Ultimate Ranking of 'Sex and the City' Episodes
The very first episode of Sex and the City premiered 20 years ago next month. To mark this auspicious anniversary, ELLE.com is celebrating some of its most ridiculous, memorable and controversial moments-from the fashion to the flings.
Sex and the City evolved over its six seasons from a gritty New York City roman à clef to a full-blown glossy romantic comedy presented in tidy 30-minute installments. Rising above the fourth-wall-breaking errors in format that took place in the first season, it became more and more polished as the years went on. While the earlier episodes focus more on social commentary and sexual trends, late seasons zero in on the four main characters’ ever more complicated relationships and life decisions.
Seasons three and five are objectively the best. Carrie’s plots are often the most tedious, bringing whole episodes down with them as the other characters’ subplots work overtime to keep us entertained. And although Aidan is a crowd pleaser philosophically, it seems his episodes are usually the most boring.
We’ve rated all 94 episodes from worst to best, with a few criteria in mind: humor, social and sexual commentary, and simply how fun they are to watch.
94. Season 2, episode 3: “The Freak Show”
This episode attempts to explore why so many single men happen to be freaks, but ends with a dark assertion that actually, all single people are insane: “If the world’s fattest twins can find love,” Carrie says, “there’s hope for all of us. Somewhere out there is another little freak who’ll kiss our three heads and make it all better. And in the meantime, we’ll always have Manhattan.” Way too weird and depressing for SATC - plus the recurring circus music shtick is annoying.
93. Season 4, episode 16: “Ring a Ding Ding”
This episode is all about Carrie’s money problems, making it about as entertaining as it sounds. She refuses a loan from Big as a matter of pride, but sees nothing wrong with haranguing jobless, mid-divorce Charlotte for cash. Charlotte ends up selling her wedding ring so she can help bail Carrie out. It’s dark. Carrie’s infuriating financial habits get wrapped up in a bow thanks to this unlikely plot twist, making this episode pretty tough to take.
92. Season 1, episode 5: “The Power of Female Sex”
Carrie turns into a call girl in this episode when she sleeps with a Frenchman and wakes up to a stack of Benjamins on the nightstand. Incredibly, it’s the only time the show even touches on the topic of sex work. But the ladies draw zero interesting conclusions about it. Meanwhile, Charlotte agrees to have her vagina memorialized in abstract portrait form and Skipper becomes addicted to sex with Miranda. If the episode’s meant to be an exploration of the mythical “power of female sex,” it falls short.
91. Season 2, episode 2: “The Awful Truth”
Secondary characters’ marriage squabbles, dog ownership, couples therapy - this episode has to be one of the series’ dullest. Sure, Susan Sharon and her husband are colorful, but their storyline is tedious. The one bright moment is when Miranda finally agrees to talk dirty with her boyfriend, only to turn him off when she mentions his love of assplay. That had to be a first for TV, right?
90. Season 3, episode 18: “Cock a Doodle Doo”
In this take-it-or-leave-it ep, Carrie copes with the presence of roosters in her neighborhood (that she won’t stop calling chickens). Charlotte tries to stop obsessing about Trey. Samantha laments the presence of some loud “transsexuals” (their word; it was the 90s) in her neighborhood. And Miranda feels threatened by a Chinese take-out lady. At some point between these bizarre subplots, Carrie and Miranda catch Aidan and Steve out with new girlfriends. This motivates Carrie to meet up with Big, and they fall into a lake. Then, Carrie and the girls throw a barbecue. This episode didn’t really need to exist.
89. Season 1, episode 4: “Valley of the Twenty-Something Guys”
This episode gets a low rating because it’s about a touchy life stage many of us are still reeling from: the many horrors of dating guys in their 20s. Who wants to relive that?! Older guys prove disappointing in this episode, too, as Big inexplicably drags a friend along for his and Carrie’s first date. All in all, the episode’s no fun - except for Charlotte’s anal sex storyline (“Who ever heard of Mrs. Up-the-Butt?”), which provided the show’s first taste of highly specific sexual commentary that would keep viewers coming back for more.
88. Season 2, episode 6: “The Cheating Curve”
This episode introduced mainstream America to “power lesbians” (Charlotte), porn addiction (Miranda) and pube-shaving as foreplay (Samantha). While the other three ladies are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to cultural commentary, Carrie is busy ruining her life with Big in secret. The power lesbians subplot represents one of the only times we hear from gay women on the show, but it weirdly implies that gay and straight women can’t be platonic friends. It also fails to address that what Charlotte got from her gay friends (interesting conversations devoid of boy-craziness) should be possible with her straight friends, too.
87. Season 1, episode 9: “Old Dogs, New Dicks”
This episode deals with the question “Can you change a man?” and the cringeworthy moments are aplenty. Charlotte is so squicked out by her boyfriend’s foreskin, she convinces him to go through painful circumcision surgery. Carrie obsesses over Big’s public cigar-smoking and blatant habit of checking out other women, then finally blows up - and gives him a black eye?! Meanwhile, Samantha discovers that a guy she used to date is now a drag queen, impersonating Samantha. The episode’s redeemable moments come when we watch Steve and Miranda bond while adjusting to each other’s opposing sleep schedules. Other than that, it’s kind of a mess.
86. Season 3, episode 5: “No Ifs, Ands or Butts”
The good: Stanford copes with a new hookup’s creepy doll collection. Who doesn’t love a kooky Stanford storyline? The bad: Carrie’s torturous attempt to quit smoking for a guy she literally just met, Aidan, feels misguided and unnecessary. And finally, the ugly: Samantha’s fling with Chivon. This episode takes what could be an interesting topic - interracial relationships and how people react to them - and reduces it to stereotypes and a club fight. It includes such lines as, “That wasn’t black talk, that was sex talk.” Oof.
85. Season 3, episode 7: “Drama Queens”
Now dating Aidan, Carrie realizes she just might have a problem with seeking out turbulent relationships. While that’s probably true, she’s mistaking Aidan’s placid demeanor for compatibility. He wants her to quit smoking, he has retro ideas about sex and intimacy, and he thinks it’s time for her to meet his parents after three measly weeks of dating. They’re clearly incompatible. This is one of the rare episodes that’s unfair to Carrie. Wanting your boyfriend to slow down doesn’t make you a drama queen.
84. Season 2, episode 14: “The F**k Buddy”
This episode is all about the girls breaking their normal patterns, and it introduces the world to the concept of the fuck buddy - shockingly, this wasn’t a mainstream thing pre-1999, I guess. Meanwhile, Charlotte double-books two dates in one night. Miranda breaks her angry boyfriend’s pattern of emotional abuse. And Samantha starts a semi-nightly ritual of listening to her neighbors have sex. But in the end, none of the storylines are interesting enough to make this episode stick to your ribs.
83. Season 4, episode 1: “The Agony and the ‘Ex’-tacy”
In this bummer of an episode, Miranda tries to get sympathy by being overly self-deprecating about her love life at parties. Charlotte is in the midst of a Trey separation spiral. Samantha tries to bang a priest? And it all culminates with Carrie getting stood up at her 35th birthday party - by literally everyone she invited. Life without cell phones was rough. Big saves the day with balloons and flowers, but the episode’s a bummer.
