The Carrie Diaries, Season 1, Episode 8: “Hush Hush”
Written by Marc Halsey
Directed by Amy Heckerling
Airs Monday at 8pm (ET) on the CW
Hey, Hi.
“Hush Hush” certainly blew the dust off the ol’ floppy disc this week, and not a moment too soon. For anyone who may have fallen off the show, this was the episode to get you back on board. Not only did Carrie lose her Manolo-ginity and sip her first signature cosmo (yes the city may be sexless, but two out of three iconic Sex and the City-isms isn’t bad), but she gained and lost her place at “Interview” magazine, all in one classic dad runs into you at a niche voyeur themed nightclub fell swoop. In fact, if you were keeping anything “Hush Hush” at the beginning of this episode, you weren’t by the end of it.
Just when things seemed to be heading indefinitely towards this becoming a show that circled around Carrie hiding her double life direction, they reveal it all. Larissa and her Dad find out the truth in a shared moment, and better yet, Larissa is jazzed about it. Initially, this came off a little troubling when you considered Carrie’s future at the magazine, but by the end of the episode (her clear lack of grounding and all), it seems like Dad is going to be able to see things from her perspective sooner rather than later.
Connecticut proved to be no greater gate keeper of secrets either, from Sebastian’s wildly obvious Carrie crush to Donna dropping the truth about Maggie and officer goodtime. The intro of Wonna is sure to be particularly interesting; the viewer knows that Walt (while hurt) needs to keep a beard in play to mask his true feelings, but to the other characters, what will it come off as? Is Walt trying to spite Maggie by making a fool of her the way she did of him? What about Donna? Is she too self-involved to notice something is off? Or will she learn his secret? Will she keep it to save face? Or reveal it in the cruelest way possible?
The writers have really re-aligned the plot back into the direction implied in the pilot; yes, Carrie’s in high school and has the sweet sixteen drama that comes with it, but she is also a young woman discovering who she is via the greatest city in the world. And, it has to be mentioned, they do this while avoiding all the roadblock tropes of a typical teen drama.
– Ashley Blackburn