The beauty of their reunion can’t be denied.
A debate has always raged at the heart of Sex and the City: Team Big or Team Aidan.
Ever since the show’s third season, when the ruggedly kind carpenter first appeared to sweep Carrie off her feet – and, for a while at least, away from Mr Big – fans have doggedly stuck to their chosen sides.
For a while, it seemed that Team Big had won – in the original show’s finale, the multimillionaire arrived in Paris at the eleventh hour to finally commit to Carrie for good. Aidan reappeared only briefly to provide a little romantic tension in the second SATC film – after a spontaneous kiss in the streets of Abu Dhabi, Carrie returned to Big, who magnanimously decided to overlook her little transgression. And that, it seemed, was that.
The show’s reboot, however, decided to shake things up.
After a now infamous Peloton ride, Big died. Suddenly, Carrie was single. She grieved, of course, but by the second season a gaping Aidan-shaped hole began to open up within the show’s fabric. His return felt inevitable – and not just because of the incessant Aidan-centric marketing from HBO.
And in last week’s episode, he came up in conversation.
It had been 13 years, we learned, since their kiss in the UAE. Since then, he had divorced and sold his carpentry business to West Elm making, Carrie said, “quite a pretty penny” – funnily enough, the perfect conditions for a rekindling of their old romance.
That night, Carrie shot off the kind of faux-casual, flirty email that – let’s face it – we’ve all considered sending to an ex: “Hey Stranger … Remember me? IF this is still your email, it’s me – Carrie. Was just thinking about you the other day … and I wondered how you were doing. So, how ya doing?”
Read more:
- And Just Like That season 2 review: Sex is back on the menu
- And Just Like That star says Carrie and Aidan “are ready” to be together now
In this week’s episode, the long-awaited reunion finally took place.
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After Aidan replied to Carrie’s email – “Hey stranger, what’s up?” – the pair arranged to meet for dinner, and on Valentine’s Day, no less. After waiting for half an hour in a charmless, dinky restaurant with bright lights and rude staff, Carrie discovered that she had mistaken the address on the door outside – Aidan was waiting for her next door, where the lights were dim and the booths were plush.
They found each other outside on the street – a visual echo of their last meeting in Abu Dhabi. The restaurant mishap was a nice little metaphor of their relationship history – they’ve missed each other so many times, but now, all these years later, they are in the same place, both figuratively and literally.
The visual metaphors continued – after an impossibly romantic evening in their cosy booth, the pair headed back to Carrie’s apartment. But Aidan hesitated. He was shocked to discover it’s the same place they broke up all those years ago.
“This is where we ended… it’s all bad. It’s all in there,” he said, hesitating. “It’s the same place, but we’re not in the same place,” insisted Carrie.
“I guess time doesn’t heal everything, no matter how much you want it to,” came her voiceover.
Aidan turned to leave – then, gasp, at the last minute he turned around. “Hey, f**k it. This is New York. They have hotels right?” The voiceover summed it up: “And just like that, Aidan and I were back on the same page.”
In other words, the pair won’t be able to pick up where they left off – they’ll have to start somewhere new.
However hesitant some fans may have been about the show bringing Aidan into Carrie’s life yet again, the beauty of their reunion can’t be denied. As creator Michael Patrick King told Entertainment Weekly: “When he shows up, what happens is all part of the great fun and puzzle of writing a series, to somehow give people what they’re expecting and yet find ways to have people grow and still be that person.”
Love him or hate him, Aidan’s return works. Whatever you may think of Carrie’s decision to revisit things with him (let’s face it, it was messy – sending your ex a “hey stranger” email is almost never a good idea), it is certainly a natural next step for her character and for the trajectory of the show itself. After all, Carrie is often messy and, when it comes to romance, she’s almost always impulsive – but it’s that mess and that impulsivity that always led to Sex and the City’s best episodes.
In a reboot that has sometimes struggled to find its footing, Aidan’s comeback certainly serves to ingest the show with a much-needed dose of old-school, sweep-you-off-your-feet romance – and, inevitably, some drama, too. After all, what is Sex and the City, or indeed Carrie Bradshaw herself, without a bit of both. With Aidan back on the scene, the show feels more like its old self than ever.
Team Big is officially over, and we are on board for one last round with Team Aidan – and all the messy romance it is sure to dredge up!
And Just Like That… airs on Sky Comedy and NOW in the UK and on HBO Max in the US. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide.
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