Warning: This article contains spoilers for “Present Tense,” the Season 3, Episode 9 episode of “And Just Like That,” now streaming on HBO Max.
Anyone hoping Carrie Bradshaw and Aidan Shaw would find their happily ever after in each other got their dream squashed by the end of the July 24 episode of “And Just Like That…”
After acknowledging that problems from their past had resurfaced to haunt their rekindled romance, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Aidan (John Corbett) decided to call it quits — for good.
Aidan was forced to admit that Carrie’s current friendship with her neighbor, fellow author Duncan (Jonathan Cake), had stirred up his “trust issues” that began long ago when Carrie cheated on him with Big (Chris Noth) during their characters’ “Sex and the City” years.
Aidan’s insecurities about Carrie’s fidelity didn’t sit well with Carrie given that Aidan had also recently confessed that he’d slept with his ex-wife.
The two end up ditching their lunch plans at their favorite cafe in New York City to have a blowout fight on a nearby sidewalk.
In her frustration, Carrie pointed out to Aidan that she’d “moved mountains and apartments” to be in a long-distance relationship with him while he remained in Virginia with his sons.
“I have agreed to arrangements — arrangements that even you yourself couldn’t live up to. I was 100 percent in,” she yelled.
“Wait, stop, was or are? Because you just said ‘I was one hundred percent’ in. Is it was or are you still 100 percent in?” Aidan asked.
After pausing for a moment, Carrie answered, sadly, “Was.”
“I can’t give you any more than I have,” Carrie said. “And it wasn’t enough. And there’s all the family stuff. I’m sorry but there is.”
With tears in his eyes, Aidan told Carrie, “I’m sad. I really thought we were going to make it this time.”
“I’m sad too,” Carrie replied before the two embraced.
“AJLT” writers Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky — the same duo who penned Carrie and Aidans’s original breakup scene for “SATC” — opened up to Variety about writing their the couple’s final scene for “Present Tense.”
Rottenberg, who also directed the episode, said she and Zuritsky — who have been friends since childhood — had “been writing these characters for so long that we know all of their Achilles’ heels.”
The duo worked hard to “rebuild” Carrie and Aidan’s relationship “in a way that felt new,” Rottenberg told Variety.
“They had both really matured and were evolved enough to address their inherent flaws and know their pitfalls,” she said.
“We wanted to give them the best shot to make it work. And the reality was, given who they both are and the situation they’re in, we built an untenable situation,” she continued, adding, “But we wanted them both to have a strong argument — to be able to walk away and say, I gave it everything I could, and it didn’t work.”
The writing duo also knew it was important to show how much Carrie had evolved since she and Aidan dated the first time around.
“I remember reading press last season when we got them back together — not even press, but buzz, scanning social media comments. So many people were like, She better not hurt him again, or How is she going to hurt him?” Zuritsky said.
“That was always ringing in my ears as a challenge,” she added.
Being aware ahead of time that Carrie and Aidan “probably” wouldn’t last in “AJLT” forced the duo to wonder, “How can we undo it in a way that left both of them with their dignity, their integrity, their love — and no one betrays anyone?”
Still, dealing with viewers’ reactions always keeps the duo on their toes.
“It’s wild! I can’t think of another situation where people have a real ownership and possessiveness about the character — there’s almost a blurring of the lines that they’re people viewers know and feel protective of,” explained Rottenberg.
“If we write a story that portrays Carrie in a certain light, people feel That’s not my Carrie and Carrie would never put up with this,” she added.
Zuritsky chimed in to add, “And sometimes there’s discomfort around the fact that they haven’t changed. I will read just as much snark about Carrie being just same old self as snark that she’s changed too much.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
