‘And Just Like That’ Season 2 Episode 8 Recap: Howards End And A New Beginning

All season long on And Just Like That, fans have had no choice but to discuss and rate episodes of the show based on how cringey they are and/or how true to the original Sex and the City series they felt. This week’s installment provided plenty from column A and column B. There were some high highs, like Seema’s brutally honest confrontation with Carrie (between this moment and the truth bomb Steve dropped on Miranda during their fight, this season is at its best when the characters are allowed to be vulnerable and angry), and Carrie’s shocking realization that Big held her back from everything, including Aidan.

And then there were the low lows, like Aidan’s truly weird “they/them” moment, and Charlotte’s fixation on her belly which culminated in body acceptance only when she encountered a fashion-forward, confident overweight woman. The other low low was more subtle, but I’ll use it to frame the Carrie portion of this recap: Carrie and money. Okay, we’ve always known that Carrie, who was once so broke she referred to herself as the old woman who lived in her shoes, has been bad with money. But now that she’s extremely wealthy, there’s nothing she won’t spend it on! Hotel rooms in the city she actually lives in? Yes! An Airbnb in the city she actually lives in? Also yes! A $47 garlic press? Gotta have fresh garlic in your Airbnb!

With regard to the money thing: We’ve all been talking about how this show is just about incredibly wealthy New Yorkers now, that’s no secret. I also understand that when watching TV shows, it helps to be able to suspend your disbelief about a lot of things. But in this episode, the show was going beyond asking me to suspend my disbelief, it was asking me to be complicit in some kind of uber-rich experiment about how much a person could spend and still not feel it, and damn, I miss old poor Carrie begging Charlotte to loan her $30,000, what can I say?

Let’s start with Carrie and Aidan’s commitment to staying in hotels. I feel like Aidan’s obsession with never stepping foot in Carrie’s apartment is a red flag, no? Sure, the man has baggage about Carrie’s place, but if they were poor, would they… have broken up after Valentine’s Day? Whatever, this isn’t the hill (of gold coins I borrowed from Scrooge McDuck) that I’m gonna die on, it just feels so one-percenty and gross. So when we first encounter Carrie and Aidan, they’re arguing about who will close the curtains in their hotel room, as they have been alternating the responsibility for days. (This scene is the equivalent of calendar pages flipping past, only instead, we hear about all the gloriously sunny mornings they’ve shared and all the $26 omelettes they’ve eaten each day for breakfast.) They talk about visiting Aidan’s home and he regales Carrie with descriptions of his rustic, red brick farmhouse, and this one rascally chicken he has that lays an egg in his son’s bed.

Carrie makes this chicken a key component of her descriptions of Aidan to the girls over brunch, also adding that she Googled images of red brick farmhouses in Norfolk, Virginia to show them, saying that one of the houses even looks like the house from the Merchant & Ivory film Howard’s End. (“If Emma Thompson can commute for Anthony Hopkins, I can commute for Aidan,” is Carrie’s logic about having a long distance relationship.) Somehow, Carrie didn’t realize she Googled photos of red brick farmhouses in Norfolk, England, a detail Seema points out. Seema appears to be the only person who’s not thrilled that Carrie and Aidan are together, and when Carrie says they hope everyone can get together to have dinner when Aidan’s back, Seema flatly responds like she’s returning a work email, “Send me some dates.”

As Carrie tells Miranda how happy she’s been now that shes back with Aidan, she drops two major bombs. One is about how explosive her orgasms with Aidan have been (remember when Carrie was a prude like two episodes ago?), and the other is even more shocking. “Miranda,” Carrie says, “I’ve been asking myself… was Big a big mistake?” Carrie explains to Miranda that she fears she held herself back from Aidan the first time because she wouldn’t let herself “go there” due to the feelings she had for Big. And now she’s fully reconsidering Big’s place in her life!? Miranda has no response, but yes, let’s explore this, this is the fan service I require!

Back to Carrie and her desire to spend all the money. She visits Che at their job to make a proposition: she and Aidan have been spending soooo much money on hotels, that she instead wants to rent out Che’s apartment, which they’ve been Airbnb-ing to strangers, even though Airbnb is against Che’s building policy. Carrie explains this to Aidan, and the fact that Che goes by they/them pronouns, on the elevator to Che’s place, and when they run into a neighbor, Adian stiffly says, “Hello! We are they/them’s cousins!” and I truly have to wonder why this show makes non-binary pronouns such an uncomfortable punchline every chance it gets? This is not a 1993 sitcom with a laugh track, this is a 2023 prestige series that we’re all trying to love and not hate-watch and dammit, Janet, I am struggling.

