Samantha Jones returns in the season 2 finale of And Just Like That
The following story contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of And Just Like That.
oh sweetie That’s what I call a cameo.
On Thursday, Kim Cattrall reprized her role on Sex and the City as Samantha Jones — er, say Annabelle Bronstein — in the season 2 finale of And Just Like That, delighting fans longing for the lusty publicist’s return for her cheeky wit and strong libido. For a fleeting moment, the magic of the original “Sex and the City” was alive again.
In the brief but highly anticipated scene that opened the episode “The Last Supper, Part Two: Entree,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) is preparing for a retirement dinner party at her soon-to-be former apartment when her phone rings. It’s Samantha, calling from London to say that she wanted to surprise Carrie by flying to New York for the night, but couldn’t because her flight was delayed.
Samantha, who is in a car — presumably on her way home from the airport — then asks Carrie to put her on speakerphone so she can say goodbye to Carrie’s apartment: “Thank you for everything you frigging fab apartment.”
Carrie catches something different in her friend’s voice and asks, “Samantha, do you have a British accent?”
“Who is Samantha? “This is Annabelle Bronstein… from India,” Samantha replies, pronouncing it “Inn-juh,” an adorable nod to a 2003 episode of “Sex and the City,” in which she (badly) pretended to be a British woman named Annabelle Bronstein to get into the pool at Soho House. “Ta and Cheerio – and have a great night.” With that, Samantha hung up – and kissed her phone.
While the scene seemed like a sweet, fan-friendly farewell to Samantha, it didn’t definitively rule out the possibility of a more permanent return to the Sex and the City universe — by killing her on a stationary bike, for example. The series was recently renewed for Season 3.
The exchange, which lasted just over a minute, marked the first time Samantha had appeared on the Max series in person — and not just as a text message on Carrie’s phone. The cameo that was announced before the premiere The second season came as a surprise because Cattrall has publicly clashed with her castmates and has repeatedly said she has no interest in reprising the role. The scene was reportedly filmed in March and did not require any interaction from Cattrall with other cast members or showrunner Michael Patrick King.
And if we take Cattrall’s repeated protestations at face value, it will also be the last time she appears as the character. No seriously. She is ready. So stop asking!
On her return – and departure – Samantha wore a gold jacket, red dress and bright green clutch. The look was created by Patricia Field, the acclaimed costume designer who helped make “Sex and the City” a fashion phenomenon during its original airing on HBO from 1998-2004, but was not involved in the remake.
Samantha’s performance was the preemptively hyped moment of Season 2 of And Just Like That – more anticipated than even the return of Carrie’s ex-fiancé Aidan Shaw (John Corbett), who cut short his newly reignited romance with Carrie in the finale.
Despite – or perhaps because of – the enthusiasm for it, Cattrall’s supposed swan song probably won’t quell the endless speculation about the reasons for her departure from the franchise.
During the original series of Sex and the City, it was widely reported that Cattrall had one frosty relationship with her co-stars Parker, Cynthia Nixon (who plays Miranda Hobbes) and Kristin Davis (who plays Charlotte York-Goldenblatt). Cattrall, a five-time Emmy nominee and fan favorite, wasn’t a producer on the original series, unlike Parker. In 2004 she filmed the series terminated due to a salary dispute. “I felt like after six years it was time for all of us to take part in the financial fortune of Sex and the City.” Time to move on,” she says said the English broadcaster Jonathan Ross in 2004.
Despite those complaints, the British-Canadian actress starred in both films – including the critically acclaimed sequel, which saw her character arrested in Abu Dhabi – but hostilities escalated around 2016 when she refused to work on a third ‘Sex and the City” film.
According to news reports, Cattrall abandoned the project for financial reasons; In 2017, Cattrall told Piers Morgan that she simply turned her back on the character. “It’s a great part. I played it past the finish line and beyond and really enjoyed it,” she said. But last year, Cattrall digged deeper into that an interview with Variety, The script included a storyline in which Miranda’s teenage son sent her unsolicited nude photos — a twist she found “heartbreaking,” she said. “Can you imagine going back to a job you did 25 years ago? And the work didn’t get any easier; It got more complicated in the sense of how you will progress with these characters. Everything must grow, otherwise it dies.”
The rift between Cattrall and Parker continued to be publicly visible in the years that followed, with Cattrall sending a clear message to her former co-star via Instagram in 2018: “You’re not my girlfriend. You are not my family.”
Cattrall wasn’t asked to take part in the reboot, which premiered in late 2021, and she claimed she only found out about it happening via social media. “We didn’t ask her to be there because she made it clear she didn’t want to pursue it,” Parker said told the Hollywood Reporter“And it didn’t feel comfortable for us anymore, and that’s why it didn’t occur to us.”
“Sex and the City” Season 2003 Episode Art
(Craig Blankenhorn / HBO)
The Samantha-free “And Just Like That” immediately caused a stir on social media, if not necessarily for the right reasons. The reboot drew widespread criticism for its awkward attempts at diversification and for the way it handled Samantha’s absence. This was explained by the fact that she moved to London and fell out with Carrie after she stopped using her as a publicist. Many fans sorely missed Samantha and the humor and incredible sensitivity she brought to the show. Carrie and Samantha texted sporadically in Season 1 and seemed on the verge of a reconciliation, but even Virtual Samantha was largely absent from Season 2.
While promoting the first season of And Just Like That, Parker and King said they couldn’t imagine a scenario in which Cattrall would return to the show. As recently as last year, Cattrall herself insisted she would not revive the character. But in May, Variety reported on it Cattrall returned for a one-off encore and would be clothed by Field.
In a June Visit to “Today,Cattrall teased the ‘great friggin’ outfit’ she and the stylist found for the scene while shopping at Bergdorf Goodman.
Filming the scene, “it felt like going back in time and enjoying a wonderful afternoon and then a great martini,” she said, warning fans not to expect anything more. “That’s all I’ll do.”
Still, she added, “I don’t think I’ll ever say goodbye to Samantha.”
Obviously she’s not the only one.
