On Sex and the City, there's the main character all fans relate to, and for super smart, career-driven, cynical women everywhere, that character is Miranda Hobbes. Steadfastly loyal, brutally honest when the situation warrants it, outspoken and a tad judgemental, Miranda is grounded in reality when her friends' heads are sometimes in the clouds.
With her short hair, power suits, Ivy League degrees and ambition, she comes across as a bit hard during season 1. By the end of the series, fans see the softer side of Miranda. She's not better or worse, Miranda simply responds to what life hands her and adapts accordingly. Here are the 10 biggest ways Miranda changes from season 1 to the finale.
She Becomes A Mother
Except for Charlotte, the maternal instinct is in short supply among the ladies during season 1. When the ladies feel obligated to attend a baby shower, Miranda refers to motherhood as a "cult." Miranda begins to give motherhood more serious thought after she learns she's got a lazy ovary during season 2, and she even considers freezing her eggs. It turns out she doesn't have to after pity sex with one-balled ex Steve leads to conception.
Miranda is the only woman out of the four who we see endure the discomfort of pregnancy and the challenges of being a single mother. The series also explores the complexity of co-parenting: finding condoms in the diaper bad, meeting Steve's girlfriend, dealing with religious differences and establishing boundaries. Miranda is determined to maintain her pre-baby life, but she eventually manages to strike a balance she's okay with.
She Marries The Bartender
Monogamy isn't in the cards for Miranda during season 1. She refuses to settle and has a very cynical outlook when it comes to dating, love, and marriage. It's not surprising when revisiting her history. She's the intellectual beard for a modelizer, gets dumped by a man with a spanking fetish and a younger man who is too emotionally available. Her consistently single status leads a fellow lawyer at her firm to believe she's a lesbian, and he even sets her up on a blind date with a woman.
She meets bartender Steve Brady during season 2, and while Miranda doesn't initially consider him a "core shaker," they fall in and out of love, move in together, become friends, have a baby, fall in love again and get married. It's clear from season 2 that Steve isn't exactly Prince Charming, but he's the perfect person to give Miranda a happily ever after.
She Moves To Brooklyn
Many things change in all of the ladies' lives throughout six seasons, but one thing remains constant: they are New Yorkers -- Manhattanites. Very rarely do they venture into the other boroughs and complain endlessly when they do. The biggest commitment Miranda makes in the first two seasons is to real estate (She purchases an apartment.)
After five seasons, a baby, a husband, and a dog, Miranda realizes her new life requires more space both literally and metaphorically. Desperate not to cross the bridge, Miranda eventually relents. Thanks to gentrification, the influx of hipsters and shows like Girls giving Brooklyn some cache, Miranda's renovated brownstone is probably now worth more than her one-bedroom apartment on that tiny island.
Her Mother Dies
Fans get to see the women on Sex and the City as friends, girlfriends, mothers, and wives, but not as daughters. There were brief mentions of family and childhood, so season 4's "My Motherboard, My Self," focuses on Miranda dealing with the death of her mother. The death of a parent is a life-changing event, and Miranda processes it unexpectedly in a department store fitting room.
This episode adds another layer to the character: someone who allows herself to be bullied by her sisters, and who doesn't necessarily like her family, but they are bonded together like it or not. It's also about the family people choose, and for Miranda, it's her friends.
She Gets A Magda
Season 1 Miranda is consumed with upward mobility. She's so focused on climbing the corporate lawyer ladder that she even pretends to be a lesbian so she can expand her networking opportunities. During season 2, her hard work pays off, and she's able to buy an apartment and hire a cleaning lady to help maintain it.
Miranda constantly struggles with feelings of guilt about her decision to choose a career over domesticity, and Magda is just the system Miranda needs to ease her mind. Magda becomes an integral part of Miranda's life, evolving from a cleaning lady to a nanny and a permanent member of her household by season 6. Following the death of Miranda's mother during season 4, there's no doubt Magda fills the role of the surrogate maternal figure as well.
She Puts Family First
Miranda is a fiercely, unapologetic single woman who refuses to settle during season 1. Despite being crazy about Steve who she meets during season 2, she finds cohabitating a challenge. Miranda focuses on her job, her friends, and eventually, her son. Miranda's priorities shift after Brady's birth at the end of season 4. She learns even a hair appointment takes a backseat to an infant.
Miranda begins to lean more on Magda and Steve, and she stops (or tries) feeling guilty for failing to be the perfect mom and the perfect lawyer and cuts her hours. She goes from tolerating Steve's mother to being a caretaker for her, and Miranda gives up the last remnant of her single-girl life when she moves to Brooklyn. Not that being single is synonymous with selfishness, but the formerly rigid Miranda whose Saturdays were filled with me-time activities is happy with we time as well.
She Gets Chlamydia
Sex and the City doesn't spend much time focusing on the possible risks of sex, and it's Miranda who suffers some unexpected consequences. During season 1, Miranda practically lives like a nun, relying on sex toys and enduring months of celibacy.
As her sex life picks up in later seasons, Miranda is diagnosed with chlamydia. It's an embarrassing eye-opener for Miranda about the stigma surrounding STDs.
She Fits Into Her Skinny Jeans
During season 1, Miranda is satisfied with how she looks (except for her chin), but she does suffer some understandable insecurities that are the result of living in a city filled with models. But like most new mothers, Miranda struggles with her weight after giving birth to son Brady. She s Weight Watchers and struggles to elevate her self-esteem while hiding her figure under stretchy pants. Hanging out with three women with enviable figures and no screaming baby at home would make any sane woman crave Krispy Kreme.
By season 6, Miranda looks better than ever. On a night out with the girls, she's even able to fit into her skinny jeans: the jeans she hasn't been able to wear since 1985. There's no denying that season 1 Miranda is attractive, but season 6 Miranda is smoking hot.
She Warms Up To Mr. Big
Nobody is as gaga over Big during season 1 as Carrie, but after their first breakup, Miranda becomes increasingly frustrated with Carrie's on again off again romance with the man who keeps breaking her heart. Charlotte and Miranda aren't "Team Big," but Miranda is the most vocal about her disdain for him, and it even causes tension between herself and her best friend.
But during the season 6 finale, when Big comes asking the ladies for help on winning Carrie back, Miranda's the one who tells him "Go get our girl." Even she can see Mr. Big is Carrie's Mr. Right.
She Embraces Her Kinky Side
Miranda's caught off guard during season 1 when she learns she's dating a guy who likes to get spanked, but when she decides to dip her toe in the world of sex play, she's rebuffed. In the years that follow, Miranda explores her inner freak.
She has sex in public, she plays peekaboo with a neighbor (failing to realize she's not the object of his affection) and she masters dirty talk. The same Miranda with a tendency to be uptight is able to cut loose and explore her sexuality.