And Just Like That.. - Season 2, Episode 8

Charlotte seems perplexed when her teenaged children express glee at the prospect of her return to a full-time career

"A Hundred Years Ago"
Original airdate: 8/3/2023

Episode summary: Charlotte prepares for her first day of work by buying a too tight outfit. Carrie and Aidan make use of Che's Airbnb to cohabitate whenever they're in New York together. Miranda begins her internship at Human Rights Watch.

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Recap: Carrie and Aidan are lounging together in a hotel room bed, canoodling and giggling about their rekindled coupling up. Aidan gets on the phone to order some breakfast...and when he's put on hold, he starts gabbling about his classic Virginia red brick farmhouse. Carrie looks intrigued and says she'd looooove to see it and meet his boys, and he gives up on room service and hangs up the phone so that the two can start going at it again. 

Later, at the apartment, Carrie Googles red brick farmhouses and looks charmed by their rustic appeal.

Over lunch with Miranda, Charlotte, and Seema, Carrie excitedly gabbles about wanting to see Aidan's red brick farmhouse and meet his three sons...but adds that she's still very traumatized by the ramshackle cabin he made her spend weekends at during Season 4 of Sex and the City. She chucklingly shows them her phone, explaining that she's been Googling red brick Virginia farmhouses and finds them charming, much like the one in Howard's End...then pretends that it'd be no big deal to commute from New York to Virginia in order to date Aidan. She giddily says that "we" (meaning her and Aidan) would love to take them out for dinner next time he's in town, and Seema looks visibly disinterested in that prospect and wryly informs Carrie that the red brick farmhouses she's been Googling are from the UK, not Virginia. Lol..

While ambling along the street, Miranda tells Carrie how excited she is to intern at Human Rights Watch, which she feels privileged to join after so many decades of working in corporate law. She then changes the subject and urges Carrie to take a breath and move a whole lot slower with Aidan - but Carrie's all 'nuh uh' and overshares that this time around she's had the most intense orgasms while sexing with him, and theorizes that, during their courtship during the Sex in the City days, she used to hold back a piece of herself 'cause of her obnoxious, never-ending fixation with Big. She then scrunches her face into an extra somber expression and says that lately she's been asking herself, "Was Big a big mistake?", and Miranda stares back at her looking stricken and mumbles that she doesn't quite know what to say about what seemed like a really dysfunctional rollercoaster of a relationship [during which Carrie always looked waaaaaaay more into Big than he ever was into her] that somehow led to marriage.

"What would you say if I told you that my entire relationship with Big was a waste of everyone's time?"

"That it's maddening to know that an implausible-to-begin-with romance, which underpinned the entire SATC franchise for more than a decade, was for all for nothing."

Over on Park Avenue, Charlotte summons her family to formally announce that she's decided to return to the workforce and take on a full-time job at the Kasabian Gallery. As Rock and Lily grin happily at the prospect of their helicopter mom finally having a life of her own, Charlotte warns that she'll no longer be home when they're done school and that she's likely going to miss dinner from time to time - but the two continue to look unfazed and somehow refrain from high-fiving each other. Charlotte turns her attention to Harry and says that he's going to have to pick up the slack [since it really seems as though he's unemployed these days], and he just shrugs and says he's totes A-OK with that. After the kids rush off to do their homework, Charlotte stares wistfully at her dog and ask him if he'll miss her...but he just stares back at her with a vacant disinterest in her life decisions.

Miranda arrives at Human Rights Watch and meets fellow grunts Serena and Sloane. Sloane offers her a garlic chocolate chip cookie (gross) and warns that she's prolly in for some really low level work, but Miranda assures them she's more than happy to pay her dues. A few seconds later, the very pregnant boss (Raina) emerges from her office and announces that she's off to a meeting with U.S. Mission in an hour and would like Miranda to accompany her and take notes. She assigns Serena and Sloane more low level grunt work, and the two glare at Miranda while she stares back at them in helpless sheepishness.

