probably gonna come out. No.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yes. In the preview for next week's episode, she turns her manuscript over to her. Her editor, who loves it, but thinks that the last chapter is terrible and. And needs her to write a new ending because she's written a. A tragic romance instead of a historical romance. So I guess killing off the Aiden avatar was not received well.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Who should we talk about next? Miranda Moanda. Oh, man. Miranda.

[Lauren Garrone]

Ugh. Where to even begin? It's not even Miranda's storyline.

[Chelsea Fairless]

This was more interesting to me than more like Joy Gin. Drama.

[Lauren Garrone]

Right. So Brady is over. He has cooked a beautiful meal for his parents. And I was like, oh, okay. He's gonna announce he's going back. Back to school, and it's gonna be. He's gonna go to culinary school. Which is exactly what he tells his parents. But that's not why he's brought them all together. It's to tell them that he's gotten a random girl pregnant. He doesn't even know the woman's last name. Not to be confused with Carrie's the woman. This is Brady's the woman.

[Chelsea Fairless]

His woman is named Mia.

[Lauren Garrone]

If I were 20 and got a girl pregnant and I'm telling my parents for the first time, I would maybe collect a few more details. Like her last. I revealed this to my parents.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah. And Steve basically immediately has a breakdown, which kind of makes sense. He's triggered by the whole situation. Because he's now knocked up someone that doesn't want to be with him, which similarly happened with Miranda, obviously. Although, you know, that's debatable. Whatever.

[Lauren Garrone]

For those who aren't watching the episodes, I do need to play this clip of Steve because David Eigenberg is. He's making some choices.

[Steve]

Oh, man. Oh, man. All right. You were just getting your life together, and now you have fucked it up so bad. Dad, it's cool. I can still do my life. She doesn't want me involved. You are involved. You got someone pregnant. Someone who's having your baby who doesn't want to be with you. Do you know how messed up that is? It's fucking messed up, Steve. Dad, calm down. It's a situation. We'll figure it out. You can't figure something like this out about. And I know what I'm talking about. Yeah, well, this isn't about you and mom. No. Because I loved your mother and I knew her last name.

[Lauren Garrone]

Listening to the writers room podcast, Daddy MPK says that this actually comes from not his personal real life, but friends who have young children who have gone through this situation. Getting. I assume that means getting someone pregnant, but, you know, I thought that Gen Z and Gen Alpha weren't so also. I'm sorry. Brady is 20. He was born in 2001. He is approaching his mid 20s. This is someone who should be out of college.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah. Steve's breakdown was a lot. This was kind of the season three version of Aiden's season two magic mushrooms breakdown.

[Lauren Garrone]

Right. Which everyone is saying that this is bad acting, but dare I say, I think David Eigenberg knows exactly the show that he's in.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I think so, too.

[Lauren Garrone]

And I think he's delivering the Steve performance. It's the Steve performance we need and we want.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I completely agree. And it all makes sense, right? Like, this would touch a nerve with Steve. Any parent would be horrified if their child was in this situation. But Miranda's response was even more concerning because she suggested that this woman sleeps with a lot of people knowing nothing about her, which is such an insane thing for Miranda's character to say.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yeah, that was also. For a lawyer, that's a pretty crazy, crazy leap of logic to take.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Well, it's sexist, and it's out of another time period.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, I was also gonna say it's bizarre for her to make that point because she, too, got pregnant from a hookup where a condom wasn't used. Seeing that this was written by Samantha Irby. I know this is a very serious moment. But it could have been punctuated with some humor of Steve being like, I didn't use a condom because your mother had a lazy ovary and I had one ball and you were almost an abortion. I love how they take that option out. That's the other thing. Right. Miranda says three crazy bad mom things in a row, which is like, in so many words, like, can we take care of it? Meaning, like, is there still time for an abortion?

[Chelsea Fairless]

I don't know if that's bad mom necessarily.

[Lauren Garrone]

No, no, no. But like, how do you know it's yours and this person obviously around if you hooked up with them twice and never spoke to them again? Like, why? What?

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, how do you know that she sleeps with a lot of people. This scene does lead to a really great three way call. I can't believe it took us three seasons to get here. When that split screen came up, I was like, this feels good.