82. Season 4, episode 8: “My Motherboard, Myself”
Despite having just gotten back in Aidan’s good graces one episode prior, Carrie pushes him away when he tries to help fix her computer. Also, although we normally never hear of the SATC ladies’ families or backgrounds, this episode deals with Miranda’s mom’s sudden death and funeral. This brings all four main characters together, and also helps Samantha regain her momentarily lost orgasm. Still, the family and funeral stuff comes out of left field, and the episode’s kind of a clunker.
81. Season 2, episode 10: “The Caste System”
Carrie and Big’s incredibly stressful season-two relationship culminates with Carrie accidentally saying “I love you” after Big gives her an ugly purse. Meanwhile, Miranda and Steve break up over money squabbles. There’s an ill-advised storyline about Samantha’s latest fling and his Thai housekeeper. And Charlotte hooks up with an actor, for some reason. As Carrie goes on a mid-fight bender and takes a guy home, the tension is almost unbearable. But in the last scene, Big finally blurts out “I fucking love you,” and you almost feel for him despite what he’s put Carrie (and the audience) through.
80. Season 4, season 15: “Change of a Dress”
Carrie and Aidan’s ill-fated march to the altar gets more depressing by the minute in this episode, when Carrie literally breaks out in hives while trying on a wedding dress. Charlotte has a breakdown in a tap-dancing class. Samantha tries to manipulate Richard into making things official with her. Miranda’s disillusioned to learn that she’s having a boy. And Carrie finally breaks the news to Aidan that she’s not ready for marriage, and their relationship is pretty much over. It’s a rough couple of days for the girls, and a rough episode.
79. Season 2, episode 11: “Evolution”
Carrie experiments with a fun new passive aggressive relationship game: leaving personal items at Big’s apartment one at a time, just to see what happens. (She also summons the courage to drop a deuce in his bathroom, a milestone she excitedly announces to the girls over drinks.) Carrie’s musings in this episode come off as neurotic, and the subplots are kind of a snooze: Charlotte dates a “gay straight man,” Miranda finds out she has a lazy ovary, and Samantha tries to prove she has power over an ex. The episode ends with Big tolerating Carrie’s belongings: “a small step for womankind but a really big step for Big.” It’s not the most satisfying resolution.
78. Season 4, episode 7: “Time and Punishment”
After their questionable decision to give love another shot, Carrie and Aidan immediately hit a sex snafu because of Big leaving her a voicemail. Charlotte quits her job to focus on getting pregnant, redecorating her apartment, and going to Color Me Mine; Miranda’s not supportive. Samantha is dismayed when her fling asks her to change her pubic aesthetics for him. And Aidan passive aggressively tries to level the playing field with Carrie by flirting with a borderline teenage bartender in front of her. The episode has a lot of conflict and barely any payoff, and you mostly just find yourself wondering why Carrie and Aidan are even bothering with this.
77. Season 2, episode 13: “The Games People Play”
Carrie finally sees a therapist for her over-the-top Big breakup obsession at the behest of her friends, but she distracts herself by hooking up with a guy she meets in her shrink’s lobby. Miranda starts flirting with the guy across the hall from her, and is humiliated when she learns he’s actually been flirting with a different woman in the building the whole time. And carrying out the “games” theme, Samantha starts dating a guy who can’t get it up unless his favorite sports team wins. The episode ends with Carrie realizing her therapist was right: she picks the wrong men. Unfortunately, this introspection is short-lived and she’s soon back to her old tricks.
76. Season 2, episode 1: “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”
The season two opener treats us all to some delicious revenge fantasy in the form of The New Yankee, Carrie’s rebound fling engineered to make Big deliriously jealous. Also, as a nod to outside criticism of the show, Miranda rails against the ladies’ tendency to talk about men nonstop. “How does this happen?” she asks. “Four smart women have nothing to talk about but boyfriends? It’s like seventh grade with bank accounts. What about us?” She has a point: the episode’s two subplots - Samantha’s poorly endowed boyfriend, Charlotte’s junk-adjusting boyfriend - are puerile even by SATC standards. Still, no one answers Miranda’s question, and the topic is never dealt with again.
75. Season 1, episode 3: “Bay of Married Pigs”
This ep opens with an unlikely flashing incident in the Hamptons, but gets a bit boring from there. Carrie’s tryst with a marriage-crazed guy is about as exciting as dating a marriage-crazed guy. And the Miranda storyline - she pretends she’s gay just to be accepted by her law firm - is more sad than funny. The best comic relief comes from Samantha hauling Charlotte’s doorman to bed with her. For such a rich topic - the ongoing tension between single people and their married counterparts - this episode’s a little boring. Bridget Jones did it better.
74. Season 2, episode 7: “The Chicken Dance”
This episode deals with the anxiety that results from watching other people’s relationships move more quickly than yours. Miranda inadvertently sets up her crush with her interior designer and they get married five minutes later. Charlotte tries to fall in love at first sight with a guy who ends up being a cad. Carrie puts way too much importance on earning herself a toothbrush at Big’s, then feels rejected by him later on. The girls come off a little thirsty in this ep, and it’s no fun. Oh, and the show tries to make “déjà-fuck” happen. Sadly, it’s not going to happen, at least not to anyone besides Samantha.
73. Season 1, episode 12: “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”
SATC’s attempt to condense sex and religion’s perverse intertwinement into a 24-minute episode falls flat. Carrie is distracted by yet another Big-related stalking mission: she decides to crash mass at his church in a deranged attempt to meet his mom. Miranda’s “Catholic guy” subplot is a disappointingly two-dimensional and stereotypical foray into the topic of religious guilt. And Charlotte obsessively visits psychics to find out if she’ll beat Samantha to the altar. This episode has its moments, but it’s kind of a dud, especially when so much more could have been done with the topic.
72. Season 3, episode 4: “Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl…”
This exploration of gender fluidity is about as ham-fisted as the time Vogue proclaimed Gigi and Zayn the icons of the LGBTQ community because they sometimes swap clothes. Carrie tries to date a bisexual man, but ends up calling him greedy and wondering why he can’t just pick a side. But even Carrie’s faux-deep musings can’t overshadow the episode’s two worthwhile subplots: Charlotte taps into a new piece of her personality by cross-dressing for the sake of art, while Miranda confesses to Steve that she’s 0% domestic. He couldn’t care less.
71. Season 5, episode 6: “Critical Condition”
This episode is one of the series’ most skippable. Carrie spends way too much time fixating on the rumors a woman named Nina Katz may be spreading about her and Aidan’s breakup. Meanwhile, Charlotte’s never-ending breakup from Trey drags on, but at least in this episode we meet Harry Goldenblatt. Miranda’s overwhelmed by her screaming child, so Samantha finally helps her out, solving her problems with a vibrator. In the end, Carrie explains herself to Nina Katz, who couldn’t care less, and realizes her real “worst critic” was herself.
70. Season 4, episode 2: “The Real Me”
As the ladies cope with their various insecurities or lack thereof, this episode delivers on fashion porn (it’s the one with the Dolce & Gabbana fashion show) but not much else. Samantha gets nude photos taken, Charlotte musters up the courage to look at her vulva in a hand mirror, and Miranda gets hit on at the gym. The final fashion show scene is iconic, but the episode as a whole is a little zzzzz.
