And Just Like That Season 2 Finale Recap: A Farewell Dinner Leads to a Surprising Goodbye — Plus, Grade It!
And Just Like That… wrapped up its sophomore season with a farewell feast, a hello from an old friend — and a goodbye to a key relationship.
As Thursday’s finale opens, Carrie is leaving a message for Aidan while he’s in Virginia taking care of his son Wyatt when she gets a call from… Miss Samantha Jones! (Kim Cattrall looks just as fabulous as we remember.) Samantha wanted to surprise Carrie by showing up to her farewell dinner, but her flight got delayed, so she has to stay in London. She has Carrie put her on speaker, though, to say goodbye to the old apartment — and she even has a bit of a British accent now? She and Carrie say a warm goodbye, and it’s just so nice to see these two talking again. Plus, how cute is that fuzzy kitten that Carrie has adopted?
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Charlotte wakes up hung over, not even remembering that she tossed her phone into a margarita blender, and Harry whines to her: “I can’t do it all, Charlotte!” She sternly reminds him that he’s only doing “the bare minimum” of what all women are expected to do, and she needs his help because she loves her job and wants to keep doing it. (We’re kind of loving this newly empowered Charlotte.) Plus, Miranda drops by Steve’s Coney Island food booth, where she tells him she doesn’t want to just be in his past, but “in your present, and maybe in your future.” (As friends, of course.) She adds that he was right about the Brooklyn townhouse and about becoming parents: “The only thing you weren’t right about was us.” But he stops her right there: “No… I was right about us for a very long time.” Aw… Steve, you’re the best.
Nya learns she got elected to the prestigious American Law Institute, but she confesses to Miranda that she instinctively picked up her phone to share the news with Andre… before remembering he’s off having a baby with Hat Girl. Miranda reminds her “this is the life you wanted,” but Nya notes: “Except no man to share it with.” She doesn’t even want to go to Carrie’s dinner, but Miranda convinces her to go for the food — and hey, it turns out the Michelin chef is Toussaint, the guy played by CSI‘s Gary Dourdan who chatted up Nya at a bar in the season premiere. As people arrive at Carrie’s apartment for the dinner, Lisa breaks the tough news to Charlotte about her miscarriage, and Che admits to Lisette that they’re going through an emotional transition: “The old me is f–ked, and the new me’s not here yet.”
Che and Miranda call a truce, with Che vowing not to talk about their relationship on stage again and Miranda apologizing for ghosting them after the breakup. “Us? What was all that?” Miranda marvels. Che calls it “a trainwreck,” but they both decide it was “a good trainwreck” because at least it got them to where they needed to be. Seema is annoyed with Ravi taking phone calls about work, and Carrie warns her not to push him away, while Giuseppe drops a bomb on Anthony that he’s considering going back to Rome next month because he’s finding the New York literary scene — and other things — “impenetrable.” (Ahem.) When he says Anthony won’t let him in emotionally, Anthony admits he’s only been in love once before… and Giuseppe is surprised to hear him use the L-word.
Carrie introduces everyone to her tiny kitty (named Shoe!), but her baby talk triggers Lisa, who runs to the bathroom and wonders to Herbert: “Did I wish the baby away?” She’s wracked with guilt, but he reassures her that “it wasn’t meant to be.” Soon, dinner is served, and Nya is exchanging saucy innuendo with chef Toussaint. Carrie asks everyone at the table to name something they want to let go of in one word, and Seema says “distrust” while Miranda says “guilt” and Charlotte says “limits.” Carrie’s word: “expectations,” explaining that she doesn’t want to assume “things will go the way we think they should,” “because we never know what tomorrow will bring.”
Yeah, about that: After dinner, Miranda gets called in to do a last-minute TV interview with the BBC (where she reconnects with that woman Joy), Toussaint offers to take Nya home and Ravi tells Seema he needs to go to Cairo for five months for filming — but she turns down his invitation to join her. As Carrie is cleaning up, she hears pebbles being thrown at her window. It’s Aidan, who came back from Virginia — and actually sets foot in Carrie’s apartment! She notices he didn’t bring any luggage with him, and he sits her down to talk. He’s going back to Virginia to take care of Wyatt, and he’s staying there: “I don’t think I can come back up.” Wyatt had magic mushrooms in his system, too, and Aidan decides: “He needs a lot of watching, that one.” He’s always been the rock for his sons, and he needs to be that right now.
Carrie is stunned: “I can’t believe we’re back here again.” Aidan insists this isn’t the same as the other times they split up, though: “I won’t lose you again.” He asks her to give him until Wyatt is out of his teens, or another five years, since he’s about to turn 15. Since they already waited 20 years to get back together, what’s five more? He even snaps his fingers to show how quick it’ll be, and Carrie remembers that she wanted to let go of expectations. They have (a lot of) goodbye sex, and the next morning, as Aidan walks out of her new place, she tells him: “No matter what happens… this was not a mistake.” He assures her that “nothing’s gonna happen,” and as he leaves, he puts up his fingers as if to snap them.
As Season 2 draws to a close, Charlotte and Harry struggle to set up her new iPhone, Miranda has drinks with Joy, Anthony and Giuseppe reach (um) a new level of intimacy, Che shares a kiss with Toby, Nya invites Toussaint into her apartment, Seema and Ravi have athletic sex and Lisa and Herbert cuddle tenderly in bed. Carrie gets a call from Seema saying that since they’re both without their men, she got them a place on the beach — not in the Hamptons, but in Greece. The two friends bask in the Mediterranean sun, and when Seema asks, “What if they never come back?” Carrie answers: “There’ll be more.” She means cocktails, though, not men.
Now it’s your turn: Give the finale a grade in our poll, and then hit the comments to talk Samantha, Carrie and Aidan or anything else from this episode.
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