Episode Twelve: oh come all ye faithful

So we learn in this episode that Carrie writes every Sunday while Mr. Big is taking his mother to church. It makes sense that his mother lives in New York, since he’s supposed to be Mr. Manhattan. Carrie is really bull-headed about meeting his mother, and I don’t blame him for being pissed at her for showing up at church.

The scene where Samantha meets James in the jazz club is supposed to be taken from Kim Catrall’s real life. I think she and that husband are divorced now. I saw this episode in Spanish, and I remember the line “Cuando chupalo…” Now there’s a useful phrase.

The past two episodes have shown a really obnoxious side of Carrie, and it brings to mind an advice column I saw in a teen magazine once. I wish I could remember which one it was, or that I had clipped the column, because it was really significant. A girl had written in and said she had no self-esteem and how could she become more confident? Instead of answering with some fluff about recognizing how great you really are, the agony aunt actually responded that maybe the girl had no reason to be confident. Sort of saying ‘don’t worry about self-confidence, just self-honesty and acceptance.’

That’s what these past two episodes make me think of regarding Carrie and Big. It’s supposed to be about Carrie finding someone to love her for the fabulous person she is, but she’s honestly not that fabulous. Really, if you’re that neurotic, maybe you should just take what you can get? We know they wind up together in the end, but I think they both have a lot of growing up to do, not just him.

He asks her: “what are you trying to do, test me?” and he’s right, that’s exactly what she was doing. If she hadn’t gone to church to spy on him, she wouldn’t have been introduced to his mother as “a friend.” Big talks a lot about timing with her, as in ‘don’t rush me, bitch.’

I’m not saying Big should take the lead in the relationship, but she’s complaining ‘I can’t get inside’ and wanting to be told she’s ‘the one,’ and they’ve been together less than a year. It’s all about ‘finding someone to love me for who I am,’ but if you find yourself acting like a crazy person in front of a guy you really like, shouldn’t you start looking at fixing yourself?