69. Season 6, episode 14: “Let There Be Light”
Steve and Miranda are finally back together and Carrie’s getting serious with the Russian. But Samantha’s storyline is the standout in this episode: she goes to a party with Smith that’s being hosted by her ex Richard Wright. She and Richard have a tawdry hookup on a top floor of the party, while he mumbles about being past his prime. Samantha emerges looking worse for wear, and Smith has to know what went on - but he forgives her. Maybe her regrettable moment with Richard helped Samantha realize that his own cheating came from insecurity and not any fault of her own.
68. Season 4, episode 11: “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda”
This momentous episode marks an SATC first: Miranda’s pregnancy. At the same time, Charlotte has to deal with her sadness over the fact that Miranda got pregnant without trying, after she’s just learned she only has a 15% chance of conceiving a baby. Meanwhile, Samantha overplays her hand and pisses off Lucy Liu in the name of a Birkin bag. This episode is necessary and it tackles a big topic in the form of unplanned pregnancy, but it could’ve benefited from one or two more subplots.
67. Season 3, episode 8: “The Big Time”
This episode is dominated by the first signs of Carrie-Big-Aidan drama. There’s also tension between Steve and Miranda, which no one ever likes to see. (Steve wants to have a baby; Miranda thinks that’s insane.) Still, the comic relief in this one is gold: Samantha starts worrying about menopause and almost pity-fucks an aging ponytailed neighbor before getting her period just in the nick of time. Plus, watching Charlotte in the psychotic throes of early love with Trey can’t be beat.
66. Season 2, episode 4: “They Shoot Single People, Don’t They?”
Carrie gets done dirty by New York magazine with an incredibly unflattering cover photo accompanied by a dire coverline: “Single and Fabulous…?” The age-shaming profile sends the entire squad into a fear spiral. They cope by forcing relationships with the nearest dude. Charlotte convinces herself she’s in love with the out-of-work actor who fixes up her apartment sometimes. Samantha gets ghosted by a guy who conned her by saying “we” too soon. And Miranda puts way too much effort into a guy who can’t make her orgasm. This episode yields some valuable insight about orgasm-fakeage.
65. Season 1, episode 8: “Three’s a Crowd”
This ep definitely gives the people what they want: the ladies frankly discussing a previously under-the-radar sex act, in this case the threesome. Plus, Miranda’s therapy storyline is classic. So is Samantha’s subplot, wherein an affair with a married guy turns out to be more than she bargained for. The Carrie plot, though, is one of her most cringeworthy: she finds out Big was once married, and decides to spend a few days stalking his wife. Yikes.
64. Season 4, episode 6: “Baby Talk Is Cheap”
Six months after she got busted for cheating on him, Carrie is pretty sure the best way to get Aidan back is to repeatedly call his phone and hang up. When that doesn’t work, she creates an email account to send him a love message, which he deletes. The girls continue their race into the 21st century by discovering that butt stuff is now on the table. And Samantha experiments with prosthetic nipples, going through a post-Maria-breakup psychosis that Freud would have a field day with. Charlotte and Trey rethink their decision to have a kid after they actually meet some kids. And in the end, Carrie convinces Aidan to give her another shot despite acting like a wackadoo on their forced double date with Miranda and Steve. This is kind of a maintenance episode with extras, and it’s fine.
63. Season 6, episode 12: “One”
This midseason finale is full of confusion. When Carrie meets artist Aleksandr Petrovsky, it’s clear that he’ll spell trouble for her: like Big, he’s an alpha male, but he doesn’t have the charm or sense of humor to make his arrogance go down smooth. Miranda’s boyfriend decides to say “I Love You” for the first time… with a giant novelty cookie. And Charlotte finally gets pregnant, only to have a miscarriage. There are light moments, too, like when Samantha accidentally gives herself an orange bush after finding one grey hair, and Miranda and Steve finally proclaim their love for each other in the laundry room at Brady’s birthday.
62. Season 5, episode 5: “Plus One Is the Loneliest Number”
Carrie’s book party throws the girls into a tizzy as they all search for the perfect dates. Charlotte finds one, but her mother-in-law ruins everything by popping up in her apartment unexpectedly and breaking the news to him that Charlotte happens to still be married. Miranda deals with the etiquette around dating with a newborn. And Carrie meets Jack Berger, who reveals he has a girlfriend after basically going on an impromptu day date with Carrie. Everyone’s still as single as humanly possible by the end of the episode, but at least the chemical burns on Samantha’s face lighten the mood!
61. Season 1, episode 1: “Sex and the City”
This episode starts with a tale of ghosting that makes the Manhattans of 1998 and 2018 sound almost exactly the same, or at least equally heartless. We then see our four heroines vow that they’ll start having sex like men, without emotions or commitment. But their reason for doing this isn’t to have more and better sex. Instead, they hope it’ll give them more power over their mates. But it doesn’t quite work, and we’re introduced to the unspoken tension at the center of the entire series: although these four women don’t need men for financial or practical reasons, they’re still looking for love. The episode ends not with a declaration of independence, but with Carrie asking Big if he’s ever been in love. While SATC’s pilot was hailed as groundbreaking when it aired, certain aspects of it are too cheesy to be timeless. The corny confessionals, Carrie speaking to the camera, and one particular scene where traffic noises are arranged into a “funky” urban beat are cringe-inducing today.
60. Season 2, episode 5: “Four Women and a Funeral”
As the girls visit a famous designer’s funeral, the show finally starts inching toward its destiny as must-see fashion porn. But after the funeral, the fun’s over. The episode takes a hokey look at death and its many definitions. Charlotte dates a widower who’s been using his status to scam on scads of sympathetic women. Miranda buys her own apartment - then obsesses over the prospect of dying alone and being eaten by her cat. (Yes, they really went there.) Carrie’s dead relationship with Big resuscitates itself six months after she got caught stalking him at church. And Samantha faces the death of her social life after hooking up with the wrong woman’s husband. The storyline wraps up with an absolutely ridiculous deus-ex-machina: a silhouetted Leonardo DiCaprio rescues Samantha from her social exile. Guess the writers’ room was feeling a little lazy that week.
59. Season 2, episode 8: “The Man, The Myth, The Viagra”
The main plot is Big’s ongoing streak of disappointing behavior: he calls Carrie his girlfriend for the first time, then suddenly spooks and maneuvers his way out of dinner with her friends. His dastardly deeds can’t ruin the ep, though. We get plenty of comic relief when Samantha starts dating a mega-rich 72-year-old who says things like “I used to groove with these cats in Cuba.” And at least Miranda has her meet-cute with Steve Brady, who goes on to become one of the show’s best characters. Still, this episode’s tedious Big drama and pointless, clunky mythology theme keep it from popping.
58. Season 6, episode 5: “Lights, Camera, Relationship!”
Berger starts to show his true colors when he freaks out over Carrie’s big book check and chafes at her gift of a Prada shirt. Miranda is in a masochistic hell as she helps Steve make cupcakes for his new girlfriend’s birthday. Charlotte mopes about her fresh breakup with Harry. Samantha’s the only one with a triumphant storyline this ep, as she helps Smith spin his full-frontal theatrical nudity into PR gold.
