Sex and the City
The Big Journey
TV Flash files “The Big Journey” as hour 73 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Sex and the City (1998–2004) on HBO, season 5, episode 7, aired 2002-09-01, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E07: listed hour 73 of 94 in the Sex and the City guide, hour 7 of 8 in season 5. It aired 2002-09-01 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Critical Condition” (S05E06). Next is “I Love a Charade” (S05E08).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Carrie tells the girls that she's headed to San Francisco for her book tour and that she is desperate to get laid. And well, yes, she just might call upon Big while she's there. She recruits Samantha to join her on the journey West - by train. Feeling jaded by NY and NY men, Samantha is up for the adventure. Carrie wonders: "Are we the new bachelors?" Charlotte gets a surprise visit from her bald, sweaty lawyer, Harry, with divorce papers in hand. Harry invites the new divorcee to view a swanky bachelor's apartment that is about to go on the market. At the apartment (complete with bedroom strobe lights and surround sound), Harry blurts out that he finds her incredibly sexy. The old Charlotte is taken aback but the new Charlotte jumps him. She confides in her gay pal Anthony that she had incredible sex but that she has no interest in being Harry's girlfriend. Anthony congratulates her and gives her the lowdown on the rules of 'hot sex' and nothing more. Back on the railways, Carrie and Samantha are nowhere near hot sex. Even crashing a bachelor party in the bar car turns up nothing but happily married men. Samantha nurses her wounds with a bottle of champagne while Carrie obsesses over the inopportune arrival of a giant pimple. Arriving at her book reading, Carrie finds herself in front of an audience more excited about the next star reader, Mr. Winkle the dog. During the Q and A session, Big emerges from the crowd and asks her if the "Big" she writes about has a name. Carrie coyly tries to lure Big to bed but he's more interested in understanding what she wrote about him. He tells her he doesn't want her to get hurt again. Despite Carrie's insistence that she's fine, Big goes to bed with her book, not her, on top of him. Meanwhile, Charlotte is back in bed with her lawyer and practices the art of 'just sex' - sending him on his way with no romantic talk when they're done. Carrie has given up on any sex, but by morning, Big is back to himself, joking that she'll need more material for the sequel.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Big Journey sit in the Sex and the City guide?
S05E07 is listed hour 73 of 94 — hour 7 of 8 in season 5, season 5 episode 7.
When did Sex and the City S05E07 air?
The Big Journey aired 2002-09-01 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…