The second season of And Just Like That was more balanced than the first, which greatly divided fans in relation to superficial details (thinking that at 55 the characters were ‘old’) and more delicate ones (the absence of Samantha Jones, the Mr. Big’s death and Miranda’s sexual awakening), creating a lukewarm response to a beloved franchise. We still don’t have confirmation of a third one, but the penultimate episode makes some of the challenges even clearer if you still have the stamina for another season with Carrie Bradshaw and the gang.

First a summary of the episode and what they put in, then a perspective on what the season was like to come in the near future.

There is an incongruous passage of time and when there is a problem in And Just Like That it seems that Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) leads the way. We saw in the last episode that the Human Rights internship turned into a more significant position, especially covering her boss’s maternity leave, but we blinked and she left and came back. How many weeks have passed? 12 weeks? So in three months, nothing has really changed. Or everything has changed because the drama with the millennial female lawyers seems to have been resolved and in just one visit to the UN they have already placed another romantic interest in the lawyer’s life. At least this time she didn’t yet notice it herself, but yes, she’s going to get a new girlfriend, and this time one ‘compatible’ with her interests and professional career. More on the topic ahead.

Charlotte (Kristin Davis) sells an expensive painting to Sam Smith, but instead of celebrating she is reacting to her family’s expectations that require her to participate in their lives and give up hers without feeling it. Drawing the line and rescuing the ‘fun’ Charlotte became a big thing for her, sort of out of nowhere because she’s a perfect mom and has a perfect family.

Another who has life in balance and is happy is Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker), who is conflicted about her unplanned pregnancy and how it fits into her already cramped life. The moment it became an issue I knew there was going to be a turn of loss – I have friends who have gone through this – and since she’s in the trailer of the next episode at Carrie’s farewell dinner, we’ll see that there’s something positive in her future.

Nya (Karen Pittman) has elegantly survived the shock of seeing her ex-husband fulfill his dream of motherhood with another woman, even if the pain is hidden by a shower of emojis and expensive gifts for the couple. The quietest of the new friends is the biggest sufferer of the season, even with all the sexual freedom that singleness has provided. She suggested that Miranda stays with her for a while until everything was resolved with Steve, but we see that Miranda was quite comfortable for at least six months in the spare room. Abuse and absurd for a woman like Miranda, I insist on the key. If that is the alternative found to keep Nya in the circle it doesn’t work. Especially after we found out that Steve is now in Coney Island. What happened to the Brooklyn townhouse? Hello?

So Steve: he’s on the mend, he’s happy with his new venture (his second partnership with Aidan (John Corbett) and I don’t see him creating problems for an already calmer Miranda. May he learn his lesson!

Before getting to the main couple, we pass by Anthony (Mario Cantone) whose marriage and separation from Stanford Blatch is the background of something not explored in the series. Anthony was always aggressive, rude, and hilarious, but after he fell in love with Stanford, he became someone else. Unfortunately, the death of actor Willie Garson, in the middle of the recordings unexpectedly, forced him to change the arc of the couple. As they had already ‘killed’ Mr. Big, the scriptwriters avoided even using COVID-19 as an alternative and designed an ending for a somewhat fanciful character: he dropped everything to take care of a client in Japan. Obviously, even bringing new romantic interest to Anthony, had to close that chapter and – this only makes sense behind the scenes of the series – turned Stanford into a Buddhist monk who will never return to New York. The scene was particularly emotional for Sarah Jessica Parker and only those who know how close she was to Willie understand why Carrie flips the cosmopolitan in one gulp when the scene ends. It was pointless but beautiful.

Seema (Sarita Choudhury) suffers from the same ‘Samantha syndrome’: when she rose to prominence, she was pushed aside. Her sexual appetite is more discreet than her predecessor’s but treated in a distanced way and without context. Unlike Samantha and her aversion to commitment, Seema was still looking for her soul mate and seems to have found her in the famous Hollywood director. She seems rushed, without the care or affection she deserved. I’m happy for her, but she got sidelined.

And Che (Sara Ramirez), like Miranda, has been ‘punished’ with the pilot’s failure, having to go back to work as an attendant at a veterinary clinic and starting over from scratch on the stand-up circuit. She is right that it is exhausting having to explain herself, apologize, and try to fit into a universe that is not made for her. And they don’t emphasize something important: she knows how to put herself without explaining herself. The weight of the relationship that Miranda brought – with demands, doubts, and drama – was too much for her and she knew how to put an end to it without blinking. She already has another romantic interest on the horizon and I really hope she blows the dust off. The rudeness she made in her use of Miranda in her joke material (something Mrs. Maisel would have done too) is really part of the life of a comedian, further proof of how far Miranda is from having any emotional maturity in reacting by interrupting her ex in what would be her attempt to rebuild a career. As she did with Steve, Miranda stays in Che’s life long enough to maintain her commanding position in the relationship, but unlike Steve, Che doesn’t play along. Good for Che! Her problems are not missing Miranda or any dependence on what they lived through. That is good. Soon Miranda will be involved with a person less vulnerable, another lawyer, someone she will be able to find herself with.

And the Bradshaw-Shaw couple? Obviously, Aidan’s kids would be trouble for Carrie, and Wyatt is already emerging as a dangerously troubled kid. She sold the apartment to have a bigger space with her boyfriend and his children, without considering that she would be a 24-hour stepmother, with an occasional commitment to the boys, but the drama seems to be another one. Aidan’s crying scene would have been heartwarming if it hadn’t been almost comically overacted. He and Carrie have effectively moved forward in time and resolved issues. Aidan recognizes that the problems that separated them in the fourth season of Sex and the City also had to do with him (more on that to come in a different post), but that after so long the two are ready to resume without demanding changes, just doing them because it’s something that it’s time to do or make sense. in other words: they no longer want to change each other, adaptations arise and are resolved because they want to be together. Beautiful, if it weren’t for the baggage that a family brings. It remains to be seen whether the two will manage to overcome the drama (but the trailer for the final episode already answers the question).

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