Carrie is devastated because it means she has to move-- she can't afford to buy her apartment "I just charged for tomatoes." And here the audience gets to finally see the effect of all those impulse shoe purchases have had on Carrie's life.
Well, over the next few episodes.
Aiden doesn't think it's a big deal, because he is in a position to purchase the apartment (and the one next door) and they can move in together and junk.
What if the person next door doesn't move/buys her apartment? no one asks.
"You got a girlfriend, moneybags?" Carrie flirts.
So it's decided.
Well, not quite. Carrie has to faux emotional crisis about it for awhile.
--
In an apartment across town, Charlotte is getting a real prick in the ass. Hormone injections. not what you're hoping for I know.
They've decided to try IVF, and Charlotte is in the middle of an actual emotional crisis. Poor Charlotte. She's also gone and mucked the whole thing up by getting on a list for a "Mandarin baby"-- this makes it sound like somewhere in the middle of Manhattan there's a take-out place that serves, well, unfortunate dishes.
Trey is really super thrown and displeased by this.
Charlotte is just ramming through with her motherhood scheme, without thought to consequence. But I mean, I get it, a little. On the other hand, adoption should probably be something actually discussed before diving in. It's really expensive, and they're already paying for IVF treatments. :/
I'm not super pleased with Charlotte through this whole time in her life, TBH. I want to get it and feel bad for her because I know for most women going through fertility issues is super frustrating and devastating and all that. But she's kinda acting cunty and not at all likable.
She's even lashing out at Miranda for daring to be pregnant right now. Just. Don't do that. Don't be jealous Charlotte. It's not cool, Miranda is about to enter a world of pain.
--
Back to Carrie-- her faux existential crisis is about to get a whole lot more vomity.
While Aiden is singing (badly) in the shower, Carrie is trying to contain his stuff which has somehow gotten everywhere since he unofficially moved in. She spies a very telling black box in among his clothes bag and opens it up to see a really ugly engagement ring.
(At least it wasn't this one!)
And she vomits.
And now for the real emotional crisis. How do you let someone know that you don't want to get married yet or at all?
This is a real serious society-wide issue we have. The way we've structured and think about relationships is one size fits all, and you know what they say about that. I read an article once about how society propels couples forward toward the picket fence goal, and it is difficult to live with it when you don't have that ultimate goal. If you're a bit alternative. Like if you're poly-amorous, or you don't want to get married but want to stay together. Society screams at people that there's an order, a right way of relationshipping, and it can cause serious emotional problems for perpetually single people or long-term together-but-not-marrieds.
And the issues with slowing down or de-escalating relationships without them totally falling apart. It can be a nightmare to navigate. People, man! So complicated.
And it's the theme of today's show. When life upsets and doesn't happen the way it 'should.'
Carrie brings up the potential engagement with the other three.
They have varying opinions.
Charlotte thinks Aiden is perfect and she should forget about her misgivings. "Just say yes! (that's the name of the episode!!!) When it's right you just know." She says.
Sam replies, "Carrie doesn't know!"
"Carrie threw up" Carrie says in third person.
"So it might not be right." Sam is the best person on the show.
Carrie jokes about the timing of the co-op and her impending proposal.
Miranda explains, "If there were unlimited apartments in Manhattan, we'd all be single forever."
Then Charlotte asks the all-important question, "What does the ring look like?"
And then everyone except Miranda throws up because the ring is that bad. Pear shaped diamond, gold band.
Miranda, for some reason, is confused about it: "You wear gold jewelry."
"Yeah, ghetto gold for fun, but this is my engagement ring." Carrie is worried that if he can't even get the ring right, maybe he doesn't know her as well as he should.
"I helped pick the ring." Miranda confesses. And then she complains because of her situation and how not-ideal it was for her, being pregnant and shopping for an engagement ring.
"AT LEAST YOU'RE PREGNANT!" Charlotte is fucking awful here.
"Are you going to yell at me every time I mention it because we've got another 7 months to go." It's like the battle of the overly-hormonal around here. Or should I say ovary-hormonal.
