This post contains spoilers for And Just Like That Season 2, Episode 3.
Friends, our long national Che Diaz-induced nightmare is over. Finally, And Just Like That seems ready to break Miranda Hobbes out of her midlife crisis. At the very least, our girl is back in New York. It’s a start!
Back in the day on Sex and the City, Miranda Hobbes was always the “together” one—even if she was faking it half the time. Since the start of And Just Like That, however, she’s been a mess—anxious, socially awkward, and reckless. It’s not that she should’ve stuck with Steve forever no matter how lackluster their relationship got. (Although, she must know “there’s good stuff here,” right?) It’s more that the problems that apparently bubbled up between them felt contrived—like excuses created to explain a world in which Miranda Hobbes, Esquire moves to California, a place she used to detest, for Che Diaz, a person she barely knows.
Thankfully, that disaster might soon be behind us—and it’s all thanks to her sobbing son.
Everyone’s got problems this week. Carrie’s real estate broker friend Seema’s Birkin bag gets stolen on the street; Che is nervous about filming an emotional scene for their sitcom, which they seem to hate; and Carrie is struggling to record the audiobook version of her memoir. (Chapter 3, in which she describes finding Big dying in the shower after his Peloton-induced heart attack, is understandably challenging—and that’s even without trying to remember to stop “popping” her “P’s” in the mic while recording.) For a while, Carrie decides to fake COVID and play hooky instead—which, predictably, prompts an untold number of unwanted gift baskets and gestures of care from friends.
The exception to all this suffering is Charlotte, who is delighted this week to learn that she and her friend Lisa are both at the top of a “MILF list” created by one of her kids’ high school classmates. (There’s also a bit in which she and the other moms swoon over the teen boy who created it, which… really? We’re still doing that in the year of our lord 2023?)
Theft appears to be a running theme in this episode, which also includes a random robbery at Carrie’s neighbor’s jewelry show. Much like the random racist incident that befell Lisa’s husband last week, however, And Just Like That never bothers to contextualize the robberies within the broader episode. Was it just meant to set up Carrie’s toast at the end “to New York City—the good and the bad”? Like many story threads this season (and last) it’s hard to determine what the robberies are meant to tell us about Carrie, her friends, or the city they love.
But hey, let’s focus on the positive: Miranda’s back, baby! Apparently, sitting around and waiting for Che to finish working is not as rewarding as Miranda expected. She lost her phone at a beach clean-up last week, and now she’s getting tattoos?! (At first, she was contemplating a robot to symbolize how dehumanized she was at work; apparently, she settled on an “MH” on her wrist in Times New Roman font instead. “Rebel Rebel,” am I right?!)
Cue, Brady. While Miranda’s college-aged son was getting on his parents’ last nerve in Season 1 with his incessant love-making, this time around he does the best thing he can do for his mother: he gets dumped.
All it takes is one tearful call, and Miranda springs into action for her son, booking a flight home and getting a game plan together like the old Miranda would. Che is furious, however, when Miranda receives a call from her son in the middle of their taping—where she’s not supposed to have a phone.
“It’s my kid—the most important thing to me,” Miranda tells Che. “You don’t know what that feels like.”
Che’s reply? “Then I guess we’re even.”
So, that’s not looking great! Could Miranda’s quick trip back to New York turn permanent? I’d trade a thousand Birkin bags I will never own to make it so.
And speaking of priceless Hermès… Seema does ultimately reunite with her stolen purse. It turns out, the guy who robbed her is old school—meaning, he still tosses the bag assuming the wallet inside it is worth more. (Big mistake—huge!) Meanwhile, Carrie’s neighbor does not recover her stolen jewelry, but she does get a visit from Ms. Bradshaw herself, who joins her to sulk in bed over their respective losses. Lisette has lost her livelihood (for now), and Carrie has lost the life she was building with Big.
Much of And Just Like That has been about loss. Carrie is getting over losing her husband; Charlotte is contending with two kids who want to grow into their own people; and as the tattoo of her initials suggests, Miranda has lost her sense of self. (We’ve also lost Samantha, but apparently no one’s taking that one too hard.) Still, it seems like everyone’s finding a way to move on. At least, by the end of this week’s installment, Carrie’s finished recording her memoir. If Miranda’s back in the city for good, things can only get better from here.
