An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux

Infobox Television episode
Title = An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux
Series = Sex and the City


Caption =
Season = 6
Episode = 94
Airdate = February 22 2004
Production =
Writer = Michael Patrick King
Director = Tim Van Patten
Guests = Mikhail Baryshnikov
Carole Bouquet
Mario Cantone
David Eigenberg
Alicia Goranson
Evan Handler
Jason Lewis
Anne Meara
Chris Noth
Episode list = List of "Sex and the City" episodes
Prev = An American Girl in Paris, Part Une
Next =

"An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux"" is the final episode of the HBO series "Sex and the City" which began airing in 1998 and concluded with this episode. The sixth season finale was not only the second part to the series' only two-part episode, it was also the only extended episode - it ran for twice the length of a regular series episode.: – Mr. Big, joking with Carrie

ynopsis

Carrie is now in Paris with Aleksandr. She has lunch with Juliette, Petrovsky's ex-wife. The two of them get on well. Carrie admires that she and Petrovsky have remained such good friends over the years. Juliet explains to Carrie that they split up because she got tired of always coming second: his art always came first. She offers Carrie a cigarette, which she takes as she starts to wonder if she will follow the same destiny as Juliette's.

Back in Manhattan, Charlotte and Anthony are shopping at Chanel for the perfect outfit to meet the parents of the child she and Harry may be adopting. Anthony asks Charlotte how big his role will be in her life once she has the baby. She tells him that he'll always be in her life.

Samantha and Smith are having their hair bleached. Smith tells Samantha that he's been seeing a therapist to help him deal with "all the cancer stuff". He wants to talk about why they haven't had sex in a long time, but Samantha tells him there's nothing to talk about. She's lost her sex drive, and he's leaving to start shooting on a movie in Canada.

Later on in Paris, Carrie and Aleksandr are standing outside a pastry shop when he gets a phone call. After he hangs up, he apologizes to Carrie for having to leave on such short notice. When she asks him if this is going to be everyday, he tells her to not to make him feel worse and promises that there will be more time for them once the exhibit opens. As he gets into the car, he tells her he thinks the smoking is sexy. She tells him it's killing her.

On her own, Carrie wanders around Paris. She eats pastries, buys herself violets, and takes in more of the sights she's seen twice already. Walking down a cobbled street, she smiles at a little girl sitting on her father's shoulders. As the family passes by, the girl hits Carrie on the top of the head and sticks her tongue out at her. Almost immediately after this, Carrie steps in poop. She's trying to clean it off as people pass by and laugh. She feigns sleep later on that night when Aleksandr gets back to the hotel.

Back in Brooklyn, Steve's mother Mary seems to be disoriented and incoherent. Despite the initial assumption of Miranda that it was due to her intoxication, Steve is worried. Mary doesn't recognize Brady and has no idea who Miranda is. Steve decides to take her to the emergency room.

Meanwhile, as Smith is packing his things at Samantha's, she tells him that he should sleep with anyone he wants while he's away. She understands what they have and that sex is just sex. Smith tells her that it's just the chemo that's taking away her sex drive. He compares her situation to winter. Just because the trees are bare doesn't mean they're dead. She still wants him to have sex. But he tells her that's not what he wants.

Steve is back from the ER with Mary. Miranda asks what happens and Steve tells her the doctors think she had a small stroke a week before and that she has significant memory loss. He wants Mary to stay with them for the night and says he's going to go get her nightgown and a few other things from her apartment. Miranda goes with him. At Mary's apartment, things are an absolute mess. There are dirty dishes piled up everywhere and cockroaches are running around in the kitchen. Steve says he wants to get someone to live with her full-time, and Miranda tells Steve she thinks Mary should come live with them.

In Paris, Carrie walks by a bookstore that has her book on display in the front window. She goes inside and reads a bit of it. A salesgirl recognizes her immediately and tells Carrie that she loves the book, that she's a single girl herself. She calls another salesperson over and they decide they want to throw a party in Carrie's honor later on that week.

Carrie is very excited about meeting her French fan base as she tells Aleksandr about it later on. She wants him to go with her, but he can't because that's the night he's going to unveil his exhibit to the museum curator and staff.

Charlotte and Harry are serving dinner for the parents of the baby they might be getting. The mother tells them that it's a girl. The mother said she'd not wanted to know anything about it, but when they told her what the sex of the baby was, she couldn't stop thinking about baby names. Charlotte knows they're not getting the baby now. The mother says they changed their minds but that they were very sorry. Harry wants to know why they put them through all this, and the young couple says they'd just wanted to see New York. Later on Harry is writing an angry letter to their 'baby lawyer'. He doesn't know how much more they can take. Charlotte reassures him that their baby is still coming but Harry thinks God lost their address. She tells him, they're Jews and that they've been through worse than this.

