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Oh, to be excited about anything as much as Miranda Hobbes is about pink balloons full of confetti. But excitement and fun are exactly what Carrie orders when she enlists Miranda’s help to throw Charlotte an extra-special birthday party. There’s a little cognitive dissonance merging confetti loving, “where my girls at?” Miranda with the one from yesteryear, but maybe this is who Miranda is now that she has joy, and Joy, in her life. Or maybe being with Che broke her brain. Maybe both! Probably both. Regardless, at least Miranda took the note to go “all out” for their friend seriously. What was Carrie’s party plan? Tepid banter in rental chairs? No, for Charlotte, we’re doing balloons and confetti, and we are hitting that karaoke machine hard.

The reason Carrie wants to give Charlotte something to really celebrate this year on her birthday is, of course, because now she knows about Harry’s prostate cancer diagnosis and how much it’s been wearing on his wife. Plus, there’s a whole thing about how she’s slowly realizing her children are monsters. Or, excuse me, that should read Lily’s dancer boyfriend Diego dumped her and her subsequent breakdown is one more thing for Charlotte to worry about. Basically the same, right? Anyway, Charlotte deserves some fun. Of course when Miranda starts to feel like maybe there’s something she’s missing here, she begins to question why Carrie is so worried about their friend and Carrie, true to her word about remaining a vault for Charlotte but also true to her character that she is a terrible liar, she invents a story about Richard Burton having an incurable tumor. The running joke that this lie about Richard Burton is actually worse for Charlotte than her husband’s very real cancer is exactly why Charlotte and Harry remain the MVPs of this series.

Another piece of evidence to support that argument is the way their storyline plays out in this episode. Charlotte’s birthday party is a great time even if the karaoke gets awkward fast and remains awkward for the entire evening — apparently Lisa and Herbert’s younger son Henry cannot resist singing Les Mis songs when a mic is available (also, “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “Copacabana,” if you were curious) — and she’s having a great time, even if Bitsy von Muffling commandeers Giuseppe to duet on “Shallow” with her. But Miranda is under the impression that her friend is preparing to say good-bye to the love of her life (yes, I’m still talking about the dog) the entire time. You know this miscommunication is going to come into play at some point.

That point is when Miranda tells Harry that they’ll all be there to take care of Charlotte when the worst happens, which confuses him because his wife promised to keep this a secret. Charlotte clears up the confusion with Carrie and explains to Harry that she had to tell Carrie — she was going crazy keeping this to herself. Lest you worry that Harry will think Charlotte has betrayed him, earlier in the episode, Charlotte discovered Harry shopping for her at Bergdorf’s and was introduced to a woman he was having a secret, quite intimate relationship with: Bonnie, his personal shopper. The only reason he’s given Charlotte such nice, tasteful gifts over the years is because of Bonnie. And he, too, was going crazy not having anyone to talk to about it and he filled Bonnie in on his diagnosis. Realizing that this secret wasn’t doing either of them any good, he decides to fix the problem. He gathers Charlotte, Lisa, Carrie, and Miranda together in the kitchen and tells them the news. Before they all gasp too loudly, he makes sure they know that it’s early, he’s having surgery next week, and he should be just fine. The only thing worrying him is what he’s done to Charlotte by asking her to keep this from her best friends. He knows that it wasn’t fair and he hopes that now that she can lean on other people, “she can breathe a little.” It is so sweet and romantic, and I will never apologize for being a part of their fan club. Metaphorically-speaking. But also, maybe literally speaking, should there be an opening at an organization like that?

