Sex and the City
Running with Scissors
TV Flash files “Running with Scissors” as hour 41 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Sex and the City (1998–2004) on HBO, season 3, episode 11, aired 2000-08-20, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E11: listed hour 41 of 94 in the Sex and the City guide, hour 11 of 18 in season 3. It aired 2000-08-20 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “All or Nothing” (S03E10). Next is “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” (S03E12).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
As Carrie's affair with Big goes into its third week, the scene turns from ultra-sexy to slightly seedy. In search of some chastising, Carrie turns to the one friend she knows will lay down the law, Miranda. Miranda tells Carrie that she has to stop the affair. Meanwhile, guilt-free Samantha meets her sexual match in Tom Reymi. Tom is ready to strap Samantha into his leather "swing" and go at it, but not before he is assured that Samantha has had an AIDS test, which she hasn't. Samantha is terrified to take the test, but the girls encourage her to do it. Meanwhile, Charlotte is obsessed with finding the perfect wedding gown and hires a no-nonsense stylist to help her through the process. After her recent romp with Big, Carrie is unable to relax in bed with Aidan. Still conflicted, Carrie returns to the out-of-the-way hotel where she's been sleeping with Big. As she's walking out, she runs smack into Charlotte, who sees Big and sees exactly what's going on. Later, a horrified Charlotte gives Carrie a firm talking to about the hurtfulness of having an affair with a married man. Samantha has the AIDs test, which comes back negative, and she and Tom take a erotic ride on his swing. Despite everything Carrie's been told, she breaks all rules and has sex with Big in his conjugal bed. Big leaves and tells Carrie to let herself out. Natasha returns early from the Hamptons and catches Carrie desperately trying to sneak out the back door. Natasha screams at Carrie saying she knew they were having an affair and then she trips down the stairs, smashing her lip and losing a tooth. Carrie gets her to an emergency room and waits for Big to show up. When he does, she tells him "We're so over." Big says nothing and Carrie walks out. She goes home to find Aidan faithfully waiting in her apartment.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Running with Scissors sit in the Sex and the City guide?
S03E11 is listed hour 41 of 94 — hour 11 of 18 in season 3, season 3 episode 11.
When did Sex and the City S03E11 air?
Running with Scissors aired 2000-08-20 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Season 1, episode 1. The voiceover and the four-silhouette contract are the whole machine.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it as the original big-city look book: four women, a voiceover, and shoes that did more character work than half the boyfriends. Manhattan is a lighting setup. The reboot noise is later; this run is the template every brunch-core series still copies.
The first thing you see is a woman on a street that is really a runway. Carrie Bradshaw’s voiceover is a fashion dispatch with dating as the alibi. HBO at the end of the 1990s did not accidentally invent the look book as comedy-drama. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon made Manhattan photograph as a weekly fitting: four silhouettes, four theories of sex, one city that never dressed casual unless the casual cost more. Style is the plot. The shoe is not a punchline. The shoe is a…
Filed against
- Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw
Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw typed Manhattan desire into a global lifestyle franchise — Sex and the City as fashion, friendship, brunch as appointment TV, and shoes that did more character work than half the boyfriends. Reboots…
- Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones
Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones made brunch into a press strategy on Sex and the City — four women, a voiceover, shoes that did more character work than half the boyfriends. Skin as branding, Manhattan as a campaign. On TV Flash she is the…
- Kristin Davis as Charlotte York
Kristin Davis’s Charlotte York is Sex and the City’s corporate sheath — architecture in a brunch quartet, shoes as character work, Manhattan sidewalk as campaign. Four women and a voiceover; her column is the manners. On TV Flash she is…
- Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes
Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda Hobbes was Sex and the City’s sharpest counterweight — lawyer skepticism, Brooklyn realism, friendship as lifestyle franchise. A practical coat doing more character work than half the boyfriends. TV Flash still…
- Chris Noth as Mr. Big
Chris Noth’s Det. Mike Logan helped launch Law & Order’s dun-dun empire before Mr. Big made him Sex and the City’s emotional cliffhanger machine. Sparse Manhattan cool and endless will-they discourse built a dual-brand career. TV Flash…