What Happens in the End?

And just like that, “…And Just Like That” has ended on HBO.

After 33 episodes (preceded by 94 episodes of “Sex and the City”), Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and their assorted pals and fashions closed the wardrobe doors on Aug. 14 with a lot of loose threads tying up, many still left open and so much pie being eaten.

The announcement of “AJLT’s” exit came only a few weeks ago, when renewal buzz was still in the air. As showrunner Michael Patrick King (who developed the follow-up series with “SATC” creator Darren Starr) wrote on Instagram Aug. 1, “While I was writing the last episode of ‘And Just Like That’ season three, it became clear to me that this might be a wonderful place to stop.” He noted that the last two episodes of the series were structured as more of a two-part finale (focusing around Miranda’s challenging Thanksgiving party), but held off on calling it a finale.

So how did things ultimately wrap up? Where do our leading ladies and men leave us? And just how did we go from Cosmos in clubs in the 1990s to pie in the kitchen in 2025? Let’s examine the final episode, appropriately called “Party of One.”

Are Carrie and Aidan Broken Up Forever?

Considering that “Cadian” broke up several episodes ago, that the first of the two-part finale was called “Forgot About the Boy,” and the episode directly post-breakup skipped ahead to the fall without a reunion — yeah, it’s safe to say that Aidan (John Corbett) sealed his fate when he declared he still couldn’t trust Carrie.

Who’s next for Carrie, then?

Maybe no one.

The final episode of “AJLT” focuses on Carrie coming up with a new perspective on what it means to be not just out of a relationship, not just with none on the horizon, but what it might mean to not necessarily want one.

“Seriously though, who will I be alone?” she asks Charlotte. “I’ve never lived alone without the thought that I wouldn’t be alone for long.” She confesses that after Big’s death, she thought that Aidan might be her natural next step. Then she’d considered Duncan as a possibility — but he left New York City, and it’s hard to imagine Carrie picking up and following him.

Then Carrie had her big revelation: “I have to quit thinking, ‘Maybe a man?’ and start accepting maybe just me,” she says. “And it’s not a tragedy, it’s a fact, and I just have to start accepting it full stop.”

That’s a throwback to her new novel, whose original ending of a woman being happy being alone triggered her editor, leading to Carrie writing an epilogue in which love is a possibility for the single woman in the future. But in the end, post-Thanksgiving, Carrie returns to her apartment with leftover pie and rewrites the epilogue to read, “The woman realized she was not alone — she was on her own.”

It’s a solid period on the end of a sentence. The fact is, after many years of the story of Carrie, her friends and lovers, our heroine’s longest-lasting relationship has not been with men. Or fashion. Or even her friends. Carrie’s real love affair has been with herself, and her writing. It is the thing that gives her purpose and sets her apart from nearly everyone else she knows.

What Happens to All the Other Characters?

So where does that leave everyone else?

With their loved ones, actually. As ever, the “Sex”-iverse leaves everyone else as ancillary satellites circling Carrie’s world, but we do get some insights as to where everyone else’s mostly-happily-ever-after lives are heading next.

Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker) avoids her affair with her editor and comes home to a still-mourning Herbert (Christopher Jackson) and they promise to get through his political defeat together.

Miranda and Joy (Dolly Wells) undergo a dog surgery and a particularly disgusting post-Thanksgiving bathroom disaster and end up embracing.

Seema (Sarita Choudhury) and Adam (Logan Marshall-Green) work around their differences in tradition and gluten, and have a pie-eating Thursday instead of a traditional Thanksgiving. But not before Carrie determines that the free spirit is in for the long haul with Seema.

Brady (Niall Cunningham) and baby mama-to-be Mia (Ella Stiller, daughter of Ben) are far from reconciled, but Mia and her friends do make Miranda’s Thanksgiving interesting, and Mia decides that Miranda is kind of cool after all.

Charlotte and Harry (Evan Handler) discover there is life after prostate cancer surgery, and celebrate Thanksgiving with their children.

Anthony (Mario Cantone) and Giuseppe (Sebastiano Pigazzi) discuss Giuseppe’s real intentions with Anthony. Guess they really are going to get married.

Aidan is nowhere in sight.

Is ‘And Just Like That’ Really Over?

Was this a true finale — or will we see more of Carrie & Co. in the future?

Too soon to tell. There are enough loose threads to create another spin-off. There’s always a scenario where Carrie abandons her newfound sense of self and races off to the UK to chase Duncan. But let’s face it, the end credits roll with a replay of the theme music to “Sex and the City.” We think this is probably the end — for now.

After all, Carrie has reached a point of acceptance of being alone, but not lonely. She has her friends and their offspring. She likes her home, even if it is a little too big. It’s kind of nice to leave her in her beautiful red frock, dancing to Barry White’s “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything,” eating pie direct from the pan with a spoon.

It’s as if the show is saying: This is not a tragedy. This is a victory.

How wonderful, how wonderful, how wonderful.