Gotta Have Faith?

Sex and the City Season 1, Episode 12: Oh Come All Ye Faithful

In the last episode of season one, Carrie and Mr. Big come to an end. It all starts when Carrie, while doing research for her column, by chance spots Mr. Big walking out of church with his mother arm in arm. The darling scene gave Carrie the I-want-to-meet-his-mother itch. But to her chagrin, Mr. Big rejects the idea and sugarcoats it with "we'll get there, you just have to have a little bit of faith." Well Mr. Big, if your rejection wasn't a slap in the face, your little consolation spiel surely was a punch to the groin.

Faith is an ambiguous word. What are you suppose to do with faith? How does it differ from hope or belief? Why didn't Mr. Big instead say, "have a little bit of hope?" Because hope is a desire and expectation that Carrie already possesses whereas faith is based in some sort of truth which Carrie struggles to find in their relationship. And what truth is Carrie seeking? It is if she is the One.

The truth is either self-evident, not self-evident but deducible, or neither. Obviously to Carrie, the truth is not self-evident. She is unsure about Mr. Big's love towards her and intuitively she can feel him holding back and avoiding the issue. The truth cannot be deduced either. To Carrie, all signs point to nowhere. How can Mr. Big tell her one minute that his mother doesn't need to meet another girlfriend, and the next minute ask her to go on vacation to the Caribbean with him? Carrie is anxious and confused so she asks Mr. Big to give her a sign, any sign. He offers none. So now when the truth is neither self-evident nor deducible, is there still a truth? Maybe. Carrie realizes that she may not be the One for Mr. Big but she is the One for someone else out there. She decides not to get into Mr. Big's black sedan, and with her luggage sitting beside her on the sidewalk as she watches him drive away, she says, "I have faith in myself." There are some truths that you have to believe otherwise other existing and accepted truths begin to fall a part.

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