The return of Aidan Shaw's tighty-whities

Mr. Chatty McNice Guy and Carrie are making moves.

Hello from Delta flight 1683 from ORD (Chicago) to ATL. This is now the fourth plane I have partially written these recaps from. Amidst an incredibly busy work summer, it’s been truly lovely to have this as a creative outlet to help ground myself and my routine, and I appreciate everyone who has read the many (many) words here, shared the posts with a friend, or DM’d me to chat AJLT.

Anyway! Let’s get into season 2, episode 9 of the show! Written by our fave dynamic duo of Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky, and directed by the former, this episode was relatively benign. Carrie and Aidan’s relationship is continuing to go swimmingly, Miranda and Charlotte got up to some hijinks involving their children, and Carrie made a pretty surprising decision regarding her housing situation. In the grand scheme of AJLT episodes, this one wasn’t bad—there certainly weren’t as many laugh-out-loud moments as some other episodes this season, but the cringe was also dialed down quite a bit (thank god).

We open with Carrie reading in Che’s bed (yikes), in a room overlooking the Hudson River. This is your friendly reminder that Che lives in Hudson Yards. If you aren’t a New Yorker, just know that Hudson Yards is one of the newest and least trendiest neighborhoods that developers have forced upon us.

Aidan arrives, exclaiming, “damn that was a long week.” It’s unclear how much time has passed since Carrie left for Virginia at the end of the previous episode, but I’m sure we will find out.

Unfortunately, Aidan is just too damn friendly to be staying in an illegal Airbnb, because he excitedly tells Carrie that the doorman saluted him on his way in.

“We’re supposed to be invisible in this building, not be all Chatty McNice Guy to them,” Carrie tells him.

Aidan tells Carrie that his sons say “hey” to her and asked when she’s coming back; we just completely skipped the awkwardness of Carrie visiting a farmhouse which I’m a little bummed about. But! Props to MPK and crew for keeping Aidan’s sons’ names consistent with what was mentioned in the second movie (which I have still never seen—live reactions coming soon to a Substack near you.)

Carrie, though, tells Aidan that Wyatt seemed a bit skeptical of her, which reminds Aidan that he needs to call his son because he “has a thing about planes.” Naturally, it’s a Facetime call and Wyatt demands to talk to his dad again after Wyatt turns the phone toward Carrie.

It tracks that the only people Aidan talks to on the phone are his kids, his ex-wife, and Carrie

Carrie goes to grab a glass of wine while Aidan assures her not to take Wyatt’s actions personally; he is, after all, only 14.

However, their wine is interrupted by an incredibly aggressive knock at Che’s front door; it’s building management who slip a piece of paper under the door informing them that Che has surpassed the 30-day limit for guests.

Aidan: still a fan of the tighty-whities

Now Carrie and Aidan have no place to stay in the city, as Aidan still refuses to set foot in Perry Street Carrie’s UES brownstone.

Seema’s storyline with the Marvel movie director continues, and this is also where we find out how long it’s been since the previous episode. Seema has spent the past three weeks showing Ravi high-end rentals and he remains unimpressed.

They are currently viewing a unit that is “New York style at its very best,” a $37,000-a-month apartment that has a whole roof deck with a private pool. Ravi proclaims it “eh” and Seema proceeds to call him out for his lack of decisiveness.

“That’s very romantic, I thought you only made action movies,” Seema tells him.

Of course, Seema and Ravi end up getting it on in the bed of the rental they’re viewing—a scene that felt very old-school Samantha Jones (which is just about the highest praise I can give this show) (unfortunately I just still don’t care much about Seema).

Next we meet Brady and Miranda walking around Brooklyn; Brady is telling his mom about his upcoming double shift at Scout, and Miranda of course encourages him to apply for a summer program in Costa Rica. He can practice his Spanish, learn to surf, and pick up some college credits—sounds great to Miranda!

Brady pushes back, using Miranda’s recent life revelations against her. Kid’s got a point.

Cut to Charlotte entering her apartment, tons of bags in tow, on the phone with Miranda. Miranda wants Lily to hang out with Brady and encourage him to go to college.

Famous last words.

Way to be classist, Miranda.