57. Season 6, episode 17: “Out of the Frying Pan”
The Russian continues his campaign of rigidity by repeatedly reminding Carrie that Samantha could maybe die of cancer. Charlotte gets a dog, which is nice but not exactly riveting. Miranda considers moving to Brooklyn. And in the series’ most tear-jerking moment, Smith shaves his head in solidarity as a tribute to Samantha, whose hair is falling out due to chemo. These winter episodes are grueling!
56. Season 4, episode 5: “Ghost Town”
Carrie and Miranda learn that their exes Aidan and Steve are 1. friends now and 2. opening a bar together. Instead of ignoring a launch party invitation like normal people, they commence their simultaneous flail back into the arms of their exes. But after early season four’s streak of bad flings and garbage-cake-eating, it’s actually great to see Aidan and Steve again. Meanwhile, Samantha and Maria break up because Maria can’t stand running into Samantha’s former sex buddies every time they leave the house. And we get a few shopping scenes with the always delightful Bunny MacDougal. All in all, the subplots are more entertaining than the main one in this ep, which makes it a bit of a slog.
55. Season 6, episode 8: “The Catch”
Carrie’s plotline in this episode centers around an extended trapeze metaphor. Yeah. Thankfully, there are moments of gold: Miranda literally hides under a crib to avoid Steve’s girlfriend and Charlotte’s wedding to Harry is so full of disasters, she has to assume it’s a good omen. Also, Carrie has terrible jackrabbit sex with a groomsman who then slut-shames her in his best man speech. It’s an uncomfy episode, but hey, at least Charlotte and Harry are married at the end.
54. Season 4, episode 3: “Defining Moments”
Dead set on discovering new and exciting ways to torture each other, Big and Carrie try to be friends. Again. She ends up dating a jazz musician right in front of his face to make him jealous. Miranda deals with a boyfriend who doesn’t believe in bathroom privacy. Charlotte and Trey finally start to bone, but they can only do it in public. And Samantha surprises herself by embarking on a relationship - not just a Quaalude-fueled hookup - with an artist named Maria. Still, like much of the first half of season four, this episode lacks spark.
53. Season 6, episode 15: “Catch-38”
Carrie finds out the Russian doesn’t want kids and spends a lot of time ruminating over this, for someone who’s never expressed a desire to procreate before. Miranda and Steve go for a mushy upstate honeymoon straight from her nightmares. And Samantha immerses herself in the politics of finding a good cancer doctor in New York City. Even the jokes in this episode (Steve insisting on Hallmark channel intimacy, Brady catching Charlotte and Harry in the act) rely heavily on the cringe factor, making it pretty unusual.
52. Season 3, episode 16: “Frenemies”
Miranda and Carrie’s storylines are bummers this episode: Miranda’s date dies so she goes out with Carrie’s asshole ex, and Carrie totally bombs while giving a seminar about love at the Learning Annex. The episode’s at its best when dealing with Samantha and Charlotte’s fight about sex, which threatens their friendship. After a sexual switcheroo, they have a truce: Samantha is surprisingly horrified by a new friend who has no qualms about giving a blow job at the dinner table, and Charlotte feels slut-shamed by her sorority sisters after she’s honest about Trey’s impotence. Not only does this mend fences between Charlotte and Samantha, but it helps Charlotte make some serious headway in her quest to get laid by her husband. This episode proves that no matter where you fall on the prude-to-free-spirit spectrum, someone will always find a way to make you feel weird about it, so we might as well all just accept each other.
51. Season 6, episode 6: “Hop, Skip, and a Week”
This episode involves jury duty, which isn’t a great omen as far as entertainment value. Berger and Carrie are on shaky ground - they need a “bit” to get through the day - so they take a break. Miranda struggles with work-life-baby balance, which is an important storyline if not exactly riveting. Samantha’s plans for Smith start taking off and the Absolut Hunk is born. Charlotte runs into Harry at a synagogue singles event, and he ends up proposing on the spot. Carrie and Berger’s break ends and they spend the night together. But when Carrie wakes up, he’s gone and there’s a Post-It note on her laptop: “I’m sorry, I can’t, don’t hate me.” Berger has broken up with her on a Post-It (and the fallout results in a much better episode than this one).
50. Season 3, episode 6: “Are We Sluts?”
It’s crazy that this show takes three and a half seasons to broach the topic of slut-shaming, but here we are. Each of the girls is dealing with her own slut-shamey scenario, but manages to resolve it by the end. Samantha’s booty call leads to a robbery in her old-school Upper East Side building. Miranda has an STD. Charlotte’s new boyfriend shouts “bitch” and “whore” whenever he climaxes. And Carrie’s new boyfriend Aidan wants to wait to have sex. The show doesn’t make any sweeping conclusions about slut-shaming, except one: “Men who have a lot of sexual partners aren’t called sluts. They’re called very good kissers.” Guess that’s that.
49. Season 4, episode 18: “I Heart NY”
Closing the door on any post-Aidan relationship possibilities, Big tells Carrie he’s moving to California. This results in one of her most regrettable puns: “When you’re tired you take a nap-a, you don’t move to Napa.” Samantha has a gut feeling that Richard’s cheating on her so she wears a disguise to spy on him - and she catches him going down on another woman. Miranda has her kid and names him Brady Hobbes (but no one ever explains whether his name becomes Brady Brady when Miranda and Steve get married!). This season finale ends with Carrie ruminating on the paths we all take in life, or something, and I think we can all agree no one was sad to see this tough, tedious season go.
48. Season 3, episode 4: “What’s Sex Got to Do With It?”
The girls struggle to act normal about Samantha’s relationship with Maria, as Sam gets incredibly graphic, exclaiming, “She has 10 dicks!” Carrie sours on her short-lived fling with the jazz musician, citing his apparent ADD as a dealbreaker. With Trey newly capable of coitus, Charlotte gets sick of the penis-centric nature of her marriage and reams him out. Despite all this, it’s a pretty meh episode until Miranda saves the day by iconically eating a piece of cake out of the garbage.
47. Season 6, episode 10: “Boy, Interrupted”
Carrie enjoys another fling with a dude who’s got a vague mental issue: her high school boyfriend David Duchovny, who stops by NYC on his way to an actual mental asylum. This storyline is questionable and feels like it wasn’t fully thought through, while the rest of the episode is fluffy but fun: Miranda freaks out that her boyfriend’s flirting with a cheerleader and Samantha sneaks into Soho House for the pool. But the storyline about Carrie’s ex is head-scratching enough to make this a pretty WTF episode.
46. Season 4, episode 13: “The Good Fight”
Newly engaged Carrie and Aidan get in a massive fight upon moving in together because there’s not enough room for all their stuff. Charlotte and Trey are fighting after he has the brilliant idea of buying her a giant cardboard baby to make light of their fertility issues. Miranda is desperate to get laid despite her pregnancy. And Samantha finally admits to herself that she’s found “the perfect Richard.” Too many tedious and awkward couple fights in this episode.
