‘And Just Like That’ Season 1 Recap: What to Know Before the Season 2 Premiere

Need a refresher on the events of Season 1 of “And Just Like That” before the Season 2 premiere on Thursday, June 22?

Here are the highlights of the life-altering things that happened with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte (Kristin Davis), as well as several new characters. The original cast, which was often criticized for not including any non-white characters, was expanded by adding a POC BFF for the three leads, to varying degrees of storytelling success.

Producers also worked in an AWOL Kim Cattrall (who has a cameo in Season 2) as Samantha thanks to some timely texts after her off-screen fallout with Carrie.

Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker)

The very first episode found Carrie and her husband Big (aka John, played by Chris Noth) living happily ever after — until he had a heart attack during a Peloton workout. She came home too late to save him, but just in time for him to die in her arms. Noth shot a scene for the finale, but it was cut after the actor was accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

When John’s will was read, Carrie was shocked that it included a significant bequest for his first wife, Natasha (Bridget Moynahan). After stalking — and finally talking to — Natasha, she realized John hadn’t cheated on her, but was trying to make it up to Natasha for leaving her in the first place.

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Carrie was no longer a columnist but a podcaster. Her boss, Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez), told her she needed to be more frank about her sex life, which was a bit hard since she was now a widow. Carrie, who was already feeling old and out of touch, also needed hip surgery. While she was high on pain meds, she shared a graphic story on-air about the time Samantha helped her with a stuck diaphragm. She belatedly reached out to Samantha to apologize by text. The two had stopped being friends, we were told, after Carrie fired her as her publicist, but patched things up somewhat.

The finale found Carrie sprinkling Big’s ashes off a bridge in Paris… and kissing the handsome producer (Ian Hernandez) who offered her her own podcast.

Miranda (Cynthia Nixon)

Miranda went through some radical changes in the first season: She’d quit her job as a corporate lawyer to get a graduate degree in human rights, where she befriended her professor, Dr. Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman.) She was also deeply dissatisfied in her marriage to Steve (David Eigenberg) and drinking far too much. She met Carrie’s boss Che, who identifies as non-binary, and began trying to spend more time with them, leading to her having loud sex with Che in Carrie’s kitchen when she was supposed to be there helping out after Carrie’s hip surgery.

Che dumped her when they found out that Miranda and Steve’s marriage wasn’t an open one and she hadn’t told her husband about them. Miranda finally told Steve — whose only storyline all season was his hearing loss — and that she was leaving him for Che. Despite her friends’ misgivings, she also gave up a prestigious “impossible-to-get” internship to follow Che to Hollywood. In the finale, Miranda, who had gone completely gray, went back to dying her hair red.

Charlotte (Kristin Davis)

Charlotte was still married to Harry (Evan Handler): Daughter Lily (Cathy Ang) was now 16, and they had also had second daughter (Alexa Swingon) who was 13. Unbeknownst to Charlotte, her youngest, who rejected the girly given name of Rose, had asked everyone to start calling them “Rock.” After an initial freakout, Charlotte fully embraced Rock’s new identity, which, unfortunately for Charlotte, didn’t include participating in the elaborate bar mitzvah she had planned with a trans rabbi (Hari Nef). “I don’t want to be labeled as anything. Not as a girl, or boy, nonbinary, a Jew, Christian, Muslim, not even as a New Yorker,” Rock said. In the end, it was Charlotte, who’d converted to Judaism as an adult, who went through the ritual.

Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez)

Carrie’s boss, and Miranda’s new love interest, introduced themself at one point as, “I am Che Diaz, your host. And queer, nonbinary, Mexican Irish diva representing everyone else outside these two boring genders.” The standup comedian had a podcast named “X Y and Me,” but ultimately quit it after getting an offer to make a TV pilot in Hollywood. Che, who is played by “Grey’s Anatomy” alum Sara Ramirez, also returns in Season 2.

Dr. Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman)

We first met Nya as Miranda’s new professor professor at Columbia Law School. Of course, in trying to say and do all the right things, Miranda managed to completely botch their first meeting. However, the two ended up becoming friends outside of class. Nya was also the only new character to get her own independent storyline involving her husband Andre (Leroy McClain). They pair had been unsuccessful in trying to have children: Nya realized that she is fine if they don’t ever have kids while Andre wanted her to keep trying.

Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker)

Charlotte was very impressed with PTA pal Lisa Todd Wexley, a Park Avenue philanthropist, art collector and socialite, and was thrilled when they became friends. She competitively tried to maintain the illusion of a perfect marriage with Harry, until she realized that Lisa and her husband were doing the same thing, and both were far more relatable than she realized.

Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury)

The actress, whose previous credits including “Mississippi Masala” and TV series “Homeland” and “The Path,” played Carrie’s fabulous new realtor, who found her a fantastic new apartment after Big’s death. The life-loving Seema, who reminded a lot of viewers of Samantha, also helped ease Carrie out of her post-mourning period with friendship, cocktails and an invite to a traditional Indian wedding.

Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone) & Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson)

Anthony and Stanford’s marriage was on the verge of collapse as Stanford abruptly took a job in Tokyo, effectively ending things between them. In real life, Garson died unexpectedly after filming only a few episodes and the Tokyo move became the way to write his character off the show. Meanwhile, Anthony opened up a bread shop called “Hot Fellas,” where the delivery men were all young, hot gay guys in tight T-shirts and shorts.

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