[Warning: Spoilers from Monday's episode "Lie With Me."]
Carrie's lesson: Lying often gets you further than telling the truth.
During the second episode of The CW's The Carrie Diaries, "Lie With Me," lies vs. truths played as the running theme throughout the hour. For Carrie (AnnaSophia Robb), the lesson didn't come quickly. With some nudging and eye-opening from Larissa (Freema Agyeman), who -- depending on where you stand -- is either a positive or negative influence on Carrie, young Bradshaw took her mentor's advice ("Sometimes you have to fake it to make it. After a while, what's fake becomes truth.") and ran with it.
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Sebastian and Carrie's new "friends with benefits" relationship serves as one of the focal points, and it has its fair share of bumps. After Sebastian finds himself on a "date" with Carrie's nemesis Donna Ladonna (Chloe Bridges) at a stuffy country club (Carrie's grounded), Mouse (Ellen Wong) misinterprets that as them getting cozy. (They really just get high.) Unexpectedly, Sebastian tells Carrie the truth about what happened after she probes him when his "bad boy" reputation precedes him.
Though the show clearly labels Sebastian and Carrie as the ultimate couple, there is something uniquely fascinating about Donna. As many "villains" do, she starts off as an archetype but as the scene in the country club suggests, she has traits that Carrie lacks. But back to Carrie and Sebastian: After Mouse puts it in Carrie's ear that maybe Donna-Sebastian could be a thing, Carrie does a complete 180, inviting Sebastian to the swim club the same time she's supposed to hang out with lil' sis Dorritt (Stefania Owen). When Dorritt finds out, she's understandably upset. So much so that Carrie's dad Tom (Matt Letscher) gets involved, catching Carrie and Sebastian mid-makeout in the pool. Awwwwwkward.
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It's then that Tom and Sebastian officially meet. On the surface, it may have been a decent "how do you do" but as Carrie's father reveals soon after, there's more to Kydd than meets the eye, warning her to keep away from him and his family. Why? The always logical parent response: "Because I said so." (One reckons more will come to light about the Kydds.) So while Carrie promises "no more screw-ups" to her father, she goes behind his back and tells a major fib in the end after Sebastian pays a visit at the end -- telling him it was a door-to-door salesman instead. At that moment, Carrie's lie became truth.
Meanwhile, Maggie and Walt (Brendan Dooling) have issues, resulting in Walt breaking it off after "not caring" where she was during his four-hour wait. The development is key for the pair, who likely used their "relationship" as a shield for far too long.
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And Carrie's double life nearly comes to a screeching halt when her supervisor catches her on a personal call and threatens to end her Manhattan internship after Carrie arrives hours late after supposedly running errands. (She was really in Dumbo at Larissa's high-fashion photo shoot for her "Carrie" bag.) Thankfully, it was Carrie's "fake confidence" that saved her -- and that Dior scarf.
At the moment, all is well and good for Carrie, but on The Carrie Diaries, that's bound not to last long.
Here's your '80s mixtape for the week: "And She Was" by Talking Heads, "We Got the Beat" by The Go-Gos, "Blister in the Sun" by Violent Femmes and "Our House" by Madness.
What are your thoughts on this week's The Carrie Diaries?
The Carrie Diaries airs 8 p.m. Mondays on The CW.
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