Photo by: Photo courtesy of Max
Photo courtesy of Max
Editor’s Note: HBO and Food Network are sister brands of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
This article contains spoilers for the series "And Just Like That."
And just like that, another season of watching the ritzy, high fashion-filled lives of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and company, has come to a close. "And Just Like That," a new chapter of HBO’s long-running hit "Sex and the City," aired the second episode of its two-part finale this week. Like any good two-parter, the first episode set up plenty of intrigue for this week’s grand finale, including teasing a Michelin chef-led dinner for Carrie and 15 of her closest friends.
As was the case during six seasons of "Sex and the City" and two seasons of "And Just Like That," things move faster than a New York minute for this group. So, what all unfolded?
The episode begins with the characters gearing up for a formal dinner at Carrie’s iconic brownstone apartment, an envy-inducing home that has been a constant since the first season of "Sex and the City." Carrie is ditching her historic pre-war digs as a result of her renewed relationship with ex-fiancé, Aidan Shaw, who refuses to enter the premises since that’s where their engagement fell apart. Aidan, now a divorced father of three living in Virginia, has been commuting to Manhattan for the couple’s rekindled romance, prompting Carrie to question if, after all these years, Mr. Big was a big mistake. While the answer may be more complicated than a simple yes or no, Carrie and Aidan are ready to leave the past behind. For Carrie, that means selling the one-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side that Aidan can’t bring himself to set foot in and splurging on a two-story apartment in Gramercy Park that has enough space for them to start over. Carrie decides to bid farewell to her old apartment in style with a private dinner for 16 prepared by a Michelin-starred chef — a raffle prize she won at a fundraiser for Charlotte’s children’s school — and fittingly calls the event "The Last Supper."
In addition to longtime pals Miranda, Charlotte and Anthony, the guest list includes many of the new faces we met over the last two seasons: Carrie’s former podcast co-hosts Che Diaz and Jackie Nee; downstairs neighbor/jewelry designer Lisette Alee, a.k.a. the luckiest girl in New York now that she’s the new owner of Carrie’s apartment; real estate agent Seema Patel; Columbia professor Dr. Nya Wallace; documentary filmmaker Lisa Todd Wexley; and a few significant others. For eagle-eyed viewers doing the math, there is one seat remaining, which begs the question: does this moment mark Kim Cattrall’s highly publicized return to the series as Samantha?
Alas, it does not. In a phone call between Samantha and Carrie, the stylish PR exec, now living in London, reveals that while she was planning to make a surprise appearance, a flight delay causes her to miss the soiree altogether. The brief exchange, which shows Samantha dressed to the nines in the back of a car, may or not have satisfied the appetites of Samantha stans, but the show — and the evening — must go on.
Carrie’s guests arrive one by one, and the mysterious Michelin-starred chef is revealed to be Toussaint Feldman, a familiar face from earlier in the season, when he had a flirtatious encounter with Nya at the fictional Bar T in Brooklyn. The duo cross paths at the steps leading up to Carrie’s apartment and engage in another playful exchange, with Nya updating Toussaint on her newly single relationship status.
Photo by: Photo courtesy of Max
Photo courtesy of Max
The setting for dinner, complete with elegant white florals and a service staff, is a far cry from Carrie’s days of using her oven for storage. While admiring the immaculately set tablescape, Charlotte reminisces about the times when they used to sit in the very same apartment and eat cold sesame noodles out of cardboard boxes.
After mingling over martinis and meeting Carrie’s new cat Shoe, the guests are seated for dinner. Chef Toussaint presents a dish he calls Enjoy Olives, in which a green olive is to be consumed before a black olive, followed by the immediate licking of a tiny spoon that has the essence of tangerine blossom. Everyone loves the inventive dish, especially Nya who looks at chef Toussaint dreamily and describes it as an "unexpected explosion in her mouth."
With such a crowd-pleasing start, we can only assume that the rest of chef Toussaint’s dinner was just as intriguing and interactive. In lieu of seeing the subsequent courses, viewers are treated to an argument between Seema and her movie-director beau Ravi outside the apartment, during which she scolds him for being on his phone since the appetizer and missing the main course. And, in a more touching scene back at the table, Carrie honors the fact that she is letting go of her longtime home and asks her friends to name something they wish to let go of, using just a single word. Words like competitiveness, control, distrust, fear and guilt are thrown out, reflecting the group’s collective growth.
Photo by: Photo courtesy of Max
Photo courtesy of Max
In a final dinner scene, Carrie is seen chatting with Charlotte and Harry over remnants of what appears to be a chocolate dessert when Miranda excitedly departs for a last-minute opportunity to participate in a live interview for the BBC. What materialized between the olives and the chocolate is anybody’s guess, but all things food, wine and flowers are forgotten when Aidan unexpectedly arrives. In a scene reminiscent of a "Sex and the City" season four episode when Carrie shows up unannounced at Aidan’s apartment, he gets her attention by throwing pebbles at the window from the street. The fairytale moment is quickly tarnished with the news that Aidan plans to stay in Virginia and focus wholly on his children for the next five years. The scene marks another end for the on-again, off-again couple.
With Carrie back on the market, and Seema on a five-month break from Ravi (who left to film a movie in Cairo), the ladies trade in summer in the city for a beach vacation in Greece. Looking coastal chic while sipping on Cosmopolitans, Seema wonders aloud to Carrie if Aidan and Ravi will ever come back. Carrie confidently responds, "Oh, there will be more." More men, co*cktails …perhaps all of the above? And with that, Carrie orders another round of Cosmopolitans (in Greek!), and the ladies bask in the moment as "And Just Like That" sunsets its second season.
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