Fifteen minutes after Sarah Jessica Parker won her Golden Globe on the West Coast as the best leading actress in a comedy series, HBO aired the fifth-to-the-last-episode of her show, "Sex and the City," on the East Coat.

(SPOILER ALERT: If you were glued to the Globes and have yet to watch your TiVo, key plot details are about to be revealed.)

There was a lot of housekeeping in the evening's episode: Carrie (Parker) has not one but two mice in her apartment, the first of which was fatally smashed with a frying pan by Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov) as a build-up to what Carrie perceives as his callous outlook on life. When Carrie tells him that Samantha is going to beat her cancer, Aleksandr repeatedly responds that she may not, and dredges up (ad nauseum) the story of his friend Sophia, who died of breast cancer.

In the wrap-up, however, Aleksandr tells Carrie that he was so relentless on the matter only because he didn't want her devastated by any nasty surprises. Clearly, this could get serious -- their relationship and, possibly, Samantha's condition.

With Samantha (Kim Cattrall) now undergoing chemotherapy, her hair starts falling out, while she and Smith (Jason Lewis) are having sex. The lovemaking ends, and the wig shopping begins. But in an extremely touching moment later, Smith catches Samantha shaving her head (which she assumes may end their relationship), and he takes her clippers to his own head, too.

Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler), who are coming up zero in their efforts to have a baby, end up with a delivery -- of an 8 lb. 2 oz. King Charles Spaniel. So beautiful is the puppy (who has one leg that disqualifies her from being a show dog) that her new parents name her after the most beautiful woman in the world, and christen her Elizabeth Taylor Goldenblatt.

That leaves Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and her new husband Steve Brady (David Eigenberg) -- who are really out of it. Manhattan, that is. They've bought a home in Brooklyn.