It is all very socially political. I don't know. Sam also mentions that the outfit that she is wearing is marked up since Javier died, and Carrie makes a scathing remark about how you're always more popular after you're dead in New York.
At the funeral, Charlotte and Carrie realize that they are the distasteful ones-- they are the only guests *not* wearing the late designers designs. Charlotte asks to borrow Sam's hat, and Sam tells her to tell people that it was a gift from the designer. I don't know why.. maybe to further distance herself from her. :shrugs:
At the podium, Javier's sister is talking about how tragic it all is, that she is starting an organization to help people with addictions in the fashion industry. Sam starts to applaud, but Carrie stops her, then Sam says that she wants to get involved in the organization in order to pad her PR Rolodex. Sam really doesn't come off as a very nice person in this episode.
As Sam is shamelessly forwarding her PR career with Javier's sister, Charlotte's borrowed hat gets picked up by the wind and she chases it till it lands near a tombstone. A man picks it up and hands it to her.
He says that it's fitting since "she loved hats" and Charlotte surveys the tombstone, the man, asks "your mother?" he says "my wife" and after a heartfelt apology and a pause, she shamelessly asks "kids?" and he says "nope."
I think the timing is sort of funny, with the music and everything, but upon many many viewings, the whole situation just seems so weird and rude. Picking someone up at a grave is just.. a major faux pas. In fact, this whole episode seems to be full of them. Maybe that was the unintended theme.
On the way home from the funeral, the three women are in the back of a limo talking about Charlotte and her pick up. She is rationalizing it, says that it's just a drink, he went to Princeton, and bizarrely relevant "he works at the same block as my gallery"
Sam and Carrie say it's a bad idea. "The dead wife factor" Carrie begins. Sam Continues: "It doesn't matter how much of a bitch she was when she was alive. Now she's dead and you're the bitch who can't live up to her." It is actually astute, I've read many a "dear abby" column featuring this exact scenario.
Charlotte defends the dead 'bitch;' "You shouldn't talk about his wife that way!"
Sam rolls her eyes "See? It's happening already!"
Charlotte continues her defense. She talks about how he was married, and it proves that he can commit, about how going through something so tragic can make him more sensitive and more in touch with his emotions.
Carrie offers her own argument. "It didn't work for big, all that marriage stuff convinced him that he hated committing."
And Charlotte retorts "Carrie, You broke up with him!"
"Oh! So I'm the one with the commitment problem?!"
So now everyone is rolling their eyes.
Miranda, meanwhile, is doing a final walk-through on an apartment that she's purchasing. Her real estate agent is trying to either talk her out of it (such a big apartment for just you!) OR she's trying to set her up with her son. Miranda shuts her up in a very nice way. (I have a lot of shoes)
They share a laugh and Miranda says decisively that she'll take the apartment.
With that, Ms. Miranda Hobbes Esq. AKA "Just me" bought herself her first apartment and promptly took herself out for a drink.
Carrie is being emotional. She's thinking about her future, contemplating how much time she has left. And then she calls Big. It is pretty dumb. This is classic Carrie, whenever she's frightened about her own mortality, she clings to the biggest relationship in her life-- regardless if that relationship is harmful to herself. She does this again in the sixth season with Alexander Petrovsky. Pathetic.
Yeah, I know I'm just bitter. And I know what's going to happen. She's lacks so much forethought it is ridiculous.
When she's pontificating about the future and its uncertainty, she lists several things that are tangible that she could do to make her life better (paint her bathroom, pay off her visa bill, visit Greece) and she does the ONE thing that will hurt her with minimal reward-- Call her ex.
She invites him to dinner.
He decides when and where.
She seems distraught, but slightly excited to have "resuscitated a relationship that had taken 6 months to die"
:rolls eyes:
Sam, the following day, is caught groping someone very important's husband. She's one of those ladies who lunch-- a reference I didn't get until just a few years ago. They are New York Elite women-- I think they even used to be a *real* group of women, though I am not sure if they are anymore, who are very very rich and well off, who don't work, and who (as in this episode) are responsible for the death of many a socialite's social life.
Sam LIVES for her social life, as a PR professional, and one-by-one her social ties are snipped by this woman. She can't even pay for food at a restaurant these ladies who lunch have so much sway in New York.
I don't really *buy* this plot, but it is really interesting to see a tangible consequence for her sleeping with so many married men.
