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Throughout its three-season run, And Just Like That has committed several canon-altering crimes. The cartoon-ification of Charlotte York. The flattening of Miranda Hobbes. The overall ick-factor of Aidan Shaw. But as the And Just Like That finale approaches and the series end is nigh—HBO announced it will not be returning for a fourth season—the SATC spinoff could finally get something, one thing, right. It may end with Carrie Bradshaw on her own. Carrie Bradshaw’s approach to love, much like her all-over-the-place outfits, has always been led by curiosity. She’s an often-delusional romantic who cannot deny a gravitational pull. It’s why she followed The Russian to Paris; got entangled in an extramarital affair with Big; stayed in an objectively terrible relationship with Berger. Through each ill-fated dalliance and neurosis-fuelled situationship, it’s remained clear that Carrie Bradshaw is her best, most secure self when she’s alone. As the series comes to a close, Carrie finds herself once again unattached. She’s no longer a pithy sex columnist but a serious (?) novelist. Gone are the days of cramming shoes into her oven for extra storage; she has an excess of space in her Gramercy Park home. And noticeably, there’s been a cozy shift in her styling—one that signals inner satisfaction.
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It starts in episode 9, when she and Aidan split for the final time. Her post-breakup outfit is not a revenge naked dress. It’s an opulent Simone Rocha ballgown with an unexpected fuzzy cardigan. The outer layer—drop-shouldered, loose, ostensibly piling—was so un-Carrie that it had fans wondering if it was a nod to her flirtatiousness with her downstairs neighbour, Duncan, a British writer with an affinity for sweaters. But this theory was soon disproven. Because the episode after that, when she finally does get with Duncan romantically, he reveals he’s moving back to London. Following this, she sits alone in her garden, swathed in another luxe-meets-loungewear look: a pleated purple gown with a ribbed cardigan draped over top. Her voiceover comes in, describing the final scene of the novel she’s been writing all season, where her main character (The Woman, a 19th-century insert for Carrie) ends up single and at peace. (“How wonderful, how wonderful, how wonderful…”)
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Fittingly, the penultimate episode focuses on Carrie’s aloneness. It opens with her ordering Thanksgiving pies at a local bakery that, we’re told, she’s been a loyal patron of for years. She then strolls through her former neighbourhood, feeling wistful about her SATC-era apartment. She’s wearing a long Chloé denim skirt and a characteristically over-the-top Coach clutch, but her floor-length wool cardigan grounds the look in tranquillity.
Photo courtesy of HBO
Later, she has a meeting about her book. Despite its heavily-meme’d prose, her editor loves it (“Fan-fucking-tastic!”), but takes issue with the main character ending up alone (“It’s a tragedy!”). When she has Charlotte and Miranda over for drinks, she complains about this feedback. “What should the new ending be? What is there to say?” Carrie reflects, topping up her cocktail. “She ends up alone.” Wearing a tartan yellow and black skirt and an oversized Queen’s University crewneck, she appears polished but relaxed in her idyllic townhouse. Charlotte remarks that the space looks the best it’s ever looked: it’s fully furnished after sitting bare all season while she tried to make decorating decisions with an aloof Aidan. Now that he’s out of the picture, her home is finally full.
Photo courtesy of HBO
Throughout the episode, Carrie lets go of a lot: the possibility of being with Duncan, the vision that she would share her home with a partner and, most dramatically, the far-off dream that she may one day return to her old apartment. When she visits Lisette, her younger friend who took the lease, she finds it’s been split into two. Wearing a long satin cloak over her frothy floral dress, she looks out of place in her former home, which is now filled with room-dividing walls and artsy twenty-somethings eating turkey tacos. “Doesn’t it bother you living in that big house by yourself?” Lisette asks. “Aren’t you scared of what could happen to you?” “Well, I’m more scared of what’s already happened to me,” Carrie replies. Herein lies the beauty of Carrie Bradshaw.
Photo courtesy of HBO
Carrie’s superpower has always been her ability to be alone in a world that looks down on her for it. Its most memorable in season 2 episode 4 of Sex and the City—titled “They Shoot Single People, Don’t They?”—when Carrie grapples with the constant pressure to partner up. The episode ends with her eschewing this expectation. “I decided, instead of running away from a life alone, I better sit down and take that fear to lunch,” she narrates. She settles on a sidewalk patio, wearing dark sunglasses, a black sweater and a blue cashmere shawl. Surrounded by chatting couples, she sips a glass of red wine solo and leans back in her chair. Though she’s wearing one of her most understated outfits, it’s peak Carrie Bradshaw coolness. [instagram-oembed url=”https://www.instagram.com/p/CpQ1VLFv8Hi/” /] Years later, in And Just Like That, Carrie Bradshaw has outgrown worrying about being alone. She has a high-tech security system. She has a local bakery that grants her special favours. She has a home that finally feels lived in. And, most importantly, she has a closet full of cardigans that keep the chill off her exorbitant ensembles. At the end of the episode, she writes an epilogue to appease her book editor: setting up The Woman with a romantic rendezvous. She knows, however, that this conclusion isn’t honest. With the And Just Like That finale approaching, let’s hope Carrie Bradshaw gets the fashionable ending she deserves: sincerity. Continue Reading
