'And Just Like That' Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: Che Finally Gets Roasted

The show responds to the internet's intense dislike of Che.

You can find all of Back Row’s And Just Like That recaps here.

We’re just about halfway through And Just Like That’s second season, and fans I’ve talked to seem divided over whether or not it’s getting better. I would argue that it is. Is it The Bear? No, but that’s not what anyone expects. We expect something of the quality of, what, Gossip Girl? If you’re still with our Samantha-less friends and wondering if the show runners are hearing the anti-Che cacophony, we know now that the answer is YES: this episode served a Che send-up on the sort of silver platter that you would only find in Charlotte’s house. Also, Carrie is back to dating wealthy, mediocre men; Miranda’s life is in shambles; and Harry has a wig.

Here’s a character-by-character recap.

Carrie

Miranda could have gone as Carrie’s typewriter. Can’t have been worse than being Che’s girlfriend.

The main reason Halloween seems to have been worked into the plot line is so that the writers had an excuse to give Harry a wig. Carrie decides to attend Charlotte’s Halloween charity fundraiser as Helen Gurley Brown, circa 1970. On the walk over, Miranda tells Carrie she didn’t realize she had dressed up, despite the metallic bows in her hair. With all the hats she’s wearing this season, Miranda’s right that the bows hardly stand out as costume.

At the party, between cringe dance sequences, Carrie agrees to go with Seema and Nya to a high-end hotel bar to meet men, but she has more success when she causes a man to crash his bike in the most ridiculous fictional bike-crashing scene that may have ever been televised. It was so absurd she may as well have knocked a nearby stack of TNT barrels into the road. Dressed like a fall Pinterest influencer in a fedora and plaid coat, Carrie stops in the bike lane as Seema tells her about hooking up with the liquor salesman with a penis pump. Dude on a bike who seems like he has ample warning that Carrie’s obstructing his path somehow just can’t slow down, turns to avoid her, and ends up splayed on the curb.

The boots are oddly #barbiecore.

Carrie blubbers about how sorry she is and how this was completely her fault. (Counterpoint: this man should not be allowed to ride a bike.) He grumbles about how his wrist hurts, and she takes him to the urgent care she once saw an Olsen twin patronize. Filling out his forms, she learns his name (George Campbell), his address, that he’s single, and that he has an angry work wife named Paul who FaceTimes him to ride his ass about finishing an app deck. This whole imagining of Gen X hustle culture is as absurd as the bike crash meet-cute and only gets worse as it goes along.

When his credit card is declined during checkout, Carrie assumes George Campbell is poor, inspiring her to go to his apartment for lunch one day with enough soup for six people. She’s surprised to walk in and see the place is enormous and filled with art, indicating that GC is, in fact, rich and that this show remains steadfast in its commitment to avoid showcasing the average Manhattan existence, devoid of lavishness. In this fantasy world, art collections and multimillion-dollar dwellings are had by all, including those we are led to believe are self-made yet still have enough time to go to Halloween parties and have long chatty lunches on random weekdays.

After GC admires Carrie’s delicate, not-broken wrist, they start kissing on the couch when Angry Paul walks in with George’s dry cleaning. Why he needs to pick up his dry cleaning makes no sense since they’re so busy with selling their fourth app and it could surely be — like just about everything else in NYC — delivered.

Paul is furious to find George kissing Carrie instead of grinding ass on that deck. Actually this is one thing the show has in common with The Bear season two (and if you haven’t watched it yet, skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid spoilers): the whole hackneyed plot line about how a man can have a job or a relationship but most certainly not both.

Carrie is about to sleep with GC when Pissy Paul FaceTimes because the app deck hasn’t been messengered. Again: it defies the imagination that two people who have gotten rich from selling apps do not know how to use WeTransfer. All Carrie wanted to do was get it on with broken-wristed George Campbell, but he answers the call during foreplay, making him the second romantic partner after Che to do so this season. Carrie decides to do what Miranda should have done long ago with Che and edit George Campbell out of her life. She slips out of his enormous apartment, declaring, “And just like that, George and I were over, but at least I got back on the bike.” I think we can all agree that the better kicker would have been: “And just like that, I realized: George wasn’t a feather in my app after all.”

Che and Miranda

This still looks like an ad for life insurance.

Many Sex and the City fans have complained since their introduction about how grating Che is. Arguably worse than their comedy is how they treat Miranda.