There are much bigger romantic gestures going on at this party, too. Seema, still attempting to get her life together and keep an eye on her budget while she works to get her company off the ground, goes to the local eyelash salon instead of her normal fancy one downtown. Naturally, she gets an eye infection. Weeks ago, she refused to eat Doritos in a minivan, and now here she is sewing her own Louis Vuitton eyepatch. That’s called growth, baby. I can’t believe I’m writing this, but she honestly really pulls it off. And I’m not the only one who thinks so: Landscaper Adam, a.k.a. Fun Adam, has dialed up the flirting to intense levels. How they do not make out with each other in Carrie’s kitchen after he takes one of Seema’s janky eyelashes off her face and makes a wish on it, I will never know. Not to be dramatic, but it is the world’s greatest mystery. If it’s because they’re worried since Carrie is sitting on the counter, they should know she survived witnessing a fingering in her kitchen, so she probably has no issues with an above-the-belt make-out.

They do not make out. Seema says it’s a non-starter since Adam has a yogi girlfriend somewhere off in Brooklyn. But wait! At the birthday party, as more flirting ensues, Adam tells her he broke up with the yogi. Furthermore, he broke up with her the first time he smelled Seema’s perfume. I feel like, in print, that sounds creepy, but in person, less so. Seema, ever afraid of something good, tries to bolt. As Carrie begs her to stay, a voice comes over the karaoke mic and dedicates a song to “the girl who has the most beautiful eye [he has] ever seen.” Adam then proceeds to serenade Seema with “Bette Davis Eyes.” Not the JoJo Siwa version, so don’t worry. Seema is so charmed by it all. The two of them end up making out in the back of a cab, definitely on their way to have sex. “I don’t do dirt” my ass, Seema!

By the end of the night, Miranda’s thrilled that everyone, especially Charlotte, seemed to have a good time. She’s also thrilled that Carrie looked like she was having fun, too — fun with Duncan, the downstairs neighbor. Carrie and Duncan have already read each other’s first chapters, which is not a euphemism … yet. They are enamoured with each other’s writing. Duncan calls Carrie’s first chapter about “the woman” propulsive. The basement troll who hates daylight and only eats stew loves Carrie’s book. What a world. He attends the party and the two spend time complimenting each other, sharing a highball of scotch, and making fun of karaoke. They are genuinely having a nice time. But when Miranda brings up the “vibes” she was sensing between the two of them, in a harmless, it’s nice to see you have fun type of way, Carrie shuts down. She is angry. She’s in a relationship, Miranda. She is with Aidan, Miranda. Things are complicated, MIRANDA.

This reaction is so confusing. Wasn’t it just the last episode in which she was surprised to learn that Aidan thought she wouldn’t have sex with anyone else for five years? It was like a whole thing they did. And now she’s offended when Miranda brings up how nice it was to see her friend being flirty and carefree with a guy? Wait until Miranda hears that Aidan slept with his ex-wife! I suppose we can assume that this is just Carrie being defensive because she does have, perhaps surprisingly, feelings for Duncan; however, this is once again requiring the audience to do a lot of work when we shouldn’t have to. This Aidan situation has always been and still remains such a mess.

• You know it’s a wild party when we haven’t even gotten to the fact that Patti LuPone is playing Giuseppe’s mother from Rome by way of Buffalo. Naturally, Gia can’t stand Anthony and, after spending a little time with her son’s boyfriend, informs Giuseppe that she’ll be sticking around longer than planned. Expect Anthony and Gia to go at each other in the future. What a match-up to look forward to.

• And Just Like That… had so many Broadway babes to choose from to set loose on the karaoke machine. Patti, as Gia, complains that there’s too much singing at this party for her liking, but they do wind up getting Bonnie Milligan to crush “River Deep, Mountain High.”

• Miranda and Joy’s relationship is going to implode because of something dog-related, right? There’s so much dog talk!

• Looks like Carrie’s into grunge lit these days: The book she’s carrying around after the Hot Fellas outing is Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip. Carrie contains multitudes, it seems.

• What’s with that throwaway line when Anthony tells Carrie that if it comes up, he “was never married,” and her response is “okay, neither was I.” It remains insane to me that Carrie never talks about her dead husband.

• Anybody else think we were about to get a Sebastian Kydd shout-out when Carrie started reminiscing about her high school heartbreak? Throw The Carrie Diaries a bone here!

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