As we speed along this endless road to the destination called "Who-We-Hope-to-Be," I can't help but whine, are we there yet?

Episode 4.11/59, "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda"

So since they're so good, I guess I'll continue with the end of the fourth season. This is the episode where the women find out that Miranda is pregnant with Steve's baby. It's interesting that this show has so many episodes about pregnancy and babies--"The Baby Shower," "A Woman's Right to Shoes," "Catch-38"--but I guess that's an important plot point when you have a bunch of sexually active women.

I think that the best part of this episode is the emphasis on their friendships. The ups-and-downs of their friendships are really the focus, and the confrontation that takes place between Charlotte and Miranda on the street always makes me cry a little. The question is excellent too, and could apply to so much more than just this issue. We give up so much to become the person we think we want to be, but do we ever really become that person? Do we ever really get the life that we want? Or is life just one big journey, where we constantly sacrifice and muddle through in the hopes of eventually getting somewhere that looks (and feels) pretty good? I think that it's both: eventually we get there, but it usually doesn't look like we thought it would. And then there are always those inexplicable paths that we take that lead our life in an entirely new direction, like Miranda does in this episode, totally altering our sense of who we are and what we think we can be. But then again, that's life too, and part of what makes it worthwhile as well.