'The Carrie Diaries' Recap: Walt Steps One Foot Out Of The Closet In 'The Great Unknown'

A sullen Carrie Bradshaw mopes around Castlebury, Conn., dreaming of her life that was Interview magazine, until someone comes along to change her father's mind. Meanwhile, Walt takes one major step out of the closet.
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Note: Do not read on if you have not yet seen Season 1, Episode 9 of The CW's "The Carrie Diaries," titled "The Great Unknown."

We returned to a sullen Carrie Bradshaw moping around Castlebury, Conn., in tonight's episode of "The Carrie Diaries." After Carrie's dad caught her partying at Limelight and lying about her internship, he banned her from Manhattan and Interview magazine.

The silver lining? Carrie had more time to bask in the newfound attention she received from Sebastian. The former bad boy broke up with queen bee Donna in last week's episode, making him free to pursue his feelings for Carrie. Then there was a scene that lasted for about 10 hours about a Rubik's cube (sigh).

Carrie's feelings for Sebastian were so overwhelming that she sobbed to Mouse that she was "scared" and "really likes him." I think the scene of Carrie crying on her bed was meant to be funny and endearing -- I'm thinking the way Sally Albright sobbed to Harry Burns that she was going to be 40 ... "someday!" But the scene was just sort of awkward.

However, she did articulate some core Carrie Bradshaw insecurities. She worried that Sebastian was only attracted to parts of her and her tendency to overanalyze their every interaction was making her miserable. These thoughts not only plagued Carrie in her teenage years, but "Sex and the City" fans are well aware of how Carrie struggled with feeling confident in her relationship with Big as an adult too.

After Walt found out that Maggie cheated on him with the local police officer (still can't get over the strangeness of that storyline), he started dating Donna. Donna and Walt's dynamic was very Cher Horowitz and Christian Stovitz -- where she tried to seduce the man who would eventually become her gay best friend.

After a few failed attempts to get Walt into bed, she confronted him about his lack of desire to sleep with her. Surprisingly, Walt stepped one foot out of the closet. "I don't know what I am," he told Donna after she revealed that her older brother is gay. Donna promised to keep his secret, and for some reason, I trusted her, too.

Meanwhile, Carrie's dad Tom took up racquetball with his misogynist friend Harlan. As Tom stretched following a game, a Samantha Jones-like aerobics instructor led him to a room upstairs so she could go down on him. I find it somewhat peculiar that show creators decided that Tom's first semi-sex scene after losing his wife would be with an aerobics teacher going down on him in a massage room. I could handle seeing him flirt with women on dates, but this seemed like quite the leap.

Carrie was left to look after Dorrit while Tom and Harlan entered an all-day tournament. Sebastian stopped by to hang out, but while he and Carrie were making out in the living room, Dorrit ran away -- again. As an obsessed Sex Pistols fan who was writing a report on Sid Vicious for school, Sebastian figured out that Dorrit must have gone to the hotel to see where Sid allegedly murdered his girlfriend and manager, Nancy Spungen. Sebastian and Carrie went after her and eventually brought her home.

Tom and Harlan's tournament was interrupted when Larissa showed up. Harlan and Larissa had been seeing each other since Tom busted Carrie at Limelight. Larissa and Tom sat down at the gym to discuss the kerfuffle that was last week's episode.

The encounter seemed extremely far-fetched, but if I let myself believe that Tom and Larissa were conversing on a couch in a Connecticut gym that had couches, side tables and a beautiful Persian carpet next the the racquetball courts, I could appreciate Larissa bluntly telling Carrie's father that he's totally clueless if he thinks his daughter will become a lawyer.

"It's not a matter of right and wrong, it's a matter of who she wants to be," Larissa said. "If you don't let Carrie explore the world and figure out what she wants to be she'll never become the person she's supposed to be -- someone who's happy and loves who she is."

Cheesy? Definitely. Cute? Somewhat. Tom was so moved by Larissa's speech that he reconsidered and put Carrie back in the city.

"The Carrie Diaries" airs Monday nights at 8:00 p.m. on the CW.

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