And Just Like That… recap: RIP Che Pasa, we hardly knew ye
Could season two's halfway mark signal the end of Miranda and Che?
TV Reviews Che Pasa
Wait, it’s Halloween now? Time is wild on And Just Like That… because, if you recall, the last episode was in early summer with all the kids being shipped off to camp. But now, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is carving a pumpkin to decorate the stoop of the Brooklyn house she still shares with Steve (David Eigenberg) and Brady (Niall Cunningham). When is Steve moving out, as he said he would last episode, set months ago? Who knows. Miranda feels uncomfortable asking, so she spends her days schlepping between the Columbia campus, Brooklyn, and Che’s place in Hudson Yards. This is not a great arrangement to start with. Throw in that Miranda wakes up at 5 a.m. to start her day, but Che (Sara Ramirez) plays video games and gets high with their buddies until 4 a.m. It becomes a real whodunnit of what anyone is getting out of this relationship.
For the first time this season, though, all seven (!) of our women are in the same place at the same time at Charlotte’s (Kristin Davis) Halloween fundraiser. It strains the bounds of credibility—why would Seema (Sarita Choudhury) and Nya (Karen Pittman) agree to show up to this? I will let it slide for the joy of everyone being in one frame.
Miranda doesn’t dress up. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) goes as Cosmopolitan founder Helen Gurley Brown, but everyone gives her shit because she’s wearing an outfit she would have on any other day. Charlotte and Harry (Evan Handler) are The Americans’ Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings, with the episode having a running bit about no one knowing them because no one watched FX’s ingenious, Emmy-winning drama. “Smokey eye? Hair to one side? I look just like her!” Charlotte exclaims when no one appreciates her take on Keri Russell’s alter ego. (As someone who is also obsessed with The Americans and tries to actively ignore my similarities to Charlotte, why did And Just Like That… have to do me dirty like this?)
Nya, dressed in a catsuit, is irritated that hotter men aren’t around to appreciate her. Seema says she’ll take her to a better place for this. The women’s guesses include a sperm bank, a monastery, and a Marvel movie. No. The right answer is the lobby of a five-star hotel. Carrie tags along, which makes Miranda a little judgy (a trademark quality). I have to point out that she has no business judging anyone’s life choices right now. Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker) is dressed as Frankenstein’s bride, getting down on the dance floor with Anthony (Mario Cantone) in a devil costume. Herbert (Chris Jackson) shows up sans the George Washington costume she rented for him (I see you, Hamilton reference) because he feels like it’s not appropriate for someone running for office. He then scolds her for dancing with the devil—“It’s not very dignified”—and who is this man, Jonah Hill? Come on, guys, I liked your marriage. Later in bed, Lisa tells him he may be running for comptroller, but he does not “comptrol” her.
Meanwhile, Seema finally gets the Samantha Jones treatment. She meets a man at the hotel bar, and expresses she’s cool with his erectile dysfunction. Seema has seen penises that you can’t surprise her, but take that back because she is shocked when he pulls out a penis pump. She rolls with it! And she’s going to see him again because the pump was sandwiched between great foreplay and B+ sex, and she knows everyone has their baggage.
On the other hand, Carrie is shocked by the mere mention of the penis pump when Seema tells her about it over the phone that she stops in a bike lane, causing a man to crash. Yelling from the ground in his bike helmet, you can’t tell at first he’s hot, but you realize he’s Younger’s Charles Brooks when he stands up. Welcome to the show, Peter Hermann. Carrie sputters awkwardly and walks him and his bike to urgent care because his wrist is broken. She’s worried he’s going to sue her, especially once his credit card is declined at the counter (Ethics question: Shouldn’t she offer to pay? She caused the accident.). But he’s also unmarried and very cute.
These motivations mingle when she later shows up at his apartment, the size of a museum filled with art, to help with his app presentation due in a couple of days. Carrie realizes she’s bagged another rich guy, and they make out on the couch until his business partner, who has been with him since college, shows up and throws a little fit about their deadline. You will not be surprised to hear Carrie did not help with that presentation before bouncing.
Nya finds herself a hookup at the hotel bar and rides high on her first experience with no-strings sex since she met Andre in college and only dated her high school Model UN partner before that. She’s in such a good mood that when Miranda complains about her horrible sleeping situation, she offers her Andre’s music room, and the two become roommates. “We’re both going through divorces, so we’ll be like an angry Laverne and Shirley,” Miranda quips to Carrie. Miranda gently breaks this news to Che, who is wholly unbothered by the change because they’re focused on their upcoming pilot test.
Listening behind a two-way mirror, things start pretty well, with the group praising Tony Danza. Someone says that the crying sends a message it’s sad to be nonbinary, leading Che to cheer, “That’s what I said.” It goes south fast when a nonbinary person absolutely shits on the show, calling it cheesy, sanitized, and a dad joke-saturated take on what it means to be nonbinary. So basically, it’s everything critics and viewers were saying about Che Diaz during AJLT… season one. The camera pans in on Ramirez’s face, and the heartbreak feels pretty personal, as if the show says, “Look how you made us feel last year!” I mean, didn’t someone realize a multi-cam sitcom called Che Pasa with a studio audience was not going to pan out in 2023? This isn’t an indictment of your identity as a queer person, Che. It’s an indictment of your talent as a comedian. Is that better?