Charlotte arrives in the kitchen asking her family why they have broken the “Grubhub only once a week” rule. (First of all, this is New York and we call it Seamless. This is like calling Duane Reade Walgreens.)

But! Charlotte is late getting home from work and Harry is in the midst of a very important crisis.

Harry is planning a fundraiser for Herbert’s comptroller campaign, which is apparently still happening. (I assume this year is the election year in this universe.) Harry is also incredibly annoyed that Charlotte stayed a whole hour later at work.

Get it together, Goldenblatt.

I’m not sure why Harry got so annoying in this episode; he assured Charlotte he was willing to step up when she went back to work and he’s now crumbling in the face of a non-Kosher caterer. It’s very annoying to see these stereotypical portrayals of gender roles, especially when Harry has otherwise been so supportive this season.

Charlotte takes this opportunity to ask Lily to go to Brooklyn to hang out with Brady. I’m sorry, but did Scout open a second location in Brooklyn that I don’t know about?? The OG Scout was on Mulberry Street in Manhattan, which I vividly remember because Carrie brought a mulberry bush to the bar when she visited for the first time back in 2001.

Additionally, Lily says that she and Brady haven’t hung out since she was 12 and Brady was 14. I find that hard to believe given how close their mothers are, but whatever. However, Brady was born in 2002 in season four of the OG show. Lily’s first appearance was in the show’s season finale in 2004, and she seemed to be 3 or 4 in the 2008 movie. Brady should be 21, not 18. I assume the writers thought high school or high school-adjacent would be more interesting, but come on, it’s not like this information isn’t readily available.

Continuity errors aside, Lily agrees to go tell Brady to go to college, despite how awkward she may feel about it.

Over at the Todd-Wexleys’, Herbert arrives home at 8 p.m. to find Lisa fast asleep at her desk (which, naturally, is in her closet).

Their daughter Gabby apparently just had Lucky Charms for dinner, and Herbert is perturbed. Lisa tells him that PBS wants to make her documentary into a series and she fell asleep because she stayed up until 2 a.m. working on the guest list for Herbert’s fundraiser.

LTW dons her bathrobe and removes her earrings to get ready for bed, much to Herbert’s chagrin. What is wrong with the men in this episode, truly. Unlock your phone and order some food, Herbert.

We are treated to a quick jump scare of Nya having sex with a random from Tinder while Miranda lies awake in the adjacent room. Karen Pittman was filming “The Morning Show” in addition to AJLT and…it shows. Despite Miranda living in her apartment, Nya could not feel more disconnected from the rest of this show.

But, Nya seems to enjoy her one-night stand, and especially enjoys the fact that she can look at her phone guilt-free once they’re done.

The next day, in Hell’s Kitchen, a cute person named Toby arrives at the vet office where Che works, carting a box full of kittens that was left in their building’s mailroom. Unfortunately, Che works at a vet’s office, not an animal shelter, so they direct Toby to a shelter a few blocks away.

However, Toby recognizes Che immediately and asks when they will be doing stand-up again.

Frightening.

Did Che truly just fall off the face of the planet after their pilot tanked? This doesn’t seem realistic if they were a true working comic before the pilot fell into their laps, but what do I know.

Can we please get an Ilana Glazer cameo on this show???

Carrie arrives to her real home on Perry Street the UES and is surprised to be greeted by a kitten.

As a non-cat person, arriving home to this sight is my nightmare.

Che attempts to give Carrie one of the stray kittens, to no avail, while they catch up. Che is working on some jokes because Toby was just too damn cute to not flirt with again.

Carrie begrudging tells Che that, due to Aidan’s friendliness, they now need to leave Che’s place. Che is excited to tell Carrie that they are now making enough at the vet to stay in their Hudson Yards dream apartment and that they were going to kick Carrie and Aidan out soon anyway. All’s well that ends with that sketchy Airbnb agreement.

Che proceeds to ask Carrie what the hell happened in the apartment that is so bad that Aidan won’t even come upstairs.

That’s one passive way to put it.

At dinner, Carrie and Seema introduce Ravi and Aidan to one another; Aidan is over the moon to realize his dinner companion directed one of his and his son’s favorite movies, “Nepal Kapow.”

Carrie is surprised that Seema has brought Ravi to dinner; Seema says “he’s nobody,” but the fact that she brought him to dinner is a clear indication otherwise.

