“Hop, Skip, and a Week”

Sex and the City season 6, episode 6
Original air date: July 27, 2003

Question of the week: Do we need distance to get closer?

And scene:
Carrie and Berger's rocky relationship continues as Carrie has to attend jury duty. Berger gets snippy when she asks him if he's planning to write all day or not, as if she were implying that he was instead going to sit on his ass. They try a Hollywood kiss on the steps of the courthouse to right themselves, but neither's sure how long the good feeling will last.

Miranda's good feelings about balancing Brady and her work are fading fast. Her partners call her in to talk to her about being late, and they express concern about the quality of her work. She decides that it's not worth it to her to bend over backwards to please them, especially since Brady has started attaching himself to Magda as his mother. She demands to be able to cut back to "part-time:" no more than 50 hours a week.

Charlotte attempts to jump back into the dating scene, which she's finding even more difficult to navigate as a Jew than she did as a shiksa. However, this time around, she's got the temple bubbies helping her, all of them wanting to set her up with their nice sons and nephews. She goes on dates with a few, one of which is so bad that she begs Carrie and Berger to rescue her from it when she bumps into them at the same restaurant, and another of which is so gay, she has a great time walking around New York.

Charlotte continues going to the Sisterhood meetings at the synagogue, though, and bumps into Harry. She unburdens herself to him about how all she wants is his forgiveness. He one-ups her, though, and gets down on one knee to propose. She readily accepts, and the other desperate ladies at the Sisterhood meeting wonder how she managed that.

Carrie and Berger aren't so fortunate, though. After rescuing Charlotte from her bad date, theirs devolves into bickering. In the cab on the way home, Berger tells Carrie that he thinks they should take a break for a week. He's going to go out to his house in the Hamptons and think about their relationship. She's stunned and devastated, but agrees.

While Berger's out pondering things in the Hamptons, Carrie has a talk with Big about the status of her relationship with Berger. Perhaps his most profound statement to her is "you're breaking up." He was referring to her cell phone connection, but the statement spurs her to action. She rents a car to drive out to the Hamptons and talk things out with Berger. Of course, having lived in the city for too many years, she has no idea how to drive a car, and only gets as far as the end of the parking lot before returning it.

Samantha's begun to engineer Jerry's career, having changed him into Smith Jerrod and getting him a billboard over Times Square as the Absolut Hunk. She assures him that "first come the gays, then the girls, then the industry." Just as she predicted, they begin to fall in line, first a gaggle of gays at a bar, then a clutch of giggling girls on the street.

Berger returns from the Hamptons with flowers, and he and Carrie agree to try to make things work. However, when she wakes up the next morning, she's alone, and there's a Post-it note on her laptop that says "I'm sorry, I can't, don't hate me."