Either way, Che Pasa is dead, and Che is crushed. Miranda rants, blaming everyone from the test group to corporate America, but it’s not what her partner needs. They ask for space, not just for the night, but for a couple of days. Miranda looks shaken but tries to be supportive. Could this be the end of the couple after their fight from two episodes evaporated? Could Miranda shortly be single, queer, and actually have to process what she did to blow up her life instead of just clinging to her most recent orgasm? It could be nice.
Let’s check back on Seema having sex with her penis pump dude. He gets off, but she does not. She reaches into her drawer to grab a vibrator and finish the job. He is immediately critical of the device, so she throws the pump in his face. “Not cool,” he yells, stalking off. Not missing a beat, Seema continues with the vibrator. A queen. More for Seema to do that isn’t just her giving Carrie advice, please. Speaking of, after a date with bike guy George, she ends up back at his place, making out in his bed. But the phone rings and it’s his partner again. Where’s the pitch deck? Oh no, he forgot to send it over. George leaves the room to deal with the deck and leaves his partner alone with Carrie on FaceTime. Side note: Why do these two grown men call each other over video? My husband will barely send his best friends a text.
The partner complains about George to Carrie, leading her to sneak out and dump George on the way out, claiming he’s in a marriage with his friend. “It’s not like that,” he responds from another room. “We’re more like Lennon and McCartney.” Carrie replies, “That makes me Yoko, so I’m going to go.” It’s a classic Sex and the City dealbreaker, but was I the only one who wondered if she should maybe wait until their pitch meeting is over in two days? This situation might calm down after a stressful event, but maybe I have a soft spot for Younger’s Charles.
Stray observations
- Why would Lisa go all-out as the bride of Frankenstein and not have Herbert dress up as Frankenstein’s monster?
- Charlotte and Harry’s plotline in this episode (outside of The Americans) is that Rock (Alexa Swinton) got scouted by Ralph Lauren and goes in to do a photoshoot. Charlotte is over the moon, and Harry is suspicious that it’s a scam, so he sneaks onto set in his The Americans wig until Charlotte tells him he better leave before Rock sees him or he’ll never be the fun parent again. These two are ridiculous, but their plotlines are the only ones that feel true to the characters in this show.
- Several lines made me chuckle this week, more in the vein of Sex and the City’s clever humor. One example is George’s “I’ll say hi to the Olsens.” But this episode also had Che saying, “I’m not trying to have curry-lingus later,” as Miranda sweated over Indian food, so all those points were immediately lost.
42 Comments
OK, I honestly don’t understand why ANYONE would ever wake up at 5 a.m unless you have a truly nightmarish commute. I never understood this trend. When do these people go to bed? 9PM?
Funnecessary, given that the time stamp if your comment is in the 5am hour
LMAO. Didn’t notice that. (I’m on CEDT)
I have struggled with insomnia since I was about five years old and my parents divorced. Whether those are related, I am not sure, but the split housing didn’t help. In my early 30s I got sober and discovered that my insomnia was worse than I thought. So rather than tossing and turning until 7 am, I started getting up at 4:45 am to work out, do yoga, and write fiction before my partner woke up and I had to make breakfast, lunch, etc.It’s actually worked out very well for me. It didn’t solve my insomnia, and yes I go to bed around 9 pm, but I find it more fulfilling than wasting away in bed.
Waking up early is actually easier for me than staying up late. Just the way my sleep patterns work.
I don’t get it either but my mom worked for a newspaper so she had to be in at 6am when I was a kid and I have a friend that helps disabled school kids so her workday starts at like 6:30.It sucks, I would never take a job that required it, but someone’s gotta do it I guess.
My mom wakes up at 5am and, yeah, she goes to bed at 9pm each night. For her, it was necessary when she had young kids and a long commute, and after 18 years of it, her body just wakes up at 5am now. She doesn’t set an alarm and she always complains that she wishes she could sleep in some days, but it’s no longer a choice.
I got the same issues but it’s 6 am for me. No matter when I go to bed I’m up at 6 am.
Miranda did have a kid and a job at one point. Some of it probably was necessary and now its habit.
My husband gets up anywhere between 3:45am – 5:15am, naturally. He also tends to fall asleep on the couch by 7:30pm at the latest. Unfortunately, this means I mostly also wake up very early when he starts doing his morning routine and, consequently, go to bed around 8:30pm because my sleep is precious to me.
a lot of my busier friends, particularly entertainment management, really love the few hours respite in the morning before the emails start flying. many of them say their fave time of day is between 5 and 8 in the morning.
Yep, early morning is a time when nobody wants anything, and goddamn that can be nice.It’s also good if you’re the sort of person who wakes up… ungracefully. It gives you some time to get it together before you actually have to do anything.I say all this as a terminally late sleeper. But on the rare occasion I just wake up really early, I wind up enjoying the time.
