I started binge watching Sex and the City all over again in recent weeks. The iconic HBO show, which officially ended in February 2004 and spawned two movies, is still the name on many gay man’s lips all this time later (myself included).
There were many plotholes that I didn’t pick up on when I first watched SATC many moons ago. The show for the most part ran smoothly along for its 6 and ½ seasons but did have some issues along the way that were never solved either in the series run or during both movies.
Not like I would get an answer out of this. Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw) and co have made it very clear that a 3rd movie isn’t going to happen and it’s unlikely that these matters would be brought up if it did.
Now, without further ado, are five SATC mysteries that are left unresolved in my mind. Maybe someone who worked on the show will reveal all if they happen to read this… so here’s hoping as I still have Carrie (or in my case, Bearie) fever all this time later.
Did Carrie ever pay Charlotte the $30,000 for the ring she gave her?
Carrie ended up in a “financial cul de sac” after Aidan (John Corbett) moved out of their apartment and left her with a $30,000 bill to buy it. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) gave Carrie the wedding ring her ex-husband Trey (Kyle MacLachlan) bought to take care of her money troubles. How in the hell did Carrie pay her all that money back? Seriously. Homegirl worked once a week for a trashy New York newspaper and freelanced at Vogue at a rate most writers would dream of ($4 a word. WHAT!). The fantasy way of living SATC provided messed with so many people’s heads, and this is another example of that as there’s no way Carrie would’ve been able to pay Charlotte all that money back based on her employment and way of living.
What the heck happened to Stanford’s boyfriend Marcus?
I was never a fan of Stanford (Willie Garson) and Anthony (Mario Cantone) as a couple. Separately I loved them as they were fantastic gay BFF’s for Carrie and Charlotte. Something that was never explained, however, was what happened to Stanford’s boyfriend Marcus (Sean Palmer). Their breakup was never featured on the show even though they did split briefly during one episode when Stanford found out that Marcus used to be an escort. I much preferred them as a couple compared to him and Anthony as they were wayyyyy too much of an oil and water situation, but SATC never provided a reason over why things ended between him and the Broadway dancer.
https://giphy.com/gifs/wedding-MBBj6nBcYSCl2
How did Steve end things with Debbie after getting back with Miranda?
Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and the adorable Steve (David Eigenberg) were the couple I rooted for the most on SATC. Them getting back together towards the end of the series was a lot more realistic than Carrie and Big’s (Chris Noth) reunion in Paris. The problem was that they were both dating other people at the time and needed to end things with them for their relationship to resume. Miranda’s split with Robert (Blair Underwood) played out in a hilarious way but we never saw how Steve ended things with Debbie (Eleni Fuaixis). Debbie was the source of Miranda’s frustration as she wanted to get back together with Steve while the two were still dating. She came off as surprisingly sweet throughout their short time together, which made me think that the writers could’ve written a scene where Debbie’s emotions went all over the place when Steve dumped her to give a sharp contrast to what the audience had already seen of her. But… we never did.
What happened to Carrie’s exes?
We’re bleeding into the film portion of SATC now as well all know what happened at the end of the series. Carrie had two other relationships outside of Big and Aidan that had a monumental effect on her love life: writer Jack Berger (Ron Livingston) and artist Alexsandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov). The first ended with Berger breaking up with her on a post-it, the other ended with an accidental slap on the face. Neither relationship compared to what Carrie had with Big or Aidan, but it would’ve been interesting to see what happened to either character in the first or second movie. Did Berger ever find success in his writing career? Did Alexsandr stay in Paris after what appeared to be a successful showing of his art installation? The world will never know.
Who did Steve cheat with during the first SATC movie?
Something the writers made a big mistake on during the first SATC movie was Steve’s infidelity. It was so out of character for him to the point where all of Miranda’s girlfriends were on his side when he repeatedly tried to apologize for his behavior. Was the woman he slept with some rando? I wish they would’ve dived into who she was and if it was recurring or not. I know he wasn’t thrilled with Miranda being so cold to him as her life was becoming more and more frustrating, but this storyline was jarring and never really made sense to begin with. Any additional information, like the woman in question, would’ve helped the audience maybe understand why he did it before they eventually (once again) got back together.
This post was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.