At Samantha's office, she has received a vase of un-bloomed flowers. The card reads. 'Looking forward to Spring -Smith'. Samantha calls him and says she loves the flowers and that maybe he shouldn't sleep with anyone else after all.

In Paris, Carrie is getting ready for her party. Aleksandr is having an anxiety attack. Carrie comforts him and tells him that he's going to be fine. He wants her to go with him. She tells him she's got her party to go to and that she can't cancel, she doesn't have anyone's number to cancel. As she's holding his hand, he tells her not to let go all night. As soon as they walk into the exhibit, one of the curators exclaims that he is a genius and wants to shake his hand. Aleksandr lets go of Carrie and walks forward to the applause of the staff. Carrie is left sitting behind on a bench.

In Brooklyn, Charlotte is visiting Miranda. Mary walks in and exclaims that she wants to take little Stevey to the zoo. Charlotte tells Miranda that she's amazing for holding up so well. Miranda tells Charlotte the same thing. It dawns on Miranda that Mary was wearing her coat and she runs into the front room to discover that Mary is not there and the front door is open. Miranda grabs her coat, asks Charlotte to look after Brady and runs off down the street to look for her mother-in-law.

Meanwhile, Carrie is alone in the museum as Aleksandr is taking the staff through every aspect of his exhibit. As she goes to light a cigarette, a guard approaches her and tells her there's no smoking in the museum. She's putting the pack of cigarettes back in her purse when she discovers a hole in the seam of the lining and something is rattling around underneath. Carrie digs around for a minute and is overjoyed to find the Carrie necklace she thought she lost. She runs from the museum to get to her party. As she's running through the streets to find a taxi, a car passes behind her carrying Big. Neither one of them sees each other and she turns around just in time to miss it.

As Carrie is running the streets of Paris looking for a cab, Miranda is running the streets of Brooklyn looking for Mary.

Carrie finally gets to the restaurant where her party is only to discover that it's over and everyone has left. Her book, which she can see they've used as a coaster, is sitting on the table.

Miranda finds Mary eating pizza out of a garbage bin and takes her home and gives her a sponge bath.

When Carrie gets back to the hotel, she's infuriated that Aleksandr abandoned her in the museum when she had given up her party. He says he's exhausted from the day's work and that he doesn't want to fight. Carrie insists that she's a person in their relationship and that he has no idea what she's been going through. She tells him that she had a life in New York and friends and a job and she didn't give that up to wander the streets of Paris alone. He doesn't want to talk about it and starts to walk away. Carrie doesn't want to avoid this and reaches for his arm. He tries to pull away as he's turning around and accidentally slaps her in the face. He apologizes immediately and tries to comfort her but breaks the necklace that he'd given her. The diamonds go flying and she tucks what she can into her dress. She explains that she needs to be clear about who she is, 'I am someone who is looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love. ..' She tells him she's not going to find it there in that expensive hotel suite, in Paris. She assures him it's not his fault, it's her fault and that it was a mistake for her to ever come with him. She kisses him on the cheek, thanks him and leaves.

In the lobby, she's trying to explain in French to the person behind the counter that she needs another room. He tells her they only have double rooms together. She tells him that that would be fine and he walks away to get more information as Carrie tries to dig the diamonds from her bosom. She drops one of them and kneels down to get it. As she's looking around on the ground for the diamond, Big walks into the lobby. He stops and stares at her. She finds the diamond by her foot, dusts it off and looks up at Big and bursts into tears. He asks her why she's crying and she explains that Paris is a mess and that she shouldn't have come. She tells him about having the fight with Aleksandr and that she got slapped. Big is furious that she's been slapped and Carrie tries to explain that it was an accident but he won't listen. He asks what room she was in, but Carrie won't tell him. At that moment, the man behind the counter comes back and says that he sees she was in room 625. Big takes off towards the elevator, telling Carrie that he's going to go, 'Kick some Russian ass.' Instead of waiting for the elevator, he runs up the stairs, Carrie following behind him telling him he needs to calm down, she took care of it. He tells her he's going to 'clock that foreigner' and that there's nothing she can do about it. She catches up to him and trips him. The both go flying onto the floor. Carrie looks at Big and they both start laughing.

Outside, as they're walking together he notes that most people come to Paris to fall in love but she came and got slapped. They can't stop laughing about it. They stop on a bridge and Carrie asks him how he even got there. He tells her it's taken a long time to get there, but he's there. And with tears in his eyes, he tells her that she's the one, which he was unable to in the first season finale. They kiss and she tells him that she misses New York, she wants him to take her home.

