Sexing it up in Season 5

Okay, so by the time this season aired, America was still getting over the events of September 11. So there is this big theme episode where Carrie decides she is having a love affair with the city. Its very sweet and the girls go looking for sailors at a fleet week party. Samantha puts Richard's face on a flier with the words, "Lying Cheat" on them and posts them all over his neighborhood. He continues to call her and eventually they get back together. Brady gets baptized and Carrie is getting her columns published in a book.
So Carrie is sad that the girls don't hang out anymore, so they agree to celebrate Charlotte's thirtysomething birthday in Atlantic City. Samantha breaks up with Richard before he can get a chance to cheat on her again, Miranda gets her feelings hurt because she is still carrying around baby weight, and Charlotte gets all tarted up just to show she is not an Old Maid.
Carrie and Samantha get into it because Carrie catches Sam servicing the UPS guy and judges her for it. Miranda meets a guy at Weight Watchers who cannot take criticism, and Stanford finally gets the guy. In fact, Stanford's man is a beautiful dancer and at one of his shows, Carrie runs into the girl who dated Aiden after the big break-up. Apparently he was pretty messed up then, and Carrie gets all paranoid that the girl is spreading rumors about her. Its not high school anymore ladies. So Carrie's book gets published, and they are preparing the launch, and she meets another writer with her publishing house named Jack Berger. He is adorable, and they have this great banter, but he has a girlfriend. Suck. So Carrie goes stag to her own launch party, or at least she thought Sam was her date, but Samantha went in for an impromptu chemical peel which left her looking like something from a really scary movie. Charlotte is in the process of going through her divorce, and is very excited about the dreamy lawyer she is assigned. But when things turn ugly in the proceedings, she doesn't want to look like a witch, so she switches to the far less attractive Harry Goldenblatt.
Miranda gets all upset that none of her friends are very sympathetic that being a mom is such hard work, especially Samantha who keeps bragging about her very elite salon appointment. When Carrie chastises Samantha for not being there for her friend, Sam agrees to babysit while Miranda takes her salon appointment. Sweet.
Charlotte starts spending time with her lawyer. He is bald, he is uncouth, he is a far away from JFK Jr. as you can get, but a moment of weakness gets them in bed together, and Charlotte is flummoxed because all of a sudden she really starts to like this guy.
Samantha and Carrie take a trip to California by train to promo her book, and Carrie is all excited because her dry spell is going to end as soon as she calls Big. After a desperately long trip where Samantha is seriously considering killing Carrie for talking her into the whole thing, Carrie decides booty calling Big is a bad idea. But when he shows up to her book signing, she quickly changes her mind and calls him to her hotel. She kicks a still wet from the bath and very pissed Samantha out of her room and prepares for her Big seduction. But Big is not into it. He apparently read the book and never knew how much he hurt her. He keeps her awake all night long reading passages of her book and asking things like, "Was I really that cold?" She tried to get him to stop talking about the book, but it doesn't work. But in typical Big fashion he is over it all by the morning, and Carrie gets a little something something before her next book signing.
So Nathan Lane comes on in a guest spot to play an old friend who is the gayest man they have ever known. Well, he announces the he is getting married - to a woman. All the girls are invited to this big Hamptons wedding. Miranda tells them she "Would not go to that charade if you paid me." But her tune changes when she unexpectantly hooks up with Steve and needs a place to escape for the weekend until things cool off. Charlotte brings Harry in a very, "I know he's imperfect, but I love him anyway" statement which falls flat because Harry can only marry a Jewish woman. He promised his dying mother. The only uplifting thing about that statement is Charlotte wouldn't have a mother-in-law to deal with. She loved him even more then.
Carrie runs into Berger, and things are going well because he is suddenly single. However, Carrie doesn't know when to shut up because she over-shares about her big break-up with Aiden and Berger runs for the hills. He comes back though, and they have a nice dance at the wedding. Oh, and Samantha throws a cantaloupe at two trollops at Richard Wright's house breaking a window and making her look like a crazy woman.
Short season because SJP had to go and have a baby. They made the next one extra long to make up for it.