Credits. Carrie smirks as she stalks the sidewalk. Cha cha cha, splashy bus! The xylophone goes nuts. Credits, cha cha!
After a stunning aerial shot of Manhattan, we zoom down to see Carrie trudging the streets in a brown suede fur-trimmed jacket, smoking sadly, gently. She's looking on the pale and wan side. Hair long, curly, and unwashed. Now that's Method acting. The VO says that when you live on a tiny island, it's easy to run into your exes, especially the ones that broke your heart. Even easier when you look like shit. From the crowd, Big emerges, hair washed and fluffy and russet. Carrie winces and ducks behind a nerd for cover. Then, Big turns into Not-Big. It was some other hunky suited guy. Dang. A mirage. "Guy-rage"? The nerd turns and stares snippily at Carrie, who darts away. Aww.
More VO as Carries smokes smokily in her apartment, noting that, post-break-up, certain places become off-limits. "The city becomes an emotional battlefield of deserted landmines." Aw! I know the feeling. We all do. She smokes and smokes and bzzz! Her doorbell buzzes, she hops up to get it, and it's two people we've never seen before. Just kidding. It's Miranda and Charlotte. Miranda is all like, "Come on Anne Frank, we're going out." Carrie strips off her über-drab Post-Break-up Comfort Tank Top -- great when you're feeling crushed! -- and is clad only in her bra for a second as she agrees to leave the house, but only "if it's somewhere where I won't run into him." Char, in a great pink suede (fun?) fur-trimmed jacket, says not to rush Carrie through the grieving process, since it "takes half the total time you went out with someone to get over them." She smiles, proud of herself for her ability to recite clichés. Carrie notes from her closet that she "loves a good math solution to any love problem." Miranda says no, Carrie needs to get "cut [her] losses and get back in the game and get OUT THERE." Hee. People refer to getting OUT THERE so much in dating that it sounds like an actual place. Out there, to Manland, adjacent to Couplehocken. Can we make a stop in Handholdington? Or do you want to go straight to Onenightstandford? Then there's some bit about how that's how Miranda got over Eric, and Carrie and Char are like, oh, yeah, right, suuure, is THAT how you got over him, because apparently Miranda did not get over Eric quite that easily. This may be important later in the episode, so remember this tiny moment. Or I could be wrong. Except that I'm not.
The three ladies stalk the sidewalk. Mir comments that Carrie is "way too overdressed for where [they're] going." Carrie shoots back that she'd rather be overdressed than risk running into Big looking the way she feels. They all talk about the first time you see an ex and how bad it can be. Carrie says if Big had any class, he'd move away. Hee. Wouldn't that be nice? Mir is like, you broke up with him, remember? Carrie is like, "Yeah, and that makes me what, happy?" Taxi!