Yahoo News ‘And Just Like That’ Season 2 Opens With a Surprising Cameo
As Elton John and Britney Spears’ “Hold Me Closer” played at the start of And Just Like That… Season 2, I’ll admit I squeaked. It’s the perfect choice: “Tiny Dancer” would’ve been in the air in the 1970s, when Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) was just a little girl, and Spears’ presence conjures memories of the late ’90s and early aughts—when both she and Sex and the City reigned supreme. Plus, for anyone who always hears the chorus as its most common misquote, Tony Danza has actually joined the cast. Clever!
This season, everyone’s staring down new beginnings: Carrie’s feeling out a situationship with her podcast producer, Franklyn, and learning how to poach eggs; Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) has uprooted her entire life to try out living with the infamous homewrecker Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez) in California; and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is trying to wrap her brain around the grown-ups her children are slowly becoming. No word on what poor Steve is up to now that Miranda’s dumped him, but he’ll probably show up later this season, whenever Aidan joins the mix.
And while a certain estranged publicist has not shown up for her cameo yet, the season premiere did end with nostalgia bait of another kind: finally, we know why Sarah Jessica Parker was caught filming this spring in Carrie’s old wedding dress—and with that teal bird back on her head. Just like the first time, she did it for Anna Wintour.
And Just Like That… Season 1 was a mixed bag, sometimes delightful and sometimes hellbent on making us all cringe. Miranda was struggling, Big died on a Peloton, and each principal character had suddenly made friends with a person of color after decades of lily-white cocktail parties. This season feels more natural, as we observe how each character confronts the shifting landscapes of middle age. Our best friends Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda, at least, feel more like themselves.
The new girlies are still, regrettably, mostly window dressing—apart from Che, of course. There’s documentarian Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker), a Park Avenue friend of Charlotte’s; Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury), Carrie’s real estate broker turned friend who is navigating a new relationship; and Miranda’s former professor Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman), whose marriage remains rocky after struggles with IVF. (As in, her estranged husband is hanging out with his back-up singer a lot during their tour.) As ancillary as they can sometimes be, these characters do feel a little more connected this season—especially when certain events bring all of them together. For instance: This week, at long last, we’re finally going to the Met Gala.
Well, Charlotte and Carrie are, along with Seema and Lisa. In classic form, Charlotte’s longtime bestie Anthony spends the episode on the edge of his seat waiting to find out if he gets to go as a plus one, only to happily accept his guest invite in the final minutes before the event. The theme of the night? “Veiled Beauty.” (Do we see the foreshadowing?)
As one would expect from And Just Like That… (or any SATC brand extension) the outfits are fabulous—or, at least, fabulously ridiculous. Charlotte’s in a clown tuxedo complete with a top hat, hot pink blazer, and black bustier, and her friend Lisa’s got a feathered headdress so wild that she must set her husband straight: “It’s not crazy—it’s Valentino.” It’s too bad Samantha’s still “in London” thanks to the cast’s long-standing reported feud, because hers is the outfit I’d have been most curious to see. (If Charlotte’s in a bustier, what the hell could we have expected from Sam?!)
There’s just one problem: Thanks to a bug that appears to have taken out every capable seamstress in the city, Carrie’s dress is still not ready on the day of the ball. One might pray that in a city with so many rodents, some might’ve shown up to help Cinderella style—but alas, this is not Enchanted. With only a teal cape completed and her actual dress in shambles, Carrie and her seamstress are just about to throw in the towel when inspiration strikes. It’s time to fish out the accurséd (but gorgeous) Vivienne Westwood dress she wore when Big left her at the altar—and a certain taxidermied accessory that inspired the line, “I put a bird on my head!”
Diehard fans likely remember the exact intonation in Carrie’s voice from that moment, and the slow-motion shower of white rose petals that hit the ground after Carrie beat Big with her bouquet after a quick limo chase. But for those who need a refresher: the dress came from Sex and the City’s first movie in 2008, in which Carrie infamously “let the wedding get bigger than Big.” The instigating factor that took Carrie from a simple wedding to a lavish, avian-accented affair at the New York Public Library? A Vogue cover shoot. Anna Wintour strikes again.
It’s probably just as well that Miranda wasn’t around for the Met Gala; it never would’ve been her scene anyway. Che is filming their first TV pilot, ¿Che Pasa? (yes, really), and while Miranda’s moved out west to support them, insecurities remain. I mean, did any of us really believe that Miranda would be satisfied with hanging around waiting for Che while trying out a sensory deprivation chamber? (She lasts about as long in that thing as you’d expect—which is to say, she clambered out the first time saltwater hit her eyes, cursing the “new her” she was trying to become.)
The relationship itself is not the issue, although Miranda understandably worries that it is as Che pulls away from her, refusing to be hugged. It turns out, Hollywood’s fatphobia has been chipping away at their self esteem—especially during costume fittings. Nevertheless, Miranda’s insecurity seems to persist.
Like last season, Miranda just seems kind of lost, both in her life and, at times, in the series. In Sex and the City, she was the diligent one—the one who was always on top of her shit (okay, at least most of the time) and therefore harshly judged others when they were not. Now, she’s unsure about everything, most of all herself. It’s realistic as hell, but at times, I just can’t help but wonder when we might get the old her back, even for a second. Some of us miss her!
At least Carrie appears to have rediscovered herself post-Big. Last season was rough, as she grieved his loss and vomited her way through her first date back in the game. By the time she puts on her old wedding dress, however, our girl is back in peak form. As she puts it on at the end of this week’s premiere, she’s “repurposed” her pain. With any luck, all her friends will find their own versions of that quick-thinking fashion maneuver to deal with the problems popping up in their own lives. The bird on Carrie’s head never will, but for all of these women, it’s time to take flight.
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Read more of our And Just Like That... coverage HERE.
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