[Lauren Garrone]

This feels good. They're having absolutely the conversation I don't want them to be having in this triptych. But I'm glad we're getting this triptych call with the three girls.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah. And also I was like relieved when Miranda was able to merge the calls successfully because I kind of thought that just wasn't going to happen. Woman.

[Lauren Garrone]

I, I saw myself in that moment because I'm, I'm the merge call person. In a scene that we don't see, Miranda has somehow figured, figured out this woman's last name, figured out where she works, and has taken Charlotte with her to go to this hair salon where Brady's baby mama works. And I guess, do you think they coordinated the dying Keaton off in their outfits or that was purely by accident?

[Chelsea Fairless]

I think it was purely accident. And it was so funny because it was like, it was like two distinct eras of Diane Keaton. Like Charlotte. Charlotte's like houndstooth situation was very like a 2005 Diane Keaton.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yeah. I was definitely giving, I think one year. She wore maybe that exact outfit to the Oscar.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Whereas Miranda was in more of a throwback, like a 70s throwback Diane Keaton. Like late 70s, early 80s Diane Keaton kind of vibe. Yeah, Slight aviator influence, I was gonna say.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yeah. Reds era. She's dating Warren Beatty. Yeah. Diane Keaton for sure.

[Chelsea Fairless]

That. Really funny though, together.

[Lauren Garrone]

I think no scene better explains and just like that than this scene with Miranda and Brady's baby mama, who we learned her name, as you said, is Mia, who is not a hair stylist, but a shampoo girl, which somehow in Miranda's goog Figured out the salon that she works at, but not the fact that she's a shampoo girl, because the shampoo girl is just her day job. Really what she wants to do is start a wellness app. There's so much information to this side character, so much detail that I was like, oh, no, she's going to be with us for a while, isn't she?

[Chelsea Fairless]

Well, the fact that they made her true passion be starting a wellness app made me think, like, are we supposed to hate this character as the audience on the outside upset? Because that feels kind of mean, like.

[Lauren Garrone]

They'Re making fun of a wellness app.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Well, no, it's like they're already presenting her as this person with a kind of whatever job, and she's farting uncontrollably. I'm like, is. Are we supposed to think that this is the worst bitch in the world?

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, and also the fact that she was gonna get an abortion, but learned that the baby was a double Libra, and that's the only reason she kept the kid.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah. Okay, so we're supposed to hate her. Yes.

[Lauren Garrone]

As someone that was recently pregnant, I did not enjoy the flatulence storyline.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Were you, Far brain?

[Lauren Garrone]

You know what? As she says, you know, there's a lot of gas working inside of you that sometimes comes out. But again, I'm like, is this a reference to the fact that. Remember there was a brief storyline where Miranda is farting when she is pregnant with Brady?

[Chelsea Fairless]

Oh, yeah. Call back to that, I guess.

[Lauren Garrone]

But I gotta tell you, see, you didn't even know when I was farting. I could have been farting while we were recording when I was pregnant, because I can keep that shit in. I don't know what. What we're doing with Mia where she's just. Just like, farting in front of someone. She's shampooing. Which, by the way, we don't see it. But, like, what did Miranda explain she wanted to have done? Like, ooh, I want Mia to shampoo my hair, and I'm just gonna get a blowout at this salon.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I mean, that would make the most sense. No.

[Lauren Garrone]

So, of course, Miranda, because we're back to the doofusication of Miranda, has no chill and is asking increasingly inappropriate personal questions to Mia about being pregnant.

[Chelsea Fairless]

The father, shouldn't you get a paternity test? Which is what finally pushes Mia over the edge. And it's like, who are you? You crazy?

[Lauren Garrone]

I appreciated this scene because for the first time, it was like a real person interacting with the insanity of the end. Just like that. World. Because I feel like every character we've been introduced to up until this point is just sort of sucked up into the like hijinks of in just like that. And just that is their normal. And it.

[Chelsea Fairless]

To see her spray Miranda in the face was like, finally someone is having an appropriate response.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, it's an inappropriate response in like the real world that we live in. But like that is the appropriate response of someone in the real world interacting with it in just like that character.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I think that's an appropriate response. If that happened to you in real life. Imagine you fuck some guy. You're not even coming after him for child support or whatever. He tells his mom, his mom pretends not to be his mom, shows up at your work. Like I feel like spraying her in the face is not like a crazy thing to do. For sure. Like that's a very like scary like antagonistic behavior on Miranda's part.