Yes, I definitely should say that.
Carrie tries, "I'll just say I'm not ready to get engaged yet, but I love you and I want to live with you, how does that sound?"
"Like a 'no'" Sam pities.
--
Sam's having her own troubles. I don't want to get into it too much, it's not particularly funny. It ends up with her fucking her boss on a plane to Rio because neither of them want to get married. So, that's fun.
--
Miranda tells Steve that she's pregnant. She doesn't want any help and doesn't care if Steve is involved.
"Then why'd you need to tell me?" He asks.
God, I love those two.
This scene is a complete subversion of expectations from the last episode. It was super important back then for Steve to know about the baby/shmashmortion so he could weigh in. As soon as Miranda decided to keep it, though, it's literally a non-issue. She's doing it for her, not them.
It really is the only logical conclusion to last week's problem. Because he never should have been an element of concern-- it is none of his business. And really, Miranda only told him in this case because of all the pressure from her friends. I mean, it is potentially the right thing to do, but it doesn't have to be.
At least he has the option now to be or not be a father if he wants.
Talk about men's rights, amiright? Is this what all those MRAs really want? For women to be so independent that they can have babies without the men being involved? Guess what that'll take? That's right: feminism. Ha.
--
Carrie takes Aiden out to dinner in order to say yes to moving in. She phrases it in a way that makes it clear she doesn't want to do much more than that, and when she's done he reaches into his jacket pocket with clear malicious intent and Carrie escapes to the bathroom to vomit again.
"What are you doing?!" She asks herself in the mirror.
"Are you talking to me?" Someone answers. lol. it was the woman in the stall. ><
She escapes the bathroom and prepares herself for the worst.
Instead, he pays for dinner and she's off the hook, for now.
--
Trey finally tries to approach Charlotte to get a handle on all these fertility things that are making her spin.
Presently, she's listening to Chinese language tapes.
"You're learning Chinese?" He asks.
"Just in case. I want to be able to speak to the baby." She replies like she hasn't gone off the deep end.
"Wouldn't we teach the baby to speak?" He asks as he presses pause on her tape player.
She then goes on to talk about the baby's culture, and then mucks it up again by thinking about what other people might think if they had a non-caucasian baby. Well, mucks it up for me. The baby would be yours Charlotte, that's what adoption means. Anyone who thinks horrible things about it can suck it.
She tells Trey to remember to pick up his kilt for the fling, I know what she means-- I'm always flinging and wearing kilts. Super relevant.
But Trey doesn't want to fling, he's not in the mood cause they're barren.
Then Charlotte yells at him about how they aren't barren and they need to live! and enjoy life! And not act like typical reproductively challenged people. Oh Char.
He says she should think about going off the hormones.
(oh no he didn't)
He leaves the scene, and she grumpily presses play on the Chinese.
--
Carrie runs into Mr Big while trying to catch a cab. He's in the back of his usual town car, and she's looking extra amazing. This outfit is in my top ten favorite Carrie outfits.
One of these days I might compile my favorite looks. And then my least favorite looks.
Or not.
Big asks about 'country bob' and Carrie says, "you know his name now." "Aiden." He responds, but you can tell he wanted to give him another crappy, undermining nickname.
I hate that.
Carrie talks about how he's going to propose, and Big explains that Carrie's not the marrying kind and it'll never work out.
Fucking rude. And absolutely not his place to say.
Carrie tells him that she's not taking relationship advice from him. Good girl.
At the apartment, she sneaks a peek at the ring again, but it's missing!
She calls Miranda to ask, but Miranda is currently bowing to the porcelain fertility goddess, and doesn't know anything about the ring.
Poor Miranda. I had severe morning sickness for my whole pregnancies and it is the fucking worst.
She sad jokes that it's actually called 'mourning' sickness cause she's mourning the loss of her single life.
OK, but like most people who have children aren't single, but sure.