Carrie drops by the vet clinic to make a proposal to Che: allow her and Aidan to rent their Airbnb apartment in exchange for Che staying at her (Carrie's) vacant apartment whenever Aidan's in town. Che likes the sound of that new living arrangement, but wonders aloud why she and Aidan don't just stay at her apartment...but Carrie declines to explain that nonsensical conundrum and assures them that Aidan needing to stay far away from her place ['cause he's a dramatic baby] is a necessity. 

Anthony is at Hot Fellas, barking at a customer (Lorraine) to stop requesting bread deliveries from Guiseppe, just so she can ogle his freakishly large penis. A few seconds later, Guiseppe arrives for his shift, chides Anthony for punching the dough so hard, and rubs up against him as he demonstrates how to "love the bread". As Anthony gets visibly hot and bothered, Guiseppe mentions that he told Lorraine he's gay, which apparently wasn't a lie. Anthony reacts by firing him...but when Guiseppe threatens to talk to a lawyer, he back pedals and says he's being put on probation. Guiseppe casually says he'll see him tomorrow, and urges him in the meantime to take a chill pill.
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Lisa tags along with Charlotte to a high end clothing boutique so that Charlotte can buy a new outfit for her first day of work. She immediately selects a black dress with a pink collar, sleeve trim, and belt...but when she tries it on, she's dismayed that the belt keeps riding up due to an extra few ounces of belly fat. Lisa wankingly tells her she looks fantastic and suggests losing the belt, but a crestfallen Charlotte argues that the belt is an integral part of the outfit. The salesclerk stares thoughtfully at Charlotte, then brings her a couple of black, shapeless blazers to cover her [perfectly fine] midriff - but Charlotte bitchily retorts that she's buying the black/pink dress, mostly out of spite, and snarkishly orders her to take the "moo moos" back to the rack. When the salesclerk asks Lisa 'the fuck did I do?', Lisa covertly tells her that her only crime is being 25, thin and youthfully gorgeous. 

"Here are some boxy blazers I thought you'd be comfortable hiding under."

"I'd much prefer to feel insecure about my imagined problem areas in this form-fitting frock."

Back at the penthouse, Charlotte stares longingly at photos of herself during her younger years and pins one of them to her new outfit to further torture herself about being older [and only slightly heavier]. 

Carrie and Aidan arrive at Che's building, pretend to be Che's cousins when they run into a disinterested resident ('cause apparently whoever manages the building isn't keen on the idea of turning units into Airbnbs), and let themselves into the apartment. As they unpack their takeout food, Aidan remarks on how there's nothing in the way of cutlery and dish ware in the kitchen...and the two agree that they're going to have to rush over to a kitchen/home store asap.

Seema's parter (Elliot) pops into her office to inform her that he's pawning off a client on her: a hotshot director of Marvel movies. A few seconds later, the handsome Ravi Gordi saunters in and does his best to persuade a skeptical looking Seema to find him a high-end rental for nine months. He sweetens the deal by telling her has oodles of cash to spend, which will translate to a ridiculously high commission for a minimal amount of work. 

Back at Human Rights Watch, Serena and Sloane are complaining to each other about how Miranda was given a non-grunt work assignment on her first day - just as Miranda enters the lunchroom to eat her salad. Serena and Sloane suddenly start texting each other...and when Miranda calls them out on how it feels as though they're talking about her, they weakly deny it. Raina enters the room, thanks Miranda for her excellent note-taking earlier, and asks her to please send her wonderful notes directly to the executive director. Serena and Sloane respond to that compliment by texting their displeasure like the unprofessional, passive-aggressive idiots they're fast proving themselves to be. 

Charlotte puts on her new dress, studies her reflection in the mirror and dismayingly tells Harry it's too tight, and that the pink belt keeps riding up on her 'cause of too much belly fat. Harry assures her she looks great [she does] and casually suggests losing the belt, but she argues that what she really needs to do is lose the belly fat. She then stares at the years old photo of herself and continues to look disheartened. 

Back at Che's Airbnb building, Carrie and Aidan run into the same resident and lay it on thick about how, yep, they are indeed Che's cousins who have returned for yet another visit. The resident stares back at them with an inscrutable expression, though I'm translating it to mean that, in no way, is he buying their story. 
 