45. Season 5, episode 7: “The Big Journey”
The ladies have been single for what seems like ages, so they take desperate measures: Charlotte sleeps with her divorce lawyer despite insisting that she’s repulsed by him. Carrie and Samantha take a train to San Francisco to visit Big under the guise of a book tour (Carrie allegedly now has a flying phobia that’s never mentioned before or after). She wants to sleep with Big but he’s too concerned about how he’s portrayed in her book, so they wait until the morning. The train thing’s cute and the relationship development between Charlotte and Harry is necessary, but the episode as a whole isn’t incredible.
44. Season 6, episode 2: “Great Sexpectations”
Carrie and Berger are having crappy sex despite their great chemistry everywhere else, while Miranda becomes addicted to “Jules and Mimi” (how is this show-within-a-show premise so entertaining?) and Charlotte bugs a rabbi to let her convert to Judaism for her new boyfriend, Harry. The highlight of this episode is Samantha’s battle royale for raw food waiter Jerry Jerrod, who will soon be known as Smith.
43. Season 6, episode 3: “The Perfect Present”
Berger’s red flags keep rolling in as it’s revealed he might not be over his ex. Charlotte says goodbye to Christmas as she makes progress in the Jewish conversion process. Miranda is horrified to find Steve and his new girlfriend’s condoms in Brady’s diaper bag. And Samantha gets her new friend Jerry Jerrod fired due to sex on the job. Still, the best part of this episode is a surprise appearance from Big. Carrie calls to tell him they won’t be having any more steamy phone calls (guess phone sex really was a thing back in the day!).
42. Season 6, episode 1: “To Market, To Market”
This stock-themed episode is cute, but lacks any big fireworks. Miranda finally acknowledges her feelings for Steve, then realizes she has a new girlfriend named Debbie who’s basically Miranda’s polar opposite. Charlotte and Harry hit a roadblock when he divulges that he can’t marry a non-Jewish person. Carrie ends up spotting both Aidan and Berger unexpectedly in the wild, and goes on an impromptu first date with Berger.
41. Season 2, episode 16: “Was It Good For You?”
Charlotte’s new dude falls asleep while having sex with her. Instead of laughing it off or blaming him, she has a meltdown and assumes it’s because she’s bad in bed. Carrie dates a recovering alcoholic who starts drinking again because she won’t return his affections. And a gay couple tries convincing Samantha to have a threesome, horrifying Carrie. The most important part of this episode is Samantha’s line about Carrie: “For a sex columnist, you have a very limited view of sexuality.”
40. Season 6, episode 17: “The Cold War”
Not even Miranda’s Brooklyn woes and Petrovsky’s crankiness can ruin this episode, because of two things: Samantha’s sex tape and Charlotte’s dog show. I have seven epic words for you, uttered by Anthony Marentino: “Aunt Flo’s in doggy town. Show over.”
39. Season 3, episode 17: “What Goes Around Comes Around”
In the lead-up to Natasha’s final SATC scene, Miranda gets drunk on a date out of insecurity; Samantha takes the virginity of NYU student Sam Jones; and Charlotte and Trey agree to separate after she gets caught making out with the gardener. All pretty par for the course. But the climax of this episode is what’s frustrating: a meetup between Carrie and Natasha that Carrie walks away from having learned absolutely nothing about her mistakes. After Carrie gets robbed and falls down some stairs, she decides her karma’s out of whack. Continuing her tradition of stalking Big’s loved ones, she tricks Natasha’s assistant into divulging her lunch plans. Carrie puts on her best backless, cleavage-bearing Dior dress (perfect for noon on a weekday) and pops up at Natasha’s table to “apologize.” She says she’s sorry for everything and Natasha responds by eviscerating her. After Natasha’s epic dressing-down, Carrie spends exactly zero minutes on introspection. Instead, she laments the fact that Natasha’s back on the dating market to take up all the good men again. And then she wonders where Big is. Are we supposed to find her insufferable?!
38. Season 4, episode 15: “All That Glitters”
The ladies spark a national trend of straight women being awful in gay bars with this episode, which sees them shaking things up at a club called Trade. Carrie even makes a new gay friend. This is a source of conflict with Stanford, because in SATC world, you can only be friends with one gay guy at a time. Carrie bails on Aidan and his KFC bucket to hit Bungalow 8 with her new pal, hinting at the engaged couple’s incompatibility. Miranda is outed as a pregnant person at her office. And Trey and Charlotte decide to separate after their home is photographed for a magazine. At least Samantha lightens the mood by getting high on ecstasy and telling Richard she loves him (and blessing us with an iconic walk-of-shame visual the next morning).
37. Season 5, episode 4: “Cover Girl”
The ladies are moving up in the world, or at least trying to. Charlotte is reading every self-help book she can find (God, her Trey rebound takes ages). Miranda’s joining Weight Watchers and hooking up with a guy who’s not Steve (Carrie ruins cunnilingus forever with her “Miranda went out with an overeater and he overate her” pun). Carrie’s shooting the cover of her book. And Samantha’s coping with her Richard rebound by blowing the Worldwide Express guy. Carrie judges Samantha for this, and it’s a source of tension until Samantha walks in on Stanford hooking up with his new boyfriend. The takeaway of the episode is that judging people is bad, but we all do it anyway.
36. Season 3, episode 3: “Attack of the Five-Foot-Ten Woman”
Just when you thought he was out, he pulls you back in: Mr. Big is back from his Paris hiatus, and he’s got a new 26-year-old model wife, Natasha. After bumping into Natasha twice, Carrie decides to attend the same luncheon as her in order to gain the upper hand (and because Carrie loves nothing more than to spend non-consensual quality time with the women in Big’s life). The introduction of Magda, yet another secondary Miranda character who tends to steal the show, is a bright spot in the episode. So is Samantha’s storyline about angling for a happy ending at the spa, although it probably wouldn’t be kosher in the #metoo era.
35. Season 6, episode 4: “Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little”
Carrie’s nitpicking storyline, in which she mocks Berger for putting his book character in a scrunchie, is cringe-inducing. But Charlotte’s Shabbat dinner freakout is even worse: she berates Harry for not proposing (it’s been like six months…) and points out how much better looking she is than him. Still, the episode redeems itself thanks to Samantha and Smith’s hilarious role-playing, and the illuminating gospel of “he’s just not that into you,” a.k.a. the only useful thing Berger ever did.
34. Season 4, episode 17: “A Vogue Idea”
Carrie picks up the pieces of her broken engagement to Aidan with a freelance gig at Vogue. Fun new characters are introduced, the scenes shot at the Vogue offices are totally irresistible, and Carrie even has a new haircut. Meanwhile, Miranda has a borderline depressing baby shower, and Samantha breaks her own threesome rule (always be the guest star) by allowing Richard to bring a 20-something into their bedroom for his birthday. Somehow this results in Richard finally asking Samantha to be monogamous, and the episode feels like a twisted win - until Carrie gets hit on in the Vogue accessories closet.
33. Season 3, episode 10: “All or Nothing”
While the shocking start of Carrie and Big’s affair makes great television, watching it unfold while Aidan confesses his love to Carrie is painful. The episode gets major points for exploring female infidelity, which is largely absent from movies and TV, even if it’s hard to watch. Plus, we get to meet Bunny MacDougal, arguably the show’s best antagonist.
