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Carrie is enjoying all the perks of living a double life, having realized that she is actually a great liar. She is pretending to go to her internship at the law firm, while actually going to her internship at Interview Magazine, where they think she is at least 19. She's also busying herself pretending not to like Sebastian anymore, who is planning to break up with Donna LeDonna.
In high school life, Walt and Donna are in charge of a lock-in. Carrie gets invited to an Interview party at a club called Limelight the same night, and chooses to avoid Sebastian and party in New York. Maggie is struggling with her secret that she cheated on Walt, and plans to tell him at the lock-in before Donna can reveal the truth.
Sebastian dumps Donna, but she requests that he not tell anyone. The only point of this is to cause more miscommunication with Carrie and all her friends, who are very intent on finding out Sebastian's true feelings. Once Mouse and Maggie discover that Sebastian has already broken up with Donna, they encourage him to go get her in a grand gesture at Limelight.
Tom, Carrie's dad, is also out in the city, on a double date with Harlan. Why anyone is friends with Harlan at all remains a mystery, but he's good for getting Tom out. Tom hits it off with Harlan's date's cousin, and the four of them decide to go to, you guessed it, Limelight.
Carrie, buzzing off her first Cosmopolitan from a long-haired city boy, dances on a pedestal at the club. She sees her dad dad-dancing up on this strange woman, and freezes on the pedestal just long enough for him to see her. He pulls her away, Larissa intervenes, and all the skeletons in Carrie's closet come tumbling out at once. Carrie is not working at the law firm, she's 16, and she's drunk at a club in New York. Larissa doesn't care that Carrie is 16, but Tom wants to pull her away from Pleasure Island as soon as possible.
Sebastian and Mouse get stuck in traffic, are too late to find Carrie in the club, and Sebastian's car gets towed. No word on how they get home.
Meanwhile, at the lock-in, Donna traps Walt in the projection room and tells him Maggie's secret. Walt dumps Maggie once and for all, and makes out with Donna because they are both broken-hearted. The day, Donna proclaims Walt her boyfriend, and Walt accepts because it's easier to pretend to be into Samantha Baker than to admit to being into Jake Ryan.
Carrie asks her dad for forgiveness, and makes a plea worthy of a few months in a law firm internship. She tells her father that she has discovered she wants to be a writer. He tells her she's 16, she doesn't know what she wants. Dorrit is nowhere to be seen in this episode, by the way. So Carrie is banned from Manhattan, which should give her a chance to start dating Sebastian again now that all that is cleared up. Just when things were starting to get interesting, we have to care about Sebastian again.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Carrie is finally getting into some decent trouble on this show. Trouble that lasts longer than an episode. She just broke up with her boyfriend, who tried to push her head into a blowjob, and now she is lying to her dad about her internship, and her new internship about her age/work status. Carrie tells us that as we get older our secrets get bigger and better. Ain't it the truth. And the same goes for this show. Carrie is getting more interesting.
Instead of being all frumpy like "Bitchy Barbara" at her internship at a law firm, Carrie is delighted to be taking on an internship at Interview Magazine, which allows her to wear bright jackets and leopard print. Reminding us that we're in the 1980s, that guy who kissed Closeted Walt at the Halloween party is complaining about computers and how they're a fad that will surely go away. Did people think that in the '80s?
Carrie helps whatever his name is out with the computer because she is in computer class at the high school she never goes to anymore. Floppy disks and the like. Despite being so busy doing whatever the hell she wants and nothing at all, Carrie is distracted by her thoughts of Sebastian. Yup, we're still hung up on him.
At high school, where Carrie isn't, Mouse and Sebastian have a conversation that even Mouse admits is "moot, pointless, superfluous." It's about how Sebastian is still into Carrie, even though he wasn't for a good three episodes. Sebastian is trying to find a way to break up with Donna LeDonna, but Donna knows how to get around that so she's avoiding him. Mouse admits to Sebastian that Carrie broke up with George. She omitted the part about how he suggested she give him a blowjob in the limo and told Carrie he didn't mind that she's a virgin.
