(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
There are not many sexual milestones that Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) achieved before Samantha (Kim Cattrall), but sleeping with a member of the clergy might just be one of them.
Samantha struck out with a priest she nicknamed Friar F— in Season 4 of Sex and the City, but Miranda doesn’t get the same vow-of-celibacy brush-off. Instead, Miranda doesn’t even know she has slept with a nun until the morning after.
And Just Like That’s third season is off with a literal bang when guest star Rosie O’Donnell as (Sister) Mary takes a leap of faith on Miranda. A recent move to Ireland will not stop O’Donnell from gracing TV screens. It could have happened a lot sooner, as AJLT showrunner Michael Patrick King recently told Entertainment Weekly that an idea for O’Donnell in the first season didn’t quite work out.
Well, good things come to those who wait, which also applies to Sister Mary’s fun-packed first time visiting New York City. Losing your virginity and seeing Wicked on Broadway are significant milestones when most of your time is in prayer.
It is an encounter that lets Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) ask an important question: Is it worse that Miranda slept with a nun or a tourist? Knowing Carrie, I am certain the former is a bigger sin.
HBO Max is a good fit for the comedian. O’Donnell recently appeared as herself on the fourth season of Hacks, offering Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) advice about dealing with the highs and lows of being a talk show host. Her time behind the desk on The Rosie O’Donnell Show makes her the ideal candidate in a Hacks season featuring Carol Burnett playing herself. Legends only!
Experience gives Rosie a unique perspective for Deborah’s arc on Hacks, but in AJLT, her character isn’t dishing out pearls of wisdom. Instead, O’Donnell’s Sister Mary is the one in need of guidance.
With Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez) out of the picture for good, Miranda embarking on the dating scene offers the AJLT writers a chance to dip their toes in some vintage SATC antics. O’Donnell is a dream inaugural Season 3 hookup. Miranda pushes through her embarrassment to give Carrie all the intimate details, ensuring this premiere is the equivalent of a warm blanket.
So while Carrie deals with another excruciating chapter in the ongoing Aidan (John Corbett) saga, Miranda’s one-night stand with Sister Mary and subsequent dilemma about whether it is appropriate to (Holy) ghost someone who is also in a relationship with Jesus make up for it.
“HOT TO GO!” by Chappell Roan is the first clue that Miranda is in a lesbian bar, where Carrie and Charlotte join her for moral support. “I couldn’t do another one of these lady bars alone with no one coming up to me,” she tells her BFFs. Miranda’s still finding her footing in the queer dating space, struggling to read whether other patrons are flirting.
Take the woman who smiles and waves, but turns out to be Brady’s former babysitter. She isn’t making eyes at Miranda and just wants to say hi. “I’m a lesbian now,” Miranda says. It isn’t the first time Miranda has misinterpreted the signs (she thought a guy in the building opposite was flirting with her when it was the guy in the apartment below who was the target of his naked butt in a SATC episode). Awkwardness isn’t a new direction, but this season it is tinged with less humiliation.
With the bar about to close, Mary’s intentions are clear: she tells Miranda she is pretty and mentions her hotel room. Mary is in town for a conference, and it took me a beat to recognize O’Donnell, who is rocking a longer gray hairdo and ditching her trademark glasses.
Her button-down shirt is far more conservative than the “World Peace” graffiti print Snow Milk jacket she wore on Hacks. Nothing about her ensemble in this bar suggests Miranda is about to fulfill a Sound of Music fantasy. On a second watch, I spotted her silver cross necklace, which isn’t unusual either. “She was dressed like a regular lesbian,” Miranda tells Carrie later.
The lack of clothes the morning after signifies that prayers have been answered. However, Miranda quickly goes from blissed out hearing Mary’s compliments (“electric”) to freaking out when Mary admits this was her first time having sex. Oh, and she’s a nun.
That one-two reveal proves AJLT is capable of the comic timing of its predecessor. Miranda sharing her bedroom faux pas with Carrie adds to the notion that AJLT has found its rhythm. It is hard to top “I had sex with a nun,” when the Aidan relationship drama centers on faking an orgasm during phone sex (I need an exorcism after that scene) and Miranda has this juicy Hail Mary.
O’Donnell is only in three scenes, yet “Sister Mary Tourist” belongs in the hook-up hall of fame. It isn’t making jokes at the nun’s expense either, as O’Donnell imbues Sister Mary with wide-eyed excitement, whether it is first-time sex with Miranda, or defying gravity at Wicked. Each is weighted equally in Sister Mary’s eyes in what she describes as “the best week of my life.”
Miranda worries that Sister Mary has fallen in love with her, but she is just as in love with Big Apple tourist spots like the Central Park carousel and Times Square. Carrie’s response to the M&M store meeting spot is to laugh, and while this would never be my choice of NYC “hot spot”, Mary’s gag about getting customized candy for Miranda (M&M) was priceless thanks to the flash of fear on Miranda’s face.
“Don’t leave God for me,” Miranda says after turning down a repeat trip to Mary’s hotel room. However, Mary isn’t letting sex or hit musicals drive her choices; she is not breaking up with God. There is no crisis of faith that Miranda has to feel guilty about. Neither does she have the shame of ghosting a sweet nun.
Everything that comes out of Sister Mary’s mouth is heartfelt, and while I often hide behind my hands if someone starts singing to another character outside the world of a musical, Mary (wearing Wicked merch) launching into “For Good” is too sweet to be overly cringe. Or maybe I am still recovering from what happened in Aidan’s truck.
Mary got the trip of a lifetime, and Miranda has a story that surpasses Samantha’s Friar F— non-event. While hooking up with nuns isn’t something Miranda will make a habit of, it proves she doesn’t need a miracle to get laid.
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