Che is primping in Carrie's apartment when they get a call from the building manager about their "visiting cousins"...and she's all 'my what..?', but then gets a clue and hastily pretends as though the Airbnb jig isn't totally up yet. They head over to the building, inform Carrie and Aidan that the management is concerned about their frequent "visits", then marvel about all the new dish ware in the kitchen. When Carrie and Aidan lovingly banter about their recent trip to the kitchen/home store, Che stares at them thoughtfully and asks why their relationship didn't work out all those years ago. Carrie puts her most serious face on and admits to having made a mistake, then turns to Aidan for a comfort hug.

"Why ever did you two break up?"

"He was cuckolded because of my horny stupidity."

Charlotte is [having a disengaged conversation] on the phone with Anthony, complaining about menopause-related weight gain...and Anthony replies by grumbling about the temptation that is a gay and hot Guiseppe. Charlotte worries aloud about having to work with a team of much younger co-workers at the gallery, and when Anthony hears the doorbell, he tells her it's his food delivery and abruptly ends the call.

Carrie is at the hair salon getting a shampoo when Seema (who, non-coincidentally, is in the hair washing station beside her) realizes who she's sitting beside and hastily gets up to sneak outside. Carrie witnesses her near escape and asks whaddup with her not returning any of her calls/texts about dinner with Aidan...before the two go outside so that Seema can enjoy a cigarette in the rain. Seema comes right out and tells her she doesn't like the thought of being a third wheel, is annoyed that Carrie is already a "we" as it pertains to her and Aidan, and is generally so irked by Carrie having had two great loves in her life while she's had none. She tells Carrie she went ahead and bailed on their Hamptons rental this summer, and a distraught Carrie's all, "Wha-a-a?" and says she's very worried about the state of their friendship...so Seema assures her they'll eventually be fine, but that right now she needs space.

Charlotte squeezes herself into several layers of Spanx before putting on her new black/pink dress. She waddles into the kitchen to say hey to her children, and they gush about how fantastic she looks.  

Anthony fields another call from Lorraine and tells her that Guiseppe no longer works at Hot Fellas - just as Guiseppe saunters into the kitchen to get clarification on Anthony's 'it's not you, it's me' text. Anthony nonsensically tells him that he would only be able to work with him if he were straight, and that he doesn't want to become "a middle-aged Lorraine". Guiseppe promptly announces, "I quit", to which a tortured Anthony moans, "I'm fuuuuuucked." Mmm hmm.

Charlotte arrives at the Kasabian Gallery, looks worriedly at her reflection in the window, and finally decides 'ah fuck it' and removes the offending pink belt. She then makes a sweeping entrance, is greeted by two of the gallery's young-uns (Annastasia and Kai) before being formally welcomed by an older, heavier co-worker (Lela). In the next scene, she's in the ladies room, where she removes her Spanx and tosses most of it in the trash can, and happily goes about her first day of work. 

As Miranda pores over some paperwork at Human Rights Watch, she asks Serena about the migration stats she (unwittingly?) omitted, and Sloane snarkishly sneers about what a "perfect" intern she is. Miranda needlessly clarifies that she's "a sexually confused alcoholic who's in the midst of a divorce", and a shocked Serena and Sloane react with a, "Whoa Nellie" before they head out for the day. Raina wanders over and reminds Miranda that she's not supposed to work past 6pm 'cause the organization has a strict overtime policy, then breaks the happy news that she'd like her to temporarily take over her job while she's on maternity leave. When Miranda says she feels unworthy, given that Serena and Sloane have been around far longer, Raina reminds her that, unlike those Gen Z slackers, she's an accomplished lawyer with 30 years of experience under her belt...and rightly emphasizes that she doesn't need to feel any guilt about taking on the role of boss.

Carrie, Aidan, Charlotte, and Miranda are out for dinner and having a delightful time when Seema unexpectedly sweeps in and joins them. Carrie beams happily as Aidan gets an extra chair, prompting Seema to remark on what a well-mannered lad he is. 

Later, Carrie pulls her copy of Howard's End from her bookshelf, then heads off with her suitcase for a trip to Virginia, calling the trip hers and Aidan's new beginning.

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