Do You Think It Was Really Mr. Big in That Lamp?

When you’re dead, you take a lamp-a, you don’t move to lamp-a. Or do you? This is one of the central questions of the And Just Like That … season one finale, which aired Thursday on HBO Max.

Mr. Big is dead. We know this because instead of beginning And Just Like That … with a title card that said “A YEAR AGO, MR. BIG DIED. CARRIE GRIEVED. BUT NOW IT’S 2023 AND THINGS HAVE GOTTEN A LITTLE MORE ENJOYABLE TO WATCH. PLUS MR. BIG IS A LAMP,” we actually had to watch Mr. Big die, and then we had to watch the whole miserable year that followed. An interesting choice. But now we’ve at least reached the part where Mr. Big is a lamp.

Is he, though? What do you think?

According to Carrie he is a lamp, specifically the small reading lamp that lives on the shelf above her bed. Charlotte agrees. Miranda does not think he’s a lamp, nor does she believe in Heaven. Normally we might take Miranda’s side, but she’s been acting a bit erratic lately, dyeing her hair red and moving to L.A. to watch the taping of a soon-to-fail pilot, and I regret to say this behavior makes her a less credible source than usual. It seems we should side with the ladies who believe Mr. Big is a lamp.

Other evidence that he’s a lamp: The lamp flickered after Carrie kissed the teacher. Then she got it fixed, and it turned on by itself again. Carrie had to figure out where to bury Mr. Big, and his brother wanted to buy him in their family mausoleum, but Carrie didn’t know if that’s what he would want. Then the lamp told her Mr. Big wanted his ashes sprinkled over a bridge in Paris.

What we have to think about is: How would the lamp have known that if it weren’t Mr. Big?

A Google search of “can a ghost be a lamp” brings up some interesting data. Brotherly Love Real Estate’s list of 13 “conclusive symptoms” that can determine whether your house is haunted lists the No. 1 symptom as “Flickering Lights.” Oh my god. Here’s what it says:

“If you have flickering lights throughout your house, this could be a sign that your house is haunted. Granted, the electrical wires or fixtures in your home could simply be outdated, causing them to flicker. It could also be Casper the Friendly Ghost tampering with the electricity. It is tough to answer the question is my house haunted if this is your only sign of a potential ghost.”

Okay, if it’s tough to answer the question “is my house haunted” if this is your only sign of a potential ghost, then why did you put it as No. 1 on your list of conclusive symptoms? Unhelpful and misleading.

What else do we have. In this post about seven signs your building might be haunted, the third sign is “lights flickering on and off.” Well then. “Because some believe spirits can manipulate electricity and energy, a flickering light could be a sign that a ghost is trying to communicate with you,” says the post. “However, it may be more likely that you have some defective bulbs that need replacing.”

Did Carrie check the bulb? I know her lamp guy fixed the faulty wire, but I’m not sure I heard her mention checking the bulb. I could have just missed it, though. But also — while we’re talking through things — I don’t remember Mr. Big ever having a great affinity for lamps, so it’s unclear to me why he would choose to live out his afterlife as a lamp. (Maybe he could have come back as a Breitling that communicated messages through time.) But it could be the case that the majority of his lamp fandom was off-screen.

I guess the jury’s still out. He might be a lamp, though. I’m leaning towards thinking that he is.