Which brings us to this week’s episode, “Rat Race,” where the central tension, aside from Carrie learning her backyard neighbors are (literal) rats, is some bad texting on Aidan’s part. Carrie sends Aidan a photo of a table she’s eyeing online, only to get a haunting response: a thumbs down emoji, 👎. Nothing about this shocked me. This man called her from his truck to have phone sex last week, which was a slight upgrade from sending her BLANK POSTCARDS. After some discussion of text politics with Seema and Miranda, and another written-then-deleted message, Carrie decides to respond in kind with an eye roll emoji, 🙄.
Later on, when chatting with Miranda again, she mimics and evokes the “woman dancing in a red dress emoji.” It’s an emoji-centric episode to say the least, and brings me to an important question. Now that all of the characters are presumably text-savvy, what emojis are they overusing? Here are my best guesses:
- Carrie 🙃 – Carrie is big on the quirky-girl faces and rarely manages to say what she needs to on the first try. She’s definitely dropping the confusing upside-down smiley after each text and making you wonder if she means what she’s telling you. Forever shrouded in a bit of mystery!
- Miranda 😅 – I wouldn’t have assigned the nervous emoji to Miranda in the original SATC, but our gal has been going through the ringer in AJLT. Her life, to put it kindly, is just sort of unstable. She’s ending her marriage, she’s navigating dating as a lesbian, and she’s still without permanent housing. The nervous sweating emoji is the visual manifestation of the slight tremor in her voice in everything she does.
- Charlotte 👀 – Charlotte can’t help but be interested in the gossip, but is too bound by civility to directly ask. This is her polite way of letting you know that she knows and/or is interested in knowing more.
- Seema 💋 – I know in my bones that Seema is signing off professional correspondence with venture capitalist clients with the lipstick kiss emoji.
- Lisa 🤛🏾 – Lisa and Herbert are sending each other fist bump emojis every time he meets a fundraising goal or she lands a new film deal.
- Aidan 👍 – I know Aidan gave a thumbs down this episode, sending everything into a maelstrom. But I’d argue Carrie would be just as bothered if it had been a thumbs up. You know his woodworking ass is firing off thumbs up emojis in response to long messages because he can’t take his eyes off the power tools he’s using. That, or he just isn’t very good at communicating.
- Anthony 🍆 – Anthony opened a Hooters-esque bakery where all the hot male workers seemingly have hard-ons and wear tight little rompers that show them off. At one point, he refers to the shop as a “dick and mortar.” He’s a horny man! He’s got eggplant on the mind.
- Samantha ❤️ – For nostalgia’s sake, I’ll include what I imagine to be Samantha’s most-used emoji. I know it’s alarmingly basic for a woman who is anything but…but I think since Samantha is a little bit older, a professional PR communicator, and ultimately the kindest friend of them all, she’s keeping her emojis classic. Also, if I could send anything to her in London right now, it would be a heart. ❤️
To wrap up this recap, thumbs-up 👍 moments from this episode include Carrie’s new gardener, Adam, a real 1970s vintage hottie who has a bit of a Miles Teller look to him and feels like he’s going to plant roots this season. Carrie hires him to evict the rats. At one point, he asks Carrie what she envisions for the garden. She can’t really articulate what she’s thinking and just says, “I loved everything as it was, but now that’s all changed.” Adam responds, “I think that’s what’s exciting, not knowing. What’s meant to be has the space to show up.” Someone ring the relationship metaphor alarm! 🚨🚨🚨
We were also treated to two delightful cameos this week—Kristen Schaal as Lois Fingerhood, a sought-after, deeply strange college counselor who nearly reduces Lily and Herbert Jr. to tears, and Cheri Oteri, a matchmaker who gives Seema the terrible advice to stop wearing animal print and start wearing pastels and florals to attract men. Both cameos helped those rather lackluster storylines shine a bit more.
Finally, Miranda gets addicted to a reality show called BI BINGO, which leads her to flirt with a guacamole waitress who is also a fan of the show. Miranda, being a little behind the curve in understanding that you don’t have to be queer in 2025 to appreciate queer media (😅), asks the waitress out, only to learn she is straight. Thank goodness, though, she has a new work crush to redirect her attention to: Joy. Which brings me to my final point: this season so far has been oddly…joyful. Like, it isn’t premier television, of course, but the plot lines don’t have so many potholes that I need to pull over to the side of the metaphorical road, you know?
Dare I say, I’m legitimately enjoying it. (🙃)
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