Throwback Thursday is a weekly article in which we look back at our favorite TV episodes from the past.
When it was time to do another Throwback Thursday article, I couldn't help but wonder....How have I not covered one of my all time favorite shows, Sex and The City? Well I am fixing that now and looking back on the season two finale, Ex and The City.
Why Can't we be friends?
Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte always had complicated romantic relationships and this episode explored the idea of one being friends with an ex. The conversation is brought to the forefront when Carrie and Miranda are on a crowded New York street and they see Steve, Miranda's ex and she does what any rational woman would do in that situation, she grabs Carrie runs in the opposite direction.
Later, the gals are dissecting the event over a very delicious looking desert and feeling bad for poor Steve who genuinely looked hurt when Miranda tucked tail and ran. Carrie poses the question about why we can't be friends with an ex if we had once loved them and the reactions from her girlfriends are mixed. Miranda says she ran because she is just not that evolved and once you cross that line into a romantic relationship, it can not be uncrossed and moved back to just friendship. Charlotte, ever the wasp, says that she doesn't believe that a man should get her friendship if the relationship doesn't happen. And Samantha gives the most cut and dry answer, 'Woman are for friendship, men are for f*cking'. Which leaves us with Carrie, the woman who just cannot let anyhthing be. She decides it is time to try friendship with her Ex Big and as per usual with these two, it blows up in her face.
The Idiot Stick Figure With No Soul
After the discussion at the diner, Carrie calls Big (this was on a landline, remember those?). When Natasha, his new girlfriend answers, she immediately hangs up, but remembers Big has caller ID (what a throw back!). She calls again and this time, Big answers. Carrie makes some lame excuse that she accidentally hung up which Big doesn't buy, but lets it go. They decide to meet for lunch as friends. Carrie is looking forward to this new chapter in their dynamic but as with most things Big, he has some big news to spring on her.
The two meet for lunch and it starts out well enough until Carrie gets too big for her britches and asks about his new girl. That's when Big drops a bomb... he is engaged. Yep the man who swore to Carrie several months earlier that he would never get married again was about to walk down the aisle with a woman he's know for less than a year. Carrie does the mature thing and walks out.... hahaha just seeing how well you remember this ep! Of course she doesn't do the mature thing, she blows up at him in the middle of the lunch rush and goes nuclear about him not wanting marriage, but now all of a sudden he does. She storms out, leaving a shocked and embarrassed Big in her wake.
The Katie Girls
Carrie spends the next several scenes going through all the stages of grief, but mostly settles on anger. She starts to surmise that it must be her until drinks with friends gives her some clarity. The ladies discuss the movie The Way We Were and that leads Carrie to an epiphany..... She is a Katie girl. A woman who is not simple, like Big's fiance Natasha. She is complicated and requires a man to be able to run with her, not behind her or in front of her. The girls then break into song, which is one of my favorite scenes in the show.
Later, Carrie decides to walk by Big and Natasha's engagement party because he had sent his 'friend' Carrie and invitation after they talked following their disasterous lunch. Big spots Carrie and goes over to him. She asks him point blank, why? Big gives the answer Carrie had arrived at over drinks with her girls..... That things had just gotten too hard between them, and with Natasha, it isn't. Carrie goes all movie cheesy and channels The Way We Were and tells Big, 'Your girl is lovely Hubbell' Big has no clue what she is talking about and that solidifies what Carrie realized, she is just too complicated. I mean this tracks with what a self-righteous character Carrie Brandshaw is and we all know her walking away from Big is not the ending or their story, not by a longshot. But, the symbolisim is nice. We want someone who can run with us, so the message lands.
Odds and Ends:
* After running from Steve, he actually confronts Miranda at her home and they agree to try the friend thing. Well that fails on all levels and it tees up Steve and Miranda... Take Two. Those two remain my favorit SATC couple and I remember being giddy that they fell into bed again.
* Samantha meets a man who is simply too much to take in the bedroom and it was an interesting juxaposition from her storyline in the beginning of the season with her ex James, who was not nearly enough in the bedroom.
* Charlotte's story had nothing to do with a man, it had to do with her reconciling her past history with her horse. She had gotten bucked off her horse Tatty as a child and she finally gains the courage to literally get back in the saddle again as the episode ends.
Well that is it for this stroll down memory lane. Do you remember this one? What are your thoughts? Drop them below! Oh and sorry for the lack of pictures this time, I couldn't find some good quality ones.
