That ‘Sex and the City’ revival twist – and the real shocking moment later on
THERE was a major death in the first episode of the ‘Sex and the City’ revival.
But probably not the one that most people were expecting.
Ever since HBO Max announced in January that the late 90s and early 2000s TV phenomenon ‘Sex and the City’ would return for a 10-episode sequel titled ‘And Just Like That ...,’ fans have been rampantly speculating about the fate of Samantha Jones, the fabulous publicist played by Kim Cattrall.
Samantha was a critical element of the seemingly unbreakable friend group of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon).
But the streaming service confirmed in its initial announcement that only the latter three actresses would be returning.
This was not exactly surprising, after years of rampant rumors about a mutual dislike between Parker and Cattrall.
The stars always denied this during filming of the series and two subsequent movies, calling out society’s misogynistic inclination to pit women against each other, but things publicly disintegrated when plans were scrapped for a third film.
The Daily Mail published a report blaming Cattrall and said the movie was supposed to start filming in a matter of days; but Cattrall countered that she had said no to the project from the very beginning.
Afterward, in an interview with Piers Morgan, Cattrall said she was never friends with her co-stars and called it a ‘toxic’ situation, adding that she had no plans to play Samantha ever again.
When her brother died a year later and Parker offered
condolences on Instagram, Cattrall replied, “I don’t need your love or support at this tragic time ...Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now.”
That obviously destroyed any chance of the two uniting publicly again, though when the sequel was announced and a fan commented on Instagram that they would miss “Kim/ Samantha,” Parker replied, “We will too. We loved her so.”
So, what to do with Samantha? Kill her off? Send her into permanent orbit with a tech billionaire? In the first minute of the first episode, we got our answer – she moved to London.
Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda are at brunch, living it up in the show’s officially post-pandemic world (sigh), when they run into Bitsy Von Muffling (Julie Halston), the character who married the cabaret singer played by Nathan Lane.
Bitsy asks about Samantha and Charlotte says solemnly, “Oh, she’s no longer with us.” Fake out! Samantha didn’t die, she’s just literally no longer with them, because she moved to the UK for work.
“Oh, thank God,” Bitsy says. “After the horror show we’ve been through, I just assume anyone I haven’t seen in awhile has passed on or gave up and moved to Palm Beach.”
In case you’re wondering whether they don’t have telephones or the internet in Europe in ‘SATC’ world, the show later explains that Carrie and Samantha had a falling out when Carrie fired her as her publicist (“because of what the book business is now”), and Samantha decided to never speak to her again.
“I kept leaving her voice mails asking her to please call me back so we could talk about this and fix it,” Carrie says.
“Look, I understand she was upset, but I thought I was more to her than an ATM.” (Which, yikes, feels uncomfortably close to the real-life situation.) However, that leads us to the actual shocker: The sudden and out-of-nowhere death of John James Preston, Mr Big, the No 1 love of Carrie’s life (OK, No 4 love), the romantic lead of the series, played by Chris Noth
– dead after a Peloton workout.
The show gives no indication that such a shocker is coming.
(Unless you believe the reports that if a ‘Sex and the City 3’ movie would have happened, the script had Mr Big dying quite early on, though Noth has denied this.) Carrie and Big, who are still married, have some of their classic banter when she talks about cooking dinner.
“I’m just wondering who this person is I’m looking at, because I remember when you kept your sweaters in the stove,” he says.
“I remember when your hair was black,” she says right back.
They reveal that during the pandemic, they started a new ritual of listening to their entire vinyl collection in alphabetical order during dinner, and have made it to Linda Ronstadt and Todd Rundgren.
They also have a plan to leave for the Hamptons on a Wednesday night, but Charlotte begs Carrie to come to her daughter’s piano recital, so they reschedule.
Big says it’s fine, he’ll do a Peloton cycling workout with his favourite instructor Allegra, who is going to give him a special shout-out on his 1,000th ride.
They debate leaving after the recital, and Big says it depends “on how spent I am after Allegra.” Carrie agrees, and as she turns to leave, she notices him staring. “What?” she asks.
“I’m just looking at you,” he says, smiling.
“OK,” she responds.
“Tell that whore Allegra I say ‘Bye.’”
Actually, that is kind of the exact exchange a couple has in a show when something horrible is about to happen.
And sure enough, after Big is done with his workout with Allegra (played by real-life Peloton instructor Jess King), he starts grasping at his chest as he starts to get in the shower. Then he falls over.
Carrie, who received a text from him earlier that said “Let’s leave tonight,” has no idea anything is amiss until she gets home and sees him sitting next to the stillrunning shower.
He opens his eyes, looks up at her, and then he’s gone.
“JOHN!” she screams, but it’s too late.
She gasps and cradles him, saying ‘John’ over and over, as her stilettos - the same ones she wore at their wedding - fall off her feet and are ruined by the shower.
“And just like that,” Carrie’s voice-over says, ‘Big died.’ The next episode is brutal, and takes place in the immediate aftermath and at Big’s funeral.
One incident links the two former main characters together.
Though Carrie is insistent on no flowers, one arrangement is so beautiful that she considers it – and when she checks the card, it says two words: “Love, Samantha.” And so she decides to keep it.
When Carrie gets home, she opens her phone and looks at string of unanswered text messages she sent to Samantha.
And sends another with two words of her own: ‘Thank you.’ — The Washington Post