‘And Just Like That’ Season 2 Episode 10 Recap: “The Last Supper, Part One”

Officially, And Just Like That Season 2 Episode 10 is titled “The Last Supper Part One: Appetizer,” and now that we’ve seen it, we all understand this season’s marketing campaign so much better now.

You’ve got Carrie and her 12 apostles, presumably all of the people who are invited to the 16-person, Michelin-star-chef-cooked meal to be held in her old apartment (the 16-person thing really messes with the Biblical comparison, as does Carrie’s attempt to save a seat for Aidan/Elijah… does anyone on the writing staff know the difference between the Old Testament and the Gospels or what? Also, how different the real Last Supper painting would be if only da Vinci employed a bold print wallpaper!?)

If there are 13 people in the photo below, who I’m assuming are all going to Carrie’s party, which she won at an auction at Charlotte’s kids’ school, and we know Steve will also be there, does that mean that Seema’s Marvel boyfriend gets the last seat? Or Giuseppe? Or just the photo of Stanford in his Shinto monk’s robe?? Forget the fact that Aidan might have signaled to Carrie that their relationship might have to pause again so he can be with his kids, the real cliffhanger for me is figuring out the final guest list.

So while Che and their 2012 standup set about dating and salad are the thing I’m MOST mad at this episode, I’m saving that bit for a little further down this recap; let’s start with the fact that the episode begins with Carrie visiting Coney Island (to see Steve’s new hot dog and clam restaurant that he’s opening on the boardwalk!) for the first time in the 35 years she has lived in the city. She hasn’t even been to a Mermaid Parade?! Shameful. But she’s finally made the trek because Aidan’s an investor in Steve’s new business, just like he was at Scout. I’m made slightly more comfortable with this scene once I’m reminded that Aidan and Steve were – and still are – bros. But Aidan seems distracted after getting an angry phone call from his teenage son Wyatt who called his mom a real dick, so Aidan is not feeling like being Mr. Chatty McNiceguy at the moment.

Speaking of phones, it turns out that Carrie sold her apartment to her neighbor Lisette for a song, and apparently she’s giving away some of her belongings with it, but not her classic rotary phone! I remain confused about Lisette’s purpose on this show, but I guess this was it. This was her long con, being on this show simply to be passed the torch of owning a pre-war studio apartment with a large closet.

Charlotte’s new identity as a working woman continues to be tested by her family, because even though she’s in the midst of a big art sale to Sam Smith and maybe also Jeffrey Williams, Charlotte is still the default parent to her kids when they need stuff, like when Rock calls Charlotte in a panic about a missing notebook. When Charlotte calls Harry at work to pick up the slack, he is annoyed (“Why would you call my assistant with that?! I thought my father died… That call is comin’,” Harry says darkly. Evan Handler is an unsung hero of so many of his scenes, but much like last week when Harry was forced to think Charlotte was having an affair with her boss Mark Kasabian, this week, he’s just as annoyed at having a wife who works because it means he has more work to do now. I thought we established Harry as supportive of Charlotte’s life choice!? Why are we regressing?)

When Charlotte makes her big sale to Sam Smith, her fellow gallerinas insist that the celebrate at the bar, and when Harry, Rock and Lily are upset that Charlotte didn’t answer her phone for them, she drunkenly tells them when she gets home, “I was a person before all of you! I am more than just your wife and your momsss,” she slurs, adding, “You need to get that, and get it together.”

Harry being annoyed at Charlotte’s new job when he was originally supportive is like, the tippy tip of the iceberg that is the inconsistent writing on this show that I still will never stop watching, lest you think I hate it or something… (I do! But also I DON’T!) For more on that, let’s look no further than Lisa Todd Wexley’s now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t pregnancy. We learned LTW was pregnant last week when she told Herbert about it just before he gave a speech to his political supporters, but just as quickly this week, she lost the baby. While I appreciate the brief moment that this show allowed us to consider that LTW might have an abortion (“I’m really grateful that I have that option,” she says, paying respects to New York state abortion laws) or be an older mom, the show barely gave us time to sit with this possibility before erasing the entire situation with a convenient miscarriage.

Giuseppe continues to be one of the most welcome new additions to the series, and while I admittedly am not the person to discuss the ins and outs or tops and bottoms of gay sex, I love that Giuseppe will not take no for an answer when Anthony tries to avoid talking about his sexual preferences for penetration, and he forces Anthony to confront his feelings. Anthony is staunchly opposed to being a bottom, claiming, “I’m not the woman!” but when Giuseppe realizes he’s not going to change Anthony’s mind about accepting penile penetration, at least not right away, he sweetly asks, “But why would you be afraid of more love?” to which Anthony responds, “Don’t poet me right now.”

