Episode Four: valley of the twenty-something guys

Ahh, Twenty-Something Sam, my second favorite of Carrie’s single-episode boyfriends (ergo Big, Aidan, Berger, Aleksandr, and the peeing politician do not count, because they were in multiple episodes). This would be Timothy Olyphant, from Gone in Sixty Seconds, Scream 2, First Wives Club (with SJP) and, according to imdb.com, Deadwood. Okay, this is really embarrassing, but I never realized that was him in the lead role. Whoops.

This episode also starts “Once upon at time…” but then goes in to Carrie and Big’s story. She keeps comparing him to a crossword puzzle, which I like. “Men in their forties are like the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle: tricky, complicated, and you’re never really sure you got the right answer.”

I guess they’re contrasting this with Twenty-Something Sam, who is constantly compared to an addictive drug. “Yes, Samantha, Miranda and I were all recreational users,” Carrie says, and “Why the sudden craving?” It’s funny, because Sam’s twenty-something dialog, especially when he’s recounting his Unicorn Woman dream to Carrie, is something you don’t get to hear a lot on SATC.

Oh, this episode also has the “Mrs. Up the Butt” conversation. Supposedly it is a landmark conversation with the four of them in the back of that cab, but I think they are a bit too hysterical (in the high-strung sense, not the funny sense) about the whole topic.