Despite Carrie needing to give Aidan some space, she eagerly accepts an invitation to a book event in Williamsburg, Virginia, from her publicist. This gives her a chance to be close to Aidan’s state and maybe meet up for a lunch date. This week’s episode of And Just Like That… is filled with exciting elements: acting as a courier for prescription drugs, Harry having an unfortunate accident, and the appearance of real estate guru Ryan Serhant.

This time, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) had several destination options for her memoir promotion, like Silicon Valley or SXSW. However, she bypassed the allure of tech-world excitement, opting instead for an event in Virginia to carve out some time with Aidan. Initially, her friends are reluctant to accompany her due to their own busy lives, but Seema (Sarita Choudhury) eventually agrees to come, partly because she has her own thoughts on Ryan Serhant. More about that later.

As she plans her trip, Carrie receives a call from Kathy, Aidan’s wife, listed amusingly in Carrie’s phone as “Kathy Aidan’s Wife,” which is relatable to personal phone naming habits. Kathy has an unusual request: she wants Carrie to obtain some Adderall for her son Wyatt due to a shortage in Virginia.

Apparently there’s a nationwide shortage – this is confirmed by Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and LTW (Nicole Ari Parker), who adds, “Shit is rough out here, parents are bartering in the playground like it’s D.C. in the ’80s.” That joke feels uncomfortable.)

This leads to Charlotte hitting up her private school mom friends who are an underground network of pharmacological suppliers. After she scores, an impressed LTW tells her, “Okay, Griselda!” (All of this happens inside the newly-opened Hot Fellas Bakery, Anthony’s labor of loave – I feel like he’d be proud of that one – the bakery where all the servers wear jumpsuits that leave nothing to the imagination, although his new employees are “not hung enough to stop traffic,” he laments.)

LTW, hopped up on white flour and witty retorts, heads to work where her editor Grace greets her with news that’s good for Grace but bad for Lisa: Grace has been offered a job by Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen. Up to this point, LTW has always come across as a champion of women, but her reaction here is… not great. She is disappointed to lose Grace, her collaborator of eight years on this documentary about unsung Black women. No, not disappointed – she’s angry. (The anger doesn’t last, she’s just worried Grace is what made the documentary as good as it is.)

Charlotte, back to work at the gallery, is starting to realize that her younger gallerina gals are making big sales to visiting art patrons visiting the TEFAF art fair, all during the wee hours of morning. Charlotte, like a sensible human, has been going home at 9 p.m. Charlotte wails about this to her family and Anthony and Giuseppe, telling them, “My career is suffering because I am a wife and a mom… I have to rush home to make soup while they’re out partying and selling paintings at all the hot clubs all night.” “What clubs?” Giuseppe interjects, and without missing a beat, Charlotte replies, “Giuseppe this is a good question but I don’t even know the answer because I’m too busy here being mom!”

And so, like non-smoker Rachel Green who took up smoking to become more successful at Ralph Lauren on Friends, Charlotte compromises her values and decides to stay out late to try and make some sales to interested, nightlife-loving buyers. Charlotte, with Harry in tow, tries to be “cool” during their night out, but it all goes to shit, or should I say, piss. Harry, who bought a new outfit with Carrie’s help to seem younger, ends up needing to leave early because he pees himself when he realizes his new jeans are so tight he can’t get them off. (“I hadn’t factored in the Japanese denim button matrix,” he tells Charlotte.)

So, with Charlotte trying to keep up with her gallerinas, she goes from an after-party to an after-after-party where a rich Dutchman named Rolf tries to kiss her as she’s trying to tell him that her colleague Lela is into him. An outraged Charlotte rejects him, yelling, “I’m a wife and a mother!” to which Rolf responds, “Wives and moms need love, too.” Charlotte hightails it our of the club, but the next day, one of her private school mom friends, the same one who gave her the Adderall for Carrie, ponies up for a major art piece, handing Charlotte the commission.