[Lauren Garrone]

Also, as someone that relates as a Miranda, a Miranda with a Carrie rising and is a Taurus, I did not care for Mia being like, you must be a Taurus.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Also when Miranda pulls the grandma card and and is like, you know, I just would like to have some future relationship with this little girl or boy. And then Mia is like, you're so binary. And then farts at her. I was like, what? What the. But also, I don't know. I think it's an interesting choice on Samantha Irby's part because she's basically saying like Miranda came out of that entire relationship with JD as and like learned nothing.

[Lauren Garrone]

And also Gen Z sucks.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I would think that Miranda would be like dated a non binary person and for the rest of her days she is like using like gender neutral language.

[Lauren Garrone]

I think with season three of it, just like that Daddy MPK is like, woke is dead. Che Diaz is gone.

[Chelsea Fairless]

We are back to Miranda's binary again.

[Lauren Garrone]

We are back to old school Sex and the City. That's really. That. That's Miranda's storyline. She's on a grandma journey now. Now.

[Chelsea Fairless]

So yeah, I feel like this situation has the highest stakes of all the characters on the show. Just knowing that the show is ending in two more episodes.

[Lauren Garrone]

Wait, so Miranda is a 50 something year old intern and grandma?

[Chelsea Fairless]

She's not an intern anymore, is she? Didn't she fully get a job?

[Lauren Garrone]

I don't know.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I think she got a job. She has an office. Okay. Charlotte, on the other hand, she got some sort of psychic energy cleanse on Zoom.

[Lauren Garrone]

Excuse you, it's an aura reading or an energy cleanse.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, it's a. It's an energy cleanse.

[Lauren Garrone]

Okay. Which she bid on on an auction. This begins as, like, oh, no, another hooey storyline for Charlotte. But it really is the only plot point that, like, resolves this sort of dangling chad. Plot points that have littered this season of just, like, the trauma of Charlotte carrying Harry's secret of his cancer diagnosis. Spoiler alert. I mean, she's in, like, two scenes. She can't do this Zoom aura reading because she has, for reasons, decided to strip the walls of the wallpaper in her house.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Well, because she never liked the wallpaper in her hallway and she thought, hey, life's too short. Then she has all these contractors over to like, to, like, strip the wallpaper and whatever. And she's like, guys, can you not work right now? Because I have my. My psychic energy cleanse on Zoom, which is fully psycho.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yeah. And they rightfully roll their eyes. At the same time, Rock and ltw's middle child are doing tap dancing practice right outside her door because they are rehearsing for Thoroughly Modern Millie. And Rock sucks.

[Chelsea Fairless]

That place is like a hellscape. That apartment.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, it's because it's haunted by the spirit of Bunny McDougal. Because Charlotte stole the rightful McDougal family pre War Classic 6 apartment.

[Chelsea Fairless]

No, it's true. She. She colonized that apartment.

[Lauren Garrone]

Also, you always hated the wallpaper. There's a whole storyline in Sex and the City season four where you debunny McDougalified that apartment and make it to your, like.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, but we've all made some regrettable decorating choices. You know, sometimes you need to see what you've done to realize that it's not a good idea.

[Lauren Garrone]

Very true. And for those who are not watching the episode, we never see the woman who is on the other side of this Zoom energy reading. And they're shot in a way where, you know, if you've watched TV or movies before, you're like, okay, this is a consequential cameo. Or else, why is this person being shot this way?

[Chelsea Fairless]

And the reveal is that it's Susan. Susie Essman. Which was funny.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yes.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Perfectly cast.

[Lauren Garrone]

Oh, absolutely. Who and who comes? Because she's not seen for most of the episode. And when Charlotte confesses what's been going on with Harry and she starts to break down, Susie Aspen reveals herself and.

[Chelsea Fairless]

And gives her a mantra, a guided meditation. Something that's very different than a mantra.

[Lauren Garrone]

I don't know, something that we don't see again yet enough.

[Chelsea Fairless]

You're like some spiritual healing, gobbledygook that I just choose to avoid.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yes, because despite the fact that this episode is 45 minutes long, that is something that occurs off screen.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Okay, so Sema.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yeah, we can wrap this up in two sentences.

