The Carrie Diaries - Finale Recap: Carrie Bradshaw, Waitress

Episode 13 of Season 2 of The Carrie Diaries, “Run To You,” was the season finale. Well, I don’t want to send any bad vibes back to the 80s, but this could very well serve as the series finale, and I think the writers did a great job of handling things just in case. When a shocking turn of events sent Carrie’s (Annasophia Robb) life into freefall, her relationship with her dad. Tom (Matt Letscher), seemed even more strained. Meanwhile, Sebastian (Austin Butler) saw Carrie’s setbacks with a silver lining, though it was Adam Weaver (Chris Wood) who seemed to give Bradshaw some peace of mind. As things unraveled in Manhattan, Mouse (Ellen Wong) and West (RJ Brown) were pitted against each other yet again with surprisingly positive results, and Maggie (Katie Findlay) realized that her perfect relationship with Pete might not have been as awesome as she’d imagined. Samantha (Lindsey Gort) might have missed out on Larissa’s (Freema Agyeman) extravagant affair, but an old flame was rekindled through a romantic stalking session. Here is the Recap and Review of Season 2 Episode 13 of The Carrie Diaries, “Run To You,” the finale! Episode 13 opened with the Castlebury High graduation! Congratulations, Carrie and crew. Everybody seemed to be in good spirits to begin with. That is, until Bradshaw headed home to begin packing for the city where grumpy Tom refused to even crack a smile. I get it. What’s graduation if you’re not graduating to anything? That’s not how Carrie saw it, of course, and Dorrit (Stefania Owen) was surprisingly supportive, most likely due to the fact that she feeds off of rebellion.

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Carrie was still absolutely behind her decision to ditch NYU in favor of a fantastic job at Interview. When Larissa was fired out of the blue for failing to mention how wonderful Warhol is in a newspaper interview, however, Carrie’s spaceship seemed hitched to a falling star. Well, Carrie, I’m sure Larissa can always use a handmaiden! Bradshaw, who was promptly taken out with the trash, headed over to the NYU admissions office in an effort to re-secure her spot in the program to no success. If she’s lucky, she’ll manage to squeak in about seven months after her proposed start date in the fall. Sebastian, meanwhile, saw this as an opportunity to convince Carrie to join him in his journey out to Malibu. Carrie Bradshaw, surfer gal. From the start, this seemed like a wonky plan, but Carrie, realizing that Manhattan no longer offered her anything at all, figured she had nothing to lose.

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Samantha ran into Elliot once again outside of her favorite relaxation spot, her choice off track betting location. You remember Elliot as the married dude in the open relationship who managed to woo Samantha more so than any other guys this season. Unfortunately for him, Samantha doesn’t do open relationships or commitment generally speaking. She’s also not too keen on bonking married men in any case until, well, she is. Samantha mistakenly slept with Elliot yet again, setting this finale’s true theme into motion. When is it appropriate to run from problems, people, or emotions? In Samantha’s case, a smorgasbord of Chinese takeout is enough to squash any sort of butterflies floating around her belly. Carrie, meanwhile, figured she could learn a thing or two from the self-proclaimed nomad. Why not simply "forget" to tell her father about uprooting and heading to Malibu with Sebastian?

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Not an option. Tom found out the hard way, through a casual bump-in with Larissa and Harlan (Scott Cohen) on the street. Larissa, who’d thrown herself into planning the wedding set to annihilate Page Six, let it slip that both she and Carrie had been axed at Interview, leading Tom into the heaviest scene of the week. Showing up at Sebastian’s apartment unannounced, Tom and Carrie had a seriously dramatic moment where it seemed even “grumpy Tom” from the start of Episode 13 had met his match. “Stone cold Tom” promised to bid Carrie a final farewell at Larissa’s wedding.

As Carrie’s life was being destroyed bit by bit, Maggie thought she had it made. Sadly, after discovering a girl’s phone number in Pete’s jacket pocket, it seemed she too was in for a rocky finale. With some help from Mouse, Walt (Brendan Dooling), and Donna (Chloe Bridges), Maggie came to the simple deduction that she was being taken advantage of… again! Pete had seemed totally apathetic or opposed to planning even some basics of their future as a couple, like how they’d handle things when Maggie headed into dorm life. The classic “call the number and play dumb” trick works every time, and by “every time,” I mean never. When Jess hung up Walt’s call in a huff, it seemed Maggie had her proof. Later, she confronted Pete at the Laundromat, where he promptly pulled out an engagement ring, a rock Jess the jeweler helped him choose, and proposed. Maggie accepted, and her fears were laid to rest.

