Carrie, Girl, You Can't Wait 5 Years For A Man — Even Aidan
I love him, too. But I love you more.
When Aidan Shaw first appeared in Season 3, Episode 5 of Sex and the City, it was a much-needed breath of fresh air. Our girl Carrie had just come from her heavily-maligned dalliance in “Alice in Confused-Sexual-Orientation-Land” when, at the behest of Stanford, she went to see the beautiful man downtown selling beautiful furniture that was featured in the New York Times style section.
Upon first glance, voiceover Carrie (you miss her, don't you?) called him “warm, masculine and classic American.” She lied about being a fellow furniture designer when they first met and later lied on their first date when he asked if she smoked (“only a little” she claimed). It was in that moment that IRL Carrie had a realization and voiceover Carrie shared that she kinda liked him. Not even an episode later, Carrie had given up cigarettes for the guy, which, as any heads know, was the sign she kinda loved him. Audiences, too, fell in love with Aidan. He antithesized so many of Carrie’s other suitors, most notably Big. Beyond his obvious charm was his availability, something that caught Carrie entirely off guard.
In fact, he was so good that two episodes later, Carrie began fishing for icebergs. “This relationship cannot just sail on like it is — perfect — because frankly, I can’t take the pressure.” It did sail for quite some time until, as the story goes, Carrie was confronted with her past and began a lurid affair with Big. That, and she started smoking again. “I guess I’ll just have to live with it,” Aidan, now fully in love, responded to Carrie’s revelation that she had returned to smoking. The next morning, suffocating under the weight of her biggest lie yet, she told Aidan the truth about her affair with Big. Aidan doesn’t end things entirely, but tells her through man-tears (which is to say, no visible water), “I just need to be on my own for a while.”
Later in the third season, Carrie runs into Aidan and learns that he has moved on.
The pair reunites and rekindles the following season. He moves in. He proposes. Feeling suffocated once again, this time by him and not a big secret, Carrie ends their engagement and, in doing so, their relationship. “You should definitely stay, at least for another day... or for forever,” she tells him as he packs his bag to leave her life for good this time. “We’ve been through this,” he tells her. “I can’t.”
Aidan pops up briefly during a run-in in Season 6 where we learn of his wife Kathy and meet his baby, Tate.
He pops up again (a habit at this point) in the properly dragged Sex and the City 2, where we learn he’s since expanded the family to include Homer and Wyatt. He then told Carrie she looked hot and later planted a kiss on her lips, completing a bizarre arc that began with Carrie cheating on Aidan with Big and ending with Carrie cheating on Big with Aidan. I try to block this part out, to be honest.
But this became that. And Just Like That…, to be more specific. And what’s old became new-ish again.