What’s the Best ‘Sex and the City’ Episode of All Time?

Is it possible to determine the best Sex and the City episode of all time? Ahead of season two of Max’s And Just Like That…, VF’s Still Watching podcast strapped on our favorite pair of Manolo Blahniks and strutted down memory lane, ranking the original show’s greatest half hours—and determining which deserves to be named the best of all.

In part one, Still Watching hosts Chris Murphy and Hillary Busis are joined by VF executive editor Claire Howorth to discuss the first three episodes vying for the top slot: season two’s “They Shoot Single People, Don’t They?,” season three’s “Hot Child in the City,” and season four’s “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda.” The first finds Carrie looking bedraggled on the cover of New York magazine, accompanied by a classic headline: “Single and Fabulous?”

“The central question of the episode is, Are we happy being single women, or do we hate ourselves?” notes Busis—a question that gets asked over and over throughout the course of the series. It may be the clearest distillation of Sex and the City’s mission—but “Hot Child in the City” made the list because, at least in Busis’s opinion, it’s “the funniest episode of the series.” That one follows Carrie as she dates a comic book artist who still lives with his mom, Samantha as she works for an incredibly demanding 13-year-old client, Charlotte struggling with intimacy issues with Trey, and Miranda getting a pair of adult braces.

“Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda” takes a decidedly more serious tone, focusing on Miranda as she considers whether or not to get an abortion—and sending each woman to reckon with their own history with abortion and pregnancy. Murphy names it among the most impactful episodes of the series, in its handling of a sensitive issue rarely discussed on television in that period of time. “You can appreciate that for Samantha and Carrie, abortions were just matter of fact,” says Howorth. “I appreciate the fact that Carrie was not the one to go through the ‘will she or won’t she?’”

Part two adds another pair of episodes to the pile: “The Post-it Always Sticks Twice” and “Splat!” They contain two of Sex and the City’s most iconic moments: Carrie getting dumped via Post-it note, and Lexi Featherston falling out a window. That Post-it, Murphy notes, has transcended the series to become a part of popular culture writ large: “Everyone knows the Post-it breakup.” 

Likewise, everyone knows Kristen Johnston’s Lexi, the messy party girl who proclaims “New York is so over” before falling to her untimely demise. Johnston’s turn is so compelling that it “makes you yearn to go back in time through the rest of the show and sprinkle Lexi into the entire series,” says Busis. And after some deliberation, Lexi Featherston and her fall from grace ultimately prove hard to beat; all three agree that “Splat!” deserves to take the top spot. “‘Splat!’ has it all,” says Murphy. “It’s series-defining. It’s funny, but it’s heartbreaking.”

Listen below to hear Busis, Howorth, and Murphy go deep on Sex and the City ahead of Still Watching: And Just Like That… Disagree with their final ranking? Email stillwatchingpod@gmail.com with your own questions, comments, and favorite Sex and the City episodes ahead of And Just Like That’s premiere on June 22.