With Carrie going out of town, Miranda is cat-sitting for Shoe, but more importantly, she’s hitting on Joy (Dolly Wells), her colleague from the BBC. Joy is a stark contrast from, well, anyone Miranda has ever been in a long-term relationship with, but they seem to be equals in every way, but especially the two most important ways, professionally and sarcastically. I’m honest when I say that I hope Dolly Wells sticks around for a while, this is as grounded and old-Miranda as we’ve seen her in three seasons.

Seema’s real estate partner Eliot, the one who looks like Dick Van Dyke’s elderly banker character from Mary Poppins, blindsides her with the news that he’s 90 and retiring. (The “this guy is 90?!” gag was also just used to great comic effect in The Studio.) When Seema tells him she though he was 70, Eliot explains, “A gay ninety is a straight seventy.” And so, without even consulting her, he says that he’s sold all of his shares in the company to Ryan Serhant, star of Owning Manhattan, and she has to decide if she wants to work for Ryan or start her own company.

An angry Seema decides to join Carrie on her jaunt to Virginia to clear her head and decide how to proceed with her career. When she picks Carrie up in hr car to go to the airport, sparks certainly seem to fly between Seema and Adam (Logan Marshall-Green), Carrie’s new landscaper.

In Virginia, while Seema mulls over her career crossroads, Carrie continues to question all the rules and boundaries Aidan has set. She came to Virginia for him, under the guise of stopping to get lunch with him after her book event, but she’s secretly been hoping he’d extend an invitation for her to stay. (Earlier in the episode, when Miranda told Carrie that she was asking Joy out for a drink, as colleagues, with intentions of trying to ask her on a real date, Carrie scoffed at the fact that Miranda was playing games. But here’s Carrie, playing an even more obvious game, wistfully waiting for Aidan to make a move asking her to stay over with him.)

On the way to their lunch with Aidan, Seema takes a call with Ryan Serhant (who you really can’t refer to without first and last names) and it doesn’t go as well as she’d hoped, and so, Seema’s decision is seemingly made, she’ll strike out on her own.

Do you ever have a moment in a close friendship where you realize something about someone that’s shocking and disappointing? Like they’re a bad tipper or an annoying traveling companion? Seema’s terrible driving is that thing. After her call with Ryan, she pulls out of a parking lot, nearly hitting a couple of men with golf bags and then immediately drives over tire spikes, destroying the rental car. Carrie’s like, “Didn’t you see the sign?” and now it all makes sense why Seema employs a driver. And so, their rental needs to get towed and Aidan needs to come rescue them. (“Did somebody call for a Goober? That’s a hillbilly Uber.” This man is folksy in a way that I no longer find cute.) In this moment, Aidan finally asks Carrie to stay over, so Seema flies home to New York, although everyone seems to have forgotten that their luggage was in the rental car, so it looks like Seema’s gonna raw dog that flight home and Carrie’s pink evening gown is going to become her actual nightgown. Before going to bed in Aidan’s guest house, she hands him a baggie of Adderall, per Kathy’s request. This is definitely going to be a THING because Aidan looks very put off.

As Carrie tucks in for the night, she writes her historical 1840s novel, which is obviously meant to be a corollary for her own life and adventures. But I couldn’t help but wonder, when will “the woman” from her tale be tasked with schlepping ADHD meds across state lines?

Honorable Mentions:

• When Harry goes shopping with Carrie for new jeans, he declares: “Harry and Carrie go shopping! Should we start a podcast?” It’s a cute joke but it just made me remember Carrie already had a podcast with Che and now I’m in a bad mood remembering both Che and that podcast.
• The “DO NOT BACK UP” sign as Seema pulls into the parking lot with tire spikes is about as unsubtle as any foreshadowing I’ve ever seen on film.
• Giuseppe’s return to work as a Hot Fellas Bakery hot fella in hotpants makes you realize why Anthony fell in love with him. He’s not just a sensitive poet.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.