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It was always going to end this way. There was just no way Carrie and Aidan were ever going to work this time around. Not from the moment he refused even to try to spend time in her old apartment, instead pushing her to move. And certainly not from the moment he asked her to wait for him for five years in New York while he sorted out his family issues in Virginia. To be honest, the first sign that this was all headed for tragedy was the fact that he originally rolled into town in that batshit-crazy jacket. The jacket was tragic on so many levels, it seems. The jacket was the tell. While we all might have been frustratingly aware that this relationship was terrible for everyone involved from the beginning, it takes one last thing for those two bozos to realize this isn’t ever going to work: extended time together.

Although it’s against my nature to side with Carrie Bradshaw, the woman has a point here. A good one! She did ask Aidan to stay out of her working relationship with Duncan. Sure, one could argue that this is a ridiculous rule — Aidan is her boyfriend and he isn’t allowed to talk to the man who lives downstairs and she is working with? Still, instead of having a discussion with Carrie about it, he, as Carrie puts it, “barrels through” the boundaries she’s set. She finds Aidan sitting out in the garden having a coffee with Duncan one morning and she immediately gets her back up about it. When Aidan starts badgering the guy about smoking a pipe — which, honestly, is a legitimate question and we were all thinking it — the look she shoots him is so searing, and her embarrassment so palpable, I’m surprised she doesn’t break up with him right there.

In a real moment of clarity and understanding, though (this isn’t sarcasm!), Carrie admits to Seema that she knows Aidan is acting this way because of the trust issues that destroyed their relationship after Carrie cheated the last time they were together. When it comes to Aidan, it will always be about Big. The moment Carrie admits to this, you know this relationship isn’t lasting this episode. And yet, not wanting to dampen the mood now that Aidan is finally in New York for an extended period of time, Carrie puts off confronting this truth. And then things get worse.

While Carrie and Duncan have one of their evening writing sessions in his apartment, Aidan shows up. Carrie stops him at the door, but he’s relentless about cooking dinner for all three of them. She isn’t interested in dinner, she won’t be home until late, so he should go. She doesn’t yell please get the hell out, but I did! Aidan is annoyed. He’s so annoyed that he just leaves all those nice steaks sitting out uncooked on the counter. He’s so annoyed that when Carrie finally comes home, explains that she didn’t want to cut her session short because Duncan has been so generous with his time on her work, and then crawls on top of him, he tells her to get away because she smells like smoke. The tone is so insulting, I became fully Team Carrie in a matter of seconds. Carrie became Team Carrie, finally. She does take a shower, but she goes into the spare bedroom. Even when Aidan comes knocking on the door to tell her she’s being ridiculous and should come to bed, she stays strong. She’s not sleeping anywhere near him tonight.

The next morning, she’s still angry. The two go at it about how Aidan is acting around Duncan, and she finally calls him out on how this whole thing is about Aidan not being able to trust her around another man. Then she leaves in a huff for therapy — or shoe shopping. When Aidan texts her later to meet him for lunch, she goes, and there is no foreplay here; they get right into the heart of it: Yes, Aidan admits, he does have trust issues when it comes to her and other men. Carrie calls out the use of “have” and how that means those old trust issues aren’t old trust issues. They are still very much a problem. She has to remind him that she hasn’t done anything with Duncan. She hasn’t cheated. It’s absolutely insane that she doesn’t bring up how he just slept with his ex-wife, but alas, she does not. She does, however, yell at him to stop blaming her for cheating on him with Big and runs off.

When he chases after her, she really lets him have it. “How dare you!” she starts until she launches into a speech about how she has done everything she can to earn his trust this time. She literally moved out of her apartment for him! She agreed to five years! How has she not earned his trust yet? “I was 100 percent in!” she yells. And it’s true: It’s been frustrating as a viewer to watch how 100 percent in she’s been. But Aidan catches the verb tense in her sentence, too, and asks if she really means “was.” “I can’t give you anymore than I have, and it wasn’t enough,” she tells him. She meant “was.” They are both teary-eyed as they realize what this means. Aidan does say he “really thought [they] were gonna make it this time,” and I did laugh out loud. Both bereft, they stand there holding each other on the street. She goes home to her cat and tosses those Virginia postcards. She puts on a little dress and heads out to dinner with her girlfriends. She is officially moving past Aidan Shaw. The end of an era. But I don’t care how many moody Taylor Swift songs you toss on top of it — in this case, it’s “How Did It End?” — this doesn’t feel sad. It feels liberating. It is a relief. Carrie Bradshaw is free.

With such a momentous occasion taking up the bulk of the episode, everybody else is relegated to a scene or two (or in Seema’s case, two and a half) to further along their story lines because And Just Like That … doesn’t believe in solid story structure. The most affecting of these is Seema’s. I kid! That woman is trapped in that deodorant story line from the previous episode. How they wrung two episodes of material out of Seema’s boyfriend wanting her to use crystals as deodorant is a real miracle. Or whatever the opposite of a miracle is, when you think about it. Honestly, I hope they keep it going at this point. But no, the most affecting of these almost-subplots is Miranda’s.

When Joy notices her bottle of gin missing from Miranda’s apartment, Miranda tries to make up a story about what happened, but quickly realizes this is her moment to open up about her alcoholism. She tells her that she isn’t sometimes sober, she is an alcoholic, and she can’t have any alcohol sitting in her apartment. Miranda had been dreading Joy’s reaction — that this could be too real or heavy for their relationship, which has been fun and, well, joyous. Joy’s response isn’t at all what Miranda thought it would be: Joy meets Miranda’s vulnerability with her own. She, too, has some emotional baggage, hers of the self-hatred variety. Neither of them wants to run from each other’s darker side. There’s room for everyone’s emotional baggage in this relationship, Miranda says. It’s very sweet, and Joy seems like such a nice fit for Miranda. Che who? Just kidding, we’ll never forget. If only!

This and That

• Seema, I guess, now has enough savings to rent a gorgeous office space (her financial situation makes absolutely zero sense), but still needs some clients. Her new assistant, who was Ravi’s old assistant, manages to book her a lunch with a possible huge get, but she has to race uptown to make it on time. Since she’s giving Adam’s rock-crystal deodorant a go, she arrives smelling awful and resorts to her travel deodorant in her purse and that’s … it. That’s the whole story.

• Once again, bless Charlotte and Harry, who get a quick scene that they make the most out of: Charlotte is still dealing with her vertigo and she face-plants while trying to celebrate Harry’s first time peeing without a catheter. He and his swollen balls try to hobble over to help her, but it is a sorry state of affairs over at the York-Goldenblatt apartment.

• I guess Herbert is worried about his weight with the election coming up, and Lisa just keeps yelling “take Ozempic” at him, and none of this is funny or interesting? After those fun developments in last week’s episode, too!

• Anthony and Gia finally have their showdown over a plate of Anthony’s risotto, and eventually Gia drops her Italian accent for her Buffalo one to tell him that he’s too old for her son. Patti LuPone does yell the phrase “get your old-man ass out of Baby’s life!” which does feel right and good. She tells Giuseppe she isn’t supporting his life in New York anymore, but he can come home wherever he wants.

• No, you’re not hallucinating: Andy Cohen reprises his role as a background shoe salesman. This time around, he even gets a name. (It’s Daniel.) Look at Daniel just holding down that shoe department for decades. (Cohen’s Sex and the City appearance is in season six’s “Let There Be Light,” if you’re interested.)

 Carrie Bradshaw is finally free.