‘And Just Like That…’ Season 2, Episode 5 Was Full of Hudson Yards Hookups, Ralph Lauren Street Style, and Meta Che Hate

This week’s episode of And Just Like That… is half really good and half totally boring, but the two halves are sort of Vitamixed together instead of being cleanly separable. I love Rock’s Ralph Lauren modeling gig and Carrie getting back out there dating-wise, but I am sooooooo over the Che and Miranda plotline, and, as usual, Lisa gets short shrift. Anyway, let’s dive in, shall we?

1. Again, I am so over Che and Miranda.
2. I think they might be too, to be fair.
3. Miranda taking the 7 from Che’s apartment in Hudson Yards in the morning is grim.
4. I thought Brady was in college. Why is he home? The pumpkin pancakes they’re making indicate that it’s October.
5. Carrie dressing up as Helen Gurley Brown for Halloween is another attempt to flesh out her new socially conscious identity (first introduced when she met Gloria Steinem last week), and it’s weird.
6. Charlotte and Harry dressing up as the couple from The Americans is pretty iconic.
7. Four girls on the town again! Sure, Charlotte and Samantha aren’t there, but…four girls on the town again!
8. Oh nooo, Anthony runs into some guy he hooked up with at the gym, who in fact has a wife.
9. Oh, God, Chris Jackson dressed in a powdered wig is triggering my Hamilton nightmares.
10. Rock got scouted by a modeling agent?! I told you they were well-dressed.
11. OMG, it’s for Ralph Lauren.
12. What a weird way for Rock to make their mother proud! I kind of love it, though.
13. “Last time I went to a bar to meet a man, my phone folded,” is a perfect Carrie line.
14. Seema met a guy! In a bar! He reps gin!
15. Bro, a penis pump? What is this, Austin Powers?
16. Okay, it’s just one more sign of Miranda and Che’s incompatibility that they go to bed at such different times—but also, it is hard when you and your partner are on different sleep schedules!
17. A guy swerves to avoid Carrie in a bike lane and wipes out, which triggers my latent fear of city biking, which is something I enjoy doing, so I skip this scene. I think it’s a meet-cute, though?
18. Is that…Mariska Hargitay’s husband, a.k.a. “The Hair” from 30 Rock?
19. Okay, we’ve established that he’s not gay and he’s in tech, so he’s officially a romantic interest for Carrie.
20. Isn’t Aidan supposed to be back this season? Where’s Aidan, man?
21. LMAO, I forgot Charlotte was a teen model.
22. My standards should be higher, but it really is nice to see Charlotte and Harry seamlessly use their kid’s correct name and pronouns.
23. LOL at Nia seamlessly switching from post-sex gossip mode to intimidating-professor mode.
24. Oh shit, bike-accident guy is rich. Share the wealth, Carrie!
25. Couch makeout for Carrie and Rich Bike-Accident Guy! Score, as they say (or did in 1992).
26. Oh, shit, his annoying business partner ruins things.
27. Aw, Rock brought Charlotte (in head-to-toe vintage Ralph) to their shoot because they’re a nice kid.
28. LMAO, Harry sneaks in in his fake hair and a sweatshirt to pose as a creep, but the photographer tells him to fuck off.
29. Not meta Che criticism!!!!!!
30. There’s something ungenerous about how this show is oh-so-subtly depicting criticism of Che, I gotta say.
31. Carrie and Rich Bike-Accident Guy are hooking up again, but he’s yelled at yet again by his business partner for forgetting to send something over. Get out of there, Carrie!
32. Carrie brilliantly takes my advice to get out of there and ends up slipping out of his house and down the street.
33. So, they really end every episode with “And just like that…,” huh?