Sex and the City
Time and Punishment
TV Flash files “Time and Punishment” as hour 55 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Sex and the City (1998–2004) on HBO, season 4, episode 7, aired 2001-07-08, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E07: listed hour 55 of 94 in the Sex and the City guide, hour 7 of 18 in season 4. It aired 2001-07-08 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Baby, Talk is Cheap” (S04E06). Next is “My Motherboard, My Self” (S04E08).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Carrie and Aidan are interrupted in bed by the voice of Big on Carrie's answering machine. Though Aidan says nothing, Carrie fears that he'll never be able to forgive her for her affair with Big. She wonders if you can ever really forgive if you can't forget. Carrie works hard to show Aidan that she's a great girlfriend, but he seems distant and angry. Charlotte stuns the girls by announcing that she's planning on quitting her gallery job and devoting herself to having a baby and redecorating. Charlotte is angry that the girls, especially Miranda, are judgmental of her decision. She calls Miranda and while on the phone Miranda's neck goes out. Aidan offers to go check on Miranda and finds her naked on the floor unable to move. A mortified Miranda lets him scoop her up in bathmats. Charlotte hires a young ambitious 20-something who reminds her of herself. On the new gallery girl's first day, Charlotte has a moment of doubt, but sticks by her decision and walks out into her new non-working life. Miranda recuperates with her neck brace and finds that not working isn't such a bad thing. Samantha starts an affair with a guy who steals her cab. They have great sex but Samantha is miffed when her new boytoy tells her she needs a bikini wax. She evens the score next time by shaving his own hairy private parts. Meanwhile, Carrie finds Aidan at his bar flirting with the waitress and practically ignoring Carrie. Carrie realizes she's being punished for her big mistake. She offers to walk Aidan's dog while he works and again finds him hanging out with the sexy waitress. She angrily goes home. Aidan shows up and says he's pissed and wants Carrie to remove Big from her life. She says she can't do that and pleads that Aidan has to forgive her. He surrenders his anger and takes her in his arms.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Time and Punishment sit in the Sex and the City guide?
S04E07 is listed hour 55 of 94 — hour 7 of 18 in season 4, season 4 episode 7.
When did Sex and the City S04E07 air?
Time and Punishment aired 2001-07-08 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…