Back in Manhattan, as Charlotte arranges the table for dinner and jokes to the just-arriving Harry that she's "a bad wife, I ordered Chinese", Harry comes in and tells her he got something from China as well. .. a baby. God remembered their address. He shows Charlotte a picture of an adorable Chinese girl and Charlotte starts to cry. She pulls Harry close and the two of them stare at the picture.

In Brooklyn, Magda tells Miranda that what she did for Mary was real love. Miranda tells Magda not to make a big deal of it to Steve because it would only upset him. Magda nods as Miranda goes back to reading her newspaper. She kisses Miranda on the forehead and leaves.

In the middle of the night, Smith appears at Samantha's apartment and wakes her up out of a deep sleep. He tells her that there was something he forgot to tell her on the phone: that he loves her. Samantha doesn't say it back, but instead says that he's meant more to her than any man she's ever known. The two of them kiss as the camera pans to the vase of flowers he sent her. They're just starting to bloom.

In a scene very reminiscent of the last scene in the pilot, Carrie gets out of Big's town car and looks up at her apartment. Big rolls the window down and tells her he doesn't live there anymore and that the Four Seasons won't check him in until one. She asks him if he wants to come up and just like in the pilot he tells her, 'Abso-fuckin'-lutely.' He gets out of the car and follows her up the stairs.

The next day, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte are sitting in the diner having coffee while Samantha is talking about the wonderful love-making she had with Smith the night before. Carrie is at the door and Miranda screams when she sees her. They jump up and each take a turn hugging her. Later on, they walk out of the diner and onto the street.

In the final scenes, we see Miranda, Brady and Steve enjoying breakfast together as a family, Charlotte and Harry walking their puppies and Samantha and Smith making love again as the flowers are in full bloom next to her bed. Then we see Carrie walking up the street, wearing the same fur coat from the Pilot, carrying a Fendi handbag and shopping bag from Manolo Blahnik. Her phone rings and she looks at the caller ID, which says John. She answers it and Big tells her he's just put the house on the market, that he's coming back to New York.

As she walks away, her last words summarize the whole philosophy of the series:

Quotes

“I am someone who is looking for love, real love…ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love…”: – Carrie, in Paris hotel room with Aleksandr

“I have to hand it to you kid. Most people come to Paris to fall in love. You came and got slapped.”: – Mr. Big, joking with Carrie

"I think I'm kicking some Russian ass!": – Big

"...the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you "you" love, well, that's just fabulous.": – Carrie

Also Starring

* Chris Noth as John (Mr. Big)
* David Eigenberg as Steve Brady

Guest appearances

* Mikhail Baryshnikov as Aleksandr Petrovsky
* Nicolas Berger as Trendy Waiter
* Marc Berman as Night Clerk
* Myriam Blanckaert as Evelyn in Bookstore
* Carole Bouquet as Juliette
* Mario Cantone as Anthony Marantino
* Lynn Cohen as Magda
* Michaël Cohen as The Doorman
* Francis Dumaurier as Museum Guard
* David Eigenberg as Steve Brady
* Marc Forget as Museum Curator
* Simon Fortin as Bistro Waiter
* Alicia Goranson as Amber - Birth Mother
* Evan Handler as Harry Goldenblatt
* Gérard James as Boat Tourist
* Jason Lewis as Smith Jerrod
* Steven Lock as Male Colorist
* Anne Meara as Mary Brady
* Julien Rouleau as Paul in Bookstore
* Randy Ryan as Wayne - Birth Father
* Alberto Vasquez as Raul (uncredited)

oundtrack

* Gotan Project "Queremos Paz"
* Deep Area "Mad Love for Ya"
* Buddha Soul Project "Brazil in My Mind"
* MC Solaar "La Belle et le Bad Boy"
* Jon Hopkins "Luna Moth" and "Cold Out There"
* The Source feat. Candi Staton "You Got the Love (Now Voyager mix) (1996)"

References to popular culture

* The title spoofs the 1951 Gene Kelly film "An American in Paris".

Background information

* The audience figures for "An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux" in the US were 10.6 million viewers, making this the highest rated episode of the series.
* The Versace "dress of a thousand layers" that Carrie wore has a retail price of $79,000.
* The music in the background when Carrie is eating alone in the restaurant was written by Mikhail Baryshnikov. It's called 'Carrie's Theme' and was the same song that the character Aleksandr Petrovsky wrote for Carrie in the episode 'The Ick Factor.'

Continuity errors

* When Samantha and Smith are changing after getting their hair dyed, Samantha takes off her jacket but then in the next view one side is back on and then she takes it off again.