WARNING: Major spoilers ahead for And Just Like That season 3, episode 12, “Party of One”.
It’s official — the epic saga of Carrie Bradshaw has reached its conclusion with theAnd Just Like Thatseries finale. In a surprise announcement on August 1st, showrunner Michael Patrick King announced thatAnd Just Like Thatseason 3 will be the show’s last, ending with a two-part finale.
In season 3’s 12th and final episode, “Party of One,” Miranda sees her perfect Thanksgiving party fall apart as almosteveryAnd Just Like Thatmain characterbacks out. Anthony needs to tell Giuseppe his feelings about their engagement; Seema is meeting Adam’s family, and they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving; Charlotte and LTW both want quiet family dinners after tumultuous years.
That leaves Carrie Bradshaw. AfterCarrie’s fling with Duncanfizzled out and her book editor demands she give her novel’s protagonist a “happy” (akapartnered) epilogue, our heroine realizes that living a solitary life may just be her happily ever after, after all. TheSex and the Citysequel series was definitely polarizing, but that ending is fabulous, and deserves unpacking.
Carrie Bradshaw Is Not Alone — She’s On Her Own
“Party of One” is an apt title forAnd Just Like That’s series finale, as Carrie kicks off the episode by going for a solo meal at a restaurant with robot servers, only for a (human) staff member to plunk a boy doll across from her so she won’t have to eat alone. In other words, echoing her editor’s sentiments that being alone istragic.
This is a concept that Carrie has been grappling with for almost 30 years, sinceSex and the Cityfirst premiered. The key difference, as Carrie explains to Charlotte, is that 30-something Carrie thought she would end up with a man, while 50-something her is realizing that her ending might be “just me.”
It’s an emotional thing to realize our lives may end up totally differently from how we saw them, and Carrie is indeed teary about it. But throughoutAnd Just Like Thatseason 3,Carrie learned through her dysfunctional relationship with Aidan that romantic love isn’t always enough, and that she deserves everything — even if she’s the one to give it to herself.
So, Carrie Bradshaw isn’t destined to grow old with Big or live in a Gramercy palace with Aidan and his kids or become a literary power couple with Duncan — but alone, she is not. If she were, she wouldn’t be spending her entire Thanksgiving afternoon delivering pies to all her friends. Carrie is the glue that holds everyone together.
That’s why it’s telling that she is the only member of theAnd Just Like Thatfriend groupwho attends Miranda’s disastrous Thanksgiving dinner. Carrie’s grown so much from the sometimes-bad friend she once was inSex and the Citybecause even if she had a man in her life, she would have been there.
In fact, Carrie’s only grievance with the dinner is Charlotte’s attempt to set her up with Mark. It’s not just that Carrie isn’t attracted to Mark — it’s that through the course of her epic journey that we started with her in 1998,Carrie has realized that she is genuinely happy on her own.
InAnd Just Like That’s final moments, we see Carrie not with a man or her girlfriends, but at a very familiar place — her laptop. It’s there that she rewrites the epilogue for her novel’s heroine to mirror her own, and where she embraces the message of not justAnd Just Like ThatbutSex and the Citytoo, that the most fabulous relationship of all is the one you have with yourself.
Miranda’s Sh***y Thanksgiving Dinner Explained
After two seasons of floundering, Miranda is finally living her best life inAnd Just Like Thatseason 3, living in a chic new apartment and enjoying a sparkly new relationship with Joy, and she wants to throw a huge Thanksgiving feast to celebrate. Sadly, it quite literally goes to s**t.
This dinner was supposed to mirror the swanky soiree Carrie threw at her old apartment in theAnd Just Like Thatseason 2 finale. But with all the cancellations, Miranda wound up with Carrie, Mark, Brady, the mother of Brady’s unborn child, Mia, and Mia’s two friends, Silvio and Epcot — his parents were “Disney freaks.”
Things go from bad to worse for this motley crew, and the evening’s festivities are capped off by a raw turkey and Epcot’s early-established cheese intolerance causing the toilet to overflow. It is easily the biggest gross-out scene in the entire history of theSex and the Cityfranchise.
This scene will likely cause a lot of online fist-shaking at those vexed byhowAnd Just Like Thathas treated Miranda. Here is a once badass lawyer and the voice ofSex and the City’s audience, reduced to humiliating storylines and horrible love interests, from the villified Che Diaz to a clingy nun. Now, in theAnd Just Like Thatfinale, she’s on the ground mopping up poop.
That’s not an unfair assessment. But Miranda has stealthily been proving her badassery all throughoutAnd Just Like Thatseason 3, constantly proving that she’s still the maturest of the characters. What would have once been big blowups with Carrie are calm discussions. While Steve rages at Brady for impregnating Mia, Miranda keeps her cool, even when she’s freaking out inside.
