And Just Like That… recap: RIP Che Pasa, we hardly knew ye

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.