If I’m going to call out And Just Like That… when they miss the mark, I have to also admit when they get it right, and honestly, “February 14th” has everything I could want in a Sex and the City-adjacent project. Involuntary pot use, large and unconfined packages that lead to a host of innuendos, bad dates—this episode feels like the original in all the right ways. Of course, it also features the spoiled, yet still long-awaited return of Aidan, but before we get there, let’s start at the beginning. The original trio were really the stars of “February 14th” with side characters Nya, Seema, and LTW once again getting relegated to pretty lame side stories. I mean, Nya bakes a soufflé, really? That’s her whole plotline this episode? And don’t even get me started on Seema, who remains criminally underused. Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte, though, are back to their usual antics, with Charlotte pimping out poets and popping pot brownies, and Miranda exploring her sexuality. Miranda’s final scene at Amelia’s apartment is a reminder of why dating is such an integral part of the SATC universe. It’s in these uncomfortable, laughable dating scenarios that these characters shine, and it’s a pleasure to see Miranda back in that space. With Carrie seemingly on her way back with Aidan and Charlotte thoroughly in love with Harry, it looks like Miranda will remain as the single representative of AJLT, and after this episode, I’m OK with that.
Episode 7: February 14th
Carrie awakens in a sweatshirt that reads, “the most New York you can get” along with a strand of pearls around her neck (which she literally, at one point, clutches). To be fair, a woman in her mid 50s waking up in a full-size bed in her West Village apartment to a response email from her ex-fiancé, the sounds of garbage trucks in the background, is very New York.
But why let your mind wander as you attempt to decipher an ex’s message when you can head to lunch and break down every comma with your gal pals? That’s what Carrie does as she trades out her sweats for an emerald and black sweater with a singular harlequin pattern down the front. Carrie reveals the details to Miranda and Charlotte: Aidan will be in town for a meeting and wants to get dinner Thursday, to which Charlotte immediately points out that he has chosen Valentine’s Day for their reunion.
The trio discusses Aidan’s intentions. Charlotte, dressed in a conspicuous sweater and collared shirt atop a plaid skirt, lays out Aidan’s possible thought processes and lands on the assumption that the date choice means he’s single. Miranda (in a patchwork Rag & Bone sweater, brown pants, and suede boots), meanwhile, considers her own sexuality. She was attracted to Che, who is non-binary, so does that make Miranda gay? Someone of a younger generation might warn Miranda against getting too caught up in labels, but she just wants to find the dating app that works for her.
While we may have to wait about for any answers regarding Miranda’s sexuality, the following scene provides its own revelation—Nya has friends. For two seasons, many have questioned Nya’s relationships with the AJLT core group, but we finally have proof that she has a life outside of her Brooklyn home. Of course, she snubs them for drinks, but hey, what’s the point of having friends if you can’t cancel on them?
It’s time for school pickup, which means Charlotte and Lisa have donned their winter finest to impress a bunch of Manhattan schoolchildren. Now, don’t get me wrong, they look fabulous. Charlotte tops her lunch look with a plaid cape, Gucci leather gloves, Saint Laurent and Tod’s shoulder bag. LTW, meanwhile, brings the color, per usual, in an asymmetric pink Issey Miyake mohair coat with a black leather newsboy cap and yellow leather gloves. She finishes off the ensemble with her now-mandatory Valentino accessory in the form of the One Stud bag, which catches the eye of her son’s handsy girlfriend, Baxter.
Miranda’s breakup with Che may have led many to assume we would be saying goodbye to the controversial comedian. It seems, though, that Che is determined to remain in the lives of, not only Miranda—whom they continue to call—but also Carrie. Che grabs lunch with Carrie at the Lexington Candy Shop and questions whether Miranda is ghosting them (she is). But just as Che begins to unpack their current life struggles to Carrie, a stray dog runs across their feet, possibly startled by Carrie’s mixed prints. Clearly, Carrie is having a plaid moment, as she once again pulls out her purple Vivienne Westwood jacket from episode five, pairing it with a plaid skirt, striped sweater, and studded accessories in the form of a belt and clutch.
Nya heads to the bookstore to search of a soufflé cookbook, because apparently she’s unaware that the Internet exists. (I mean, she’s hip enough to dress in Wales Bonner, but somehow still lacks the ability to Google “chocolate soufflé recipe”?) Miranda, meanwhile, tags along in her own plaid Carrie cosplay, seemingly hoping that the answer to her questions regarding sexuality will be hidden between the “new fiction” and “self help” shelves.
Clearly, though, she has the right idea, as Miranda stumbles upon a reading of Pride & Prejudice by “Audible star” Amelia Casey, a woman with a velvety voice to match her red suit and leather coat.
