This article was written during the SAG and WGA strikes. The content here would not be possible without the hard work of the writers and actors involved!
I’m back with another incredibly late And Just Like That recap for you to enjoy! Episode 207, entitled “February 14th” opens with Carrie getting a reply email from Aidan, and from there we take the long winding road towards their inevitable make-up kiss, stopping along the way to watch Miranda, Charlotte, and Lisa struggle with their own respective dating situations.
After seeing Carrie get the email reply, we (the audience) head straight over to lunch with Charlotte and Miranda, where she updates them on what she read. Aidan just so happened to be in town that week and invited Carrie to dinner on Thursday night. Thursday just so happened to be Valentine’s Day, and as such that happy string of coincidences leads to plans for Carrie and Aidan to spend February 14th together.
They all agree this most definitely means he’s single, and move on to talk about Miranda’s dating plans. The women assume that she’ll only be dating women from now on, but Miranda hedges. After all, she’s never even dated a woman! She fell for Che, who is nonbinary, and dated men the whole time before that. Carrie and Charlotte are supportive, but urge Miranda to “figure it out” and get back to dating. I wish they had made a comment that liking multiple genders is a valid option, but it’s probably more accurate for a group of 56 year old women that they did not.
Nya and Anthony also have big plans for Valentine’s Day. Nya—who we find out has real friends, finally—is having a “me-vening”, and Anthony is going to be on the Drew Barrymore show to promote his Hot Fellas Bakery.
While Nya’s story is then moved into the background for the rest of the episode, Anthony gets a plot that I’ll recap quickly here to get out of the way. Apparently, he was unaware of his Hot Fellas taking steroids, and forces them to quit when he finds out. This results in pretty much everyone quitting, leaving him with very little notice to find a Drew Barrymore suitable replacement.
Never fear! At this key moment, Charlotte happens upon the most beautiful man ever in existence and manages to convince him to go on the show. This works out great, especially because said man has never learned how to tuck, and his giant penis bulges out of the Hot Fellas uniform. Anthony’s orders are through the roof! Drew Barrymore was actually in this episode and she delivers a series of quick puns, her stuttering incredibly charming as usual, which make this plot feel far less corny than it sounds when I write it out.
Anthony convinces Beautiful Man to stay on at the company for one week to deliver orders. Crisis averted!
Just as Anthony’s career takes off, Rock’s begins to bloom. Their ad campaign is a smashing success, so much so that a giant poster is unveiled in the middle of the city. All of their friends are incredibly happy for them, but none live up to the sheer excitement of Charlotte herself. She started a modeling Instagram for Rock and it’s already up to 3 thousand followers!
If only Lisa could be so proud of her son. Herbert Jr is outside the school making out with his girlfriend in broad daylight, and she is not having it. She interrupts them with some sassy comments, securing her son’s mortification and her own opinion that his girlfriend, Baxter, has no boundaries.
Che and Carrie grab lunch, because apparently they’re on that level now, and afterwards Che asks if Miranda is ignoring them. She is, of course. That’s Miranda’s whole MO and it’s not going to change overnight just because Che isn’t a man. Honestly, this should probably be Miranda’s sign that she’s not a lesbian because we all know lesbians love to keep in touch with their exes.
Che is only trying to get in touch with Miranda because they have a box of her stuff, and they’re trying to Airbnb out their apartment now that they have no cash flow. How a single unsuccessful show took them from making a living to floundering is beyond me, but neither I nor Miranda will find out. Me because of poor writing. Miranda because she’s too busy scrolling through a list of virus-worthy gay dating sites.
In short order, Che finds a dog on the street and we find out they once worked at either a pet shelter or a vet (unclear) and when they bring the stray in, they’re able to get their job back. What a win for our unemployed ex-comedian!
I may have just proclaimed Miranda Not A Lesbian, but she hasn’t gotten there yet herself, and due to people over 50s deep aversion to sexual fluidity of any kind, she needs to find out the answer. To do this, she asks Nya while they wander around a bookstore.
Nya says the logical thing—Miranda has to go explore and test out her options—and Miranda appears delighted. She’s going to DATE!
This venture gets off to an incredible start when Miranda sees a woman named Amelia giving a book talk and falls deeply in love. Amelia is an audiobook voice actor for Jane Austen novels, and Miranda has often felt turned on listening. Now, she gets to meet her in real life!
Confident Miranda of the past is back, and she waits outside for Amelia after her reading and begins to flirt. All goes well, and they have a date arranged for that Thursday, prompting Miranda to declare “now I know! Strong, sexy women are my thing!” because clearly one person a type makes.
I complained about the music last episode, but I can’t help but do it again here. I don’t know what is going on with the amature-Youtube level music, but it’s bad. Distractingly bad.
Herbert and Lisa are ready for Valentine’s Day! He made a reservation at an impossibly hard to get spot, and they’re both delighted. That is, until Herbert Jr. walks in and says that Baxter’s parents got them a reservation at a hotel. This is absolutely not okay with Lisa. She says no, which launches a fight about Lisa embarrassing him at school. To be honest, if he didn’t want to get embarrassed, he shouldn’t have been making out in front of the pick-up line!
Adult Herbert settles the debate by saying Baxter and Herbert Jr can stay at the house. Once their son leaves, Lisa declares that Baxter has no boundaries whatsoever and that she treats Herbert Jr like her property. Adult Herbert does his best to pacify the situation.
