Warning: This post contains spoilers for Thursday’s And Just Like That.
Seasons change… and so do love lives.
Carrie was still mourning the loss of her husband Big in this week’s And Just Like That…, but a nudge from her book editor led her to go out on a tentative first date with a dashing teacher named Peter, to give her new book a happy ending. The date ended in horrific fashion — they got so drunk, they both threw up in the street — but later, at a charity auction, Carrie ran into Peter again, and they agreed to see each other again. So maybe this isn’t just a stunt for her book after all.
An opening montage let us know that several months have passed since last week’s episode, Julie Rottenberg (who co-wrote this week’s episode with fellow Sex and the City alum Elisa Zuritsky) explains: “Diwali is fall, so we figure we’re finishing out fall, going through winter and arriving at spring. And we thought of [Carrie] sort of coming out of her shell, her writing shell, and reentering the world with her book in the light of spring.”
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As for sending Carrie out on her first post-Big date, “to say there was a lot of discussion about how to get her on that date is an understatement,” Zuritsky admits. Even star Sarah Jessica Parker “voiced an opinion about the way it would happen, or the way she didn’t want it to happen… We really didn’t want any of her friends to be saying, ‘Get out there! It’s time!'” Among the writers, “we really wanted to try to find a sweet spot of: What would be the way Carrie Bradshaw would even consider going on another date? I don’t think any of us were envisioning her as the person who right away doesn’t want to be alone and is in any hurry to go back out into the dating world.”
Originally, Carrie’s date Peter was only going to make a brief appearance on camera, Rottenberg recalls: “It was literally just a pop of him in the restaurant, and he’s gone. He was really just going to be like a write-off.” But “the more we played around with the idea and what horrible thing might happen [on their date], the more we were drawn to him… In some ways, it’s like the worst, most disastrous first date story, and on the other hand, there’s something a little bonding about such an awful first date.” So could we see Peter again down the road? “He might not disappear so quickly,” Rottenberg hints.
Meanwhile, Miranda had her own romantic twist when she reconnected with Che and went straight to the bedroom, even telling them she’s falling in love. (We noticed that Che didn’t exactly return the favor.) Zuritsky doesn’t want to say too much about where this is heading for Miranda, but “you are going to be on that ride with her, and you will see in the end whether she fell too far, too fast.” And to the fans who are mourning the imminent demise of Miranda and Steve’s marriage, “we felt as invested in their relationship as all the fans did,” Rottenberg emphasizes. “We tried very hard to be true to who they are now, and what is organically, even if painfully, happening in their marriage.”
Is Carrie really ready to date? Is Miranda really in love with Che? Drop your thoughts on this week’s developments in a comment below.