Giuseppe doesn’t get more time onscreen this week, but Anthony is part of a scene that was easily one of the most shocking moments of the episode. Carrie, having received a care package from BFF Stanford (played by Willie Garson until he died in 2021), has invited Anthony to her apartment. Garson’s death had been explained by having Stanford move to Japan to manage a Tik Tok star, but in this week’s episode, they went one further, with Carrie revealing to Anthony that Stanford has decided to stay in Japan forever… to become a Shinto monk. “Get the fuck outta here,” Anthony says, but then Carrie produces a picture, the wildest photo ever, of Garson in a monk’s robe. “Good Photoshop, what’s the bit?” Anthony asks, and I think it’s safe to say that’s what we all want to know. Was it really someone’s job to Photoshop Garson into this robe? Or is it an actual photo of Garson on a trip to Japan? The world needs to know how this photo came to be, because I gasped when I saw it. Stanny has apparently found peace and relinquished all of his worldly possessions to Anthony. Carrie and Anthony toast to him and his newfound self, annnnnd that’s a series wrap on Stanford Blatch.

Miranda is currently crushing it at he job at the Human Rights Watch, and I know we’re all thrilled to see that at least one of her fellow interns is still toiling away on the briefs desk while Miranda gets to go to important meetings at the U.N., but in her personal life, she has reason to be very frustrated. After Nya points out to Miranda that she cuts off her exes (“Cold turkey is your spirit animal,” Nya tells her, and I feel like this show, for all its diversity casting, still isn’t doing the work) Miranda vows not to be that person. So she makes a terrible decision to go to Che’s stand-up show in Brooklyn where they’re workshopping new material.

Che, in preparing for this set of new material, rewatched a clip of themself performing when they identified as a Cheryl, and the set was about how women like her only eat salads on dates. Look, I am comfortable with Che identifying however they want, I’m not one to put limitations on anyone, but we can all agree that the one thing they should truly never identify as is a comedian, right? This clip has made it clear that Che is beyond terrible at their job and has been for 11 years. By watching their old material, Che obviously has some kind of reckoning…unfortunately, it’s not the reckoning we hoped.

Apparently the only thing Che took from their shitty old self-deprecating material was that it didn’t target other people enough. So in their new act, they ripped Miranda’s entire identity as a newly queer divorcée apart (“We were both confused… She was confused about everything, and I was confused about why I was fucking her,” went one particularly cruel joke.) Miranda walks out of the show and Che sees her leave which throws her off her material, and when Miranda asks Che, “What kind of a person gets up on a stage like that and makes jokes about what happened between us?” Che responds, “A stand-up.” This makes a lot of sense. If Che thinks that stand-ups source their lives for material by making everyone else around them look bad, it explains why Che is the biggest hack we’ve ever seen. Even though Che claims they were getting to the part in their act where they made fun of themself, it’s too late, Miranda’s too hurt to stick around.

To add insult in injury, even though Carrie was also there at the set, she still plans to invite Che to her Last Supper, despite the fact that it makes Miranda deeply uncomfortable and she was present for all of these hurtful insults lobbed at her best friend. It didn’t sit right with me when Che spoke poorly about Miranda to Carrie in previous episodes, referring to her as “Mommy” and intoning that Miranda was a killjoy when she, you know, had to go to work early, and Carrie never defended Miranda, but this is just… what does Carrie see in Che as a friend? I wish this show would rip off the Che Band-Aid because Che is a character that only makes everyone else around them look worse.

So, just as Carrie preps for her Last Supper, Aidan receives the phone call no parent ever wants to get, that his son Wyatt is in the hospital suffering from injuries he got in a car wreck. It turns out, Wyatt got drunk and drove Aidan’s car into a tree after having a fight with his mother. Aidan is a complete mess that he wasn’t home for his son, and he calls Carrie from Virginia sobbing as he explains what happened. “I should have been there for him,” Aidan weeps, and Carrie realizes that even though she’s mature enough to be with Aidan now and change her lifestyle and her apartment for him, he still has three kids in his life who need him and are more important to him than she is.

“And just like that, for the first time, I was worried,” Carrie says. Worried for her own happy ending, which eludes her yet.

AND JUST LIKE THAT — SEASON 2 EPISODE 10: LOOSE ENDS

• Over in Two Storylines That The Writers Lost Interest In-Ville, Seema told her Marvel boyfriend “I love you,” and he said it back, and then we didn’t see her again. Also, Nya bought her ex, Andre Rashad, a $1,000 stroller for his new baby shower because she wanted to make the point that she has disposable income, but wouldn’t the better point be to buy herself something nice with her disposable income?
• Do we think the Michelin-starred chef will actually be anyone we know?
• I do love how prominently Richard Burton factors into this season for perfectly punctuated comic relief.
• Do we think Steve and Che will become friends at the Last Supper? That’s the interaction I’m most looking forward to.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.