“Let There Be Light”

Sex and the City season 6, episode 13
Original air date: January 04, 2004

Question of the Week: How do we wind up in the dark?

Carrie is wondering this, after she continues her little fling with Aleksandr. She accepts an invitation to dinner, thinking that she's going to very casually "take a lover," but after they spend the night together, she wakes up to pancakes with Aleksandr ... and his whole staff. She realizes that what she thought she could handle very casually turns out to be much more serious when Aleksandr treats is very casually. She's miffed at how routine everything seems to his staff, and checks Aleksandr out on Google when she gets home. She discovers that his liaisons with women are almost as famous as his art, which gets her thinking about how even when women try to remain detached, they end up very much attached to men after they've slept with them.

Meanwhile, Miranda and Steve are in the process of moving Steve into her building. Her fresh breakup with Robert, though, threatens to make it a very awkward living arrangement. They keep bumping into each other in the lobby, in the elevator, on the stairs. Finally, after Robert very graphically confronts Miranda about how he was just a "quick fuck" for her, Miranda cedes the rights to the elevator to Robert, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. Steve, though, gets fed up with that arrangement when, as he's moving in under cover of night using the elevator, his TV is smashed. Steve goes up to Robert's apartment to confront him about how ridiculous his not being over Miranda is, but finds Robert otherwise engaged with not one, but two scantily-clad women. Steve decides it's gentler to just tell Miranda that he's "taken care of it."

Charlotte is looking for a temporary job while she and Harry wait to conceive again. Her doctor has recommended that they wait at least two months, so she decides to volunteer to be a guide for the blind. The volunteer coordinator she talks to suggests that Charlotte go to a public place with a friend, blindfold herself, and allow the friend to guide her around, so that she can get a sense of what life without sight is like. She and Carrie visit Barney's for this experiment, but just as Charlotte blindfolds herself, Carrie gets a call from Aleksandr, setting up another casual date. Carrie walks away from Charlotte to get better reception on her cell phone, and Charlotte gets swept away in a crowd of people. She wanders around the store blindfolded, until she's had too much and eventually drops the blindfold. Fortuitously, she drops the blindfold in front of the shoe department, where there's a big sale, and finds Carrie there, trying on shoes.

Samantha continues trying to keep things casual with Smith, especially since she's not at all convinced that he's right for her. She tells Carrie how lucky she is to have a mature man like Aleksandr who knows his way around. Samantha's missing that for herself, so when Smith gets invited to a "Top 30 Under 30," which she's at first not inclined to attend, she agrees to go because she sees that the party is being hosted by her ex, Richard. She attends the party with Smith and immediately ditches him to hang out with Richard, who just as immediately begins saying that losing Samantha was the dumbest thing he's ever done. They run off to have sex, but Smith stops Samantha just as she's about to get on the elevator. She shoos him away again, rather spitefully, and goes with Richard anyway. When she comes down again, Smith is still sitting there waiting for her. She falls apart, realizing that Smith really cares about her, even more than Richard ever did. She apologizes for what she's done, and Smith takes her home.

Carrie decides to give Aleksandr another chance, but when she spends the night again, he gets up to work in his studio in the middle of the night. She doesn't want to be "that girl" again, so she goes to his studio to say goodbye. He assures her that while he does have a little black book "for emergencies," she is the only woman he's seeing right now. She melts and gives in.