Warning: This post contains spoilers for Episode 5 of And Just Like That Season 3
In the fifth episode of And Just Like That Season 3, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) is finally back in New York City where she belongs. And let us be the first to say we don’t need her venturing down south to visit Aidan (John Corbett) again anytime soon.
Following last week’s invasion of the Carrie body snatchers storyline, an opening montage of Carrie click-clacking around her Gramercy Park townhouse in various designer heels resets the stage for a return to peak Carrie form. But a new wrench is thrown into the works in the form of an irritable downstairs neighbor. Enter Duncan Reeves (Jonathan Cake), a renowned British biographer who has decamped from London to spend six months holed up stateside while working on his new book, a biography of Margaret Thatcher. The problem is that Duncan likes to write at night and sleep during the day, meaning he goes to bed right around the time Carrie starts strutting around in her heels du jour.
Their first encounter is not pleasant, with an incensed Duncan suddenly appearing at Carrie’s door to have a stern word with her about her lack of sound-muffling rugs. But their back-and-forth reveals a natural chemistry between the two writers. The pair go on to have a number of passive-aggressive interactions as the episode progresses—he buys her fuzzy slippers on Amazon!—leading Carrie to text Samantha for the lowdown on Duncan’s London reputation. Sam gamely reports back that she’s heard he’s “fun.”
By the end of the episode, which finds Carrie rescuing Duncan from death by burning pot, then having dinner with him in a restaurant, it’s pretty clear a new romantic connection is ahead. Especially when Carrie comes home and does the unthinkable of—gasp—removing her heels so as not to add to Duncan’s stress over his new writing project.
Of course, Carrie is still technically in a relationship with Aidan. And the arrival of a dining table Aidan originally thumbsed-down before purchasing out from under Carrie as a surprise does show that he’s finally putting in some effort. But as Carrie herself said, he can’t be her “everyday fella” right now. If that’s true for the next five years, Carrie should at least get to have some fun in the meantime. Flirting with Duncan Reeves seems like a good place to start.
Notably, however, early in the episode, Carrie also has a conversation with Charlotte (Kristin Davis) about her desire for a “big, romantic, music-swell resolution” to the situation with Aidan. Knowing And Just Like That, the show may be foreshadowing a grand gesture from Aidan that arrives just as Carrie is beginning to have feelings for Duncan. Depending on where you fall on the Aidan fandom spectrum, that could either be a blessing or a curse.