Warning: This post contains spoilers from the season 2 finale of Max’s And Just Like That…
Samantha Jones is back! Kim Cattrall made her much-anticipated appearance as her beloved Sex and the City character during the season 2 finale of its spinoff, Max’s And Just Like That... — and fulfilled the wishes of countless fans.
During a scene at the start of this week’s episode, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) received a call from Samantha, who was in a car. “My flight’s three hours delayed, Carrie! I won’t be able to make it there in time,” she declared.
Wearing a red dress and silver trench coat accessorized with a lime green purse and chunky jewelry, Samantha then explained that Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) told her about Carrie’s “Last Supper” party at her old apartment — and Samantha was planning to catch a flight from Heathrow Airport to New York to surprise her friend just for one night. “Well, it is your apartment and I have to pay my respects,” she insisted.
MAX
Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones on the ‘And Just Like That’ season 2 finale
Insisting that Carrie put her on speakerphone, Samantha bid Carrie’s place farewell as only the unabashedly sexy and confident character could.
“Thank you for everything you f— fabulous, fabulous flat,” she said.
When Carrie teased her about developing a British accent, Samantha mocked surprise. “Ta
and cheerio!” she concluded. “And have a great night.”
Craig Blankenhorn/Max
Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) puts Samantha (Kim Cattrall) on speaker on ‘And Just Like That’
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Samantha’s absence was first explained in the spinoff series premiere, where it was revealed that the two drifted apart after Carrie fired Samantha as her publicist and Samantha moved to London. Since then, the former friends have slowly reconnected: a text conversation here and there, flowers sent to Big’s funeral, and an offscreen drinks reunion following the season 1 finale.
Samantha’s presence was slightly less felt throughout season 2 — though she was seen in episode 8 when Charlotte was looking through old photos — but excitement for her appearance hit a fever pitch when the season finale trailer showed Carrie receiving a phone call from her.
The cameo may have been brief, but marked an important moment for the show as well as Cattrall, who had expressed her feelings in a May 2022 interview with Variety about not wanting to be part of the Sex and the City reboot, in part because she didn’t like her character’s plotline in the never-produced third Sex and the City movie and the storyline for And Just Like That… resembled “basically the third movie,” which also included plots like the death of Carrie’s husband Big (Chris Noth).
“I also didn’t want to compromise what the show was to me,” she said at the time. “The way forward seemed clear.”
In 2017, Cattrall tweeted that she’d decided a year before that she “didn’t want” to do a third SATC film and was finished playing Samantha when she expressed dissatisfaction with the third Sex and the City film script. Her decision not to participate led to a public fallout with Parker. When And Just Like That… showrunner Michael Patrick King and Parker decided to create a Sex and the City reboot, Cattrall was not asked to reprise Samantha.
“I was never asked to be part of the reboot,” she told Variety. “I made my feelings clear after the possible third movie, so I found out about it like everyone else did — on social media.”
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Parker, for her part, confirmed this was the case in 2022 during an interview on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.
“She made it clear that that wasn’t something she wanted to pursue, and it no longer felt comfortable for us, and so it didn’t occur to us,” Parker said. “That’s not ‘slamming’ her, it’s just learning. You’ve got to listen to somebody, and if they’re publicly talking about something and it doesn’t suggest it’s some place they want to be, or a person they want to play, or an environment in which they want to be, you get to an age where you’re like, ‘Well, we hear that.’ “
But Cattrall’s resistance to reprising her most memorable role likely also stems from her personal feelings for Parker, who she claims “could have been nicer” to her during production of Sex and the City.
“This is where I take to task the people from Sex and the City and specifically Sarah Jessica Parker — is that I think she could have been nicer,” the actress told Piers Morgan in 2017.
She also added that she, Parker, Nixon and Davis were all “never friends” during the same interview.
Related: ‘And Just Like That…’ Showrunner Told John Corbett He Had to Be ‘Rock Hard’ for Aidan’s Return
But Cattrall finally broke her pledge to leave Samantha in the past when she allegedly received a call from the “head of HBO saying, ‘What can we do?’” with regards to appearing on And Just Like That…
One of those demands included bringing back longtime friend and original Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field, who is not working on And Just Like That… “I just thought that if I’m going to come back, I’m going to come back with that kind of Samantha style,” she told The View in June. “I’ve got to push it. And we did.”
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According to Variety, Cattrall filmed the cameo on March 22 in New York City. She did her scene “without seeing or speaking with the stars of the series,” including Parker, Nixon and Davis, and she reportedly didn’t interact with King.
And Just Like That… seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Max.
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