This finale elevator kiss was everything. We have our spontaneous Carrie back!
Sorry, we’re excited. Let’s back up.
After a third date and a spark-less kiss between Carrie and cute maths teacher Peter, Carrie seems to give up on the kissing-new-men-for-her-book idea. That is, until she is overcome with a spontaneous moment of lust and kisses the excessively hunky producer of her new podcast, Franklyn, in the elevator.
TBH, we kinda saw this coming. Franklyn was also the producer on Che’s podcast X, Y & Me, that Carrie co-hosted, and we’d seen a little bit of somethin’ somethin’ between the two.
We were first introduced to Franklyn (played by Ivan Hernandez — we’ll get back to him later) in episode one of And Just Like That, laughing at Che, Jackie and Carrie’s witty banter about sex, in his producer’s room.
We see him again, in episode four, when Chloe, the social media manager of X, Y & Me (played by Ali Stroker), is berating Carrie for not pushing the podcast on her Instagram. Franklyn jumps in to defend Carrie, as she’s just lost Mr. Big. We see that he cares for her in this moment, which set off some speculation of romance later on in the series.
But then, we got introduced to math teacher Peter (played by Jon Tenney) in episode seven, and that mortifying first date, which distracted us for a while. Peter was endearing, also a widow and he seemed to have a little spark with Carrie. Perhaps this was to be a thing?
Not to be so, says the finale of And Just Like That. After a third date and no spark (we love that Carrie is still fussy about the spark), we get the feeling we won’t be seeing much more of Peter.
Enter, Franklyn.
After Che announces that they’re going to LA to make their TV show and that it’s the end of X, Y & Me, Franklyn tells Carrie that he’d like to produce her on her own podcast. This is definitely a moment for them. We finally see Carrie light up like she used to, when she was talking to a sexy man. But honestly, Franklyn might be the sexiest of all.
We all have our faves, I know, but I can’t say that I’ve ever been blown away by any of Carrie’s love interests. Sure, it was the ’90s and men looked a little different, plus we love that our girl Carrie isn’t all about looks, but dayum, Franklyn is a whole hunk of man and we think it’s about time for Carrie to date an absolute honey.
The final scene of And Just Like That, shows Franklyn producing Carrie’s new podcast, Sex and the City (we’re screaming!!!!), where she gives out sex and relationship advice to callers. Firstly, iconic concept. This podcast feels super fitting for Carrie; a natural progression from her column.
On the way to the elevator, Franklyn assures Carrie that she did great on her first episode and she says that it was nice to have him there; that whenever she was unsure, she’d just look to him. He holds the elevator door open for her, then follows her in, and they stand, looking at each other for a moment before embracing into a passionate kiss. The doors close and we hear “And Just Like That…” and IDK about you, but I personally felt like screaming OUR CARRIE IS BACK!
As for the actor who plays Franklyn, Ivan Hernandez, has starred in guest roles on the likes of Law & Order SVU, Gossip Girl, Scandal, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, NCIS and Claws, but is best known for his role as Javier Mendoza in the TV series Devious Maids.
He’s also a singer and has played some major roles on Broadway, including Billy Flynn in Chicago, Sal in The Capeman, Dr. Zhivago in Zhivago and The Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods, just to name a few.
Although he seems to have minimal social media presence (I spent a good 15 minutes searching for him on Instagram), that will not stop us swooning over him as Franklyn, the super hot guy who potentially brings us our Carrie back in And Just Like That. We really want a season two of And Just Like That, just so we can see it all pan out. Please. Thank you.