The Carrie Diaries, Season 1, Episode 4: “Fright Night”
Written by Henry Alonso Myers
Directed by Jennifer Getzinger
Airs Monday at 8pm (ET) on the CW
The episode promised frights and rest assured the night delivered. It’s not often a show about a nice group of kids from Connecticut can cover LSD, ecstasy, marijuana, hate crimes, date rape, pedophilia and black mail on a lone Wednesday night and make it home by curfew. But some how they did just that.
“Fright Night” was bookended with the freshly minted awkwardness between Carrie and Sebastian and the eventual détente between them where Sebastian once again refers to her “Bradshaw” (girl, you don’t stand a chance against that grin). The real story however unfurls around two Halloween parties happening between this. And like most Halloween episodes it wasn’t without its share of stops on the cliché train.
First stop Larissa’s party. Move over DUMBO this train stops in the cities newest neighborhood, SITCAPPOH (Solo In The City at a Packed Party on Halloween, obviously) granted this was less of a Halloween party and more of a “the magic/novelty masquerade mask shop below my apartment is having a going out of business sale” party and it took a double dose of Ecstasy with an LSD chaser to scratch Larissa’s surface, it was worth it. Larissa being painted, as a one dimensional delivery device for moral dilemmas was growing old, her confessing to Carrie that it’s hard to be fabulous and that the abundant anonymity in this city can leave you incredibly alone (insert obligatory “No Man is an Island” reference) finally gave her some realness, clichés be damned.
Much like Carrie, Larissa almost immediately corrupts Walt upon meeting him, by giving him a ‘party favor’ in the form of ecstasy. Again, worth it because it loosens him up enough for the story to move beyond the mere suggestion of Walt’s sexuality by letting the audience in on his struggle. All of which happens beneath the token Halloween voice over metaphor “Its fun not to be us, to not have to face the reality of who we really are and what scares us.”
Charlotte and Samantha, sorry Mouse and Maggie find themselves at the nights other party. It was a notably loose way to tie Carrie’s two worlds together but it was improved from last week making it clear they’re still trying to find that sweet spot. Which is something that’s especially noticeable when it comes to the Dorrit plot lines, which tend to blend in about as well house paint she throws on her face. Could boarding school be in her future?
It seems like eons ago that her nervous father was dropping off Carrie in the big city and now three episodes later she’s a full-fledged mini-Manhattanite going to art shows and parties (that presumably start at 7pm and are filled exclusively with far-sighted party goers that can’t see she’s 16). Regardless, it’s looking like the city is yours for the taking Carrie Bradshaw.
– Ashley Blackburn