Meanwhile, Maggie has been cheating on Walt, who might not care because he is gay. Walt is working on programming for a lock-in, and Maggie is being distant. Maggie is about to tell Walt about her indiscretion, when Mouse interrupts with the "big news" that Sebastian is breaking up with Donna. I'm not sure if this is big news because they hate Donna and wish her nothing but misery, or because they follow Carrie's interior life so much closer than their own. This causes Maggie to worry because Donna knows her secret, and without Sebastian, Maggie has no leverage to keep her quiet. She should probably just tell Walt like she was about to.
At the diner, Donna can not believe that Sebastian is breaking up with her. I can not believe this is a scene we're wasting time on. Donna doesn't want people to know until after the lock-in because she doesn't want people to feel sorry for her at the event in which she's in charge. She also wants to tell people that she broke up with Sebastian, and Sebastian doesn't care. They seem like they were really close.
Oh hey, it's Tom's chauvinist, disgusting friend Harlan. Harlan wants to date a woman with an amazing rack, but she won't go without a "sidechick." Even back in the '80s, women knew the telltale signs of date rape. Harlan asks Tom to take one for the team and accompany him on this double date, and Tom is reluctant but agrees. Harlan tells Tom he hears Carrie is doing well at the law firm, which is obviously a lie. Tom almost goes up to say hi, but thinks better of it. Carrie won't get caught like that. Harlan leaves Tom with the international hand gesture for "bazoongas."
Meanwhile, at her covert internship at the magazine, Carrie models some shoes for a photo shoot because that's what interns do, apparently, and the magazine is going under and can't afford real models. But it's Carrie's first experience with shoe love, which you three SATC fans still watching this show will know is true Carrie Bradshaw. Her very first Manolos. Larissa, ever the enabler, tells Carrie to wear them out to the club with her on Friday night.
TWIST: Friday night is the night of the high school lock-in. Carrie lets that slip, but Larissa never went to school, or is too British to think that a lock-in is anything other than one of those new bondage clubs. Carrie opts to go to the Interview issue closing event at Limelight. The lock-in will just be the perfect cover, and the perfect new bondage club.
Carrie tells Maggie and Mouse of her plan over shoes in her bedroom. To cover up any plotholes, Carrie says Bitchy Barbara is covering for her indefinitely at the law firm. Because apparently Carrie's scarf is helping her get laid. Even though Maggie told Carrie her cheating secret, she's still making an effort to keep Carrie away from Sebastian. So Carrie is going to Limelight, and still thinks Sebastian is unavailable. Then Tom walks in and is all awkward about re-entering the dating scene.
Back at school, Carrie laments that Sebastian isn't into her because if he was, he would have broken up with Donna. She also tells Maggie to tell Walt about cheating on him, which makes Maggie's motives for keeping Carrie and Sebastian apart a mystery. Carrie sees Sebastian in the hallway, they greet each other, it's all stupid.
Donna flirts with Walt a little as he is stacking film canisters for the lock-in. He got Rocky III for her because The Jens told him it was Donna's favorite movie. Why Walt cares about pleasing Donna is beyond me, but this scene has to move forward somehow. Donna decides to like Walt because he is rich-ish, has fraternity connections, and is thoughtful enough to follow instructions. She wants to ruin all the lives.
In the diner, Sebastian admits to Mouse and Maggie that he broke up with Donna. They force him to admit that he likes Carrie and demand he make a big gesture to show his feelings for Carrie. The also let it slip that Carrie is going to a club in New York that night. Sebastian tries to call Carrie at home but she is too busy sneaking out to answer.
Sebastian proposes that he, Maggie, and Mouse go "find Bradshaw" instead of going to the lock-in. Even though Maggie has important business to take care of with Walt and Mouse is really eagerly anticipating the lock-in, they agree to go with Sebastian because they're so excited for Carrie. And that's that.
At Limelight, Carrie is wearing a sparkly dress and meets up with Bennett. I just remembered his name. She got over the fact that he is gay very quickly, considering she wanted to hook up with him the last time we saw him, and now they are on a manhunt. There are video cameras everywhere so that the people at the club can watch each other in more ways than one. I mention this because Carrie said, "I hope no one sees me dancing," and it will undoubtedly come into play.
