Sex and the City
Ring a Ding Ding
TV Flash files “Ring a Ding Ding” as hour 64 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Sex and the City (1998–2004) on HBO, season 4, episode 16, aired 2002-01-27, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E16: listed hour 64 of 94 in the Sex and the City guide, hour 16 of 18 in season 4. It aired 2002-01-27 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Change of a Dress” (S04E15). Next is “A 'Vogue' Idea” (S04E17).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Unable to say goodbye, Carrie turns away as Aidan moves out of her apartment and her life. She finds what she assumes is a "goodbye letter"; in fact, it's a legal document giving her 30 days to either buy back her apartment or vacate it. At the bank, she's told that she's not a "desirable candidate" for a loan. After another failed relationship, she wonders: What's it all worth? On a shoe-shopping excursion with Miranda, Carrie realizes she's spent $40,000 on shoes. In dire straits, she pays Big an official visit and asks for some financial advice. He gives her a check for the down payment. Miranda and Samantha also offer to loan her some money, but Carrie says she can't accept their offer. She rips up the check from Big. Charlotte announces that she got a job as a volunteer docent at the Museum of Modern Art. Later, Carrie storms over to Charlotte's apartment and asks her why she didn't offer her the money. Charlotte says it's not her job to fix Carrie's finances. Carrie is outraged at Charlotte's lack of support, especially since Charlotte doesn't even have to work. She also remarks that Charlotte isn't exactly the picture of independence as she's still wearing her engagement ring. Meanwhile, Samantha is being showered with expensive gifts from Richard, but she's under-whelmed by the cards which are signed "Best, Richard." She finds out that it's Richard's gay assistant Roger who's been buying the presents - and writing the cards. She gets Roger to sign the next gift card, "Love, Richard." When she reads the card aloud to Richard, he looks stunned and then declares, "I love you, Samantha." To which Sam replies, "And I love this," pointing to her gift. Steve and Miranda are working out a visitation schedule for the baby. Miranda tells Steve that she's incredibly horny and feels like no one would want to have sex with her pregnant self. Steve says he would and they get to work. Carrie and Charlotte apologize to each other. Charlotte admits that she is having trouble giving up being "Mrs. Trey McDougal." So, to free herself of her past and give Carrie a future (and home), she offers Carrie her ring as a loan. Carrie accepts.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Ring a Ding Ding sit in the Sex and the City guide?
S04E16 is listed hour 64 of 94 — hour 16 of 18 in season 4, season 4 episode 16.
When did Sex and the City S04E16 air?
Ring a Ding Ding aired 2002-01-27 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…