‘And Just Like That’ Season 2 Episode 2 Recap: “Vag In the City”

There’s a moment in episode two of And Just Like That… Season 2 when Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) refuses to read a certain bit of corny ad copy promoting a vaginal wellness product on her podcast, saying, “No human being speaks like that!” It’s ironic, really, because that’s the main flaw I’m finding throughout this new season of AJLT. Whether it’s lines like “It will take you from dry to wet-ass p—y” or “I’m having a ‘Going out of Andre’ sale!” there is so much dialogue that just feels like a first draft that it hurts. (On the flip side, the realest line of dialogue in this particular episode is when Carrie says, “I hate when people circle back.” THAT is relatable.) Other than the entire script, Mrs. Lincoln, how do you like you reboot? Honestly, still enjoying it, despite its glaring flaws!

We start off the show with Carrie and her producer Franklyn (Ivan Hernandez) recording the aforementioned ad reads from the sponsors of her podcast, but saying, “Ever feel not quite right down there?” is a bridge too far for Carrie. She refuses to read the copy as its written, and because this is a 2023 plotline, this puts her entire podcast at risk of cancellation.

On the West Coast, Miranda refuses to stop giving Che head despite the fact that Che is taking a work phone call. I’ve discussed my frustration with the changes to Miranda’s AJLT character before, and I don’t want to keep finding flaws with New Miranda, but between this moment, where she’s actively trying to distract Che from work with sex, and her eventual spiral-out when she learns Che was/is still married to a man (played by Oliver Hudson), I hate that her character has been condensed down to “person so infatuated by and utterly consumed by their new partner to the point where they have lost themself.” The one thing Miranda is doing for herself is going to AA. Remember how she’s an alcoholic? She meets a woman in a meeting who invites her to clean up the beach, and finally, Miranda gets some sense of purpose while she’s in L.A.

While she’s cleaning the beach, she loses her phone and when she finally manages to borrow a phone, but she has to call Carrie to find out Che’s number, which she has never memorized. When she finally gets in touch, Che sends someone to pick Miranda up. That person is Lyle, and he turns out to be Che’s husband. Not ex-husband, but present tense husband.

This is what sends Miranda into a spiral: not only does she not know her partner’s cell number, she didn’t even know Che is married. Che brushes it off, saying they’re only “technically” married and they’re too lazy to get a divorce, adding, infuriatingly, “I’ve got enough on my plate right now… let’s not let your lost phone become a couple’s existential crisis.” I can’t be the only one who hates Che for saying “I’ve got enough on my plate right now” when confronted by Miranda’s actual concerns about their relationship?

Over on the east side, Charlotte’s daughter Lily, a budding musician, asked her parents for money to buy a new keyboard. When Harry and Charlotte tell her to earn the money herself, she sells all her clothes to a luxury consignment reseller called The RealDeal (Not The RealReal…”The RealDeal, it’s way better,” Lily says. And now we know who won’t be advertising on on Carrie’s podcast! What did The RealReal ever do to you, And Just Like That…?) This infuriates Charlotte, who makes it her mission to get Lily’s designer clothes back, specifically a pink Chanel dress that doesn’t even fit Lily anymore. Charlotte goes to the brick and mortar location of The RealDeal where a clerk named Eden endures Charlotte’s interrogation about where the dress might be. Carrie, meanwhile, waits patiently, distracted by her pigeon clutch purse, until she realizes that Charlotte’s antics are about to turn her into a viral Karen moment. Carrie tells Charlotte to back off. “First the Chanel and then the Chopin,” Charlotte laments. “I just feel like she’s rejecting everything I ever gave her.” “Is she rejecting it or is she…outgrowing it?” Carrie asks. And that’s enough for Charlotte, she gets it now.

Over at the podcast studio, Carrie and Franklyn arrive for to record their show, only to see the entire office being cleared out. Chloe, the ad producer, explains, “You two wouldn’t talk about her vagina, and now everyone’s out of work. They sold these studios to Apple. Or Peach. Or whatever the fuck.” Yes, because I’m sure Carrie rewriting her ad copy forced Apple (or Peach? What is Peach?) was solely responsible for all of this. But alas, this means that it’s the end of Sex and the City: The Podcast, and it’s also the end of Carrie and Franklyn’s Thursday trysts. “And just like that…” Carrie explains, “I freed up my entire week.”

AND JUST LIKE THAT… SEASON 2 EPISODE 2: LOOSE ENDS

• Did Karen Pittman have Covid while filming or something? Why are all of Nya’s scenes of her on the phone? I don’t like this one bit. In episode 2, she speaks to her husband, Andre Rashad, on the phone to apologize for calling him while drunk and propositioning him, and he seems to forgive her, telling her that he sees a way for them to save their marriage: having a child by surrogate. Nya’s already decided that kids aren’t in the plans for her, so she throws the phone down, partly annoyed by his suggested, but also very likely angered by the fact that he also cavalierly mentioned that he was considering hooking up with his bandmate, Heidi with the Hat. Later, she calls Miranda and gives a completely unhinged performance as “Woman Not Handling Things Well,” screaming into the phone about how done she is with her husband while throwing away his belongings. I truly hope Nya gets to sleep with the guy at the bar from episode 1, because she needs some face-to-face time with other characters, not just FaceTime.

• Who knew how much fun woke Tony Danza would be? The ease with which the words “Such a pleasure to meet Che’s significant person,” rolled off his tongue, and the support he showed for his loyal Danzalions was satisfying. (Is that a riff on dandelions? It took me a while to get to that, but I’m not even sure if that’s the reference.)
• Juan Jose (Ricardo Rojas), Seema’s hairstylist who bluntly tells her she sabotages her own relationships by looking for red flags, causing her to break up with him, is like the anti-Method actor when it comes to handling hair. Watching him “blow out” her hair by fluffing it with his hands, and then later watching him attempt to clip another client’s hair felt like he had no business holding a hairbrush.
• While I truly appreciate the show’s acknowledgement that there are other races besides white, LTW (Nicole Ari Parker) and Herbert’s (Chris Jackson) brief C-story about what it’s like to be Black in New York felt forced and rushed. I do love Herbert’s mother’s zingers aimed at LTW, but this plot existed entirely in a vacuum and felt like it was edited in solely to educate the audience that racism is still alive and well. Unless this leads to something more, it feels like a PSA rather than any kind of storytelling.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.