In the closing scenes of And Just Like That Season 3 Episode 6, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) emotionally reassured her close friend Charlotte (Kristin Davis) that she was her confidante and trusted ally. This heartfelt moment occurred shortly after Charlotte confided in Carrie about her husband Harry’s (Evan Handler) cancer diagnosis, which she wanted to keep private for the time being. The two friends embraced in a poignant moment, with Carrie promising to safeguard Charlotte’s secret.

In her attempt to support her friend, Carrie inadvertently becomes a problematic confidant. When Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) inquires about Charlotte’s recent troubles, Carrie’s evasive responses hint at a serious issue. Bound by her promise to keep the secret, Carrie fabricates a story—claiming that Charlotte’s dog, Richard Burton, is suffering from “dog cancer.” This lie results in unexpected consequences, as it implies a far more tragic situation than Charlotte’s reality. While Harry is unwell, he is expected to recover. The supposed demise of Richard Burton, however, is a heart-wrenching prospect. (Interestingly, this season frequently dwells on themes of mortality and illness, reflecting the characters’ aging but not to such an extent. It’s intriguing why every episode seems to grapple with such heavy themes.)

While Carrie struggles with secret-keeping, Harry proves adept at it, having concealed his acquaintance with a personal shopper named Bonnie. Bonnie has been assisting Harry in choosing presents for Charlotte for quite some time (which raises the question: why hadn’t Harry enlisted Bonnie’s expertise earlier this season when selecting Japanese denim? Especially given Bergdorf’s expansive jeans collection.) Discovering Harry’s rapport with Bonnie, whom he confided in about his health before telling Charlotte, deeply upsets Charlotte; she has been so burdened by keeping the secret to herself.

Word has already spread about some of this season’s guest stars and now, one of the biggest, Patti Lupone, makes her appearance as Giuseppe’s mother, Gia. Gia is a therapist who was born in Buffalo but has been living in Rome for decades. Gia has an accent best described as “It’sa me! Mario!” (but don’t worry, it disappears halfway through the episode) and Anthony immediately gets off on the wrong foot with his future mother-in-law. By being himself, he’s a little troppo for her taste, and she clearly has a problem with Giuseppe and Anthony’s age difference, despite the fact that she married Giuseppe’s father, a man 30 years her senior.

Seema’s (Sarita Choudhury) finally getting a hair more to do this week than she has in recent episodes, when she visits a new eyelash extension place that’s convenient but cheap. (Shout out to Broadway’s Tomas Matos for turning what could have been a nothing role as the eyelash tech into a character I wish had a spin-off.)

Seema’s poor-quality lashes fall off in the middle of a client meeting and give her an infection, so she takes a God-forsaken yellow cab to Carrie’s to wallow about the state of her life now that she’s only rich-rich and no longer mega-rich. What follows is a sexy flirtation with Adam the Gardener (Logan Marshall-Green) that makes even Carrie all hot and bothered. Adam don’t care about eye pus! (Eventually, though, the infection is bad enough that it requires Seema to wear an eye patch.)

Carrie tells Adam and Seema she’s planning a birthday party for Charlotte and they’re all invited. Carrie has a very specific, classy vision for this party that’s being thrown at her house, and when Miranda starts to butt in with her own contributions – bouquets of confetti-filled pink balloons, a karaoke machine, literally who is this version of Miranda? – Carrie seems annoyed. The karaoke machine does become a problem when LTW’s son Henry turns it into a “one-boy cabaret,” performing “I Dreamed A Dream” for the crowd. Why haven’t we seen more of Henry, honestly? Charlotte’s daughter Lily, who was just dumped by her poly ballet boyfriend Diego, is feeling the song more than anyone.

I’m also not mad to hear Henry’s version of “Hopelessly Devoted” but everyone else at the party is not thrilled.

Miranda’s been acting on the assumption that Richard Burton is dying, which means that both she and her girlfriend Joy (Dolly Wells) are being weird and paying a lot of attention to the dog, who Miranda insisted should be at the party. Throughout the partym Miranda fawns over the not-dying dog and makes uncomfortable comments about grief and mourning to Harry, who can sense that something is amiss.

