‘And Just Like That’ Season 3, Episode 7 Is Gaslighting Us

For those of us who have stopped worrying and learned to love And Just Like That, the absurdity of the Sex and the City sequel is part of the fun. Over the course of three seasons, we’ve guffawed our way through Mr. Big’s death by Peloton, basked in the pure cringe of Miranda’s romance with Che Diaz, and stanned Charlotte and Harry’s dorky The Americans standom. Just a few episodes ago, we indulged shoe-maven-slash-ankle-masochist Carrie’s refusal to remove her stilettos at home after incurring the wrath of her downstairs-neighbor-slash-inevitable-love-interest, Duncan Reeves.

But in Thursday’s seventh episode of Season 3, AJLT crossed the fine line separating the willing suspension of belief from full-on gaslighting. All season, Carrie—a recovering sex columnist, erstwhile podcaster, and sometime memoirist—has been dabbling in historical fiction. Episodes are often framed by Sarah Jessica Parker’s voiceover, in a callback to SATC’s quippy narration, reading snippets of the novel that mirror her character’s own life. They are bad. Which isn’t necessarily a problem; as the “I couldn’t help but wonder” meme demonstrates, we all know Carrie is a hack. No, what finally finished me on this subplot was this week’s exchange of manuscripts with Duncan, a highbrow biographer. His rhapsodic response to her pages destroys any illusion we might’ve had that Carrie’s stilted prose is an inside joke between the show’s writers and its audience. Apparently, we’re supposed to believe the novel is good.  

The episode opens with a distressed Carrie showing up at Duncan’s door. “I hate you,” she tells him. “Your first chapter is thrilling. It’s polished and it’s ready to publish and how am I supposed to hand you my work-in-progress now?” But, of course, she finds the courage. And by the time she visits him again, to deliver a (rude) last-minute party invitation, he’s devoured it. The verdict: “It’s brilliant.” (I mean,…