I don’t think it’s a trend. Some people’s circadian rhythms just work that way. My dad, for one (he is, incidentally, a farmer, so it’s ingrained at this point).(also I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t watch this show. I think I just read the recaps like someone observing a train wreck.)
I’m up like clockwork at 530am (usually go to bed about 1130pm). 6 hours sleep is all I need. I love the early am to relax with coffee on the patio, watch the news for a bit, get some work done before everyone else logs on and is bugging me, and sometimes go to the gym.
Can’t sleep.
Yes. I go to bed at 9 and get up at 5. I have little kids so I get alone quiet time in the morning!
Show continues to make we wonder why any of the three core characters are worth rooting for. I get you wanted flawed heroes except their characteristics of being self centered and self focused isn’t told as selfish but heroic. As pointed out, Carrie abandoning her boyfriend because of a deadline is a very Carrie thing to do and its never presented as “are you stupidly impatient?!” and instead is presented as “empowerment!” It was fine when the character was a 30 something figuring out what she wanted, from a 50 something its just childish and self-centered.
As for Che character, please be writing her out, please be writing her out (she is not being written out). Agree, rather explore Miranda having a crisis by truly being single for the first time in decades and having to figure her own shit out. in her 50s. There is drama to mine there that I suspect the series writers are too afraid to go too.
But also hasn’t Carrie’s boyfriend been her boyfriend for like a minute here? I don’t have expectations of being the center of my boyfriend’s life when we’re below our 5th date.I also appreciate that they wanted to let Miranda explore a queer identity, likely in part to be true to the actress playing her, but at the same time, it would also be great to see two adults work on their marriage.
I’ve been saying, that first season had an easy out with Che and Steve both being fine with polyamory, the only conflict being that Miranda refused to come clean, and Miranda being the one that flinched and blew up her marriage. Now they’re just introducing Miranda and the audience to possible threesomes and Steve’s abs with no context or reflection and I’m like, “What are we doing here, AJLT?”
You don’t have to like Che, but they are nonbinary and use they/them pronouns. Which is also true for the actor.
the covid episode was classic selfish Carrie tho, some of her choices now feel a little confusing because she lost a lot of her edge in the new series. But yet, I return weekly, because I still see those glimpses of our girls.
The guy Carrie left wasn’t even a boyfriend. Just some random guy she made out with.I’d be good with Che being written out, but not holding my breath.
This isn’t an indictment of your identity as a queer person, Che. It’s
an indictment of your talent as a comedian. Is that better?
This is my favorite thing you’ve ever said LOL (and so true)
Of course these losers never saw the Americans…
Welcome to the show, Peter Hermann.I read that and wanted it to be an adult acting Paul Reubens. Although I guess the precedent is set at it being P.W. Herman.
Side note: Why do these two grown men call each other over video?They do it because the show is a visual media and audio would be less effective for the scene.I do it because it is aggressive, annoying and the recipient is generally unhappy that I choose to do Facetime 😀
Do people answer unsolicited facetime calls?
More often than you would believe, although my experience is that some are selective in the location where they would accept the call.I also do stupid stuff like sending a selfie of myself at the door to a friend’s place, instead of ringing the doorbell or knocking.It’s a whole thing aimed at just annoying my friends.
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL KRISTIN DAVIS TO STOP SCREAMING HER LINES??? I TYPED THIS IN ALL-CAPS SO YOU, TOO, CAN FEEL WHAT IT’S LIKE LISTENTING TO KRISTIN DAVIS SCREAM HER LINES!!!!
I know this show is terrible and shouldn’t be taken seriously, but can we please not put spoilers in the friggin’ titles??
I doubt there was a single viewer who had the slightest interest in the fate of Che’s sitcom.
There’s no way you were that invested in Che’s stupid sitcom.
I don’t watch this but is that a major character death spoiled in the headline of a review….? That’s a reason to stop coming to AV Club.
No, its the death of their in universe sitcom. Not the character themselves
Why does this show keep straight up killing characters why can’t they just leave elsewhere? So randomly morbid.
They’re not. They do have Stanford off in Japan after having divorced his husband because the actor who plays him died in real life. Mr. Big was the only main character who was killed off, which was probably for the best, considering the subsequent allegations of harrassment against the actor.
They killed Che’s show, not Che.
I actually got a couple of chuckles from this episode (angry Laverne & Shirley worked for me), but I still think it suffers from the long episodes. In the original series, the guy with the broken wrist and over-involved business partner would have been wrapped up more quickly with a couple of good quips from Carrie, and the Rock/Ralph Lauren thing would have been shorter too.It’s hard to believe Carrie never tried to pick up guys in a fancy hotel bar before. She was in just about every other kind of bar in the previous series.
A step up if only to see Che get her just desserts. So is King going to continue to insists viewers just don’t “get” her, or is this the beginning of the end for this trainwreck of a character?
So, nobody is questioning why an app pitch deck needed to be printed/messengered a la 1975? Two tech guys wouldn’t be working with a shared cloud file?
Yes! And what is it with financially successful men not sending important things driving plot points? Party invitations, app decks, lazy writing?
yeah that was really weird. Further proof that the writers of the show haven’t spoken to a non-showbiz person in a few years.