And Just Like That … Recap: The Spins

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“Happily Ever After” might be the silliest And Just Like That … has been in a good long while (ever?), and this show needed some silly. Not to be all Miranda from last week, but girls just wanna have fun, you know? At least this girl, who is watching this show specifically, would like to have fun. Interesting that the most fun episode in a while has the shortest run time of the season and also has the least to do with Carrie Bradshaw. I’m just pointing out facts, okay? You draw your own conclusions.

It’s not like Carrie isn’t around. In fact, she gets a surprise visit from Aidan, who reveals that he has some extra time on his hands because Wyatt now only wants to live with Kathy, and Aidan is all alone on the farm. It feels like Aidan and Kathy should be deciding where Wyatt lives, but I won’t tell someone else how to parent. (They’re doing it so badly.) Aidan drops this information on Carrie after having sex with her, and she is rushing to make a writing session with Duncan. He half-heartedly tells Carrie that his troubles can wait and she should totally go to her writing session, but with the amount of sighing and whining this man does, Carrie really has very little choice here. Aidan, as always, remains a drag. The two of them seem okay for now — the show is definitely planting some “Aidan is jealous of Duncan” seeds — and Carrie seems genuinely happy she finally gets more time with her guy, but there is no way this lasts. Instead of “too big to fail,” this whole relationship has a real “too annoying to succeed” vibe to it.

So if the Carrie and Aidan situation isn’t fun, what is? And Just Like That … is always better when it gets all of its main characters together, and this week that happens at a new exhibition opening at Charlotte’s gallery. With Harry at home with his very swollen balls recovering from his surgery — “maybe don’t mention the balls” is peak Charlotte York — Charlotte is focusing on work. All of Charlotte’s interactions with the gals at her gallery are amusing, so this is a welcome change of pace. The exhibition has to do with the idea of real happiness and how that changes as you age. One piece is an unmade bed on the floor that has a naked woman lying facedown on it, covered in crumbs and snacks and a condom full of sperm, that, yes, Charlotte and her colleagues have to fill up to the artist’s exact specifications. It reminds Charlotte of life in the 1980s, which, honestly, I find hard to believe, because I don’t think Charlotte at any age is sleeping in a bed full of garbage.

Just in time for the big opening, Charlotte’s vertigo starts acting up. Vertigo is actually the perfect chronic ailment for this woman to have. It sounds dramatic and old-timey, and Charlotte for sure has a fainting couch in her home. While at the opening, Charlotte has a major dizzy spell and needs to sit down. While resting, she spots Miranda holding Joy’s Champagne glass and looking at it like she might just take a sip, as a treat. Miranda just gave a long explanation to Carrie and Charlotte about how being with Joy, who enjoys a good drink and knows Miranda is sober but doesn’t know she’s an alcoholic, has made her rethink if maybe she “overcorrected” with the whole alcoholic thing in the first place. Did anyone else yell “I SWEAR TO GOD” at their screen, remembering how we all just had to go along with the clunky rollout of Miranda’s sobriety back in season one? Cool; me, too. And while Carrie and Charlotte reserve judgment as Miranda attempts to find a loophole to her drinking problem, when Charlotte catches her friend eyeing that glass of bubbly, she also yells I swear to God, but with her body. In a full vertigo episode, Charlotte yells at Miranda to put the drink down and stumbles over toward her, where she winds up falling face-first onto the bed with the naked woman on it. Her attempt to stop her friend from doing something she’ll surely regret gets her a face full of jizz. Oh, and now I get why she said that piece reminded her of the ’80s.

While all of that, and more specifically Charlotte, is going down at the gallery opening, Lisa skips the event in order to fuel her ever-growing crush on her editor, Marion. She invents the term “flirking,” meaning “flirting while at work,” which I hate, but she also proceeds to have a spectacularly fun spiral about her “flirking,” which I love. The best choice And Just Like That … has made in season three is giving Nicole Ari Parker more comedic bits. Is anyone panicking while eating a salad as hilariously as Parker is when she thinks Marion might be acting on the “obvious” connection between them while asking about her lunch order? No, I don’t think so. It is some top-notch salad prop work.

While Lisa is very attracted to her husband — even if he does botch some morning sex by killing the mood with a long, loud pee and a grocery-list reminder — she is crushing hard on Marion. She had a sex dream about him; they have chemistry for sure and she definitely has some feelings brewing. It’s still unclear if Marion, who is also married, reciprocates or if it is all in Lisa’s head. He is flirty and sexy, but most of what Lisa takes as him putting out a vibe could also be kind of harmless. Maybe he was only talking about lunch orders! Maybe that suggestive way is just how he normally eats papaya! When he invites her out to the movies, it isn’t a date — he just knows that a development executive from the Obamas’ production company is going to be there and he could make an introduction for Lisa. Maybe there isn’t anything untoward being suggested here on Marion’s side. But Lisa is feeling it. She is feeling it so much that when she goes home and attempts to be totally chill and normal in front of her husband while explaining that she has to skip Charlotte’s event because of a very legit work thing, she is anything but chill and normal.

This remains her general disposition as she sits next to Marion in the movie theater. And then when his knee touches hers — again, is this on purpose, or is it just some errant manspreading? — she can’t deal with it any longer. She has to get out of there. Her kids need seltzer, Marion! She bolts, but not before sharing a look that really does seem like Marion is feeling this, too. So maybe Lisa is right to panic! When he calls her later, though, it isn’t to discuss what is or isn’t going on between them; it’s to talk business — the development executive is very interested in their documentary, and this could be the break she needs to land Michelle Obama. However things wind up in regard to Marion’s feelings, I can’t see Lisa stepping out on Herbert, but surely she’s headed for a heart-to-heart with her husband at some point, right? Preferably one that includes more vegetable-based comedy. We’ve all really earned that, at least.

This and That

• It’s nice to see Seema and Adam all giggly in bed. There is no way Ravi Scarf was giving her orgasms like that. It’s also fun to see her simultaneously disgusted and amused by a man who uses rock crystals as deodorant and whose last name is Karma. I hope Adam Karma sticks around for a while.

• In case you were wondering, Miranda does have a brief but tense moment with a bottle of gin that Joy leaves at her apartment, but eventually, by the grace of Bi Bingo I’d like to believe, she winds up tossing the whole bottle down the trash chute.

• Patti LuPone is still around. Now Gia is trying to entice her son with a life of luxury if he drops Anthony by looking at NYC lofts to buy for him and some wildly expensive art pieces. Giuseppe knows exactly what she’s up to and so encourages Anthony to show Gia who he really is by cooking her a meal for just the two of them. This should be so good.

• Gah! I did actually laugh at Aidan’s “Dunkin’ Donuts” nickname for Duncan, but I’m cheesy, so that tracks. That’s on me.

• Do we think Duncan’s notes for Carrie’s novel are just “it’s missing plot and characters and also is boring”? Yes, I’m still over here laughing about his rave reviews for chapter one.

• I hope they brought Victor Garber back as Charlotte’s boss for more than one 30-second scene with Patti LuPone. Give us the goods!