Episode Eighteen: ex and the city

Okay, favorite episode of the season. It’s just a classic, with the whole Hubble conversation and Big going for the straight-haired girl. I did rent The Way We Were back when I first saw this episode, but I didn’t like it. I may need to watch it again.

The whole theme of this episode is gettting back on the horse that threw you, or, as the voiceover puts it, “back in the saddle again.” Miranda sort of gets back with Steve, Charlotte literally rides a horse, and Samantha dates a too-well-hung guy that snorts like a horse. And Carrie gives Big a prepared speech (she actually consults her notes) about them being friends.

I love how in the restaurant scene, when she stands up and starts yelling at Big for getting engaged, that she’s wearing a pink dress in a room full of people wearing black and gray.

Another pot reference, Samantha again: “a hit of the best Hawaiian Gold she could find.”

And the horse’s name is Pal. That’s just fitting for an episode about “being friends.”

I read on imdb that the props department wrote “Boris and Natasha” on the inside of Big’s engagement invite, which caused SJP to laugh for five minutes straight.

After they sing “Memories” and Samantha cries out that she misses James, you would think that James comes back into the picture. But no, we never see him again. That’s such a weird thing to have her say and then have nothing come of it.

Big never says why he’s getting married to Natasha and not Carrie. She asks “why wasn’t it me?” and he answers “I don’t know. It just got so hard. And she’s…” He trails off, but Carrie says “yeah,” like she knows he was trying to say that Natasha is simple. In all honesty, Natasha’s got a lot of class, just sitting quietly in the car while her fiancee’s ex-girlfriend accosts him outside of their engagement party. Seen from Natasha’s eyes, Carrie is already a bitch, and that’s not even taking into consideration what will eventually happen between Carrie and Natasha’s husband.

We’re left with another summary statement that’s meant to empower single women: “Maybe some women aren’t meant to be tamed. Maybe they need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with.”