British black woman tells Carrie she wants to "shoot" her bag, and Carrie still thinks she might be armed. But no, she works for Interview magazine and she meant it like shoot a picture. Her name is Larissa and she is totally not a mugger, she is like, the coolest. This show is, regrettably, not at all like Damages, but I keep wanting it to be. [Note: On the bright side, it's a carbon copy of Jane By Design! -- Rachel.]

Larissa is knowledgeable and fashion-forward and confident and so city. Oh, she's also a shoplifter, and gets Carrie to help her steal an outfit, so she's not totally British. Larissa invites Carrie to a party that night, and zoiks, it's the same night as the dance.

Everything's coming up Carrie already, as she learns through a rule-breaking personal phone call at work that Sebastian called The Mouse for her number. Ahh, to be a child or to be an adult? Sandra Dee or Sandy-at-the-end-of-Grease?

The stodgy legal boss lady, who is obviously a square and nothing more, delivers a dress. It's from Larissa, so it's probably stolen. Carrie tells the one-dimensional Old Maid that it's from her dad to wear to the school dance, getting even more entangled in this web of lies. The Old Maid reminds us that it's the '80s, by referencing early Madonna as "that singer who takes the Lord's name in vain," and tells Carrie she would never wear it. They literally just met.

Carrie hails a cab, wondering inside her egoic self where it would take her. To the dance to possibly French-kiss Sebastian? Or to a party filled with cocaine and sexual deviants? I wonder if there's any possible way this could turn into a Mrs. Doubtfire scenario, but there aren't enough outfits or personas yet.

Now we get to the stuff the previews haven't shown us. Carrie chooses the party, and immediately meets a group of ethnically diverse people who are probably "crashing on a friend's couch just for now, until I sell one of my pieces."

Meanwhile, at the dance, "Footloose" is playing and Donna LeDonna is gunning for Sebastian. Carrie's new friends are just a little too citified for her, and Carrie can't get a hold of her family at home. Because of Dorrit. At home in Loserville, The Mouse finds out that Seth hit it and quit it. Then, Carrie meets some gay people, and they hint strongly at what we already know: her closeted gay friend is gay. It's almost midnight, and this has as much significance to these gay men of the city as it does to 16-year-old Carrie.