By Michele Yeo
“And just like that, Aidan and I were back on the same page.”
So says Carrie at the culmination of the most recent episode of And Just Like That indicating that she and Aidan are officially giving it yet another go. But will the third time be a charm for this formerly betrothed couple? And should it be?
Here’s what we know about present day Aidan Shaw: he currently lives in Virginia, he’s been divorced for five years, and he sold his longtime furniture company to West Elm for what Carrie referred to as, “a pretty penny” – because God forbid anyone in the And Just Like That universe not be obscenely wealthy, right? Carrie has not had contact with Aidan since they shared that clandestine kiss after unexpectedly bumping into each other in Abu Dhabi. We’re loath to mention their last on-screen encounter because the heinous war crime atrocity that was the second Sex and the City movie is NOT canon, but we digress.
When we last saw them on the series, Carrie had run into Aidan on the street as he waited for his wife Kathy with his new baby, Tate, in his arms. That episode aired in 2003 which makes Tate now 20-years-old. We know Aidan went on to have two more sons, Homer and Wyatt (these names!) before his eventual divorce and it’s safe to assume those boys now in their late teens.
So, are Carrie and Aidan set to pull a Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez and reunite all these years later? After all this time, are they really endgame? Will they finally get “Maui’d?” Does Carrie Bradshaw really want to be a stepmother of three? Sure, Aidan’s kids aren’t exactly “kids” anymore but can we really see her in this role? She seemed extremely ill at ease around The Russian’s daughter in Paris in season six (although the fact Chloe Petrovsky was a stuck up little bitch didn’t help) Carrie does seem to have a bond with Charlotte’s eldest daughter Lily – or she did last season, anyway – but if Miranda’s son Brady is anything to go by, boys of that age are a literal semen encrusted nightmare. Does Carrie want to deal with this?
When it comes to Aidan, Sex and the City diehards are definitely divided. Some see him as the antithesis of Big: a true down-to-Earth good guy, the one who got away, the one who Carrie mistreated and never truly deserved in the first place. Others see him as a manipulative multi-deodorant owning gaslighter who attempted to morph Carrie into something she wasn’t. Whether you were Team Aidan or Team Big – we’re just gonna assume there are no Team Bergers or Team Petrovskys out there in these streets – it’s hard to deny Carrie and Aidan were pretty mismatched. That said, if Executive Producer Michael Patrick King has taught us anything; it’s that literally anything is possible in the And Just Like That universe. I mean, did you ever see Miranda blowing up her life to chase America’s lamest and unfunniest “comedian” across the country?
It remains to be seen if absence really does make the heart grow fonder. Perhaps, over the past two decades, both Carrie and Aidan have evolved enough individually where they can meet somewhere in the middle? Or will Aidan still try and drag Carrie out to some ramshackle homicide hut in the woods where she’ll scream bloody murder at the mere sight of a squirrel? Maybe that sweet West Elm money afforded him an upgrade to something more in line with Carrie’s Hamptons vibes? We have four episodes left of season two to find out.
While we wait, we couldn’t help but wonder: was Charlotte right all those years ago? Maybe we really do only get two great loves in our life and with Big gone, perhaps it makes perfect sense that it’s back to Aidan for Carrie. Just keep that poor man away from a Peloton.
