‘AJLT’ Showrunner Defends Carrie and Aidan Split, Explains Why Season Doesn’t ‘End’ With Them
This post contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of And Just Like That.
While And Just Like That viewers were shocked that Aidan Shaw left Carrie Bradshaw — again —showrunner Michael Patrick King says it was the right call for the characters.
“She’s not going to hurt him because she knows she can't. And we also don't want the fans to think we did that again,” King, 68, said during the Thursday, August 24, episode of And Just Like That’s companion podcast. “The only way we knew that he would ever pull away from her is if the bigger love — and every parent would assume that this is a bigger love — [was] the responsibility and love for your children.”
In Thursday’s season 2 finale, Aidan (John Corbett) arrived at Carrie’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) New York City brownstone throwing pebbles — much like Carrie did in Sex and the City when he returned after their first split — to reveal that he did not plan to return to the Big Apple for at least five years. According to Aidan, his son Wyatt was struggling with him being away following Wyatt’s car accident. The furniture designer explained to Carrie that he couldn’t leave his three sons — whom he shares with ex-wife Kathy — while Wyatt, the youngest, was still a teenager.
“Aidan believes now that bad things happen when he’s not there,” King said. “He admits to [Carrie] that he’s really the home for these three boys — and that’s who he’s always been.”
King — who acknowledged that Aidan’s five-year window will become a “debatable point” for fans — was moved by their final scene together.
“We have this complicated thing happening now,” King, who directed the season 2 finale, added. “What you all think about what happened and what you all think their individual states are, we wanted to end with that moment of believing the truth of we've made this connection and it's going to stay there.”
Carrie and Aidan spent one last night together — the first in the new Gramercy Park apartment they were supposed to share — before he catches a taxi back to the airport. Carrie finds solace in Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury), who’s going through a similar situation after Ravi Gordi (Armin Amiri) left to film his movie in Egypt for five months. The two women embark on a vacation to Greece, which is an upgrade from their Hamptons plans earlier in the season.
“I knew it was going to end before anything that Carrie and Seema would be sitting on a beach in Greece looking out at the horizon, that it would not end with Carrie and Aidan,” King added on Thursday. “Our only little tip to you, the audience [and] the people who are watching and wondering what we're thinking.
There's a little, tiny thread of what we're thinking at the end, which is Seema says, ‘Well we ran at love, and where did that get us?’ And she goes, ‘I’m waiting five months and you’re waiting five years.’ And Carrie goes, ‘Well, I may get some time off for good behavior.’”
He concluded: “You would only say that if you're already going, ‘It's not gonna be five years.’ She's very cute, but she does go on to say, ‘There will be others.’”
All episodes of And Just Like That season 2 are currently streaming on Max. A third season has already been greenlit.
