(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
One of Carrie Bradshaw’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) greatest love stories is with her apartment. No matter how many times a man failed her or a relationship fell apart, the snug Upper West Side home was a constant throughout Sex and the City. Any hope that Carrie will move back into this hallowed spot in the concluding episodes of And Just Like That is dashed when a trip down memory lane reveals its extreme makeover: the finger-wagging subtext is hard to miss.
Carrie can never go home again, and neither can we.
With one episode to go, the gloves are off: “This is it! I am done! Don’t call me ever again! Forget you know my number! In fact, forget you know my name! And you can drive down this street all you want because I don’t live here anymore!” OK, that is Carrie to Mr. Big (Chris Noth) in the penultimate episode of SATC, but it bears a striking resemblance to the underlying message from co-creator Michael Patrick King in part one of the AJLT series finale.
The dialogue isn’t quite as direct as this in AJLT, but the spiky tone is impossible to miss.
Considering the many, often negative opinions that have been leveled at this iteration of the series, the overall tone of the penultimate episode reads like a thinly veiled response to the hate-watchers and nitpickers. Using Carrie’s abode and current writing project as a means to address the naysayers makes this a punchier penultimate outing than expected. It has always been hard to predict the AJLT arcs, and this messiness remains the way to the bitter end, for good and bad.
Perhaps it was the bombshell reveal that the last two episodes of the third season would be the last that means I am now searching for clues to determine whether the decision to end occurred before this season began, or if the barrage of hate-watching comments led the creative team to call it a day. Either way, the overarching themes, which showcase the inability to return to how things were, are not particularly subtle.
Even before Carrie ventures to her beloved old place to hang out with Lisette (Katerina Tannanbaum), the script leans heavily into meta commentary about what constitutes a tragic resolution via Carrie’s novel. It is not the first time enthusiastic editor Amanda (Ashlie Atkinson, who plays Mrs. Fish in The Gilded Age) has requested Carrie add a hopeful message to a manuscript. Previously, it was to give readers something to cling to after reading the raw emotions of her grief memoir. Now, Amanda asks that the Woman isn’t so solitary in the final pages.
“You know me, I’m a happy ending gal,” says Amanda. Carrie’s book falls into the romantic tragedy subgenre because, in 1846, concluding your story with a woman alone is bleak. Carrie’s choice to leave the Woman sitting by herself in the garden of her opulent home after her great love dies is not what Amanda or the publishing house is after. Suddenly, I feel like we are being put under the microscope regarding what is expected from a protagonist—cue the Euphoria meme.
But King and co-writer Susan Fales-Hill are only just warming up. When Carrie tells Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) about the feedback, including the note to add an epilogue, it is as close to a fourth wall break that we’re gonna get. The trio might as well be staring down the barrel of the camera. Amanda hasn’t been as specific as to say the Woman should get married, only that it should be “something that makes the reader feel good at the end.”
Carrie’s response is a shrug of annoyance because she likes the version she turned in: “I thought it was honest.” Are we the reader in this scenario? Carrie is as single as the nameless main character of her historical novel, and they share the experience of losing their soulmate. Although you wouldn’t know Big even existed when Carrie refers to Aidan (John Corbett) as her longest relationship without mentioning the marriage that occurred in between.
The reference to the Woman’s dead love is the closest mention of Big this week. However, if you rewatch the conclusion of each SATC story (movies included), Big is in the romantic picture. Of course, this option is now unavailable—unless there is a supernatural twist up King’s sleeve.
While there have been many bumps since, I do still think that killing Big was a bold and necessary choice in this (probable) final chapter of Carrie Bradshaw. Of course, spending so much time revisiting Aidan is the price we had to pay, and we only get to enjoy three post-breakup episodes. Finishing the show might be for the best, but I was ready for Carrie’s single, non-grieving era.
Looking back rather than forward is a theme of Carrie’s conversation with Seema (Sarita Choudhury), with property, new and old, up for debate. The news that the basement dwelling where she recently hooked up with Duncan (Jonathan Cake) is for sale catches Carrie off guard. She harbored some hope that Duncan would return, and the size of the Gramercy property is a reminder of the plans she made with Aidan.
Unlike Carrie, Seema has zero attachment to the UWS address where Carrie lived the longest, listing several negatives, including its warped floors and s--tty kitchen. It is Lisette’s invitation to come over that is also adding to Carrie’s introspection. “What if I miss it?” Carrie asks.
So when Carrie steps over that familiar threshold and walks up the staircase, I expected her to catch feelings—in part because of Parker’s coy behavior on Watch What Happens Live when the apartment came up. Instead, it is a bait-and-switch. Carrie won’t be moving back, and neither can we.
We can cross moving back to the one-bedroom off the series finale wish list.
What about romance? The SATC finale delivered one of the all-time “looking for love” speeches, but a lot can change in 21 years. Nevertheless, Carrie does write the epilogue for the Woman, setting up a new potential suitor. Is this foreshadowing? Or is King setting up a path he has no intention of sending Carrie down?
AJLT will never be SATC, which is why it is so hard to imagine what will take place in the final episode. In 2004, Parker told the New York Times, “I just want Carrie to be content.” At this point in 2025, I think that would be a happy ending enough.
