‘And Just Like That’ Actually Made Me Laugh at a COVID Joke

**Spoilers for And Just Like That... Season 2 Episode 3 “Chapter Three,” now streaming on MAX**

I don’t have a lot of good memories of living alone in New York City throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic.* I remember the incessant screams of sirens blaring through Washington Heights, sad walks in my overstuffed local park, and seeing a woman take a large spray can of Lysol out to sanitize her hands when all the Purell in Manhattan had long been sold out. That last memory often evokes a dark chuckle out of me, but so far, I’ve only managed to enjoy gallows humor about that bleak time in world history. That was until I saw And Just Like That… Season 2 Episode 3 “Chapter Three” on Max and found myself giggling at a farcical COVID-inspired subplot and guffawing at an exquisitely timed punchline.

To my shock and awe, And Just Like That... pulled off the first great comic COVID storyline on TV??

And Just Like That… Season 2 Episode 3 “Chapter Three” follows Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) as she attempt to record the audiobook version of her searing memoir about losing Big (Chris Noth) in the show’s premiere. While it’s surreal to see an audio engineer coach the titanically talented SJP on her line delivery, it’s heartbreaking to see Carrie struggle to narrate Big’s death. When pep talks and retail therapy do nothing to sooth her nerves, Carrie decides to fake COVID in the hopes that her publisher will have to replace her with a Julianne Moore-type talent.

Carrie gets out of the sound booth for a week, but she immediately has a sitcom-esque problem when Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and the rest of her friends spring into COVID-nursing mode. Charlotte insists on ordering tons of expensive chocolates and treats, Miranda just about panics, and Anthony (Mario Cantone) makes an on-brand joke at Carrie’s expense. “Now she’s got COVID? That’s very off-trend for her.”

When Seema (Sarita Choudhury) arrives at Carrie’s apartment in a designer Louis Vuitton mask, she has the chutzpah to at least make fun of Carrie’s “Oy Vey!” mask. Carrie comes clean. “I don’t have COVID. I faked it.” “Good,” Seema says, “because this mask is chic, but definitely not up to code.” As someone who begrudgingly swapped my cloth masks for NF94s… I felt that.

Seema offers Carrie a chance to vent about how the reading triggered her grief and how bad she feels lying to the people who have already spent too much time supporting her during the last year. Seema gives Carrie an incredible pep talk and they attend Lisette’s (Katerina Tanenbaum) jewelry pop-up where a lot of weird theft goes on. The important thing is Carrie found the strength to narrate the chapter about Big’s death after all.

So when Seema and Carrie cozy up to some hot Aussies at a communal dining table in the final moment of the episode, I was waiting for it. A sappy sign-off from Carrie about how what matters isn’t what you’ve lost, but what you’ve still got left to gain…or something. “And just like that,” Carrie narrates, setting up my Chicken Soup for the Soul moment as the camera pans back to show the crowded table, “…I got COVID.”

I laughed so hard.

Because of course, Carrie avoids COVID for three years and finally catches it after faking it. Of course, she gets it from a hot group of globe-trotting Aussies. Of course, COVID is no longer the life or death ailment it once was, but a flu-like illness that we’ll have to live with.

And Just Like That… Season 2 Episode 3 “Chapter Three” was the first time I felt a show treated the 2023 reality of living with COVID in any witty or refreshing way. It was clever, kooky, and most of all, cathartic.

*I’m fully aware that some folks think we are still in the pandemic, but I hope we can agree that there is no longer a pop-up plague hospital in the Javits Center. So maybe some progress has been made since 2020.