[Chelsea Fairless]

There's. I mean, we already have. Nothing else happened to Charlotte. Seema visits the gardener's apartment, which is rent controlled and fab because it is.

[Lauren Garrone]

The apartment that he grew up in. And he only pays $900 a month. And he introduces Seema to his mother, who is living as a plant.

[Chelsea Fairless]

His mother died of breast cancer when he was 20, but she had this plant. And he keeps the plant alive, obviously. So the plant is living like his mom.

[Lauren Garrone]

Does he take care of the plant? Because this caller makes a great point.

[Michael Patrick King]

Good evening, this is of Chicago's blood calling in. So while I appreciate the sentiment that the gardener is showing Sima pothos that he got with his mom and he's kept and everything, however, that pothos is very much dying as seen on screen. It is not a thriving plant. So honestly, Seema did him a service to just chuck it out and get him out of his life. Because obviously while he can take care of gardens, somehow the gardener couldn't take care of one of the most easily taken care of all plants. Apothos. Just give it some water, give it a little light and it'll be fine. Thank you, Seema, for sacrificing this plant for his mama issue.

[Lauren Garrone]

Oh yeah. We should say that Seema's whole plot point is Seema worries that Adam has mommy issues and that is the boundary in their relationship. Like this woman just won't be happy.

[Chelsea Fairless]

No.

[Lauren Garrone]

And it's almost like she wants to bring about the end of the relationship because in some post coital moment, which again, we don't get to see them having sex, she is smoking out the window in front of this plant and the plant falls out the window like.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Her reversing over the spikes. It's like you could see the whole thing from like a mile away.

[Lauren Garrone]

And in true puzzling and just like that editing, you would think that that because she wakes up Adam, who is sleeping naked. And so I assume that the next scene would be like them running out, saving the plant. But it just, it cuts and we don't see them again till, I don't know, days later when Adam shows up to her apartment.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Not her apartment.

[Lauren Garrone]

Oh, sorry, sorry. Adam shows up to her office, the Patel group, which.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Okay, again, I'm so confused about what is happening. I saw some random guy working there that wasn't like Seema's assistant.

[Lauren Garrone]

I agree with you. Yes. She has one additional employee and now.

[Chelsea Fairless]

She'S hired back her old driver. Like, what happened?

[Lauren Garrone]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Well, you know, in several months, the Patel group is. Is thriving. I guess Seema assumes that the relationship is over because she killed his mother.

[Chelsea Fairless]

But then chooses to ghost him.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, that's the other thing.

[Chelsea Fairless]

She's so fucking mean, this woman.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, but what are we supposed to believe with this bizarre editing choice? Is that what she ran out of the apartment? Because Adam comes back and is like, I've saved the part of the plant that matters, and I've placed it all throughout your office basically to haunt you with the spirit of my dead mother.

[Chelsea Fairless]

But, you know, I'm glad they came back together. I don't like when Seema is mean to him. It appears upsets me. Speaking of upsetting things. Ltw, man. So we fully dropped the thing with the editor.

[Lauren Garrone]

Where did he go?

[Chelsea Fairless]

I don't know. I mean, I feel like her doc has to come out before this show ends. No.

[Lauren Garrone]

Will Michelle Obama be in this documentary or not? The only thing I want answer is.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Michelle Obama in the series finale of and just like that.

[Lauren Garrone]

Zachary. We've set up for LTW that her daughter has placed her guinea pig in LTW's office closet.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Because I think it's just like a hamster. I don't think it's a full guinea pig. Guinea pigs are like more sizable creatures.

[Lauren Garrone]

All right. I fully stopped recording because I was like, I'm right. And I went back into the episode and I am wrong. It is a hamster.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Like, a guinea pig is like a size of, like, a very large baked potato, like one you would get at Outback Steakhouse or something.

[Lauren Garrone]

Sounds like you've contemplated getting a guinea pig or two.

[Chelsea Fairless]

No, I mean, they're adorable. I'm just saying, like that. That is no guinea pig.