When Carrie and Aidan notice Che has no silverware or kitchen items in the apartment, they outfit the place with a pepper mill, salad tongs, a Nespresso, and the aforementioned $47 garlic press. Che comes over once they’re notified by the building about a sketchy couple living in their place. (“Management is concerned. It’s a good thing you’re white!” Che says, and that is the funniest and most truthful thing they’ve said all season. Get back on that comedy horse, Che!) Carrie offers Che a beer and opens the bottle on Che’s quartz countertop and I am stunned that anyone would do such a thing, but Che seems not to mind nor ask for a steeper deposit on the apartment. Che watches Carrie and Aidan’s easy relationship and asks, “Why did this not work out the first time?” to which Carrie replies, “Because I made a mistake.” BIG! Big was the mistake! This is some wild revisionist history, but it’s an exciting development.

Sarita Choudhury has been so great as Seema, and this episode finally offers her a Sex and the City rite of passage: the big fight with Carrie. Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha have all had them, and now it’s Seema’s turn. While everyone else has been happy for Carrie’s new relationship, when Seema runs into Carrie at the hair salon, she begrudgingly comes out with the cold hard truth: “I am very happy for you, I am,” Seema says, but then she reminds Carrie they signed up for a Hamptons house together this summer. “I can’t be a third wheel. That’s not the summer I signed up for.” Carrie assures Seema that she’ll love Aidan, and while Seema agrees she probably will, that’s beside the point. She’s not here to be the odd woman out.

Seema asserts herself even more, saying, “I can’t do this summer. That’s not true. I could. But I don’t want to. I don’t want to spend a fortune having this feeling, so I got our deposit back.” Carrie is shocked. “Without talking to me?” she says. “I didn’t want you to lose money,” Seema says. “I’m not worried about losing money!” Carrie says, and ain’t that the truth. In one scene, Seema manages to look out for her own self-interests while pointing out Carrie’s special skill, forgetting about her friends when she has a new love interest, and doing it gently and without drama. Seema begs Carrie for space, and Carrie doesn’t want to give it to her, but the conversation ends on Seema’s terms. Fortunately, Seema only took a brief bit of space, returning to Carrie’s life in time to have dinner with the girls and Aidan.

Over at the York-Goldenblatt’s Charlotte tells her kids and Harry that she’s decided to return to work at a gallery (thanks, pot brownie, for putting Charlotte’s life into perspective!) and they’re incredibly supportive of their mom getting out of the house and having a life of her own. To get into the gallery vibe, Charlotte goes shopping with LTW and finds the perfect Charlotte dress to wear for her first day, but she’s not happy with the way it fits. And so, we all endure a week of Charlotte on a bone broth diet (remember, 2023 prestige series that we’re all trying to love and not hate-watch, why are we watching a grown woman starve herself?), comparing her 50-something body to her 30-year-old body, and debating whether the pink belt on the dress is working.

But when Charlotte finally shows up on her first day, decked out in Spanx upon Spanx, she meets a young gallery worker in a midriff-baring shirt and… she has a belly! And she is bubbly, and kind, and she’s owning her body! And so, Charlotte learns that it’s okay to be less than perfect, and she throws away her Spanx, but not all of her Spanx, because those are expensive and it’s not the shapewear’s fault that society makes us hate our bodies.

Miranda, now interning for the Human Rights Watch and finds herself struggling to accept the fact that the two much younger, much less experienced interns she works with are mad that she gets all the good assignments. Then, her boss there explains that she’s got decades of experience and needs to own it, and makes Miranda her replacement as she goes on maternity leave. It’s a blip of a story, but I’m thrilled I has nothing to do with Miranda’s love life, I think we’ve all decided we need a break from that.

As far as everyone else goes this week, here’s the quick version: LTW has no story (is Herbert even running for Comptroller anymore?!), Seema has to show an apartment to a Marvel director (A European auteur with a neck scarf. Yep, reads Marvel director to me!), Nya isn’t in the episode at all (her mevening has turned into a meave of absence?), and Anthony has been suppressing his feelings for his hot Italian poet-delivery boy Giuseppe, who it turns out is gay and now Anthony is letting Giuseppe give his sourdough a rise.

Now that we’ve addressed all the major plots of the week, I just have one last burning question for you all about this week’s episode. Not so much a question as a confused statement: Garlic chocolate chip cookie?

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.