Written by
Doug Stockstill
Directed by Nanette Burstein
Airs Monday at 8pm (ET) on the CW
Quick, Somebody Hide the Pillows.
There seems to be a strange pattern developing within The Carrie Diaries, the better the episode flows the more boring it is. For instance “Caught” is once Connecticut centric, meaning that the intertwining between Maggie, Mouse and Dorrit’s storylines flowed onto the screen with an elevated ease adjacent to Carries but it lacked that brand of flashy drama Manhattan usually brings to the table. Apart from the pilot episode there’s been a definite ‘you can’t have it both ways so pick your battles’ suggested within the episode framework. The tiny glimpse into the city this week does however imply big changes and high stakes hijinks for the back 6 episodes (ignoring the fact that logically Carrie’s story probably should’ve found itself at Interview six episodes ago) and just maybe Larissa will become more then just the plots token dilemma dropper.
Apart from the promise of Manhattan, this week circled around the winter formal and the boy drama all but guaranteed to go along with a night of glitter glue snowflakes and spiked punch. First off, have you ever thought something about George was just the slightest bit creepy? But then he would act just so darn sweet that it would wash away any lingering cringe feeling you had, leaving you to chalk it up to just bad line delivery? Turns out you shouldn’t have. Writer Doug Stockstill went out of his way this episode to keep us (very effectively) on team Kydd and drown anyone in who jumped ship by turning charming harmless George into a predatory frat boy in the course of 20 seconds. Things went south (minus the metaphor) for Maggie and Mouse’s romantic entanglements as well, mouse realizing she only has time for one man and his name is Harvard, not Seth and Maggie’s resistance for Officer illegal-age-difference reaching its traditional episode low, only this time getting caught by Donna. Luckily though Maggie came clean to Carrie right away because with only a handful of episodes to go Donna orchestrated boyfriend blackmail is the last kind of tangent we need.
Sebastian’s brooding and a casual “Swatch” reference aside the best part of the episode (for a Sex and the City fan) has to be a quote from Carrie “If I’m still dating and talking about guys in my 30s, someone needs to smother me with a pillow.” even having never watched an episode of SATC there’s a universal hilarity to naive teenagers equating mid-life decrepitly with being 30.
– Ashley Blackburn