At the lock-in, Donna is still the Queen Bee and The Jens are wearing matching outfits. Donna tells The Jens about her desire for Walt and employs their magical Jens ability to capture him. They tell Walt that the projector is broken, right before Jake Ryan comes for Molly Ringwald at the wedding in Sixteen Candles, a movie they managed to get on film relatively soon after its release, and seem to know very well. But who am I to nitpick, Walt has connections of all kinds, right?
At Tom's double date with Harlan and Jugs at the steakhouse, everyone is hitting it off. Harlan excuses himself to go have sex with Jugs in the bathroom, saying, "It's good to be the king," and Tom connects with Jugs's cousin. That is not her real name. Tom is really milking the whole nice guy thing, and it's working for Cousin of Jugs.
Back at Limelight, a guy with nasty long hair takes an interest in Carrie, who is way too young to be at a club. No one carded her when she said she was with Interview Magazine, though. This guy buys her a drink, and no one cards her at the bar either. But it's only for the sake of introducing Carrie Bradhsaw's First Cosmopolitan. She tells the long-haired stranger that it's so nice and she thinks it is going to be her drink, managing to resist winking at the camera.
Carrie downs her first Cosmo like a champ and goes to dance with the greasy guy. Meanwhile, Sebastian and Mouse are stuck in traffic. Things don't always work out for people who "know what they want."
At the steakhouse, everything's coming up Tom. He's got a dame with great bazungas and a "jazzercise ass" into him, and Harlan declares it Tom's night. He urges Tom to keep the party going.
Donna intends to keep the party going at the lock-in, and her first move is to break down the new object of her desire so she can re-build him. No matter how she rebuilds Walt, though, all those parts are gay and into Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles. She prepares to tell Walt about Maggie cheating on him.
Sebastian and Mouse pull up outside the club and manage to find parking right outside, where there is no longer a line, nor anyone watching the door and checking IDs. Carrie is lifted up onto a pedestal to keep dancing and enjoying her freedom. From the pedestal, she sees Tom dancing nerdily up on Jazzercise Ass. This sight is distressing for many reasons, and so distressing that she freezes. The cameras catch her, and she is backlit by dozens of distraught-looking Carries. Tom looks up, and in that moment they are both busted.
Carrie is in much more trouble than Tom, though. Tom tries to get Carrie out of the club, Larissa intervenes with, "You didn't tell me you were bringing your hot dad." She may be one-dimensional but she's a fun dimension. Tom says he's allowed to treat her like a child because she's only 16. Larissa is so stunned to hear this, and just high enough on coke that she blurts out the information about Carrie's internship, which she didn't know was a secret. She doesn't even care that Carrie is 16. Larissa and Harlan flirt, and the only one still angry is Tom.
Things are also going pretty inconsequentially at the lock-in. Maggie finds Walt, who is upset. Maggie admits it's true, and that it's all her fault. Walt breaks up with Maggie once and for all, and Maggie is crushed to learn that just talking about it won't help.
Sebastian and Mouse fail to find Carrie at Limelight, since Tom has pulled her away. Maggie gets a nerd to unlock the doors and let her out of the high school, which she now hates and says has nothing for her. Sebastian and Mouse give up, and his car is being towed since there are no legal, available parking spots outside clubs.
Donna and Walt have a connection, sitting against the lockers, discussing their heartbreak. Is this when Walt will realize Donna is the perfect Hag? No, it is when Walt will make out with Donna.
Tom yells at Carrie at his car, and it's a pretty good/realistic scene until Tom goes off on a speech about "what happened to the girl who..." In the end, Tom is pulling Carrie from New York and her internship, to prove that some actions have consequences. I don't know, Tom, Carrie has a pretty sweet deal going at Interview. I hope his date is OK...
It seems like Carrie will settle for her life in Connecticut and a relationship with Sebastian for a while. The day, Carrie and Tom talk about the importance of honesty and integrity, and Carrie tells him how much she loved working at Interview. She claims she was allowed to express herself and it made her think she could be a writer. It must have been all the binder carrying and shoe wearing that made her think that.
Then Maggie swings by and cries about her relationship with Walt ending again. Donna kisses Walt at the end of the lock-in and declares him her boyfriend. He agrees, because Donna will be a great beard. Sebastian meets Carrie at the diner with a big goony look on his face, and there are no more secrets to carry us into the episode.