This article contains spoilers for episode 3 of the second season of “And Just Like That…”
In the third episode of “And Just Like That…” the show seems to hark back to its “Sex and the City” past, bringing out previously unseen handbags and nostalgia for a bygone New York.
Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) records her memoir and manages difficult memories of her late husband, John, by shopping and faking Covid. Seema (Sarita Choudhury) has her Birkin bag stolen in front of her apartment, and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), who is still in Los Angeles, feels so transformed that she decides to get a tattoo.
Ahead of the third installment, reporters and editors on the Styles desk discussed some of the most memorable accessories and themed legacies in the series’ latest installment.
Vanessa Friedman I think we should talk about déjà vu from a stolen handbag. When Seema’s Birkin got caught, it sent me straight down the rabbit hole to “Sex and the City,” Season 3, when Carrie’s Fendi Baguette got snatched — and then a very similar Baguette reappeared in this episode.
Jeremy Allen Again, wallet as plot point!
Madison Malone Kircher That baguette popped up in season 1 too!
VF Handbags are the Proustian madeleines of this show.
Louis Lucero II A longing for the days of Giuliani’s New York? It seemed to be where this episode took place. And I don’t know which is more unbelievable to me: the idea that a robber in 2023 wouldn’t recognize a Birkin bag or that thousands of pedestrians over the course of two days.
VF Good point, Louis. How could that rather large Birkin just lie under bushes?
YES I also noticed how Covid really became a plot point for the first time in this series – especially in terms of clothing. Carrie, of course, puts her own spin on pandemic-era athleisure. In the first episode, she pairs an oversized DailyExpertNews sweatshirt with, well, nothing, and in this one she wears a Monopoly sweatshirt with a semi-sheer layered skirt, Barbiecore kitten heels, and an Oy Vey mask for her mock fight with the virus.
Callie Holterman I caught myself laughing a few times during this episode – sometimes with the characters and other times at them. Carrie faking Covid to get out of her obligations was funny. So was Seema’s Louis Vuitton mask with logo print.
MMK I’ll be honest and say the last line made me laugh: “And just like that… I got Covid.”
VF I’ll also be honest and say that I took a measure of satisfaction when my prediction of more Loewe came true during our last conversation, with the balloon heels at Carrie’s Bergdorf Goodman shoe store.
CH Vanessa, I just wanted to congratulate you on this. The balloon shoes were one of the episode’s bids for relevance that really worked for me. Those shoes are crazy, they’re everywhere — and I can totally see Carrie buying them and wearing them to, say, a ranch in the Hudson Valley.
YES One issue that “And Just Like That…” seems to be constantly negotiating is that one designer-clad foot is squarely in the past and the other lukewarm in the present. Obviously, the straddling can sometimes be uncomfortable for the writers – but maybe for us too.
Katie Van Syckle What tattoo did you think Miranda would end up with? I expected a robot.
MMK I don’t know what I thought she would choose, but I certainly didn’t think Miranda “The Brainy One” Hobbes would choose to tattoo her own initials on her wrist.
KVS With writing!
LL Let’s venture into the speculative briefly: what else could MH stand for?
CH Maximum HBO.
LL Monday? Harrumph!
KVS Mayor Hobbes.
MMK Does anyone want to predict what we’re going to see in the next episode? Dressmaking or otherwise? Vanessa, you’re already on the board with Loewe.
YES Miranda in $1,000 jumpsuits? Seema in zebra stripes? Lisa Todd Wexley in baubles that wouldn’t make it to the TSA?
CH Lily, Charlotte’s new rebellious daughter, gets a septum piercing.
VF Definitely Seema in more animal print. I think chances are good for a Chanel bag or two. More LV.
KVS More New York City merchandise and wearable New York pride.
LL Mark my words: We’ll see Carrie for midseason in Rachel Comey’s New York Review of Books collection.
Vanessa Friedman, Louis Lucero II, Katie Van Syckle, Jeremy Allen, Madison Malone Kircher And Callie Holterman reporting contributed.