Later that night, Anthony and Giuseppe are walking home from dinner and the latter demands to be brought upstairs to Anthony’s apartment.

Anthony says he likes to take things slowly—perhaps not the best fallback lie after you’ve already made out with someone in your place of business.

(Sidenote: I appreciate Giuseppe calling Anthony “Tony.”)

Something is making Anthony apprehensive about this guy—it’s been 3 weeks!—and I’m sure we’re going to find out what it is soon.

Back at the restaurant, Seema and Carrie visit the ladies room for the time-honored tradition of talking about the men they’ve brought to dinner. Seema insists Ravi is wrong for her while Carrie points out how he can’t take his eyes off Seema.

Seema has spent the last three weeks with Ravi and has seen actresses “sliding into his DMs, not to mention the girls on TikTok,” and we are treated to Sarita Choudhury doing a very compelling TikTok-inspired dance.

“He’s not marriage material,” Seema says, before insisting Carrie change the subject, which I can only assume she was too happy to do. (Our girl likes to bring it back to herself, in case you haven’t noticed.)

Carrie tells Seema that she’s ready, “for real this time” to sell her apartment and move on—but it has to be something truly special.

Naturally, Seema knows just the place, which has coincidentally just come onto the market—but it’s too big for Carrie, she says.

Cut to Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte walking around in awe in a sun-filled pre-war 4BR 3BA apartment in what we later learn is Gramercy Park.

First of all, we need to talk about Miranda’s pantsuit—brava to the costume department!! This is so reminiscent of how Miranda was styled in the early seasons of the show and I LOVE IT.

Charlotte’s dress is demure but still statement-making with the shoulders, and Carrie is wearing a signature flower as a brooch. The fashion in this scene is just…perfection.

Back in the suit and the flower brooch!!

Carrie tells Mirada and Charlotte that, even if this apartment isn’t The One, she will be selling her Perry Street UES apartment. The girls are aghast.

“The man I love won’t set foot in there,” Carrie says. “It’s time.”

Miranda is also ready to move in.

Carrie also mentions that she and Kathy (Aidan’s ex-wife) had coffee in Virginia and it was a positive experience—this relationship with Aidan seems to be moving at lightning speed, even with their shared history.

The girls are interrupted by Kathy calling Carrie; she is going to be in New York next week and wants to get coffee with Carrie.

The next morning, Nya is enjoying a Lazy Sex Morning with her Tinder Random. Unfortunately for Miranda, the only bathroom in Nya’s apartment is off of Nya’s bedroom.

Rather than interrupt (smart move; Nya’s moans were…something), Miranda heads to her family home and is greeted by an unexpected sight.

Lily’s little backwards roll into the bedroom was hilarious.

Miranda immediately calls Charlotte, whose innocence shines through. She knows Lily spent the night at the Hobbes-Brady house and is unconcerned until Miranda tells her the news.

“She texted me that she was sleeping on the couch,” Charlotte insists.

Later that day, Charlotte and Miranda debrief while in line at Chipotle (thoughts and prayers to the poor guy serving them). Charlotte, in particular, is in disbelief that their offspring have boned, which, fair. Miranda, who saw Lily sans pants and with a very guilty expression on her face, is not as naïve.

Charlotte continues to insist they couldn’t have hooked up.

It starts to get personal when Charlotte tells Miranda that Brady isn’t even Lily’s type (which Charlotte quickly has to backtrack).

That night, Charlotte engages in an Exceptionally Charlotte venting session while Harry is laser-focused on Herbert’s fundraiser.

(Side note: don’t pigs-in-a-blanket contain Hebrew National hot dogs, which are kosher? Sigh.) Charlotte goes down a rabbit hole in which she has to take Lily’s side in the inevitable Lily/Brady breakup, which could make things awkward for her and Miranda.

Naturally, Charlotte then realizes Lily and Brady could potentially get married.

This felt weird.

Kristin Davis some of her best work as Charlotte here, exclaiming how cute Lily and Brady’s hypothetical children would be, before realizing that Lily would have Miranda as a mother-in-law.

Harry basically actively ignores Charlotte, so focused is he on his party-planning. I miss the Harry from three episodes ago.