Mouse, meanwhile, was thrown into a sticky situation with her ex, West, when the two valedictorians were forced to divide up their traditional gift, a set of encyclopedias. Nobody wanted the X or the Q, it seemed, and suddenly I felt bad for those letters that have contributed nothing to world history. In the end, though, Mouse and West felt like total fools for even bothering, and the two ended up rekindling their romance one last time, saying their goodbyes on a totally positive note. They donated the encyclopedias to the school, and started to head out on their next chapters.

Episode 13 kind of proved that a lot of the men in Carrie’s life are pretty incompetent when it comes to offering Bradshaw advice, huh? First, Carrie met with Weaver in a spontaneous conversation simply to get someone she trust’s honest opinion on the concept of California living. Weaver needs the sardine-like situation of NYC life to inspire his writing. He advised Carrie, however, to continue to explore her options, noting that her talent is always within her.

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The wedding brought Tom back to Manhattan for his last encounter with Carrie before his daughter and Sebastian could run off to Malibu together. Funny enough, Larissa cleared out an entire airport terminal for the big event. So convenient! I thought for sure that Sebastian’s talk with Carrie’s dad about making Carrie happy was going to result in him changing his plans, especially considering how Tom remained completely unwavering in his opinion that Carrie was throwing her life away. Beforehand, Tom spoke with Dorrit, who seemed to be the only one to actually make some sense of the situation. Dorrit is the wild child, so he expects nothing of her. At least, he doesn’t expect her to mimic him in his decisions. Carrie, on the other hand, signed some unspoken invisible agreement at birth that required her to do exactly as her father wishes. It seemed like Mr. Bradshaw had some sort of an epiphany at this point, but alas, his subsequent conversation with Sebastian proved otherwise. I’m not saying I don’t agree with him to a point, but there simply seemed to be a lot of conversations that ended with big fat nothings as opposed to huge changes of heart.

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That was the point, however, as the finale was always meant to be about Carrie Bradshaw trusting her own voice. Oddly enough, Larissa’s wedding vows seemed to shed an incredible amount of light on the situation, even driving Bradshaw to tears. Larissa loves the airport for its symbolism. People traveling the world and experiencing life but always returning home to those they love. Carrie’s home is New York City, even if it isn’t currently offering her anything special.

Larissa’s wedding ended with a breakup and a makeup. I can’t believe I’m typing this, but it seems Episode 13, this season finale, brought upon the end of Kyddshaw for good. I was certain the two would just try long distance, again, but by the end of their conversation it was as though Sebastian had written off ever seeing anything more than a Carrie Bradshaw byline again. While Sebastian left to chase his dreams in Malibu, Tom was inspired by Harlan to embrace the fact that he’d raised a gem of a kid, and he asked his daughter for a dance. The two made amends; Carrie admitted that she’d royally screwed things up, and Tom reminded her that she’ll always have his support.

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The Season 2 finale ended on a high note, as Carrie made the decision to scramble to make ends meet in Larissa’s loft. We were led to believe that Carrie had made a call to Weaver at the last minute, only to realize that Samantha was indeed the one Bradshaw phoned. A classic Sex and the City trick revisited! Samantha had just finished up making an actual commitment to Elliot, who left his wife upon realizing that he has true feelings for Samantha like he’s never experienced before. That moment was nice, but her final moment with Carrie was better. Bradshaw has a new roommate, everybody! To end the recap, Episode 13 of The Carrie Diaries closed with Carrie waiting on her first guests at a local NYC restaurant, a big table full of all of her friends who were apparently very eager to start day drinking.

What did you think of The Carrie Diaries, Season 2 Episode 13, “Run To You”? Is this finale the end for Kyddshaw? Do you think this will be the end of The Carrie Diaries, or are you optimistic for a stellar Season 3?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of The Carrie Diaries, Season 2 Episode 13, “Run To You”!