The Carrie Bradshaw We Know Would Never Send That Email

[Editor's Note: This post contains spoilers for And Just Like That... Season 2, Episode 6, "Bomb Cyclone."]

Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) must be going through an unidentified sixth stage of grief: memory loss. It’s the only explanation for why she would think sending her embarrassing “Hey stranger” email to Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) is a remotely good idea.

“And just like that, I realized,” she says at the end of Episode 6, “some relationships are meant to stay in the past, and some aren’t.” She seems to have completely forgotten what happened last time she attempted to resurrect a connection with the smug carpenter. Remember Abu Dhabi? That’s where Aidan showed Carrie a picture of his “jug band” children, talked about his current wife, then kissed her despite it all, not to mention her husband was still in the picture. This is a man who, when brought back from the past, only causes trouble — and if everyone’s being honest with themselves, the original relationship was riddled with more bad memories than good. So why does Carrie keep going back? And why would she do that now?

Even the episode leading up to the email being sent offers little sufficient evidence. If Aidan comes to mind because everyone is talking about their exes, write the email, sure — it’s a therapeutic exercise worth doing to deal with intrusive thoughts (and Aidan is definitely an intrusive thought). Seema (Sarita Choudhury) accidentally hitting send on the email causing Carrie to spiral? Classic shenanigan. But Carrie, in sound mind and body, pressing that little paper airplane in Apple Mail (of course she uses Apple Mail)? It doesn’t add up.

Carrie is finally in a rhythm of her own. She’s building a blossoming friendship with her equally single friend Seema — in fact, after Che (Sara Ramírez) and Miranda’s (Cynthia Nixon) breakup at the end of this episode, she’s once again surrounded by mostly single people, giving them all the prime opportunity to date and sleep around and explore what is out there, just like they did 25 years ago. As And Just Like That…’s already shown, there’s a lot to be explored when it comes to dating in your 50s, and Carrie seems to be enjoying getting out there with her wingpeople by her side — that’s how she finally got COVID after all.

It’s natural to be curious about an ex, and at least Carrie did her due diligence to satisfy that curiosity first. According to the internet, Aidan’s living in Virginia, got divorced five years ago, and sold his furniture company to West Elm. What more is there to know? She has Google for any other updates, she doesn’t need to make contact, especially not with a man who is in Virginia. And after all the trouble Aidan caused in her relationship with Big, the whole thing seems pretty disrespectful to her dead husband, no matter how flawed he may have been as well.

At some point while Carrie was out in a snow storm in the most impractical coat ever sported by someone who’s been through more than 30 New York City winters, did she wish someone was there to roll their eyes at her? Because that’s what Aidan would do. Or maybe she yearned for an all-too-rustic man to shovel a path before her to make room for that puffer train. Wishful thinking, Aidan would have begged Carrie to stay home and stare at a crackling fire or something equally as boring. Did the very existence of the Widow Wand vibrator make her desperate to reach out to a sure thing for some human intimacy? Well, if that’s the case, she might be on the right track. Aidan is the type who will always come crawling back. Now that the email’s been sent, it’s only a matter of time before that dirtbag shows up to probably ruin everything again.

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Brianna Wellen is a TV Reporter at Primetimer who became obsessed with television when her parents let her stay up late to watch E.R.