Jack Berger ‘Sex and the City’ Red Flags Could Have Been Carrie’s Red Flags Too
It takes two to tango. Jack Berger (Ron Livingston) from Sex and the City may have had a slew of “red flags” but that doesn’t mean Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) is blameless. Several of Berger’s “red flag” moments were spun from comments or actions from Carrie, which begs the question: was Berger toxic or were Carrie and Berger toxic together?
A trip down memory lane of cause and effect …
A ‘scrunchie’ was the beginning of the end for Jack Berger and Carrie on ‘Sex and the City’ – but how did she expect him to react?
Berger’s red flag: Not being able to let go of the scrunchie comment
Carrie’s red flag: Leading with criticism about Berger’s book
In an episode of Sex and the City, Carrie devours Jack Berger’s latest novel. But instead of describing the reasons she loves the book, she whacks him upside the head because he allowed the main character to wear a scrunchie in her hair.
She laughs and moves on but it clearly gets under his skin and he ruminates on the criticism for the rest of the night (their relationship). Even after he tries to prove her wrong at a restaurant when he sees a woman wearing a scrunchie in her hair, Carrie laughs when they realize the woman is a tourist. She continues to make light of her criticism, a critique he clearly takes seriously, which only makes the situation much worse.
Berger has no filter with Carrie’s friends, but she defends shallow behavior
Berger’s red flag: His delivery with Carrie’s friends
Carrie’s red flag: Defending her friends’ cringe behavior
Carrie earns a point because she will defend her friends till the end. But she takes issue with some of Berger’s blunt, but honest comments he makes to her friends.
She gets worked up when Berger tells Miranda that a guy hasn’t called her back because he’s not that into her. Meanwhile, Miranda loves his frank delivery.
Later, when Charlotte flees a blind date and ends up (almost) dining with Berger and Carrie, he calls Charlotte out for refusing to date a man who brought her carnations (otherwise known to Charlotte as “filler” flowers). Carrie gets mad at Berger for pointing out that Charlotte’s comment was frivolous, which ultimately backs him into a corner — and Charlotte out the door.
Berger sucks at communication and so does Carrie
Berger’s red flag: He isn’t totally upfront and honest with Carrie
Carrie’s red flag: She has no consideration for others around her
Some Sex and the City fans dragged Jack Berger for omitting that he was in a relationship when he first met Carrie. In his defense, they weren’t set up on a date. Their mutual publisher suggested they talk about the journey of writing their first book. At the same time, Berger is clearly struggling to come clean, clearly unsure how he feels about Carrie and his (soon-to-be) ex-girlfriend. While he could have been assertive and communicative, it is clear he doesn’t know how he feels. So rather than muddle through talking about his feelings, he says nothing.
Berger also doesn’t come out and tell Carrie that her success upsets him because her rise occurs along with his fall. Carrie lands a lucrative book deal as Berger is dropped by the publisher. Instead of telling her that he’s upset, he buys a motorcycle, makes sarcastic remarks, and … dumps her via a Post-It. Bad, bad communicator.
At the same time, Carrie is oblivious to the signs and clues Berger drops all over Manhattan and the Hamptons. She should have definitely celebrated her success and celebrated loudly. But she has zero awareness of what is happening with Berger – or simply didn’t care.
She questions him if he’s going to be writing while she’s on jury duty (he reacts by getting defensive). Plus, Carrie gets angry at Berger when he criticizes her hat after she launched the scrunchie criticism. So while she earned and deserved her success, maybe she should have processed the fact that her boyfriend was as low in his career as she was high.
