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Carrie has given herself the task of preparing and executing the perfect Thanksgiving. It needs to be perfect because it was her mother's favorite holiday, and Carrie wants to do it so well that no one will even notice her mom died. Because Dorrit has to ruin anything good Carrie has in her life, or as I like to call it, grieving differently, everything goes wrong.
The first thing to go wrong is, admittedly, not Dorrit's fault. Their grandmother can't make it to Thanksgiving because there is a big storm grounding all the flights out. Grandma Bradshaw was going to do most of the cooking, but now Carrie has decided she will do it. For the record, everyone offered to help but Carrie said no. Then, Carrie finds out her boyfriend and his dad (who is her dad's friend) will be coming over for dinner. This puts her at a level of stress that makes her almost unbearable for the rest of the episode.
Speaking of the rest of the episode, Maggie goes to dinner at Walt's house and his parents are such stereotypical waspy snobs that she and Walt get into a fight about being true to themselves. Maggie felt uncomfortable at dinner and realizes it's because she's not a well-developed character with hopes, dreams, and motives of her own.
Carrie brings Mouse over to help her cook dinner, all the while trying to appear perfect to George and intercept Dorrit's attempts to ruin her day by smoking pot and placing a photo of Shaun Cassidy in plain sight. For whatever reason, be it poor planning, a failure to understand how ovens work, or spending too much time yelling at Dorrit, the turkey explodes in the oven and all the fuses blow out. Also, Tom will probably need to buy a new oven. I hope he makes enough money.
With the lack of power, both literally and figuratively, Carrie and Dorrit are able to come together to talk about how they have come to view Thanksgiving in the vein of their mother's death. George, thanks to lots of New York City therapy, is very patient and forgiving with Carrie, then takes his drunk dad home. Tom took his teenage daughter's angry rant to heart, and blames himself entirely for the day's events.
Maggie comes over for her third Thanksgiving of the day, and then Sebastian shows up on Carrie's doorstep. He was supposed to spend Thanksgiving with his mom, but like all other characters no one had time to think about, she was behaving like a despicable stereotype. Carrie convinces her dad to let Sebastian stay for their makeshift dinner, since he was left alone on Thanksgiving and showed up with a bottle of Scotch. Sebastian hints that he regrets getting overwhelmed by Carrie's neuroses and dumping her, but Carrie won't give in so easily. The framed Shaun Cassidy photo is not mentioned again, but just in case you forgot, it is the '80s.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!To catch you up to speed if you just started watching (why did you just start watching? All of a sudden you've taken an interest in the exploits of young, barely-recognizable Carrie Bradshaw? Someone misinformed you that they'll be killing off the Maggie character in the three episodes?), Carrie is dating this guy George now. He's rich, and they suck faces a lot harder than she ever got to with Sebastian, who we are still being asked to care about even though he is dating a girl he straight up knows is a bitch. Teens.
Carrie is preoccupied with Thanksgiving plans, which puts us in November. Carrie's mom used to put on a perfect Thanksgiving dinner for everyone and Carrie hopes to do the same. She even muses about cranberry sauce while making out with George, which he seems to find cute/sexy, rather than annoying. He keeps telling her how sexy she is, which makes him even more off-putting to me.
"Is it hot out here or is it just me?" Carrie asks George. George sees it as another opportunity to tell Carrie how hot she is, but I think we're all hoping Carrie has a fever, which she will give to everyone by cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Why is Carrie always making out in parks? This time it's Central Park, so that George can prove to her that he is really a rich city boy. He also flaunts how few cousins he has and his knowledge of the term "sous chef."
Back in high school where no one learns anything academic, everyone is speculating about Sebastian's Thanksgiving plans. Walt heard Sebastian is spending it with his mom. Sebastian wishes Carrie a "happy turkey day," and Maggie tells Carrie that Sebastian can "suck it." Was the phrase "suck it" around in the '80s? What about pairing flannel shirts over long-sleeved thermals? Maggie is decidedly in the wrong decade, and I wish nothing more than for her to be written out of it.