[Lauren Garrone]

Okay, so the daughter wants her mother to bond with her hamster, but LTW realizes that this is just a metaphor for the fact that the daughter feels like LTW isn't spending enough time with her. So instead of spending time with her own daughter, she is hanging out with the hamster. Okay.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Also, her whole work setup disturbed me to no end. I know we've talked about it before about the fact that her office is in her closet, but seeing her literally, like a foot away from the wall because she's basically. Her desk is basically like an entry table with two giant monitors. I was just like, as someone that works from home, was thinking, like, what it would feel like to have two giant screens and a hamster on your lap.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, I was going to say, to add insult to injury, she can't even now do work because the hamster cage is on her keyboard. Because in that scene where she's talking to her husband, she has to like, move the hamster cage off of the keyboard to start typing. And as someone whose recording studio has been in their closet for more than a year, I can't comment on LTW's work setup.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Then the hamster gets lost because the.

[Lauren Garrone]

Daughter took it out.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, the daughter took it out of the cage and then lost it. Meanwhile, this is so campy because the daughter is in like a full, like head to toe Burberry outfit. And then LTW just like has like a mommy dearest breakdown and is just like, like, how did you let the hamster out? How could you be so stupid? It's probably going to die or something like that. Like just scary shit. You just maybe wouldn't want to say to a little girl or, I don't know, not to judge anyone's parenting. I'm obviously not a mom, but yeah.

[Lauren Garrone]

I, I thought this was a fairly valid crash out. I also came from like a yelling family, so I was like, that wasn't so bad. And then I listened to the writers room podcast and they were like, you know, we went with the, the meaner takes. You know, we thought about pulling it back and I was like, I don't, I don't know. The daughter did a dumb thing. She's highly stressed out.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Is it really that dumb, though? Because surely it's like you would take it out of the cage like, it's a hamster.

[Lauren Garrone]

Right? But, you know, this is all because the LTW humiliation cycle is not complete without Herbert's mother just popping in and being like, you are a terrible mother. And then, you know, to, to relieve some stress. Ltw. Finally, Marion. Oh, wait, no, she doesn't. He's not in this episode. Instead of, you know, crying in her closet by herself, she has to pull it together and go to Herbert's election results party because. Oh. Oh, yay. Finally this storyline is resolving.

[Chelsea Fairless]

I'm not mad at the fact that they were like, he lost the election. Like, it was so quick and anti climatic because, like, I don't personally care whether or not he wins or loses and that's fine with me. But just given like his whole like, insecurity last week about his weight and dieting, I was like, he's gonna go on Ozempic and then he's gonna do a televised debate, and then he's gonna shit himself during that debate. Debate. Because that just seems like something that would happen on end just like that. But I was wrong. That's not what they were giving.

[Lauren Garrone]

I enjoyed from a directing standpoint, it was sort of genius. Right. Because you see them as a family in high spirits, get into the elevator, go to this election party, and then, you know, the doors close, they open again, and they're all dejected because he's lost.

[Chelsea Fairless]

It was incredibly efficient storytelling. Yes.

[Lauren Garrone]

A level of efficiency that also made me upset because it's like, oh, so this is within you to tell storylines efficiently. You're just willingly choosing not to.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Although of all of the Wexley things, like his watch party, seems like that would be one of the more exciting events on. And just like that, in terms of, like, what these characters are doing. You know what I mean? And, like, all the girls would be there, obviously.

[Lauren Garrone]

Yeah. If they went to a campaign event at the beginning of the season up in Harlem. And also, isn't Harry his campaign manager on or something?

[Chelsea Fairless]

I don't think he's working for him in an official capacity, but Harry would.

[Lauren Garrone]

Definitely have been there.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Everyone would have been there, but we just, like, didn't see that. But I'm. Honestly, I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it.

[Lauren Garrone]

Let's get to maybe the most Sex and the City storyline of the episode. Giuseppe and Anthony. So we see Giuseppe and Anthony fucking. Yeah. In the midst of having sex.

[Chelsea Fairless]

A more graphic sex scene than we've gotten for a hot minute.

[Lauren Garrone]

Good to know that Anthony's back on top.

[Chelsea Fairless]

They're having sex, and then they have to evacuate their building because there is a gas leak. So they have to go to Giuseppe's apartment, which we've, of course, never experienced before.