32. Season 2, episode 15: “Shortcomings”
“Shortcomings” deals with significant others’ families. Miranda’s excommunicated from her boyfriend’s life after his kid walks in on her naked. Samantha sleeps with Charlotte’s brother. And Carrie keeps dating a premature ejaculator because she loves the guy’s family. It seems surmountable until his mom tries to get involved and fix his sexual problem, and she realizes a good family can’t replace a good boyfriend. Valerie Harper really makes this episode.
31. Season 3, episode 11: “Running With Scissors”
Like the entire Carrie’s-cheating-on-Aidan story arc, this episode’s excruciating to watch, but important. This is the one where Natasha discovers Carrie in her apartment building, then falls and chips a tooth chasing after her. It feels kind of triumphant when Carrie ends their affair in the hospital lobby, but it’s obviously too little too late. Through Samantha’s subplot, the show expertly takes a heavy topic - HIV testing - and gives it the respect it deserves while also injecting it with SATC’s trademark humor and charm. Best of all, we meet Anthony Marentino, a wedding-planning bit player who ends up staying with the crew for the long haul.
30. Season 4, episode 9: “Sex and the Country”
In this episode, Carrie deigns to visit Aidan’s country home and comes to the conclusion that “city girls are just country girls with cuter outfits.” Meanwhile, Steve drives Miranda nuts by getting testicular cancer but taking it about as seriously as he takes his “crazy yellow toenail.” Samantha stops by the country house just long enough to bang a farmhand. And Charlotte tries to make nice with Trey’s deranged mother Bunny. After Aidan and Carrie’s stressful reconciliation, it feels like one of the first fun episodes in a while.
29. Season 3, episode 15: “Hot Child in the City”
You know that feeling you get when you’re finally over your breakup and you’ve reverse-aged at least 10 years? This episode encapsulates that perfectly. Fittingly, it has a high-school theme and features Miranda with braces, plus a horrifying teen client giving Samantha a midlife crisis. Carrie’s feeling so young, she dates a comic book author who lives with his parents and prefers KFC and weed to cosmopolitans and hors d’oeuvres. The episode ends with Carrie and her friends getting high on borrowed weed, which is all any newly single person can ever hope for, really.
28. Season 2, episode 12: “La Douleur Exquise”
This episode’s main plot is a bummer: Big casually drops a bomb on Carrie by telling her he’s moving to Paris for six months. Carrie speculates she may be an emotional masochist for dating such an unattainable guy. You can’t help but wonder if today, a TV character in the same situation would have no qualms blaming the guy instead of herself. And it’s lightened by some zany subplots: Charlotte meets a foot fetishist, Miranda’s new fling is addicted to public sex, and Stanford, a.k.a. Rick9Plus, divulges his love of cybersex. Pre-Grindr! This episode has a great balance of emotional heft and humor, and gives us hope that Carrie will finally stop putting up with Big’s sociopathic shenanigans - or at least learn to stand up for herself.
27. Season 5, episode 8: “I Love a Charade”
After a season of singleness, the girls hit the Hamptons for a wedding and start to move toward pairing off. Charlotte takes Harry out in public for the first time. Miranda and Steve slide into couply behavior. Carrie runs into Berger again and learns he’s finally single. And Samantha appears to be talking to Richard again. She uses his beach house for a party but feuds with some interlopers, yielding the Carrie phrase, “People who borrow glass houses shouldn’t throw cantaloupes.” The season five finale ends on a hopeful note, with Berger asking Carrie on a date.
26. Season 6, episode 20: “An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux”
Yes, this is a low rating for the emotional series finale of Sex and the City. But this episode of the show is just no fun to watch. Carrie is miserable in Paris while, back in New York, Miranda deals with her mother-in-law’s stroke and Samantha copes with chemo’s effect on her sex drive. Meanwhile, Charlotte deals with an adoption setback (later finally finding success). The Russian proves that in Paris, he’s a self-absorbed blowhard who only cares about his work. Still, Carrie could have made the best of being in Paris on someone else’s dime. And it’s tough to take her final monologue (“the most important relationship is the one you have with yourself”) and the series’ girl power lip service seriously as she bounces from one crappy boyfriend to another instead of rescuing herself on her own.
25. Season 3, episode 13: “Escape From New York”
Carrie finds herself unexpectedly single on the eve of a trip to LA, so she whisks Samantha and Miranda off with her and the fish-out-of-water hijinks commence. Samantha dates a dildo model with a penchant for crappy poetry (so LA!). And in one of the most underrated TV cameos in history, Matthew McConaughey goes method as Big during a studio meeting with a horrified Carrie. Charlotte embarks on the long strange journey of solving Trey’s penis problems back east. And we are treated to the visual of Miranda whipping out one (1) bra-covered boob on a mechanical bull. A delightful episode from beginning to end.
24. Season 3, episode 2: “Politically Erect”
This episode examines Carrie’s short-lived stint as a political girlfriend, and the girls really wear their privilege on their sleeves: Carrie’s not registered to vote, Samantha picks candidates based on how hot they are, and Charlotte’s only contribution to the political conversation is “I had a college crush on Dan Quayle.” Yikes. Meanwhile, Miranda is holding it down for the adults of the world by semi-rejecting Steve’s request to go steady. And Samantha dates a short guy. This storyline actually feels prescient, as surprise height differences have become a real concern in the post-Tinder world. By episode’s end, Bill Kelley disappoints us all by dumping Carrie because her sex columnist career is too “seamy” to be associated with him - even though he nurses a secret golden shower fetish. The ladies’ treatment of politics as a novelty is pretty mind-blowing 20 years later, but the episode’s entertaining enough to rise above it.
23. Season 1, episode 2: “Models and Mortals”
This episode gets major points because it’s the first time we get to know Miranda, a character who was considered dull and un-feminine at the time but is now widely regarded as the best SATC lady by far. Her complaint about “impossible standards of beauty” really lands in 2018. Here’s what wouldn’t fly today, though: Samantha is amused that the guy she’s banging likes to clandestinely record his sexual encounters. Nowadays we consider that a crime, not a kink. But Samantha looks at it as a challenge. Big’s effectively the headliner of this episode again, reassuring Carrie at the last minute that although there are a lot of beautiful women in the city, “after a while, you just wanna be with the one that makes you laugh.” But guess who he eventually marries instead of Carrie? A 26-year-old model. Anyway, if you wanted to introduce a friend to SATC, this wouldn’t be a bad episode to start with.
22. Season 6, episode 14: “The Ick Factor”
Boasting Steve and Miranda’s wedding, Carrie and the Russian’s weirdly old-school courtship, and Charlotte and Harry’s bout of couples food poisoning, this episode’s all about the kind of relationships that are so close, they’re almost gross. But it also proves that there’s one thing that can shake the un-shakeable SATC girls: the thought of a woman proposing. And over beers, no less. But still, it marks a moment of growth for all the women when they realize they’re truly comfortable with their current partners. Unfortunately, this is also the episode when we learn Samantha has cancer, but the show covers this topic, which can often come off maudlin on TV, with the utmost class.