Miranda runs into her own imaginary troubles. I say imaginary because I honestly don't *buy* her plot either. She is filling out her mortgage papers on signing day, checking "single woman" box many many times. (more times than a gynecologist according to Narrator Carrie) as far as I remember, there aren't "single women" boxes on these papers. The attorney who is facilitating the signing of these papers is also needlessly judgemental toward Miranda.. and again, I DON'T BUY THIS. There are legitimate problems that Miranda runs into as a single woman who has a powerful job-- being judged by real estate brokers is not one of them.
Please tell me I'm not crazy though. Is this really a problem that single women run into?
She talks to her friends about it, but "it" is an imaginary problem, so I'll skip that part.
Charlotte makes a very keen observation that actually *is* a problem that single women would run into: "If you own and he rents the "power structure" is all off, it's emasculating."
They criticize her for the observation, and Sam is having her first taste of being black listed in New York (her card is denied by the restaurant and she is told that she isn't welcome here)
Charlotte goes out with the widower. They have a really good time, he invites her out for a meal next time, and Charlotte happily accepts. The ex-wife isn't in the picture, until he opens his wallet and her picture is there. The picture makes her look dead-- like back lights and blue background, and her blond hair. It looks like she's a spirit from the beyond.
The picture inspires Charlotte to tell him that she is so pretty, and then say that it was thoughtless when he asks to get out of here. His face this entire time is so over the top-- it isn't believable and I don't think it's meant to be believable. The picture here is clearly a plot-- as was waiting at his wife's plot. While walking on the street, he starts fake-sobbing-- she thinks this means he's feeling deeply and in touch with his emotions, when clearly he is manipulating her.
"I'm feeling so much right now"
Narrator Carrie says "Those were magic words to Charlotte's ears"
"It's OK, you just take as much time as you need, OK?" and she hugs him. He moves in to kiss her, gently, with a bit of a laugh that is probably supposed to sound like "oh, I'm starting to feel better" but really just sounds predatory.
"Apparently all the time Ned needed was 45 minutes"
The camera pans by what looks like an altar with candles and pictures of the dead wife. creepy.
They have sex with his dead wife's picture on the bedside table watching them. Charlotte seems to think it is all very romantic still, and that she's fucked him back to life.
--
Miranda says in the very next scene "One word: Rebound"
Charlotte: "It's not a rebound when the other person's dead!"
Carrie: "She's got a point
Miranda: "This guy's got project written all over him"
Charlotte: "That's not fair! I'm helping him move on, helping him grieve!"
Carrie: "So, how was the sex?"
Charlotte: "Amazing, it was like Liz was just looking over us, giving us her blessing"
Carrie "a Three-some in absentia!"
Charlotte: "I mean, my hat blew right into her headstone. She was clearly sending a message!"
Miranda: "Yeah: Don't fuck my husband you hat loving bitch!"
Charlotte talks about the memorial service that he invited her to, for Liz the dead wife.
--
Carrie, while prepping for her date with Big, is wondering if a relationship can bring you back to life.
Jesus Carrie!
Carrie asks Big what he thinks happens after death. Carrie thinks that we reincarnate. Big says that's the easy way out. Then flirtatiously asks "what are you gonna come back as?" and Carrie responds, equally flirty "Someone who knows better" Let's ALL fucking hope so.
Big makes a few jokes about how heaven is a big bed and they just say "come on in". >< Reminding everyone what a goofball he really is. And how charming he can be when he turns it on.
They make out in his doorway, she can't accept his invitation. She can't. She realizes what a huge mistake getting back with him would be and she runs away.
--
Miranda is in the process of moving in her stuff to her new apartment. She meets one of the neighbors who overshares with her. apparently the last owner died in the apartment, and it was several weeks before she was found-- her cat ATE half her face. :cringe:
Miranda is rightly freaked out about it. She over feeds her cat, and is eating her own dinner when she starts CHOKING on a piece of chicken!! She ends up having to give herself the Heimlich on a stack of boxes and calls Carrie to commiserate.
Sam begs the queen of the Ladies who Lunch for her social life back. She declines, and tells her that she made her bed, she should lie in it (and you're good at that, aren't you?)
Sam is desperate, and ends up helping build Javier House instead of raise money for it. She is helped by none other than the silhouette of Leonardo DiCaprio who brings her back to social life.