Carrie's friends, who are obsessed with Carrie, laugh at the notion of her cooking Thanksgiving dinner. She is, evidently, terrible in the kitchen. This is a bad omen. Also, Carrie keeps talking about how her grandma is going to be doing most of the cooking, so we know she's not showing up.
"Yup, no grandparents," Dorrit tells Carrie, as if on cue. There's a "big storm" and all the flights are canceled. Since Grandma can't make it, Tom Bradshaw's grand idea is to invite Harlan and George over (how is that a solution?). Carrie worries that she will look like a country bumpkin, or at least a suburbanite. Also, she will undoubtedly ruin Thanksgiving. Tom offers that they can order takeout, but Carrie insists she cook. Without help.
Carrie puts together her mom's famous Ambrosia Salad, then hides all the embarrassing kiddy stuff from her room. Carrie is upset with Dorrit, who has really become a snappy, likeable character. She's funny and interesting and has the best commentary of any of these auxiliary characters. Dorrit sees Carrie stressing over a framed picture of Shaun Cassidy and grins. Don't let us down now, Dorrit.
Meanwhile, Maggie dresses up all stuffy to impress Walt's parents. She runs into that cop guy she was sleeping with, and he is all smarmy at her. I like his jacket, though. Lots of good jackets this episode. Did we know that Maggie's dad was the head cop in town (police chief? Carl Winslow?) before this?
In the Bradshaw kitchen, Carrie discovers that the turkey recipe is blurred beyond legibility. Also, Dorrit may have hidden all the normal cookbooks just to spite Carrie. This is how people got stressed out before the internet. Luckily for Carrie, she has Mouse, who is a local resource much like Google.
Carrie is worried about George seeing too much of the real her, which is a great sign. George greets Carrie with a kiss on the lips, which takes her stress level from a 7 to an 8, and then the framed picture of Shaun Cassidy, displayed on a hall table by Dorrit, takes her to a 9. Not quite sure why this is such a great embarrassment to her. Carrie tries to shoo the men away, but George wants to hang out with her and keep telling her how hot she is. Carrie offers a tour of the upstairs, which George also takes to mean sex.
At Walt's family's house, Maggie is also trying hard not to embarrass herself. Walt's parents are stuffy in a cliché way, and Maggie and Walter share side glances and conversations at a table of five.
George wants to have sex with Carrie, obviously, and tries to start something in the bedroom. Dorrit interrupts because it's time to stuff the turkey. Maybe they should ask George, because he is interested in stuffing a few things. On the couch, George tells Dorrit he gets her "schtick" and calls her out on being a joiner. He tells her she's going through a phase, and Dorrit is delighted to hear George has a shrink. They are getting along until Carrie interrupts to call her sister a bitch to impress George I guess.
The turkey isn't fitting in the oven, and everything is going a little wrong. Carrie shoves the turkey in, and sets the oven to twice as hot. But there are plenty other side dishes to get annoyingly stressed out about. Every scene in the kitchen involves Carrie and/or Mouse looking at something (a food item, a kitchen tool) and being like, "yikes!"
Meanwhile, Dorrit goes upstairs and George goes to the bathroom so that Harlan can accidentally make a tasteless dead wife joke and have a heart to heart with Tom. You can pretty much fast-forward through that scene, and the one after it where Sebastian finds out his mom won't be making it to Thanksgiving because she went to St. Barth's with the tennis instructor. No thanks, Sebastian's interior life, we don't want it.
At Walt's house, Maggie is mad at Walt for not being able to stand up to his parents. They mentioned him going to Dartmouth and he wants to go to NYU to study advertising. This is so She's All That. They talk about being true to themselves and following their own dreams.
Carrie puts the sweet potatoes with mini marshmallows in the oven with the turkey, and just as she tells Dorrit Thanksgiving is going to "happen" after all, Dorrit leaves. Oh no, perfect Thanksgiving ruined. Carrie finds Dorrit smoking pot in the yard and confronts her about sabotaging her perfect life. Dorrit confesses to hiding the cookbooks and ruining the recipes, then it comes out that she's mad at Carrie for trying to emulate their mother. It would be infuriating. I'm annoyed by it and I didn't even know Carrie's mom.