--
At the fling, Trey's gone off to dance with his kilted kin. Charlotte has gone to gather food when she's approached by Bunny. Trey has gone and told Bunny about the whole Chinese baby adoption scheme, and she is not happy about it. At first, you kind of get the impression that she's against adoption in general, cause of their proud Scottish heritage. I mean they're at a Scottish Highland fling for chrissake, they are proud of their heritage. But then she says, racistly, "I don't enjoy Mandarin food, and I don't enjoy a Mandarin child."
Charlotte is Super pissed. She goes up to her husband, in the middle of the dancing and starts yelling at him about it.
"If we wanna have a Mandarin baby, let's have a Mandarin baby and no one else needs to be involved!"
"Well, then let's not involve the entire Scottish population of New York City shall we?"
"I'm serious! I'm doing all the work!" She shouts, and when she rattles off all the emotional labor she's doing, I almost start to feel bad for her until, "all you have to do is jerk off into a plastic cup!"
"Charlotte get a hold of yourself!" Trey yells back.
"You get a hold of yourself, and try to keep your mother out of it." harrumphs Charlotte, and Trey tries to grab her to pull her back and ends up tearing off a piece of her dress. ooop.
Finally, back at their place, they have a real talk about it. Trey admits that he doesn't want a baby, that the getting pregnant part is far too much work and will take too much time to be sustainable. "I don't want to try. If it's the right thing, it'll happen and if it's not then it won't." He says, crushing her.
Charlotte doesn't want to talk anymore. Her whole life she pictured her life a certain way and he was pulling back, pulling the rug out from under her.
I don't blame him at all to be honest. She would be impossible to live with during this time.
On the other hand, I feel bad for her. :/
This is like the only time he is sensitive to her feelings about it. From now on, he's kind of a nightmare.
--
Carrie goes on a dog walking venture with Aiden and Pete. Aiden is picking up dog shit when he asks her to hold something.
gross.
Well, it isn't shit, it's a ring box.
He opens it and it is a lovely, lovely ring, not at all like the one before.
"omg, it isn't--" Carrie stops herself before she reveals she threw up at the sight of the old ring.
He finishes proposing and Carrie happily says yes and they hug and it's cute. A bad idea. But cute.
--
The next scene is probably one of my favorite scenes of the whole run of the show.
Miranda's doorbell rings. She opens the door, and there on his knees is Steve with the awful engagement ring.
"What are you fucking crazy?!" She shouts.
"That's your answer?" Steve asks with a really funny look on his face.
"Why are you proposing?!" Miranda is still gobsmacked.
"I thought that's what you wanted!" He answers.
"I don't want to marry you Steve."
"Well, I don't wanna marry you either."
He talks about the baby and wanting to be a stand-up father. He doesn't know how to navigate this in a non-traditional way. This show is so ahead of it's time in this way. It's fucking genius.
"That doesn't mean we have to get married," Miranda says, "You're not in love with me, right?"
"No, especially not right now, I'm not." He says.
"Then you need to say that every day because when you see me with this baby you're going to think that we belong together. You're going to think that you're in love with me." She explains.
"I dunno. I've seen you with my dog and mostly you just seem uncomfortable." Steve quips.
They decide that they'll figure the whole thing out. No biggie. Then Miranda admits that she knows that's a hand-me-down ring, "I would never say yes to a hand-me-down ring!"
"Fine, frankly I can't afford a stupid ring or a wedding."
"See? this is working out already." Miranda says as she shuts the door.
--
In the last scene, Carrie goes out with Sam to show her the ring, and talk her down from a ledge. Sam really doesn't want Carrie to get married. But apparently not that much since it was Sam's mischief that got Carrie a beautiful ring.
"So now you want me to get married?" Carrie asks.
"No, but if you're going to ruin all our lives, I'd at least like to look at a nice piece of jewelry," Sam jokes.
She thanks her friend for saving her from a terrible ring, and we all sort of do.
As the episode fades, Carrie calls Sam sleeping with her boss, "a mistake" and it's just a little too rich. Stay in your lane, Carrie.
That's all!
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