John Corbett Fought for Aidan and Carrie’s Happily Ever After Kiss in ‘And Just Like That’ Season 2 Episode 7 (2024)

After months of teases, Max‘s Sex and the City spin-off And Just Like That… finally reunited Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) with ex-fiancé Aidan Shaw (John Corbett). We learn in And Just Like That… Season 2 Episode 7 “February 14” that Aidan not only received the email Carrie sent last week, but that he’s down to meet for dinner — on Valentine’s Day. While the show initially teases us with a possible missed connection, Carrie and Aidan’s reunion winds up being such a tender affair it got even this die-hard Big girl* swooning. From the couple’s first poignant embrace to his refusal to revisit the apartment where their best and worst times went down, And Just Like That… nailed Aidan’s return to the Sex and the City universe.

*I’m not proud of myself, but it is what it is.

For And Just Like That… fans who never watched the original Sex and the City, Carrie and Aidan’s romance was as sweet as it was bitter. Carrie fell for the laid-back furniture designer early on in SATC Season 3. The good-natured dude got Carrie to kick bad habits, like smoking, but couldn’t get her to quit Mr. Big (Chris Noth). Carrie sabotaged her relationship with Aidan by cheating on him with (the then-married to Bridget Moynahan’s Natasha!) Big. Their break-up was brutal, but eventually short-lived.

Six months after their tumultuous split, Carrie was able to woo the heartbroken Aidan back. It should be noted that during their break, Aidan got a hunky makeover, which just exacerbated Carrie’s — and the audience’s — yearning for a do-over. (And if you think that’s not worth mentioning, you weren’t there when it happened. To paraphrase Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, “Do not cite the old SATC gossip to me, I was there when it was written!”)

At first Carrie and Aidan’s rekindled romance is idyllic. When her beloved apartment goes up for sale, he helps her purchase it and the next door unit, which he renovates into Carrie’s dream flat. The two eventually get engaged, but Carrie struggles with feelings of suffocation. Worse, though, it’s clear Aidan still can’t trust her. They call the wedding off and part. The next time Carrie sees Aidan, he is married to another woman and father to an infant, Tate. In Sex and the City 2, however, the two run into each other in Dubai. They share dinner and a kiss before Carrie runs off… to eventually marry Big whose death kicks off And Just Like That...’s whole saga.

Throughout the original run of Sex and the City, fans were bitterly divided on which handsome love interest Carrie should wind up happily ever after with: Big or Aidan. It was a debate that even made its way into the script of the original series with Charlotte and Miranda picking opposite sides. Now it seems that And Just Like That… is saying…uh…Carrie can have both?

Carrie is understandably nervous about seeing Aidan again. So much so, she considers it a real possibility when he doesn’t show that he is standing her up. However, it is merely a mistake of addresses. When the two do finally see each other on the street and embrace, the moment is so rife with emotional that even And Just Like That… showrunner Michael Patrick King felt its power.

“When I saw Carrie and Aidan embrace on the street, that communication went so far past niceties that when I then saw the scene that Samantha [Irby] had written and it was just eight lines before they get to [the meat of the conversation], I was like, ‘That feels like we’re past that,'” King revealed on the latest installment of Max’s official And Just Like That… companion podcast.

“The reality is when you’re seeing somebody after you’ve had a tragedy… I actually thought the first thing I would say is, right off the bat, ‘I’m so sorry.’Even with the baggage… ‘I’m so sorry.'”

The tender conversation soon becomes a tentative agreement for the two former lovebirds to explore a new chapter with one another. Unfortunately, there’s one massive hiccup. When Aidan arrives at Carrie’s old apartment, he refuses to revisit the physical site of so much pain. (And as someone forever haunted by the way Corbett yelled, “YOU BROKE MY HEART!” outside the apartment, I get it.)

“He can’t live it,” King says.

Nevertheless, Corbett reportedly fought this choice, arguing that Aidan should be mature enough by now to have let it all go. King stuck to his guns, however, and what happens is that Aidan walks away with Carrie’s acceptance, before turning back and pointing out New York City is full of hotels. It’s a rom-com moment made even better by a Corbett suggestion that King says he did take.

The initial idea was that Aidan and Carrie would be so swept up in their reunion that they’d be kissing in the cab heading to her apartment. This is why Aidan wouldn’t recognize the site of all their traumas until he was there. Corbett argued that they should save the kiss for the end of the episode and improvised a line that communicated that Aidan was caught up in his excitement without smooching.

Personally, I thought it was a beautiful reunion between two people who still have a deep, indefatigable connection. It made sense that they could let some bygones be bygones, while agreeing that the apartment was not somewhere Aidan could go. It also made sense to me that they’d still be attracted to each other and want to revisit the easy chemistry they shared. Perhaps now that they’re both older and wiser, Aidan and Carrie can get out of their own way and try again for a happily ever after. Or at least, maybe they can give us another round of the equal parts infuriating and enchanting soap opera they once lived out.