21. Season 5, episode 1: “Anchors Away”
This is SATC’s first post-9/11 episode, and when viewed through that lens, it becomes pretty poignant: the main theme is Carrie’s ongoing love affair with New York, and the girls’ Fleet Week shenanigans. The idea that adult women in New York lose their shit over Fleet Week is fiction, and to this day I don’t know why SATC decided to go that route, but the hijinks that ensue are worth it. Even Charlotte throws caution to the wind and flashes a boob! Meanwhile, Miranda copes with her new kid, and it’s probably the most honest depiction of motherhood in TV history, at least by the time it aired in 2002.
20. Season 1, episode 11: “The Drought”
This ep turns one of the prevailing myths about sex - that men want it and women have to withhold it - on its head. What are the many reasons why a woman who wants to have sex can’t? In Carrie’s case, it’s because she farted in front of her boyfriend and thinks he doesn’t find her hot anymore. For Miranda, it’s a lack of viable partners. Charlotte’s dating a guy whose Prozac prescription affects his virility. And Samantha is torturing herself through an infatuation with a celibate yoga instructor. Still, this sex-free “Sex and the City” ep stops short of proving an important point: that women actually can’t snap their fingers and summon a satisfying sexual encounter no matter what.
19. Season 3, episode 14: “Sex and Another City”
The second half of Carrie, Samantha and Miranda’s trip to LA doesn’t exactly tackle the big issues, but it’s got cameos from Vince Vaughn, Carrie Fisher, Hugh Hefner and the Girls Next Door, and it belongs in the top tier of SATC eps. Despite all this fun in the sun, we’re treated to some healthy doses of LA shade when Miranda’s horrified by her ex’s LA transformation (“trust me, no one wants to hire a fat story editor”) and Carrie’s hot fling turns out to be a fraud. A Playboy Mansion party scene caps off this episode that delivers on every New-Yorkers-in-LA fantasy you can think of.
18. Season 4, episode 10: “Belles of the Balls”
After a long, hard, not-that-funny start to the fourth season, we’re rewarded for our patience with the sight of Big and Aidan beating each other up at Aidan’s country house while Carrie screams in the background, “Stop! You’re middle-aged!” Big takes a page out of Carrie’s playbook and stalks her all the way to Aidan’s country house so he can sob about his lady troubles, and said fight takes place. Surprisingly, this clears the air between all three of them. Miranda tosses Steve a pity-bang to help celebrate his recovery from testicular cancer. And Samantha meets her match in Richard Wright, the hotelier who will damn near ruin her. It’s not only a fun episode, but it plants the seeds for some multi-episode story arcs to come, reinvigorating the series at a time when it was starting to drag.
17. Season 4, episode 12: “Just Say Yes”
When Miranda decides to keep the baby after her and Steve’s “special Olympics of conception,” it’s a turning point in the series. At the same time, Aidan keeps up his penchant for moving too fast by suggesting that he and Carrie move in together. Carrie’s already freaked out by that when she discovers an engagement ring and ends up puking in the sink - not just because it’s too soon, but because the ring’s hideous. Even though she’s not ready, she gloats about it to Big when they run into each other in the street - and he tells her Aidan’s not the right guy. Later on, Aidan officially proposes with a way better ring. Carrie’s judgment is clouded by the gorgeous ring, her affection for Aidan, and a determination to prove Big wrong, so she says yes. In a switcheroo worthy of a Shakespearean comedy, Steve grabs Aidan’s castoff ring and proposes to pregnant Miranda, who responds, “What are you, fucking crazy?” In the meantime, Charlotte’s hormonal because of IVF treatments. And while the rest of the ladies mull major life decisions, Samantha’s living the dream on her new boss/boyfriend Richard’s private jet. So much happens in this episode, and it also brings the LOLs.
16. Season 1, episode 7: “The Monogamists”
This episode-long exploration of jealousy is a classic. Carrie assumes that she and Big are official, but she’s dumbstruck when she discovers him out on a date with another woman. It’s one of the series’ most powerful scenes. If you don’t feel a visceral sense of betrayal while watching it, I don’t know what to tell you. Miranda also experiences jealousy issues despite not even liking her new fling, Skipper, all that much. Haven’t we all been there? Meanwhile, Samantha is buying an apartment. This might seem inconsequential today, but how many girls watching the series 20 years ago hadn’t even considered the idea of buying their own NYC apartment by themselves? Casually groundbreaking.
15. Season 1, episode 6: “Secret Sex”
This episode introduced a brand new and probably valid fear to women everywhere: that the guy you’re sleeping with might be hiding you from the world. One of the best traits of SATC was its ability to name and deconstruct very real sexual trends that we’d never thought of before, and “Secret Sex” excelled at that. It also contains an illuminating conversation between the girls about whether it’s worth it to withhold sex on the first date or three. Plus, we see the first hints of Carrie’s soon-to-be iconic style when she rocks a “naked dress” and giant fur coat on her date with Big. You could throw out Miranda’s spank-porn subplot and no one would miss it, but overall, this is a quintessential SATC ep.
14. Season 3, episode 9: “Easy Come, Easy Go”
Here’s an insane factoid: Aidan’s only in the picture for four episodes before Carrie starts cheating on him with Big. What is that, two months in SATC time? “Easy Come, Easy Go” gets high marks because the start of that affair, plus Charlotte’s abrupt engagement to Trey “All Righty” MacDougal, make for two of the biggest plot twists in the series. This episode is drama central and it’s amazing. You also can’t beat Bobby Cannavale’s appearance as the “funkiest-tasting spunk” dude.
13. Season 4, episode 2: “Unoriginal Sin”
What can I say? I love watching the girls endure Brady’s baptism despite their complete apathy for religion. We also get a rare look at Samantha’s vulnerability in this episode, when she admits she took Richard back after he cheated on her. Meanwhile, Carrie is shocked to find out she’s getting a book deal, and Amy Sedaris and Molly Shannon make delightful cameo appearances as her book agents. Charlotte’s affirmation workshop plotline is a little shaky - affirmations seem far too woo-woo for someone like her. But Steve’s insane family members make up for any dull moments in this ep.
12. Season 1, episode 9: “The Turtle and the Hare”
This episode is the first of the series to depict a wedding and the first to address masturbation, and it turns out to be a surprisingly effective combo. It was likely the first time many girls and women saw a wedding portrayed as a disappointment instead of life’s ultimate goal onscreen - and the first time we saw masturbation portrayed as comic relief instead of something to be ashamed of. Samantha’s Turtle subplot taught us all it’s not worth fixing a man because he’ll just believe he did it himself. And we learned words of wisdom like “it’s always better to marry someone who loves you more than you love them” and “if you’re going to get a vibrator, at least get one called The Horse.” This episode is kind of a masterpiece.
11. Season 6, episode 9: “A Woman’s Right to Shoes”
Why yes, that’s an abortion pun in the title. But Carrie’s plotline points out a truth that had only been whispered about among friends until this ep: the disparity in gifts between married people and the single and/or childless. Carrie’s shoes go missing at a kids’ party in her friend’s apartment, and the friend refuses to replace them because she thinks pricey shoes are frivolous. But Carrie points out that she’s spent hundreds on the friend’s wedding and babies over the years. So she sticks to her guns and persuades the friend to replace her shoes. It might seem silly on its face, but after your fifth wedding in a year, this episode is cathartic.