It’s fundraiser time! The York-Goldenblatt apartment is full of the rich assholes who secretly control our city and country thanks to Citizens United.

Herbert chats briefly with the Hoffmans, who are the source of Harry’s Kosher caterer dilemma.

Miranda arrives with Brady in tow, causing Charlotte to freak out a bit.

“Are you here to see Lily, or Rock? Or Lily and Rock?,” she asks in a panic. Brady keeps it cool, telling his Aunt Charlotte that he knows his way around and leaving the adults o freak out.

“There is other reason he’d ever agree to come to this thing with me,” Miranda tells Carrie and Charlotte, seemingly confirming that Brady and Lily are “doing it.” Miranda and Charlotte begrudgingly fill Carrie in.

Victor Garber arrives, telling Charlotte he used to date a woman who lived in this building. It seems Victor’s Mark Kasabian’s only personality trait is being a gross womanizer.

We quickly cut to Nya’s bed (where she has been for the entirety of this episode); she is still there with the Tinder Random, and while they are enjoying a post-coital scroll sesh, Nya stumbles upon an Instagram update from her ex-husband Andre. Hat Girl is pregnant, and Andre is cradling her belly.

“You should go now,” Nya tells Tinder Random.

“Another time soon then?” he asks. “Whatever,” Nya tells him.

I feel as bad for Nya as one can feel without really knowing her as a character; because Karen Pittman has so rarely interacted with the other actresses, this is a tricky story. I hope the writers are able to close the loop for her because she is basically just Miranda’s horny roommate at the moment.

Back at the York-Goldenblatt home, Carrie runs into Anthony and tells him how excited she is to meet Giuseppe. Unfortunately, we learn why Anthony has been so reticent to consummate their relationship.

This is a classic SATC misunderstanding that could easily be solved by a conversation. Instead, Anthony gives Giuseppe some sass and wanders off, leaving Carrie and Giuseppe to awkwardly admire the dramatically hung oil paintings of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. I’m glad there was a little homage to Elizabeth Taylor in this season.

A glorious example of Charlotte’s quirkiness.

Next we’re treated to Harry freaking the fuck out on Charlotte because Victor Garber has made an appearance. Harry is convinced that Victor has the hots for Charlotte, and cites such evidence as Charlotte staying at work until *checks notes* 7:30. I’m not sure why the writers went this route for Harry; “frazzled husband after wife goes back to work” is such a tired trope and it feels off-brand for Harry and Charlotte, who have had the most stable relationship of the season. Perhaps they’re showing us no relationship is perfect, but just let Harry make his dad jokes and tell Charlotte how hot she is and roll his eyes at Lily’s original music!

Carrie somehow finds herself talking to Victor Garber, who is telling her all about his wife’s (coffee table, I assume) book about bikinis. He asks Carrie if she’s ever been married, and then asks if her divorce was as classically bad as all of his.

SJP does some great work in this scene. “It was a wonderful marriage to a wonderful man. It ended…far too soon,” she tells Victor.

In last week’s episode, Carrie admitted to Aidan, Miranda, and (inexplicably) Che that she may have made a mistake marrying Big. Now, she is telling someone she just met how wonderful her marriage to him was. Both things can be true, of course, but I would have loved some discourse between our ladies about this, versus Carrie acknowledging how great her marriage was to a virtual stranger. Not to keep making the same point, but Carrie’s narration is sorely missed on this show; we are flailing through these storylines and narration would help ground things and set a more consistent tone.

In the kitchen, Charlotte and Miranda are spying on their children, attempting to discern meaning behind their every move. Naturally, they are not subtle.

After a few minutes of this, Brady catches Miranda’s eye and she and Charlotte have to scurry away. A nice bit of comic relief before we are jerked back to LTW, asleep, once again, in her closet.

Herbert is pissed at Lisa’s lateness and makes it very clear. How late is she? Guests are already starting to leave and Herbert hasn’t made his remarks yet.

Giuseppe finally corners Anthony and forces him to tell him what’s wrong. Of course, Anthony has watched a lot of “90 Day Fiancée” and he has some words for Giuseppe!

Luckily, Giuseppe has no need for a green card and no, as of yet, ulterior motive for being with Anthony. All’s well that ends well there.

