Carrie and Aidan are taking an extended break…. Or are they? On the season two finale of And Just Like That…, Miranda gets closure with both her exes, Samantha Jones returns for an all-too-brief phone call, and Aidan finally steps into Carrie’s old apartment and out of her life—at least for now.
On this week’s Still Watching, hosts Hillary Busis, Richard Lawson, and Chris Murphy discuss the 11th episode of And Just Like That… season two, “The Last Supper Part Two: Entree.” The season two finale, they all agreed, would have served as a fitting season finale or a series finale, closing the arcs for the major players in satisfying ways yet leaving things open-ended enough to keep the story going. But given the news earlier this week that And Just Like That… has been officially renewed by Max for a third season, it seems like there’s more in store for New York’s favorite girls. “I had already written my eulogy for And Just Like That… and was prepared to deliver it,” Murphy admits. “But we’re going to keep chugging along, and I wonder what’s in store.”
The first thing in store for the finale was a highly anticipated cameo from Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones. Outfitted by original Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field, Cattrall made the most of her approximately two-minute cameo, calling Carrie to apologize for not being able to travel across the pond for Carrie’s Michelin-star farewell dinner. “I had really missed her,” Lawson says. “That energy just completes the circle of the show even for that couple of minutes that she’s onscreen.”
While Samantha wasn’t able to make it to dinner, both of Miranda’s exes, Steve and Che, were in attendance. Miranda and Steve’s burying of the hatchet in Coney Island struck the hosts as a sweet moment for the former couple, while Miranda’s attempt to do so with Che Diaz in Carrie’s kitchen was less successful. This led the hosts to wonder whether Sara Ramirez, who earlier this week issued a scathing response to a profile about them in The Cut, would be returning for the third season. “I appreciate their service, but I think they can ride off into the sunset with Toby,” Murphy says. Another character who might be better served elsewhere is Dr. Nya Wallace, who ended the season winning a prestigious award and finding love with Carrie’s Michelin-star chef, Toussaint (Gary Dourdan).
Elsewhere, Charlotte ends the season relatively unscathed, reiterating her need for Harry to step up in the parenting department and replacing the iPhone she threw in a margarita blender. Her friend, Lisa Todd Wexley, is still processing the fallout from her miscarriage, with husband Herbert by her side. Anthony also finally opens up to his boyfriend Giuseppe in multiple ways, letting him in emotionally and physically. “If I never have to hear the phrase ‘ass wall’ again, I would be happy,” Lawson quips.
But the most shocking reveal of the episode belongs to Carrie, who gets quite the surprise when Aidan finally crosses the threshold of her old apartment. Rather than bringing good news, Aidan has come to tell Carrie that his 14-year-old son, Wyatt, needs him too much for him to split time between Norfolk and New York, and proposes that he and Carrie take a five-year break until Wyatt is out of his teens to continue their relationship. The hosts noted that they may have called Carrie and Aidan’s semi-breakup last episode, as it allows Carrie to potentially be free for future seasons, but doesn’t have her ending the season heartbroken. “I guess they wanted to leave it open-ended in case they got another season, and that’s why they didn’t just have them end up together,” Busis notes.
While Aidan and Carrie are not meant to be (at least not right now), the break does free Carrie up for a girls trip to Greece with Seema, who is still going strong with Marvel director Ravi (Armin Amiri). Though it’s not quite the Hamptons, it works as a button to the season. “We’ll just leave it in limbo that someday in the distant, unseen future, she and Aidan will be together,” Lawson says. “They’re saving themselves for each other, but in the meantime, she’s gonna have cosmos on a Greek isle with Seema.”
Originally published in Vanityfair.com