The Carrie Diaries - Episode 9 - Recap and Review - The Great Unknown
“The Great Unknown” saw Carrie (Annasophia Robb) and the gang facing facts and fears. The Carrie Diaries continues to build on its titular star and her ragtag group of high school buddies, beau Sebastian (Austin Butler) now officially included. Banned from New York, Bradshaw found herself with nothing to do but think. That’s why her hair’s so big, it’s full of… I’m not doing that to you all. There’s nothing, I mean nothing, worse than a stale Mean Girls. Is there even such a thing as a fresh Mean Girls joke at this point?
Come to think of it, this week’s episode would probably work as a segmented recap, so let’s do it!
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Mouse: Is there anything more obnoxious than finding a better version of yourself? Mouse’s (Ellen Wong) rival came in the form of a smooth new dude named West, the class valedictorian. On sight opposites, the two ended up having more in common than Mouse would have liked. He was the perpetual one-upper; destroying Mouse’s Rubik’s cube record on his first attempt. Mouse would settle for nothing less than death, or at least a decent dose of public humiliation.
West continued to top Mouse’s efforts throughout the episode, out volunteering and even out math-ing Mouse. The boy was forced to take math classes at a local college, having surpassed high school calculus. To top it off, he was juggling three varsity sports. A jock with a brain was the greatest anomoly Mouse had ever encountered. In the end, she decided to put her money where her mouth was. It would have to be a Rubik’s cube-off at the diner.
Half of “Eye of the Tiger” and a whole lot of Rubik’s practicing later, Mouse was ready for the main event. A crowd gathered, or rather, a crowd was forced to attend by Mouse. All would bear witness to her well-earned spot as the school number one. She did inevitably beat West, but as he put it, one small battle would not a war lose. As a black boy coming from a single-parent family, he would come to take Mouse’s spot at Harvard or Princeton. Asian math wizzes can’t get any love, West? Actually, I was pretty certain that the two would find some chemistry, but the end of the episode left me questioning if that would ever be in the cards for this duo.
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Walt and Donna: Walt (Brendan Dooling) and Donna (Chloe Bridges) continued with their budding relationship. Donna had found her perfect man; a boy who loved to shop and made her feel comfortable without any makeup on. She’d found a guy, a guy regularly clad in cashmere, who listened to her and made her feel good about herself. This was a guy who wouldn’t even feel the slightest tingle when she strutted out in nothing but a trench and some lingerie.
Maggie could never figure it out, but it took Donna a hot second to realize that something was seriosuly off. As the self-proclaimed sexiest thang on this planet, Donna was baffled. Walt should have been all over the idea of sexing it up, yet he chose to continue his screening of The Terminator. As it turned out, Donna has a gay older brother, who’d been living happily in Los Angeles. Walt, having seemingly been under the impression that gay men couldn’t live fulfilling lives, needed to hear this from her.
I thought it was nice that they gave Donna this moment with Walt. Having painted her as the only character on the show capable of playing the villainess, it’s good to see that they’re making her more complex than that now. While Walt isn’t certain that he’s straight-up gay, he realizes that he can’t give girls what they need. Donna loves sex! In the end, Donna promised to keep Walt’s secret, having built a real friendship with a boy who gave her something no other guy had ever bothered to. Donna covered up their breakup by spreading a rumor that Walt was too big for her. As in, too “big.”
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Tom: Carrie’s father Tom (Matt Letscher) got lucky at the gym! He sort of just fell into things with a trainer there, but the act led him to wonder how the world of sex was working nowadays. Or, well, their nowadays… as in during 1984. Having been out of the saddle for while, he turned to a bro for help. Harlan (Scott Cohen), while the two were practicing racketball, advised him to start thinking of what women want differently than he had been. Tom hadn’t yet become privy to the concept than a woman could actually want casual sex.
Thankfully, Harlan brought along the perfect friend-with-benefits to give his buddy advice. Larissa (Freema Ageyman) and Harlan had been seeing each other, if only casually, since their rocking night at Limelight. Harlan actually credited Tom for introducing them through Carrie. Tom’s one-on-one with Larissa started off focused on his sex life and the fact that he should be looking for a woman confident in her sexuality. The topic turned to Carrie, eventually and inevitably, leading Larissa to a simple conclusion; Tom doesn’t know his daughter at all. He had no clue that Carrie had been writing, even going as far as to assume she’d been dreaming of life as a lawyer. Just laugh in his face, Larissa. Just go for it. In the end, Larissa inspired Tom to be the best dad he could be, by fostering Carrie’s dreams of writing and fashion.
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Carrie and Sebastian: Carrie began the episode devastated by the amount of genuine affection Sebastian had been displaying for her. Why would he pay for all of her french fries? How dare he offer her his signature jean coat with the wool collar!
Bradshaw broke down in tears, while Mouse sat baffled. In her bedroom, Carrie admitted to starting to truly fall for Sebastian. What she hadn’t been anticipating was the crippling fear of a possible breakup. Carrie had just begun recovering from her mother’s passing, and the idea of another “death” was almost too much to bear. In order to keep Sebastian on lock, Carrie attempted to be more like him, throwing as little caution as necessary to the wind, and even going as far as to offer to wing plans. As in, no scheduling at all! Winging!
Things took a turn for Carrie’s worse when Carrie was asked to accompany Dorrit (Stefania Owen) on a study trip to the library. Dorrit was responsible for researching her favorite historical date for a school project. Fortunately for Carrie, Dorrit simply made some photocopies and decided to do the reading at home. Unfortunately for Carrie, Sebastian showed up unscheduled, as she had sort of asked him to, and Dorrit flew the coop while the two were mackin' on the couch.
It was Sebastian who managed to piece together Dorrit’s whereabouts. Figuring out the date she’d chosen, October 12th, 1978 a.k.a. the day Sid Vicious stabbed his girlfriend Nancy to death, he realized Dorrit was most certainly at the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, and Carrie would have to break her grounding to find her. Sebastian offered to drive Carrie, considering that the train would take forever, but Carrie finally started to come apart at the seams. Blaming Sebastian’s visit for Dorrit’s latest escapade, Carrie began to self-sabotage her relationship. She would make the trip to New York alone.
Dorrit was indeed at the Chelsea Hotel, taking in the ambience brought on by history and bloodstains. Funny, Sebastian beat Carrie to the punch, having arrived way before Bradshaw. In the end, Carrie and Dorrit had a heart-to-heart chat, as they often do, but it was Dorrit who finally Carrie the advice she needed to hear. Dorrit knows stuff. After their mother’s death, she decided to live big, realizing that it could all be taken away in an instant regardless. Even a good girl like Carrie could end up burned out of the blue.
Carrie and Sebastian made amends, with Dorrit’s blessing, and he admitted to being just as scared as she was. At home, Tom also made things right with his daughter, offering the opportunity to return to Interview to work as Larissa’s intern under strict supervision. If only he could glimpse into the future for just a mere gander at his daughter's future career path… yikes. Ladies do like sex… and the City!
