It was a moment of reckoning for Sex and the City fans, as Kim Cattrall returned for a brief cameo on the season finale of the spinoff And Just Like That…
Cattrall played Samantha Jones, a fan favorite in the original series. And while she opted not to return for the spinoff amid reports of a feud with her co-star Sarah Jessica Parker, the character had been present throughout the series via text exchanges with Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw.
That changed on the season finale released on Thursday.
As teased in the episode trailer — and originally leaked at the end of May — Samantha emerges in a short scene that sees her talking to Carrie on the phone.
During their quick exchange, Samantha, who is calling from her new home in London, said she was “f***ing furious” that she wouldn’t make it to New York City to see her old pals Carrie, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) for a “last supper” in Carrie’s old apartment.
“My flight’s three hours delayed, Carrie. I won’t be able to make it there in time,” Samantha says while sitting in the back of a black town car. When Carrie appeared confused as to why Samantha would fly all the way to New York “for an overnight,” Samantha replied: “Well, it is your apartment and I have to pay my respects.”
“Thank you for everything, you f***ing fabulous, fabulous flat,” Samantha says of the iconic apartment, which witnessed plenty of shenanigans in the original series.
After saying goodbye, Samantha kisses the phone. That bit, according to showrunner Michael Patrick King, was totally improvised. Speaking on The Writers Room podcast, King said the sweet moment was “not in the script” and that it “was totally [an instance of] of an actor playing a moment. And it’s really nice.”
SATC fans agree with King. After counting down the days until the epic appearance, the reaction on social media was overwhelmingly favorable despite Cattrall’s short cameo.
Minutes after the finale was released on Max at 12:01 a.m., fans took to social media to praise the performance — with one calling it the “the best 1 minute of our lives!” Others used adjectives like “perfect” and “fabulous” and “the absolute best,” which mirrored thousands of others.
Cattrall’s beef with the SATC spinoff series
Cattrall was not asked to star in the spinoff, stemming from long-running conflict with Parker, an executive producer, and others involved with the franchise. The original series, which ended in 2004, spawned the films Sex and the City (released in 2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010), which she appeared in. However, when the third film was in the works, Cattrall couldn’t come to terms on a deal due to money and it the film fell apart. There has been resentment over how it played out.