The show has also finallygiven Miranda a love interest she deserves in Joy. They truly have one of the healthiest relationships inAnd Just Like That, with Miranda able to boldly be honest with Joy about her alcoholism, and dropping everything — including her precious Thanksgiving dinner to be with Joy when her dog has an emergency.
Life is a matter of perspective, and it’s easy to think Miranda had one of the worstAnd Just Like Thatendings. But she’s not crying over her destroyed bathroom floor or becoming a grandmother to her hapless 20-year-old’s baby. Instead, she’s enjoying a piece of pie with the love of her life, and on top of the world. And that’s what our Miranda deserves.
The And Just Like That Women Are Far From Blushing Brides
It would be a disservice to Carrie Bradshaw and her friends if theAnd Just Like Thatfinale didn’t feature a glamorous event, and with its fancy bridal fashion show, it sure doesn’t disappoint. Carrie, Charlotte, Seema, and LTW attend, and while they admire the beautiful gowns, they discuss their thoughts on marriage — a core theme inAnd Just Like ThatandSex and the City.
While Carrie shares that she wanted to get married because she felt she was “chosen,” she ultimately lends more of an ear to Seema, who voices her concerns about her relationship with Adam. In the scene prior, Adam vehemently shut down the idea of marriage. His free-spirited mother, with whom he was very close, never married, and to him, it’s just a piece of paper.
This rattles Seema, who had grown up thinking she would get married, a dream she’s carried into adulthood. Yet, she isn’t heartbroken by Adam’s firm stance. Instead, she examines who she is, how far she’s come, and what she has with Adam. Her fairytale ending with him may look different, but it’s still a happily ever after. (It also helps that Adam later reassures Carrie — and us — how committed he is to Seema.)
While Seema is examining the future and Carrie the past, Charlotte and LTW are living the sometimes-unromantic present of long-term marriages.LTW has had to babysit Herbert’s emotionsall season long, putting herself second because of it, while Harry’s prostate cancer surgery has rendered his and Charlotte’s sex life non-existent.
Both theirAnd Just Like Thatseason 3 storylines, like Miranda’s, have been frustrating, especially withCharlotte being reduced to a caricatureat times. But their mutual confession that, knowing what they do about marriage, they’d do it all over again, is revealing. Ultimately,And Just Like Thatdidn’t really know what to do with them because they’re so happy.
The Real Meaning Of And Just Like That’s Ending
ManySex and the Cityfans bemoaned the dour noteAnd Just Like Thatpremiered with Big’s death, but it’s fitting that the series started with grief, because the real meaning of its ending is acceptance. To be clear, this does not mean accepting less than you deserve — if so, Carrie would still be with Aidan. It means accepting life’s twists and turns and celebrating the beauty of them.
In the show’s closing montage, Miranda’s ridiculous karaoke machine makes a triumphant return as Carrie, home from Thanksgiving, puts on Barry White’s “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything,” and we see the wonderful waysAnd Just Like That’s characters have embraced acceptance.
Anthony is anOGSex and the Citycharacter who got a ridiculousAnd Just Like Thatstoryline, so it’s fitting that his end sees Giuseppe pie him in the face. But the scene ultimately shows Anthony’s acceptance that yes, having a younger partner may mean dealing with some juvenile behavior, but at the end of the day, there’s still real love between them.
It was a sweet moment when Charlotte and Harry immediately changed their Thanksgiving plans because they were finally able to make love for the first time in months, made all the more romantic by Charlotte having already accepted that that might not be possible.
The montage shows more of her acceptance when she tells Rock she deleted the photos of them dressed as a beautiful girl in the school play. The previous episode had seen Charlotte struggle with getting a glimpse at the child she thought she’d have, but she will always be a loving mother first, and celebrate the kid she has.
A hilarious scene earlier in the series finale showed LTW not only accept her work crush on Marion but bluntly shut it down. Meanwhile, her re-accepting Herbert in good times and in bad woke him up to the fact that they have a wonderful life, and he finally shows Lisa appreciation by volunteering to clean up Thanksgiving dinner.
Miranda and Seema’s lives couldn’t have turned out differently from what they expected, with the former a sober soon-to-be grandma and the latter eating gluten-free pie with her soulmate, whom she’ll never marry. But both have accepted their unpredictable paths and couldn’t be happier.
Then there’s Carrie Bradshaw.AndJust Like Thatends with her dancing solo in her home, wearing a beautiful pink outfit reminiscent of the tutu she wore in theSex and the Cityopening credits, and celebrating her beautiful acceptance that she is her own first, her last, her everything.