From one store made obsolete by the Internet to another, we then meet Charlotte in a card shop looking for some last-minute Valentine’s Day treats while helping Anthony with his latest “Hot Fellas” dilemma. Anthony has been asked to go on The Drew Barrymore Show, but all of his hottest fellas were fired for injecting HGH among the baguettes. Thus, Charlotte solicits a hot Italian poet in the middle of the card store—to become a Hot Fella, not to have sex, (which confuses him at first). It’s unclear why he would think this woman, dressed like a Commander’s wife from The Handmaid’s Tale in an Emilia Wickstead dress and Dior Bobby bag, would be trying to pick up a sex worker in a card store. But maybe they do things different in Italy.
Luckily, Charlotte is able to convince Giuseppe to don the Hot Fellas uniform and appear on Drew’s show. Anthony and Drew ogle Giuseppe’s “big basket” as Charlotte does the same at home, while eating yogurt and granola in her bow-adorned Alice + Olivia sweater. What follows is a string of innuendos that likely woke up Drew’s morning audience more than a cup of coffee ever could.
Seema and Carrie head to The Well for some emergency massages, showing off their increasingly opposing styles in the process. Once again, Seema opts for monochrome, wearing all white in knee-high boots, an eyelet pencil skirt, Sofia Cashmere fur-collared coat, and fuzzy little Fendi clutch. Carrie, meanwhile, embraces her inner bohemian in wide-leg jeans, a gray-and-pink striped sweater, leather jacket, plaid scarf, and wool newsboy cap.
Unfortunately, The Well is having a Valentine’s Day special where they only provide couples massages on the special day (seems like a missed opportunity to cater to the single and knotty). Seema fights with the front desk worker as well as the larger cultural obsession with Valentine’s Day (“What holiday? Last I looked, it was Thursday. Banks are open. Mail’s being delivered.”). Don’t worry, though, she’s taking her grievances to Yelp.
But Seema isn’t the only person taking out her frustrations on front desk employees. Charlotte’s stage mom days end before they even begin after an outburst in an outer borough modeling agency leads Rock to ditch the career path altogether. To be fair, Charlotte does go all “Dance Mom vibes”—as Rock put it—on the receptionist, but it’s hard to find a woman in a lace top and black pencil skirt intimidating.
Charlotte drowns her sorrows in a brownie made by Lily’s friends, and thirty to forty minutes later, she starts to “feel” her blood while waiting at a restaurant with Harry for their dinner reservation. Harry (who I would assume took a few edibles in his youth) misdiagnoses Charlotte (who I assume has never touched the drug as there’s no evidence of her smoking in any of the weed-centered SATC episodes) with a stroke. So, the ambulance carts Charlotte away in her pretty metallic Ralph Lauren dress and embellished cropped bomber, announcing her final wish to Harry before she’s taken to the hospital: “If I die, please let Carrie pick out what I’m buried in.”
Lisa, meanwhile, pregames her Valentine’s Day plans by setting a booby-trap in her bed—an attempt to determine whether her son and his boundary-less girlfriend have sex in it. Little does show know, she should have been less nervous about her precious bed and more so about her couture. LTW returns home to find the teenage couple in her closet, trying on the Valentino bag Baxter previously complimented in the school yard. Lisa turns a bit into a toddler on the playground who isn’t willing to share her toys, demanding the return of her property. I have to say, though, I don’t blame her. That easily could have been a gift from Pierpaolo Piccioli himself. Who knows, maybe next Baxter will go after Lisa’s Roland Mouret jumpsuit, Oscar de la Renta earrings, and Paula Rowan gloves.
Miranda, meanwhile, is looking as fine as ever, heading out on her date in a shortened, one-shoulder Halston dress and a green Stella McCartney shoulder bag. She seems excited to get out the door; I would be too, if my roommate wouldn’t stop making lame professor puns while cooking soufflé in a Staud sweater dress. Little does Miranda know, though, she’s about to walk into a human-size litter box, and is far too overdressed for the occasion (granted, wearing anything but a hazmat suit in that apartment would have rendered her unprepared).
And then we return to Carrie, who is heading to her date with Aidan in a blue floral Christian Siriano dress topped with an off-white, hooded, satin coat from Lofty Vintage and Roger Vivier heels. Now, watching this scene, I was a bit disappointed, as the Aidan reveal could have been a big moment, had it not been ruined by the paparazzi months ago. We already know this date must go well (despite the rough start) as the the two hang out many more times according to photographic evidence.
Still, it is nice to see Aidan for the first time, even if he does look a bit like a soldier who just returned home from war in his Belstaff jacket, buckled up to within an inch of its life. And while he cannot bear to enter Carrie’s apartment (an obstacle that may, at some point, prove too large to overcome), at the moment, though many believe Aidan has never been the one for Carrie, it feels right to see them together.
