And Just Like That recap: Carrie joins the ‘sisterwives’

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

The rooster crows, waking Carrie up from her night in Aidan’s guest house. Once Wyatt sticks his head in the window and reports that she’s awake, she has to step gently over the floor strewn with Gatorade bottles and free dumbbells. Is this the manosphere I’ve been hearing so much about?

Do we think Aidan made Wyatt (Logan Souza) watch Adolescence?Credit: Max

Carrie left her bags in the rental car, you’ll remember, which is why we must witness a gorgeous woman with perfect hair insist that she’s stinky and repulsive in front of literal teenage boys in the morning. Virginia is not the place our girl belongs, even as she insists on riding an ATV into town to buy Batsheva dresses at a “sisterwives dress shop”.

She gives Miranda an update on the phone, and suggests she invite BBC Joy’s friends over to the Gramercy house so Miranda can still go on her first date with her work crush. But that’s before another c-word gets in the way.

Bridget Jones, sorry Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) reporting live for the BBC.Credit: Max

Don’t worry, I’m not going to beat this dead horse as much as the show’s writers did. But to recap: after learning to breathe an episode ago, Miranda pauses during her big on-camera live cross – right in the middle of the word “countryside”. Did she just –? She did. And you’ll keep hearing it. Over and over. In memes and phone calls. In puns about the word “context”. The humiliation of Miranda Hobbes is without end, but at least she and Joy share a smooch (which Carrie watches on her Ring doorbell app) by episode’s end. Small victories.

Seema and LTW are also having work dramas this episode, but when are they not? I wish I cared more that Seema turned down the offer to work for Ryan Serhant (of Million Dollar Listings fame) and has to leave her office, but I just don’t. It feels low-stakes and drawn-out. At this point I’m surprised we didn’t get a subplot with the assistant she tried to poach who’d never heard of Jerry Maguire.

Show me the more interesting plot lines, please. Sarita Choudhury and Ryan Serhant in And Just Like That...Credit: Max

LTW, meanwhile, is yelling the word “hey!” in her sleep, causing her husband to sleep on the couch. She’s anxious and hasn’t hired a new editor, but a candidate called Marion might be her saving grace. But – plot twist – he’s a hunky man. LTW thinks she’ll get cancelled for having a man work on a series about unsung black women. “Let’s move this along, I don’t want this conversation played back to me in court,” her PBS editor tells her when she speaks this ridiculous thought out loud.

Regardless, we get about five more scenes about “sleep divorce” before episode’s end. It’s not that I don’t care about LTW, it’s more that her storylines see her pushed out on an island, totally disconnected from the other characters. Could she and Charlotte not have commiserated about what it’s like to be working mothers in the last episode? Could they not have a scene together here to talk about their respective issues in the marital bed? I guess not.

That brings us to Charlotte and Harry’s house, where his dad’s visiting at the same time a needy neighbour is asking, daily, for a banana. It seems like a flimsy way to show the generational differences under their roof – Harry thinks she should just go buy her own, whereas Rock is invested in #community and thinks we should all share and share alike. Sharing is one thing. Demanding barbecue sauce for brisket is too much for poor, obliging Harry.

It’s all a long, drawn-out set-up for the moment when Charlotte and Harry hit a dead end in bed. Harry’s gone soft. While his dad’s downloading porn and popping out to schtup Marilyn in 10F and Lily’s got a pansexual poly ballerina boyfriend, Harry’s “old banana” is not as ripe as it once was.

Alexa Swinton (left) and Evan Handler (right). No bananas pictured.Credit: Max

I’ve put it off long enough, but now it’s time to return to the horror movie taking place in Virginia.

Time’s sped by and Tate’s 21st birthday has arrived. After whacking Carrie in the head shooting VR zombies earlier, Wyatt continues to freak out as the family – including Kathy and her boyfriend, Bob – settle in for a game. Bob has already pulled Carrie aside to commiserate about how hard it is to break in and find a space with the Shaws. He also spills that Aidan is not exactly cool with Wyatt taking the Adderall Carrie muled over state lines for him. When she apologises to Aidan, he admonishes her for bringing it up – just as he scolded her for nursing her sore head earlier.

By the time the whole scene implodes and Wyatt smashes the window next to Carrie’s head, it’s clear to her that the distance Aidan insisted on is necessary. They’re not breaking up (like they should); she gives him a key to “their” house and tells him to “use it when you can. Use it when you need. But don’t use it out of guilt.”

A baffling proposal. Aidan (John Corbett) and Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) in And Just Like That...Credit: Max

She’ll be alone again, with a theoretical boyfriend waiting somewhere off-screen. Only in New York this time. Praise be.

And Just Like That… streams each Friday on Max.

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