Back to Charlotte and Miranda—they are still snooping on their kids, and now think that Lily and Brady are getting it on in Lily’s (and Rock’s) bedroom. They debate barging into the room to catch them for a few minutes. Once they get up the courage to do so, they find no one in the room, but—Anthony and Giuseppe are behind the door! Another classic gag.

As Charlotte and Miranda head back into the party, the front door opens and who should appear but Lily and Brady carrying a pizza pie. The ladies are relieved that they weren’t having sex; “whatever happened, they seem fine!” Charlotte exclaims.

After all of the drama, Charlotte mellows out—I like this for her. I’m glad she is a sex-positive mom after her WASPy upbringing.

Now that that commotion has died down, LTW arrives! She apologizes to Herbert for being late, who continues to be kind of a dick to her.

Lisa keeps insisting she’s not being passive-aggressive, but she doesn’t want to get into a whole conversation at this exact moment. Herbert kinda forces her hand, though, and then she reveals the real reason she’s been falling asleep all over the place.

Herbert is speechless, both literally and figuratively (we never see him give his speech).

I assume the story was supposed to provide some comic relief. OK.

The next day, or later that week, or whenever, Carrie arrives at a coffeeshop to meet with Kathy, Aidan’s ex-wife. And who should be playing Kathy but Rosemarie Dewitt, who is married to Ron Livingston, aka Berger, IRL! Rosemarie also guest-starred as Miranda’s coworker in a season 6 episode of the OG SATC. I’m sorry, I can’t hate these little Easter eggs the casting department is giving us. Don’t hate me.

Anyway.

Carrie looks absolutely fabulous in a full-skirted green dress and bomber coat with her hair straightened. The two exchange some pleasantries about how Aidan is always late before getting down to business.

Kathy asks Carrie not to use her and Aidan’s sons as material in her writing—a very fair request imo. Carrie seems to think so as well, as she immediately agrees.

She also tells Kathy that she has been thinking about the kids, and is in the process of buying a bigger apartment so they can visit New York if and when they’d like to. Kathy seems positive about that, but then takes a deep breath and boldly tells Carrie that she can’t hurt Aidan again.

“I know,” Carrie responds.

I wasn’t sure how this scene was going to play out, but overall it felt very positive to me. I can understand Kathy’s apprehension about Carrie, but she was very respectful toward her and obviously has the best interests of her sons at heart.

An unspecified amount of time later, Carrie is now wearing a beautiful pink floral dress with a beret (classic Carrie!) while showing off her new place to Aidan. It is right on Gramercy Park, and it’s a beauty.

The Reddit sleuths have decided that this is 3 Gramercy Park West.

In case anyone is curious, the penthouse is worth $5M.

Carrie tells him there’s plenty of room for Aidan and his sons, and that she’s going to sell her old apartment.

They have a heart-to-heart; Aidan tells Carrie not to give up her old apartment for him (a big of a red flag, no?). Carrie reveals what Kathy told her, and Aidan tells Carrie that they’re both going to hurt each other—but they’ll work through it.

This was a lovely conversation—but it all feels a bit too easy. I can’t help but think that Carrie is going to need her old apartment back. The whole reunion with Aidan has been smooth sailing, even with his ex-wife and kids involved. With only two episodes left, I have to assume the writers are saving a curveball for us.

Carrie arrives back to Perry Street the UES and finds her neighbor Lisette in a tizzy—the owners of her apartment are moving back to the city and kicking her out. I think we can all see where this is going; Lisette is going to wind up moving into Carrie’s place. I almost felt like the writers were setting us up for a spin-off—“Lisette in the City”—but does anyone really want that? We’ve had approximately 4 minutes of Lisette screentime. (Until about 2 minutes ago, I thought her name was Celeste until I fact-checked myself.)

And just like that, Carrie calls Seema to make an offer for the Gramercy Park penthouse before entering her building for what is definitely not the last time, but feels very definitive.

With two episodes left, how is everyone feeling? Are we finally going to get an abortion scene in this universe or will LTW and Herbert have another baby in (I assume) their 50s? Are Carrie and Aidan moving too quickly? Will Lily and Brady hook up again? I would love to continue to see Miranda at work with the Gen-Zs who hate her, and I do hope they give Nya some sort of resolution that involves the rest of the cast, otherwise, why even include her this season?