And Just Like That, Big became a big mistake?

Carrie couldn't be happier. She's giggling constantly at Aidan's jokes and regaling her increasingly uneasy friends with tales of their reunion. She even manages to laugh off the news that he has a domesticated chicken who lives on his bed at his farmhouse in Virginia.

And things get even weirder when Carrie makes a confession to Miranda. "I think maybe I was always holding a piece of myself back because of Big," she says.

"Like I couldn't or I wouldn't allow myself to fully go there, just feel… I'm just wondering, was it always there and I just didn't want to accept it? Miranda… I've been asking myself… was Big a big mistake?"

Miranda, like the audience, is dumbfounded: "I still don't know what to say."

As if that wasn't enough, the point is hit home once again when the pair are playing house as they buy all-new kitchenware for Che's apartment.

"Why did this not work out the first time?" they ask the giddy couple.

A solemn Carrie replies, "'Cause I made a mistake."

It's a giant revelation from Carrie – and a bold move from the writers.

Big's death in the pilot was a massive shock to fans. Many felt let down by the writers – how could they kill off Big, the love of Carrie's life?

Was the show simply trying to rewrite its past mistakes? After all, since the original show's finale, countless articles have emerged about the red flags and toxic signs in Big and Carrie's relationship, and even the show's creator, Darren Star, hated the decision to give them the happily-ever-after treatment.

"The show initially was going off-script from the romantic comedies that had come before it," he said on a podcast. "That's what had made women so attached. At the end, it became a conventional romantic comedy."

Others, however, felt that his death was necessary for the reboot.

"The cigar smoking, jazz-loving businessman was a hallmark of old New York, the city of glamour and excess we became acquainted with in the original TV series," wrote Kimberley Bond for RadioTimes.com.

"But as And Just Like That is so keen to show us, that world is long gone; in order to see the characters progress in an ever-changing environment, writers cannot rely on the same stale storyline and safety net that Big provided."

It's one thing for Big to die, but it's quite another for Carrie to declare their entire relationship a mistake – and one week after crying her way through a recording session for her audiobook about her grieving process, no less!

If this latest development in Carrie's character is anything to go by, it feels as though the writers are keen to distance themselves from the original show's happily-ever-after. If Carrie thinks Big was a mistake, they certainly do, too.

But how will fans feel? Yes, we can all acknowledge that Big was – well, deeply problematic. He was emotionally unavailable, manipulative, even misogynistic. In truth, their relationship probably was a mistake.

Nevertheless, for thousands of fans, he was seen as the ideal romantic anti-hero of his time – and when he finally appeared at Carrie's side in the Sex and the City finale, many were thrilled.

For Carrie to denounce their entire relationship as a mistake – to state that she should have 'picked' Aidan from the beginning – denies her emotional history with Big.

While the show ought to acknowledge and grapple with Big's character flaws, reducing him to an error feels like an erasure of both Carrie's and the show's history. As controversial as he may be to a contemporary audience, his relationship with Carrie meant something to a lot of fans.

There is an intensity to Carrie's new relationship with Aidan that will surely ease off sooner rather than later. My inkling is she will remember that their past dynamic wasn't perfect either – in fact, it had plenty of toxic elements, too.

Perhaps she will finally get the ending that Star wanted for her all along. Perhaps she'll realise that, as he put it, "women don't ultimately find happiness from marriage" – whether it be to Big or to Aidan. But that doesn't mean she can't respect what she had with both of them.

She owes it to past Carrie, and the writers owe it to us.

Read more

• And Just Like That season 2 episode 7 recap: Are we all Team Aidan?
• In defence of And Just Like That’s Miranda and Che

And Just Like That airs on Sky Comedy and NOW in the UK and on HBO Max in the US. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide.

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