Miranda finally wrestles the karaoke microphone away from Henry and then she tries to get all her girls together for a rousing rendition of “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” the song that inspired Sarah Jessica Parker’s 1985 film of the same name, if you want to feel old about it. “Where my girls at?!” Miranda cartoonishly asks as all the women in the room try to hide. After that unsuccessful attempt, Miranda then tries to corral everyone so Charlotte can open presents, even though half the crowd didn’t bring a gift. (“I have a rule, I don’t get gifts for anyone who owns in New York,” one of Charlotte’s young gallerina pals says, not a terrible rule to be honest.)

As the party continues, it becomes clear that people (Miranda) are acting weird, so Charlotte confronts Carrie and asks if she told Miranda about Carrie’s diagnosis. Carrie matter-of-factly explains that, of course she didn’t. she simply told Miranda that Richard Burton had an incurable tumor, a situation that, everyone agrees, would be even worse than Harry’s early demise. So Harry decides the only course of action is to clear everything up. He gathers LTW, Miranda, Charlotte and Carrie together in Carrie’s kitchen to tell them, “Richard Burton is not dying! I have prostate cancer.” Harry admits is was unfair to ask Charlotte not to talk about it, and even though everyone’s in shock at the news, she tells him that this admission, which has cleared the air, is the “best birthday gift ever.”

I’ve been rooting for Seema and Adam all season, such a mismatched but sexy pair, but the moment that Adam started to sing “Bette Davis Eyes” I became… physically uncomfortable?

I appreciate the sentiment. The song choice? An inspired ode to Seema and her eye patch! They have chemistry and it’s about time someone on this show hooked up. But this karaoke as foreplay… yikes.

Things with Carrie and Duncan (Jonathan Cake) are obviously getting more comfortable… maybe too comfortable. After the two trade chapters of their respective books, he offers her very positive feedback. “That opening sentence, ‘The woman wondered what she had gotten herself into’ just stopped me in my tracks!” he tells her, and he actually means it! Carrie invited Duncan to the party and spent the night cozying up with him, and when Miranda points out afterward that it looks like Carrie had a lot of fun with him, Carrie becomes, once again this week, a terrible friend to Miranda. “Yes, I laughed, I sipped a drink, what are you saying?” Carrie asks Miranda angrily. Miranda backtracks, expressing that she was only commenting on the fact that Carrie looked happy. “Miranda, I’m in a relationship,” Carrie says defensively. I’m so sorry, is this not the woman who said last week that she was okay to have sex with other people? Why is Carrie constantly moving the goalposts of her life around?

“Of course you are,” Miranda says quickly, realizing Carrie’s projecting some feelings. “It’s just, sometimes it seems like you’re working so hard with Aidan.”

Carrie then insults Miranda’s relationship with Joy, snapping at how they hardly know each other – “What’s it been, a few weeks?” – while telling Miranda she and Aidan have over 20 years of history together. (Sure, but most of that was while he was married to Kathy…) Miranda then admits that she read the first line of Carrie’s book: “The woman wondered what she had gotten herself into” and assumed it was autobiographical. “I wrote that months and months ago. It’s fiction. Set in 1846.”

“So it’s not you? I’m glad,” Miranda says, seeming genuine and apologetic. Carrie appears to forgive Miranda’s interpretation of the line and they hug as they say goodnight, tension diffused by the fact that Brady, who was helping clean up after the party, walks in and interrupts them. They hug good night, but unlike last week’s hug between Carrie and Charlotte, which was tender and supportive, this one feels awkward. Charlotte unloaded her truth on Carrie last week and Carrie was happy to carry some of that burden. But Carrie is a lot less happy for Miranda to speak truth about what she sees, for fear that maybe there are aspects of her relationship with Aidan that have also become a burden.

Honorable Mentions for And Just Like That Season 3 Episode 7:

• What was with the song choices at this karaoke party? I never want to hear “Shallow” again, and Adam’s performance of “Bette Davis Eyes” made my skin crawl.
• BOO: Where was LTW (Nicole Ari Parker) this episode? Her Broadway-bound son had more to do than she did.
• YAY: No Aidan (John Corbett) this episode!
• There’s been tension between Miranda and Carrie all season, it’s hard not to think that we’re building up to a friendship breakup, right?

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.