While it doesn’t go terribly, it’s not enough to stop Lisa from assuming that Baxter and Herbert Jr will have sex in her bed. In an attempt to catch them, she sets up a “booby trap” in her bedroom before she leaves, perfectly arranging the pillows and taking a photo to see if they are moved out of place.
If you thought Lisa was having a stressful Valentine’s Day, wait until you hear what Seema got up to. The single woman booked massages for herself and Carrie, but when they arrive they find out it’s actually a couple’s massage, as that’s the only type the spa does on February 14th. Rather than accept the couple’s massage or leave the building, Seema proceeds to berate the young woman at the desk for far too long.
The whole thing was incredibly uncomfortable and I hated it and I want better for Seema as a character on this show! She is absolutely the type of woman to have a long term friends with benefits that she goes out to an overly fancy dinner and then hooks up with on Valentine’s Day. That is just who she is! Someone who screams at sales people is not it.
She’s not the only one screaming at underpaid workers. Charlotte is getting her fair share of Karen-ing in as well. Rock has three modeling appointments to squeeze in before Charlotte’s dinner that night. The first of these is at a hip Brooklyn agency, but they’re running multiple hours late. Charlotte goes up and screams at the desk person to let Rock in. When they refuse—because, you know, there’s people in front of them—Charlotte pulls Rock out the door.
Once home, Charlotte is elated by how well the Manhattan agency meetings went. But Rock doesn’t want to model anymore. It lost all of its fun once their mom started being gross. Charlotte is crushed, but doesn’t have much time to dwell on it because Lilly is blasting music in the kitchen with her friends.
On her way out from lecturing her, Charlotte pops a brownie one of Lilly’s friends brought over into her mouth. It’s abundantly clear this brownie has weed in it, and I’m only grateful we didn’t have to wait too long for Charlotte to find out as well.
The very next scene, Charlotte and Harry are waiting to sit at the restaurant when Charlotte starts spiraling. She’s talking a mile a minute and then starts to feel her blood. Of course, they assume she’s having a stroke and call an ambulance.
This scene was frustrating because of the predictability, but the highlight was Charlotte’s line reading: “If I die, let Carrie pick out what I’m buried in!”
Meanwhile, new roommates Nya and Miranda are getting ready for their respective night plans. Nya is cooking an absolutely delicious looking souffle, and Miranda walks out of her room extremely dressed up for her date. She informs Nya that Amelia requested the date be moved from the restaurant to her house, and while this doesn’t deter Miranda, both Nya and I know it’s about to be a disaster.
And we’re right! When Miranda arrives at Amelia’s (incredibly messy) apartment, the other woman is only wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants. When she goes in for a makeout, she accidentally steps in the litterbox. Then, she tries to move things to the bed and realizes she forgot to do laundry, sending her requesting extra quarters and sprinting out the door.
It’s classic Sex and the City hijinks, and while I obviously want Miranda to have hot gay sex, I am enjoying the campy return to true form.
Miranda isn’t the only one being stood up. Carrie arrives at the restaurant at 8:07pm, 7 minutes late, and Aidan still hasn’t arrived. The restaurant is incredibly empty and miserable. Aidan takes so long to arrive that Carrie’s phone dies and she has to ask the waiter to let her plug it in.
While she still doesn’t have Aidan’s new number to contact him, she does have Miranda’s, and she calls her to complain. Miranda has enough to complain about with her date as well, and together they come to the conclusion that Miranda can just simply leave.
Fiery confident Miranda is back, and she walks out of Amelia’s disastrous apartment!
At the hospital, Charlotte finds out that she’s not dying, just high, and she finally puts together that Lilly’s friend brought over weed brownies. Her near death experience also made her realize that she wants to be more than a momager / maid / pimp for Anthony. She’s going to go back to work at the gallery! I’m so excited for her!
At Herbert and Lisa’s, all remains quiet on the pillow front. Clearly, the only answer is that Baxter is onto Lisa, even sneakier than she previously imagined. Herbert and Herbert Jr. are about to be justified when the couple walk into their walk-in closet and see Herbert Jr. and Baxter playing with Lisa’s purses. Lisa is irate. Nobody touches her purses, and she kicks Baxter out immediately.
When Lisa storms out, Herbert Jr turns to his dad for help, but doesn’t find any solace. “Sex is one thing, but your mother’s closet?” he exclaims. “Have you lost your mind?” I must admit, I laughed.
Carrie eventually receives a text from a number she doesn’t recognize. It’s Aidan, texting because over 30 minutes have gone by and Carrie still hasn’t arrived at the restaurant. They both think they’re there, but it turns out they’re at different restaurants on opposite sides of the wall number.
How this happened, especially when Carrie gave the reservation information to the restaurant initially, baffles me. But regardless, they both run out of their respective restaurants and see each other for the first time in years. They hug, and it’s both intimate and beautiful, then head back into the restaurant.
Aidan shares that he was sorry to hear about John, but he wasn’t sure if he should reach out. He read the book, though, and thought it was incredible. Now they’re both single, and it’s clear they both want something to happen.
They want this so much that after dinner, Aidan agrees to go over to Carrie’s apartment. When he gets there and sees it’s the same one she lived in while they dated—the one that he did the floors on and helped her purchase—he can’t go in. There’s too many memories, and so many of them are bad.
Carrie begs, and then comes to understand. Aidan walks away, and my mouth literally dropped open to see that they were going to bring Aidan back for just one episode.
And then he turns around again! And says there’s hotels in the city! And kisses her!
It’s so cute I missed them!
And Just LIke That… Aidan and Carrie were back on the same page.
