And Just Like That recap: A big thumbs-up to these guest stars

This story contains spoilers for season three, episode two of And Just Like That.

Manhattan is chock-a-block with busy fingers this week.

As Charlotte and LTW leave their kids’ prep school, they run into the other bougie mothers (all dressed for different climates and in shocking textures) discussing their work with elite college admissions adviser Lois “The Finger” Fingerhood.

The face fans make when looking at most outfits on this show. Credit: Max

They try to dob to the principal, played by the incredible Tim Bagley (who’s recently popped up in lovely storylines in Somebody Somewhere and Hacks). And, after lobbing a dozen bad finger jokes back and forth with him, Char and LTW decide to “F-bomb the rules” and hunt down The Finger (Kristen Schaal, in great – if abrupt – guest casting), who eventually tells Herbert Jr and Lily their extracurriculars are too boring and elite for Ivy League colleges to care.

The acting in this scene where these two mothers learn their high-achieving children of colour aren’t relatable and authentic enough was enough to make me breathe into a taffeta pouch too.

What’s not relatable about this scene?Credit: Max

Poor Charlotte probably wouldn’t have got an acceptance letter either because, across town, when Anthony reveals his bricks-and-mortar Hot Fellas bakery, her response is to scream: “Oh my god! Somebody stole your great idea.” His builders aren’t hot, but he does have a crotch-height counter and bread sconces. Genius!

And Charlotte isn’t the only one whose frontal lobe is made of dust this episode. Miranda is making coffee in an IKEA display kitchen in her office when she discovers the reality dating show Bi Bingo. After immediately dismissing it as idiotic, she gets hooked. This is the woman who would once cancel plans to curl up on the sofa watching Jules and Mimi. That’s my girl.

When she gathers the courage to ask out a cute guacamole server who also loves the series, the young woman breaks the news she’s actually not queer. “It’s a TV show,” she says. “I watch The Walking Dead, and I’m not a zombie.” Yeah! And just because I watch this, doesn’t mean I, too, have forgotten how to interact with the world in a normal human way!

Speaking of: the episode opens with what feels like a hallucination. Carrie Bradshaw skipping across the cobblestone streets of the Meatpacking District! In a hot dress! At night! With other people around! Samantha would be so proud.

We’re back, baby.Credit: Max

Lisette – the young party girl who’s moved into Carrie’s old apartment – asked to meet to give Carrie a gift. A giant clanking necklace with the numbers 245 welded onto it. Unfortunately, I don’t think SJP saying “245 East 73rd St” is going to stop tourists crowding the pavement in front of 64 Perry Street – the West Village facade where they shot the exteriors of her apartment – as much as its new owner would like them to.

Before tossing her phone across the bar, Lisette bemoans that “it’s such a messed up time to be dating”. Carrie replies with a few quips and, without the thematic link the show once had via her voiceovers, that’s about all we have to gain as far as modern relationship insights go.

I don’t mean to be negative, really, but scenes like this and the montage of Seema “hate-dating” men made me yearn for the Sex and the City approach, where funny anecdotes were always bookended by a conversation that needled at the core of why sexual relationships were tricky or fun or dark or twisted.

Instead, Seema agrees for her boss to set her up with Sydney, a matchmaker played by Saturday Night Live legend Cheri Oteri. She’s an advocate for getting rid of Seema’s metallics and animal prints (hard disagree!) and toning down her honesty and entire personality.

This show has a tendency to introduce characters with a lot of backstory then disappear them immediately. As grim as this Seema matchmaking storyline is, I pray this is not the end of Sydney; Oteri makes sense in this universe the same way Amy Sedaris and Candice Bergen do.

More of this character and her terrible ideas, please. Cheri Oteri in matchmaker mode. Credit: Max

The biggest finger in this episode is delivered by Aidan. After dictating – then deleting – texts out loud to him, Carrie’s even more confused about the rules for their separation when he appears in their (?) apartment.

Carrie’s contractor is ripping out her entire, rat-infested courtyard, and she tells Aidan she’s trying to look under everything else in her life. He sets new rules for them which seem to be: let’s just keep in regular contact. But when he responds to a text about a vintage table she wants to buy, all he can spare for her is a thumbs down.

I really – comma – really wish she’d be honest with him about her feelings because Miranda’s right: obsessing over his text etiquette is beneath her.

Before Carrie can continue writing her novel in the courtyard – where she quite literally said hello to a squirrel (please God can this woman smoke a cig or wear a bra in public or break into a church service again!!) – she has to get it re-designed by Adam, aka Logan Marshall-Green, who played Trey Atwood on The OC.

Mmm, whatcha say? Logan Marshall-Green.Credit: Max

He asks her the one fundamental question he has to understand new clients: “What’s your ultimate vision?” Not exactly a light ice-breaker. She deflects. She doesn’t know. The slate is clean and who knows what comes next. If her manuscript is any indication, she’ll be writing on it in Courier New font.

And Just Like That streams each Friday on Max.

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