Season 3, Episode 3: ‘Carrie Golightly’
They say Virginia is for lovers. They do not say Virginia is for casual lunches and sleeping alone in a guesthouse.
In Episode 3, it is Carrie who visits Aidan at his home, but not because her “boyfriend” (I’m still using quotes around that word and you can’t stop me) did something crazy like invite her. It is because Virginia is on a list of locations Carrie could go to promote her work, along with sexier options like Google’s Palo Alto office and Austin’s South by Southwest festival.
First of all, why does Carrie even have to choose? She is a childless cat lady with no looming deadlines. What is stopping her from hitting up all three to boost her clout in preparation for an upcoming foray into historical fiction?
But Williamsburg, Va. is the only place our gal wants to go because it’s vaguely near Aidan, and she thinks that if she pops down south, cool as a cucumber, “easy breezy,” with no expectations, Aidan might be willing to meet her for a quick meal. Because the bar for this relationship is in the basement.
The saddest part about all this is that Carrie feels she needs a cover story in the first place. She can say, “I love you,” to Aidan, but apparently, she can’t simply say, “I want to see you.” And that’s really Aidan’s fault; she is just playing by his rules. But this game sucks.
Thankfully, Miranda is in touch with her judgy side, as she can’t stop cracking jokes about Carrie venturing over the river and through the woods for merely a bite to eat with her beau. Yet, Miranda is concocting a cover story of her own. After some bad luck in the romance department this season that included a tryst with a nun and a snub from a straight “guacamole girl,” Miranda is finally sweet on someone she would make sense with: Joy (Dolly Wells) the BBC producer.
Too afraid to ask Joy out, Miranda opts for a similarly easy breezy happy hour and feigns a need for “on-camera coaching tips.”
“Do you really have to play those games?” Carrie asks Miranda. Do you, Carrie? Do we have any self-awareness here?
Meanwhile, Charlotte is struggling with the ways her duties as a wife and mother keep her from late-night partying, which is apparently when all the hot art deals are happening.
Fed up with missing out on the midnight sales, Charlotte — along with, inexplicably, her husband, Harry (Evan Handler) — joins her Gen Z gallerina crew at an after-party and an after-after party in the hopes of landing a commission from Rolf (Jon Collin Barclay), the coke-snorting Dutch art collector — as well as hooking him up with Lela (Bonnie Milligan), who has an aggressive crush on him. But some wires get crossed, and Charlotte and Rolph end up in a brief lip lock. Charlotte quickly rebuffs the high-flying Dutchman; still, it isn’t news I imagine Lela, or Harry, would be excited to hear. It will be interesting to see if Charlotte tells either of them.
Lisa also finds herself in a work bind when her longtime editor, Grace (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), gets a job offer from the director Steve McQueen. Lisa just can’t understand why Grace would leave her fledgling project that has been running off and on for eight years to work with an Oscar-winner, so she throws a big fit like a baby before apologizing with a bag full of croissants.
But it is Seema who faces perhaps the biggest professional fork in the road. She finds herself having something of a Taylor Swift moment when she discovers that Elliott has sold his shares of the company to Ryan Serhant, the celebrity real estate broker and Bravo star (who is the Scooter Braun figure in this analogy), before she even has the chance to make a proper offer. All episode, Seema goes back and forth between whether to capitulate and work under Serhant or to start her own firm. It takes popping the tires on the rental car in Virginia for her to finally get her “sign” to go solo.
I can’t help but wish that Carrie had gotten a similar sign. Is a last-minute invitation from Aidan to stay over — only to be banished to the guesthouse — not signal enough that maybe she shouldn’t be capitulating to a man, either?
Right now — and I never thought I would say this as an Aidan Stan — I’m rooting for Carrie to go it alone, too.
Things still taking up space in my brain
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Charlotte and Lisa continue their clown show of “comic relief” story lines, but in this episode, there is finally some depth. In different ways, each is paying some sort of penalty for being a working mom — something their characters are ripe to explore further.
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L.T.W. is so many more syllables than Lisa. Why are we reintroducing that nickname?
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This week’s cringiest moment, hands down, is when Harry pees his pants in the club restroom. We all know button flies are easy! You just rip them open! Get it together, Harry!
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I originally thought “Plant Picasso” Adam might make a move on Carrie, but in this episode, he and Seema have a little meet-cute. Seema makes clear that Adam isn’t her type, but maybe “type” is overrated.
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As Charlotte danced to the Rosé and Bruno Mars song “APT” after too many espresso martinis, O.G. fans of “Sex and the City” would have been reminded of her moment on a Staten Island dance floor, shaking it to “Bad Girls.” Drunk Charlotte is fun.
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After Carrie delivered the Adderall that Kathy (Rosemarie DeWitt) asked her to bring for Wyatt, Aidan reacted curiously. He made a face as if he wasn’t expecting it. What’s going on there?
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