10. Season 2, episode 18: “Ex and the City”
This episode focuses on the age-old conundrum: can you be friends with your ex? Everyone knows the answer is no, but we all try to pull it off anyway, and Carrie and Miranda are no exceptions. Miranda ends up banging Steve (very friendly) and Carrie asks Big to be friends even though it’s clear she’s just not over him. When he breaks the news to her that he’s engaged to Natasha, she flips out. The episode also sees Charlotte trying to become friends with a horse after one threw her when she was a kid (it’s weird) and Samantha dealing with an overly endowed fling. Carrie stands outside Big and Natasha’s engagement party to stare at them while wearing a white dress (seriously). After Big semi-confirms Carrie’s theory that he picked Natasha because she’s simple, Carrie brings the horse metaphor full circle and delivers the line that launched a million AIM statuses: “Maybe some women aren’t meant to be tamed. Maybe they just need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with.”
9. Season 3, episode 1: “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire”
Who doesn’t love this episode? The ladies travel all the way to Staten Island so Carrie can judge the fire department’s calendar competition. Carrie meets Bill Kelley, a “politician guy” who seems promising. Charlotte gets wasted. Samantha tries to fulfill a “rescue fantasy” but ends up stranded and naked in a firehouse. Miranda allows herself to accept help from Steve after eye surgery and they start the reconciliation process. And Charlotte rethinks her priorities after realizing her “Prince Charming” is a belligerent bully. This episode’s “all women want to be saved” premise may induce eyerolls at first, but the execution’s pretty great.
8. Season 6, episode 19: “An American Girl in Paris, Part Une”
I almost resent this episode for how emotionally draining it is, from the minute Big rolls his window down, to Carrie’s speech about him, to her goodbye speech at dinner with the girls... and don’t even get me started about Samantha’s breast cancer benefit speech. Unfortunately, Petrovsky and his Euro-brat daughter harsh the episode’s sentimental vibes. And it’s tough to sympathize with Carrie as she feels bad for herself all over Paris without even giving it a chance. The episode redeems itself back in New York, when Big states his case to Carrie’s friends and Miranda gives her blessing for him to “go get our girl.”
7. Season 6, episode 11: “The Domino Effect”
Carrie and Big love to meet up under emotionally devastating circumstances every few months, so it makes sense that they reunite as he’s about to undergo open heart surgery. They’re both super single, and end up role-playing an old married couple as he recovers from surgery, so an eventual reconciliation seems possible even though he goes back to Napa at the end of the episode. This turns out to be the last significant chunk of time Big and Carrie spend together before he rescues her from Paris, so this meetup is even more important to their story arc than it seems at first glance.
6. Season 5, episode 3: “Luck Be an Old Lady”
All the gals are too busy to celebrate Charlotte’s 36th birthday, so Carrie forces them to clear their schedules and crash Samantha and Richard’s Atlantic City trip. This episode’s got it all: Miranda bossing Steve around, Samantha traumatizing Charlotte, Charlotte indulging in a thotty birthday makeover, and a showdown between the ladies and a group of loud-mouthed gamblers. Oh, and the following really great pun: “Atlantic Titty.” It also delivers on the plot front, with Samantha finally kicking Richard to the curb with one of her best lines: “I love you, Richard, but I love me more.”
5. Season 3, episode 12: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
We love a wedding episode of SATC, don’t we? In “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Trey and Charlotte’s wedding brings an explosive amount of drama. Aidan finds out about Carrie and Big and calls it quits, Charlotte finds out Trey can’t get it up, and Samantha bangs a guy in a kilt. Meanwhile, Miranda pretends she’s a stewardess to get a date. This episode is a deft exploration of the lies we all tell in order to balance our own best interests with the unwritten rules of dating.
4. Season 6, episode 18: “Splat!”
Whether you were in high school, college, a job or a social scene, we’ve all had that feeling of having stayed at a party too long. In “Splat!”, New York starts to smell musty to Carrie, despite (or maybe because of!) the fact that all her friends happen to be settling down at once. After a gorgeous dinner party with all of Carrie’s inner circle, the Russian suggests Carrie move to Paris with him. Her friends aren’t exactly happy for her, and this seems to only motivate her more. Meanwhile, Charlotte’s fertility issues continue as her dog commits the ultimate betrayal of getting pregnant by accident. And Miranda has a full-on intervention with Carrie. The grand finale comes when Carrie’s friend Lexi literally falls out a window when delivering a speech about how boring New York’s gotten. And in episodes and movies that follow “Splat!”, things just feel more mature. It’s clear from this episode onward that the carefree days of SATC are over, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
3. Season 6, episode 7: “The Post-It Always Sticks Twice”
After six and a half seasons, it must have been hard for the SATC writers to come up with ideas. But basing an entire episode around Carrie’s indignance over getting dumped on a Post-It was inspired. Getting dumped on a Post-It is the perfect TV crime: it’s cruel enough to cause an emotional reaction, but also so dumb that it can spawn endless jokes and puns (like Post-It traumatic stress disorder). After breaking the news to her friends, Carrie coaxes them into a night of clubbing. And despite Miranda’s miraculous ability to fit into her skinny jeans, things go from bad to worse: they run into a friend of Berger, and Carrie gets arrested for smoking weed in the street. But it ends with them laughing over ice cream sundaes and a promise that Charlotte won’t make any of them wear matching dresses in her wedding.
2. Season 2, episode 17: “Twenty-Something Girls Vs. Thirty-Something Women”
Before SATC, the prevailing wisdom for women was that being in your 20s was great, and every decade afterward got progressively worse. So when Carrie said the only thing worse than being single and in your 30s in New York was being single and in your 20s, it was intriguing. The episode raises valid points about the differences between the two age groups, with the 30-somethings coming out on top of the 20-somethings, who come across like overgrown golden retriever puppies - especially Carrie’s new intern, a 25-year-old virgin who’s saving herself for marriage. But the good-natured rivalry comes to an end when Carrie stumbles on Big and his new fiancée, who happens to be 26. This episode turned conventional wisdom on its head and made a great case for why the decade that’s allegedly best is actually kind of the worst.
1. Season 1, episode 10: “The Baby Shower”
Has there been a more effective roast of an entire tradition, before or since this episode? This seminal half-hour of television taught many of us a closely guarded secret of womanhood: baby showers suck. Also, not every woman is ecstatic to be pregnant. Each character is used as a conduit for all the complex feelings we might have about pregnancy. Carrie’s scared she’s pregnant with her new boyfriend’s baby. Samantha pats herself on the back for still being fun and single while former rival Lainey is “using a baby to validate her existence.” Miranda examines the suburban moms like they’re in a picket-fenced petri dish. And Charlotte freaks out about the fact that a woman who wasn’t supposed to get married and pregnant before her not only managed to do just that, but also stole Charlotte’s baby name. The episode ends the way it begins: with the characters feeling ultimately ambivalent about motherhood in general. How groundbreaking is that, for a medium where women have historically been depicted as wives and mothers above all else?
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