This And Just Like That review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors who are currently on strike, tv series like this one would not be possible, and Autostraddle is grateful for the artists who do this work. This And Just Like That recap contains spoilers for season two, episode seven, “February 14th.”
Well, it’s Valentine’s Day and Cupid’s shooting poison arrows! By which I mean: Aidan Shaw’s in town and he wants to go to dinner with Carrie. Charlotte sees this reunion date as a sign, because if Aidan’s free on Valentine’s Day, it means he doesn’t have a girlfriend, right? This could be the start of something new and real for Carrie! Well, I mean not new, but a second chance at love! Or, like, a third chance? Carrie and Aidan’s second chance was more toxic than an arsenic sandwich with asbestos pickles on top.
Honestly, who even knows? Based on our experiences with Aidan of Ages Past — the Green Hornet, as he so passive-aggressively referred to himself — he could be punishing his current girlfriend by taking Carrie out on Valentine’s Day. Or maybe he heard Carrie started smoking again after her husband died and he wanted to meet up to SLAP ANOTHER NICOTINE PATCH ON HER ARM. Maybe he’s just hungry and passing the time while he awaits the next panel at Abortion CopCon. Maybe he’s still into springing surprise wedding demands on unsuspecting women, so “the whole world will know you’re mine,” and Carrie seems like a perfect second-chance candidate for his Nice Guy™️ Plans. God, I really hate this motherfucker. And when it appears that he has stood Carrie up for dinner, I am ready to reach through the TV and absolutely strangle him.
But! It turns out they’re in different restaurants, right next door to each other. (I guess they’re in the part of NYC where restaurants are nameless?) The dinner is crackling with all their old chemistry and Carrie decides to keep it going by asking Aidan to come home with her. When they arrive at that home, the one that Aidan bought “for” Carrie and then forced her to purchase within 30 days after they broke up, he realizes there’s too many old hurts and memories for him to go up there and have sex. So he asks her to go to a hotel instead, and she agrees. At least he has kids in Virginia so he’ll be out of here soon enough. There’s no way Carrie’s moving to Virginia, or anywhere near some kids that aren’t Rock and Lily.
It was whatever to see you again Aidan. Toodles. I SAID TOODLES.
Miranda’s also got Valentine’s Day hopes and dreams. Not with Che. No, Che’s busy rescuing lost pets. (Finally, me and them have something in common besides owning a lot of suits!) And certainly not with Steve, who’s probably at home right now doing a bunch of crunches and push-ups. No, Miranda’s got Valentine’s Day plans with DIANA TROUT from Younger, who also happens to be the voice of the Jane Austen audiobooks Miranda loves. Miranda stumbles upon her when she’s in the bookstore with Dr. Nya trying to figure out how to label her sexuality. Is she bi? Pan? Che was nonbinary, so does that mean Miranda can’t label herself as a lesbian? Are lesbians still only women/women couples, or has that evolved? How is she ever going to pick out which queer flag sticker to put on her water bottle if she doesn’t know what label to use! This spiraling Miranda is the one I know and love. Welcome home, Pop-Tart.
At first, Diana and Miranda make plans for their first date at a nice restaurant on Valentine’s Day (that’s lesbian behavior, Miranda, just FYI), but Diana swerves at the last minute because she’s running behind on a work deadline. She invites Miranda over to her place, which honestly makes Miranda even giddier. Unfortunately Diana Trout has clearly been overtaken by some kind of alien or something because, when Miranda arrives, she’s in sweats and her apartment is a frat boy hell. Unwashed flannel sheets, unclean cat litter box, garbage everywhere. Diana takes off to the bodega to get quarters to wash her (one set??) of sheets, and Miranda decides to make a getaway. She’s spent the last several months sleeping on a broken IKEA couch and she cannot keep living like this! Surely there are middle age lesbians in NYC who have fresh sheets on beds without ex-husbands in them?!? Miranda hopes so, at least.
Charlotte and Lisa Todd Wexley’s kids try very hard to ruin their mothers’ Valentine’s Days. Herbert has scored some really nice dinner reservations, but LTW is reluctant to go and leave her son and his girlfriend home alone. First, she spotted Baxter very nearly giving Herbert Jr. a handie in the school courtyard. And then Baxter’s parents booked them a hotel room for Valentine’s Day. LTW says she can’t go to a fancy dinner because if she does Baxter and Herbert Jr. will have sex on her bed and then she’ll have to kill them. LTW “booty traps” her room by fluffing the pillows just so and taking a photo to document any disturbances, but what she finds when she returns home is so much worse. Baxter is in her closet, taking photos with her designer bags! THE AUDACITY! LTW kicks her out so fast.
After a week of running herself ragged to push forward Rock’s new modeling career and Instagram presence, and getting the house ready for Lily’s anti-boy V-Day party, and helping Anthony find a wholesome Hot Fella to go on the Drew Barrymore Show, Charlotte is worn the heck out. She grabs a brownie from one of Lily’s friends before she and Harry head out for their romantic night on the town — and, of course, it’s a pot brownie and Charlotte gets absolutely high as hell and thinks she’s having a stroke. Once again, Kristin Davis steals the show with her humor, yelling from the back of the ambulance that Carrie should be the one to pick out her funeral outfit if she dies. Also she and Harry can’t stop hollering about how much they love each other. It’s so sweet and ridiculous. These two clowns have quickly become my favorite straight couple on TV. At the ER, the doc tells Charlotte she’s just stoned out of her mind, and Charlotte uses the mental freedom to share with Harry that she wants to start working again because she’s not exactly fulfilled being Rock’s social media manager. Harry’s surprised but supportive because of course he is.
I wonder who the next Younger guest star is gonna be on And Just Like That? Lord, let it be Laura Benanti. And if it’s not, Lord, at least let Aidan Shaw get hit by a cement truck. Amen.
