How And Just Like That’s Finale Quietly Closed Carrie Bradshaw’s 27-Year Chapter
Kai Montgomery here, and yes, I am reluctantly delighted to explain what actually happened in the And Just Like That season three finale while you were scrolling through crying into your latte.
Oh, marvelous. After 27 years of stilettos, heartbreak and more passive-aggression than a brunch table can legally hold, the Sex and the City saga finally wrapped on Aug. 14 when HBO aired the final episode of the And Just Like That follow-up. The big takeaway: Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, finishes a new novel and accepts a life where being romantically unattached is not a catastrophe but a chosen state of being. That sounds subtle, but make no mistake, it’s the closing note on a three-decade narrative arc.
If you want receipts, here they are: Carrie ends her on-again, off-again long-distance rekindling with Aidan Shaw, played by John Corbett, and briefly rebounds with downstairs neighbor Duncan Reeves, played by Jonathan Cake. In the finale, Carrie puts the finishing touches on a historical romance that mirrors her life and deliberately frames her protagonist as “not alone, she was on her own,” a line that doubles as Carrie’s own acceptance speech for singlehood.
Meanwhile, Miranda Hobbes, Cynthia Nixon’s character, had a season of teeth-grinding mother-son drama that culminated in Thanksgiving chaos. Her 20-year-old son Brady, portrayed by Niall Cunningham, erupts over Miranda inviting his child’s mother, Ella Stiller’s character, to the holiday without asking him first. The blowup carries into the finale, where Thanksgiving descends into disaster in multiple senses, yet Miranda appears to fold into the unpredictability of her life while holding hands with her partner Joy, played by Dolly Wells. It’s an awkward kind of growth, but growth nonetheless.
Charlotte York’s storyline finishes the season on a more comedic and tender note. Her husband Harry Goldenblatt, Evan Handler’s character, is recovering from prostate cancer surgery and dealing with erectile dysfunction. Mid-Thanksgiving, his manhood decides to make an unplanned cameo, prompting the couple to dash off mid-meal to “give thanks” for their rediscovered sex life. Yes, the show still knows how to lean into racy humor, even while closing the book on its characters.
The finale also ties up arcs for Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury) and Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker), two additions from the revival’s early seasons. Seema and her boyfriend Adam, played by Logan Marshall-Green, have an offhand comment moment that leads them to confirm their relationship doesn’t need formalities such as a wedding. Lisa, torn between feelings for her editor Marion (Mehcad Brooks) and loyalty to her husband Herbert (Christopher Jackson), ultimately resets boundaries at work and renews her commitment to her marriage.
SJP herself weighed in ahead of the show’s ending, posting on Instagram about Carrie’s long run and the irreplaceable friendships at the heart of the story: Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte, she wrote, “there will never be better friends.” Yes, even with Kim Cattrall’s Samantha absent for most of the revival, her character’s legacy is acknowledged as central to Carrie’s identity. Parker also admitted that Carrie has dominated her career for 27 years and that she loved the role most of all, which feels like the correct, slightly melodramatic valediction.
So what did the finale ultimately accomplish? It refused melodrama. It avoided a big romantic reconciliation for Carrie, preferring to position her contentment in autonomy rather than a new man on her arm. The other characters get tidy, believable endpoints: Miranda’s messy domestic life continues with a partner by her side, Charlotte’s marriage survives both medical and sexual misadventures, and Seema and Lisa reach pragmatic, grown-up resolutions. It’s not fireworks; it’s resignation with a wink.
People who wanted closure got it. People who were still clinging to Carrie-and-someone-else fantasies did not. The series concludes by honoring friendship, acknowledging aging, and accepting imperfect, quiet versions of happiness. That’s the story’s last bow. You can be annoyed or comforted, depending on your tolerance for realism in a franchise built on fantasy.
Final note: Parker’s public goodbye and the show’s final scenes both suggest that the era is over and that Carrie’s tale is now a closed chapter. No grand gesture, no trophy husband, just a woman who finishes her book and decides being “on her own” isn’t a tragedy.
And yes, that’s the end of it. You can now stop refreshing your streaming app in vain.
Well, that was a long goodbye. Move along, and maybe write your own ending.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and E! News, HBO (And Just Like That)
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