[Lauren Garrone]

Right. Because even though we're shown that Anthony lives. Lives in an apartment that is not as nice as he should live in, somehow Giuseppe's apartment is even worse, I guess because he is younger than him. I do just want to note that the reason they have to evacuate. Yes, yes. Is because of a gas leak, but it is because someone was putting in a flat screen and it punctured the gas line, which is, as I learned in the writers room podcast, something that happened to Michael Patrick King's friend that he has been trying to work into an episode. Episode. Four years. There you go.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Sorry. They succeeded in working it in. We go to Giuseppe's apartment. We meet his. His older roommate, who is apparently a sweet Asexual man who also makes puppets.

[Lauren Garrone]

And here's another thing I learned from the writers room podcast, Chelsea. Another thing that Michael Patrick King has been trying to work into the series forever, but because he played with puppets as a child, he was a marionettist.

[Chelsea Fairless]

That's cool. And I'm into that. I actually didn't mind this. It was obviously a callback to the creepy doll guy that Stanford fucked. But I thought it worked.

[Lauren Garrone]

It absolutely did. And it was very funny to hear that this was the most expensive prop that they had. It also took nearly the entire production to create the marionette. For those who are not watching these episodes, Giuseppe's older roommate has made a marionette that looks exactly like Giuseppe.

[Chelsea Fairless]

With a huge dick, of course. And then Anthy's like, sees the state of his apartment, sees this sort of creepy roommate, and is like, hey, maybe you should move in with me. Giuseppe's like, let's not move too fast. And then he sees his roommate jerking off to this puppet in a very upsetting way in the kitchen. And he's like, you know what? I think it's time to move. Move.

[Lauren Garrone]

Which is the most Sex in the City subversion, right? We're. We're setting up. This character has a creepy roommate, or one character thinks he's creepy, the other one's defending him. And wouldn't you know, it exactly what Anthony thought was probably happening was happening. That this sweet asexual man is jerking off to a Giuseppe puppet.

[Chelsea Fairless]

When Giuseppe was like, he's asexual. I'm like, how did it take us three seasons to get an asexual character? He wasn't actually asexual, of course, but just seems very. And just like that, you know, Like, I feel like Charlotte should have had a asexual barista at some point or something.

[Lauren Garrone]

Oh, that's what I wanted to say. If anyone was gonna get a premature grandmother storyline, it feels like it should have been Charlotte. But then again, Daddy MPK thinks that Charlotte's oldest daughter is only 16, so maybe not.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Is that all there is?

[Lauren Garrone]

That is all there is. What awaits us next week is the first part of a two part series finale for. And just like that, it will involve Thanksgiving. Charlotte tells Harry that they must go over to Miranda's for Thanksgiving. Miranda will be inviting Mia over from Thanksgiving without telling Brady.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Wait, is it possible that this could end with a Christmas episode?

[Lauren Garrone]

Potentially.

[Chelsea Fairless]

We've never really had it right, because.

[Lauren Garrone]

Even in the movie, it was New Year's.

[Chelsea Fairless]

In the movie, it was New Year's we had the bit where Charlotte decorated her lap ass Christmas tree before converting.

[Lauren Garrone]

To Judaism, but that was way ahead of Christmas.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Yeah, I would love it.

[Lauren Garrone]

If this show has taught me anything. I cannot predict what's gonna happen. And that's a beautiful life lesson, Chelsea. That's what I'll be taking with me from our time with him. Just like that. Yeah.

[Chelsea Fairless]

And just like that could very well turn into like the holiday.

[Lauren Garrone]

What a house swap.

[Chelsea Fairless]

Well, where Carrie goes to find Duncan wherever he lives, and it's like Christmas Eve or some.

[Lauren Garrone]

Let this woman not chase after another man. My God, what has this woman learned? Seven bestselling novels, all of them about her own life. This one even historical autofiction. What has she learned? Or is it gonna be. I previously thought they were gonna have Carrie be alone. And she's finally fine being alone. But if we're setting up that yet another man is leaving her. Is Duncan the first man that uproots his life to be a part of her world? Does he come back?

[Chelsea Fairless]

It's a Christmas miracle.

[Lauren Garrone]

Well, we only have one more week to find out. And we hope you will join us for the thrilling conclusion. We're gonna leave you here. There is a bunch of pop culture stuff we wanted to talk about. We're gonna save it for the after show and just after that, so we hope you join us.

[Chelsea Fairless]

See you next week, guys.

[Lauren Garrone]

All right, bye.

[Michael Patrick King]

Everybody.