Charlotte’s Hilarious Pot Brownie Mixup Has Huge Ramifications for Her Future on ‘And Just Like That’

Even though Max‘s And Just Like That… leveled up the storylines of each of its characters in Season 2, the consensus amongst fans and critics alike is that Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is the character who has been providing the most joy, laughs, and shockers this year. Whether she’s coaching her beloved Harry (Evan Handler) to do kegels so he can come on her again or braving a bomb cyclone to buy teen daughter Lily (Cathy Ang) condoms, Charlotte simply stays winning. Even her most ludicrously comic moments are full of heart.

Case in point: in this week’s installment of And Just Like That... Charlotte mistakenly eats one of Lily’s pal’s “special brownies.” She then interprets her reaction to the drugs as having a stroke, sending her and Harry on an emotional journey to the hospital that is soon punctured by the reality of her diagnosis. Nevertheless, Charlotte uses the experience to forge forward in a positive direction. By being forced to look at her life, Charlotte finally gains the wherewithal to announce she wants to take gallery guru Mark Kasabian (Victor Garber) up on his earlier offer. Charlotte is going back to work! You know, once she works off her brownie high…

Early on in And Just Like That… Season 2 Episode 7 “February 14,” we learn that Lily’s romance with Blake — aka he who was too timid to go out into a storm and buy condoms himself like a man because he was afraid his mom would find out — has come to an end. To wit, Lily and her gal pals want to take over the Goldenblatt apartment on Valentine’s Day to have a girl’s night. Charlotte and Harry soon find themselves booted out of their own house. Worse, because Charlotte has been running around all day caring for her family, she hasn’t had time to eat. She snags a brownie from a stash that Lily’s friend brought over and eats it without questioning why the uber-privileged girls were so intent on bringing their own baking vs. lapping up the specially ordered cake Charlotte ordered.

When Charlotte and Harry get to their restaurant, things swiftly go south for Char. She tells Harry that she feels really weird, her face is tingling, and she can feel her blood. When she asks Harry if she’s slurring her words, he panics. “Like a stroke?!” “Oh my god!! Am I having a stroke?” Charlotte echoes.

According to Max’s official companion podcast for And Just Like That…, this Charlotte storyline was inspired by a true story episode writer Samantha Irby heard.

“Yeah, my friend had special banana bread in her freezer that was unlabeled and her mom ate it and had never been high before���(chuckles) and certainly wasn’t ready for the level of toxicity that we like to consume,” Irby said. “She called an ambulance because she wasn’t feeling right and then she was in the hospital for a couple of days before they figured out that she was just high.”

When Charlotte is packed into the ambulance, she and Harry make melodramatic declarations to one another. “This is the love of my life!” a teary-eyed Harry cries before telling Charlotte, “Don’t you leave me!” As the doors close, “I love yous” are exchanged, and then Charlotte tells Harry that if she dies, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) should pick out what she wears to be buried.

For And Just Like That… showrunner Michael Patrick King, this scene was the heart of the comic storyline. “The extreme comedy of Charlotte thinking she’s having a stroke and Harry thinking he’s losing the love of his life,” King said on the podcast. “We wanted to show an undying, like, epic Wuthering Heights, like, ‘Please don’t leave me,’ like Ghost [moment].”

Charlotte and Harry’s romance doesn’t end in tragedy, but it does precipitate a revelation. Charlotte realizes that she wants to go back to work, thus reversing a controversial decision she made earlier in the season when she prioritized her teens over her ambitions.

“I know for a fact people have said to me, ‘I was so disappointed Charlotte didn’t take that job,'” King said, noting this moment was a way for Charlotte to “reclaim that job offer.”

And Just Like That… executive producer and writer Julie Rottenberg explained that with Charlotte, they “were excited about showing what happens to many women who were, you know, probably alphas, first in their class, very successful…driven, ambitious women who have kids, then maybe step away from their job, and then all that energy is channeled into motherhood and, in this case, your child’s passions.”

The exciting news moving forward for And Just Like That…‘s writers is seeing what will happen when Charlotte puts that alpha energy back into the workforce. And we already know from the trailers for And Just Like That… Season 2 that this shift is going to bring out a side of Charlotte we haven’t seen in a long, long time. Not high Charlotte, but drunk Charlotte.

When will Charlotte’s shots with the co-workers happen? We’ll have to tune into the rest of And Just Like That… Season 2 to find out.