George has been in the bathroom a while.
Maggie goes home to talk to her brother, a new character who is also a cop, about her future. Her brother tells her to relax because she's a girl and can just marry Walt. Yay, beer and cops are the best two things.
Sebastian gets a mysterious phone call and agrees to "come by." He grabs a bottle of whiskey and proceeds on to Whocaresville.
Carrie is trying to convince Dorrit to come out of her room, where she is smoking pot and yelling. George emerges from his stint in the bathroom to ask Carrie if everything is OK. Carrie tells him that no one is smoking pot and no one was yelling. I don't understand her motive for lying, but that doesn't really matter anymore.
Carrie and George head downstairs, where they're greeted by Mouse, who tells them that Harlan referred to her as "the Oriental maid," (to which George says, "yeah, that sounds like Dad!") and the turkey is on fire. Smoke is pouring out of the oven, which won't open now for some reason. Tom pulls the handle off the oven and Carrie tells him someone needs to care enough about the family to keep it going. So Carrie is resenting her father for not helping, even though he offered to several times and no one asked her to do all this bullshit.
Carrie tells her dad that she and Dorrit are trying to deal with their mom not being there today, and he didn't even notice. The turkey officially sets on fire, which pops the oven door open and blows a fuse. Ba-dum bum.
Over candles and flashlights, Carrie laments that everything is ruined. They won't have power until the day and don't have any food to eat. George has been looking for candles and Carrie assumes he is ready to run away screaming because he has clearly indicated all day that he is on the verge. Basically this whole episode Carrie has been acting like a self-absorbed, stubborn bitch and no one is going to call her out on it.
Carrie explains to Dorrit that she just wanted to make Thanksgiving perfect because it was their mom's favorite holiday. Dorrit, who is the least self-involved Bradshaw, noticed that their mom was always too stressed out on Thanksgiving and hated doing all the work. Just like Carrie was. Dorrit says it felt wrong to try to do Thanksgiving, and Carrie says it felt wrong not to try.
In the living room, Tom sits all alone in the dark, not helping or looking for candles. He is contemplating until Drunk Harlan enters stage right. Tom feels like an asshole for not worrying about keeping Thanksgiving alive. Carrie made him feel like an asshole. Harlan fell asleep too quickly to hear any of Tom's real feelings that came pouring forth, and wakes up snorting "Patriots!" I hope Harlan drives himself home and runs into a tree.
Young, Dirty Cop asks Maggie what happened at Thanksgiving, because she is obviously depressed. He's cute and cares about Maggie. He's also definitely not gay, so I am all in favor of Maggie making out with him. He talks about her not wearing underwear, which makes her laugh and almost make out with him. She then notices that keeps doing things without thinking about how they will affect her future, then kicks him out. Bah, whatever.
Back at the Bradshaw home, George is getting ready to leave and make sure his dad doesn't choke on his own tongue. Carrie is being neurotic, proving that she just might make it in the city after all. No wonder George likes her. He makes Carrie feel better, like a perfect, understanding TV boyfriend. Carrie's screwups are not nearly as annoying as her obsessing about them, but George just wants to get in those high-waisted jeans.
Maggie comes over to Carrie's house to hang out with Carrie and Mouse, then Sebastian shows up at her door in a denim jacket with a shearling collar, smoldering like that turkey. Carrie and Sebastian sit on her porch to have real talk. Oh my god they are so meant to be, guys. They can really be themselves around each other. Sebastian says he was driving around and realized that Carrie was the person he really wanted to see. Then, he alludes to making mistakes and wishing he could go back. Carrie tells him he can't go back. Sebastian could never go back far enough in time to not be a skanky ho.
Carrie invites Sebastian in for Ambrosia Salad, the one thing that survived. Tom opens the door and sees them together, but Carrie pleads Sebastian's case. Sebastian is welcomed in since he has a crappy mom who left him alone on Thanksgiving. Sebastian gives Tom the bottle of Scotch. They sit together at the table and agree that they hate the Cowboys and eat what we can only assume is room temperature bean dip.