And Just Like That… The Finale Made Sense

I have not been able to stop thinking about And Just Like That’s season finale since I watched it last Friday morning, August 15 (we get the episodes a day after they are aired in the US). I found it unexpectedly moving, and the last scene made me tear up, tears of joy. I’ve now watched that episode 3 times, and teared up each time.

This show has been mostly mocked ever since its first season in 2021, and most of it is deserved, there was too much cringe and trying too hard to be culturally and socially topical in a way that came across as forced or frivolous. But I still enjoyed watching it, spending time with the old and new characters and seeing how they’re navigating life as middle aged women. Season 2 was a bit better, and I thought the last few episodes of season 3 were actually good, the characters and the writing really felt much more in line with Sex and the City. It was sad to know the series would end at season 3 and I didn’t know what to expect in the last episode.

Turns out almost everyone hated the finale and was mocked even more, mostly claiming it as unresolved. But I thought the ending was perfect, and most importantly, realistic.

I won’t get into the entire episode, but will just reflect on the last scene. It’s the end of Thanksgiving Day, we get glimpses of how everyone is carrying on with their daily lives, and some having to deal with new challenges. Carrie returns to her house after a hectic day at Miranda’s thanksgiving meal. She’s probably glad she’s come back to a quiet home, and realizing she has a good life - she’s healthy, has her own home with a garden in Manhattan, a successful writer, (more than) enough income, a great wardrobe, and lives in her favorite city and has good friends.

She also has a moment of clarity and rewrites the epilogue for her new novel, and changes the possibility of her main character finding new love, to remaining single. “The woman realized she’s not alone - she’s on her own.” a line that will surely be in the history books of memorable quotes from TV.

I’m really glad the show ended this way. Not everyone finds a love partner to share their lives with, not everyone gets to find their happy ever after with someone. And that’s ok. We need more of this to be shown and celebrated and not as a sad ending or a sad way to live.

I also loved that Carrie was wearing a dark pink tulle skirt, an homage to the white tutu we first saw her in Sex and the City, and hearing the theme from that show in the end credits was another lovely homage to the show.

I know I’m in the minority who think the finale was actually good, and was glad to find two pieces that thought the same. Below are extracts from the two articles, and I’ve linked to each one where you can read the whole thing.

British Vogue: The Ending Of And Just Like ThatWas… Just Right, Actually by Olivia Petter

“As a character who has perennially been defined by her pursuit of men, Carrie concluding the series as a single woman feels like a bold and deeply refreshing choice. Of course, living happily without a romantic partner shouldn’t be seen as a radical act, particularly not in 2025. And yet, as AJLT points out by way of the rather creepy doll placed opposite Carrie when she dares to go out for dinner on her own in the finale, single women are still treated like broken parts that need to be put back together again, especially if they have the audacity to age beyond 27.”

“The irony is that Carrie’s life is objectively incredible. She has a successful career. Decades-long friendships with kind, funny and remarkably patient women. And let’s not forget that Gramercy Park mansion. She even has a cat. That’s a lot of love, safety and joy to be surrounded by. And all of it exists without any of the anxieties that come from relentlessly pursuing relationships with men.

Carrie isn’t waiting for anyone to text her back. Nor is she agonising over someone else’s ex-wife, or desperately trying to decode an emoji. Instead, she’s bopping around in her home listening to Barry White’s “You’re The First, The Last, My Everything”, a song typically played at weddings. But here she is, enjoying it on her own, because being happily single is just as worthy a celebration. The final message, then, is a much-needed one of hope and strength. And a reminder that Carrie has a full life, with or without a man. She always did.”

Vanity Fair: And Just Like That’s Finale Was Messy, but Maybe Just Right by Richard Lawson

“It seems important that And Just Like That remind us of the messy ramble of Carrie and her friends, their ongoing and ever-evolving existences nattering away long after their lives onscreen are supposed to be settled—fixed things gliding off in perfect harmony, far past the end credits.”

“From a TV-watching perspective, it’s also a welcome jolt to be challenged in our expectation of what a finale should be…its refusal to really resolve things in the most easily audience-satisfying way, echoes the most stirring and fascinating sentiment of its last season.”

“But then, a few episodes before the end, (Michael Patrick) King released Carrie from that conventional TV wisdom—from the Big vs. Aidan binary, from the fan-service demands of nostalgia reboot culture. Nope: turns out Carrie was not fated to cling to either Big or Aidan forever. There was a secret third way, or infinite other ways. That’s a rather nice and mature and self-reflective bit of writing on the show’s part—a meta acknowledgment that the series itself had fallen into the trap of assumed inevitability, and then had to climb its way out of it.”

“AJLT did convincingly assert that Carrie only needs herself, and her friends, and her mind, and her talent, and her shoes. And whatever else she might use to carry herself into the great whatever.”