It's kind of funny to me, because this is obviously NOT DiCaprio-- I used to watch Lipstick Jungle a few years ago. It was a kinda hot, kinda fun show based on Candace Bushnell's other terrible novel. In the show, there is an episode where Brooke Shields is meant to get ahold of Leonardo DiCaprio, so that he can save their movie (she's like a bigwig movie producer in that show) and it is clear that DiCaprio doesn't so much as voice act in the episode-- but they drop his name in there like 12 times in 4 minutes. This feels like the same thing. I wonder how difficult it really would have been for them to hire Leo for a 30 second cameo? Cause the silhouette thing is awkward.
Miranda is on the street, walking in her new neighborhood when she freaks out and has a panic attack. She nearly gets hit by a cab, and takes it to the local hospital. While there, Carrie shows up to remind her that it wasn't really serious, and that she should get a grip.
She is freaking out about being alone and almost dying, and never marrying, and her in case of emergency people are her parents whom she doesn't like and who live in Pennsylvania. She says that if she dies, her cat will be happy and Charlotte will be picking men up in the next grave site over. D: Poor Miranda! Carrie consoles her, offers to be her in case of emergency person, and reminds her that she loves her apartment and she shouldn't regret purchasing it. She also says that she won't be alone forever. But Narrator Carrie admits that she doesn't know if any of them will end up alone.
At the graveyard, Charlotte brings lilies to the widower. She watches as 3 other women come out of Limos, asks if they are his sisters. He admits that he doesn't have any sisters. She realized that she wasn't the only woman resuscitating Ned, she hits him several times with the flowers and runs away. She can live under the shadow of a dead woman, but NOT under the shadow of three live ones!
Miranda's problems are compounded when she realizes that instead of "single woman" the attorney had accidentally labeled her as "separated" so she has to write him a letter to get that corrected.
Non-problem is a non-problem.
She decides in the middle of writing the letter to not have a panic attack and so she doesn't.
I'M NOT QUITE SURE IT WORKS THAT WAY.
CARRYING ON.
Someone is knocking on Carrie's door. It's Big. Tired of being screened, he is making sure that she's not dead. He goes to leave after she answers the door, she pulls him back and they fall into each other. They are so good together sometimes. nnnf.
She can't do this though, going to bed with him is a bad idea, so she takes him to the least sexual place she can't think of. The bowling alley. They are playing a game, flirting, and having a really sexy, fun time. Big furthers his guesses on the afterlife: his idea of hell is rented two-tone shoes. ><
The game ends, and Big has won. She asks if they want to play two out of three. Big says "You wanna play a second game? Are you sure you're ready to get killed all over again?" Carrie kisses him, not sure whether he's talking about their relationship or the bowling. Either way, she knew her answer "yep, let's do it." They never made it to the second game. So that's that.
Big and Carrie, reincarnated. This will end well.
:rolls eyes:
You know, I just noticed, besides the last episode of Season 6, this is the only episode where Carrie *doesn't* write in her little laptop an article. I am not even really sure what the overarching theme of the episode WAS, besides Carrie and Miranda's looming death. I guess it has something to do with reincarnation and bringing things and relationships back to life. It isn't very clear. It isn't very good, tbh. The clunky inclusion of silhouette Leonardo DiCaprio and imaginary problem with Miranda's Broker really didn't help.
Some paperwork has a 'single' box. It's not a 'single woman' box, but there IS a 'single' box. There's sometimes 'separated' and 'divorced' too but I just check the 'single' box.
ReplyDeleteAs a single woman in my 30s, I sometimes feel pretty self conscious about it because I feel way out of place around everyone else my age. I was actually listening to a knitting podcast today and the host was talking about a project bag she sewed to her husband and he was just nodding his head about it, and the host says to the audience "You guys all probably experience that too, right?" and I felt like I didn't belong because I don't have an SO. It's little things like that that make me feel out of place as a single woman in my 30s, and I probably identify more with the ladies on SATC now because of that.
That definitely sounds difficult. D:
DeleteI am aware that a lot of forms require one's marital status, but this situation seems way over the top, the broker who was working through the forms with Miranda was visibly annoyed at having to fill in 'single' at every turn and *that* was felt unbelievable. Why should he care? and also, usually they'll ask you *once* if you're married, not on every page. meh.