While many had foolishly expressed excitement over the prospect of seeing Kim Cattrall reprise her role as Samantha Jones (even if only for seventy-five seconds) on the second season of And Just Like That…, rightfully jaded types knew that no good could come of it. Only irritation (no STD pun intended). And sure, there have been some real shitty/disappointing cameos in television history (though none of them were ever on I Love Lucy), but this one really takes the cake (second only to another certain cameo on SATC by The Orange One). Indeed, the flimsy cameo by Cattrall as Samantha was matched only by Samantha’s even flimsier excuse to Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) for being unable to attend the final dinner in her “single girl” apartment. An apartment so “fabulous!” that Samantha was willing to ignore the tenuous relationship she’s had of late with Carrie, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis). This being established from the outset of And Just Like That… as a reason to explain away the fact that Cattrall didn’t want to sign on for this travesty. Until they must have made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. Complete with the promise that she wouldn’t even have to film in the same room as SJP.
Instead, the phone call method would suffice. And Samantha is no stranger to phone call scenes (one of which Selena Gomez recently lip synced to promote “Single Soon”). Nor is Carrie, for that matter, who would often get minutes of script written for her coast-to-coast calls to Big (Chris Noth) during his California stint. So it is that Carrie greets her with the cheeseball line, “Hello London.” Never mind that this was the woman who could barely be bothered to text Carrie back after she said things like, “I miss you” to Samantha without any shame. Samantha’s lack of response to that text didn’t stop Carrie from continuing to speak to her as though she were a silent god, informing her that she kissed someone for the first time in the wake of Big’s death (and yes, Samantha did have the decency [?] to send showboating flowers to Big’s funeral). This was, apparently, enough to coax Samantha out of her silence, assuring Carrie that they would talk “soon.” When no text or call arrived after that, Carrie again took the initiative while standing on the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris (after scattering Big’s ashes, even though that’s not exactly “legal”—but who’s going to stop a rich white lady from doing what she wants?) to text her ex-bestie. The message?: “I’m in Paris, want to meet for a cocktail?” (No, she does not). For whatever reason, Samantha gets back right away with the reply, “How’s tomorrow night?” Carrie confirms, “FABULOUS.” That goddamn word that reiterates, every time, what era of gay man wrote these characters.
This exchange, needless to say, is a far cry from Miranda telling Carrie in the first episode of And Just Like That…, “Hello It’s Me,” “You know, it is kind of like she’s dead. Samantha. We never even talk about her.” Carrie shrugs, “Well, what is there to say?” before giving the phony/hyper-expository backstory about how Samantha “dropped her as a friend” when Carrie “dropped her a publicist,” then going on to victimize herself by noting, “I thought I was more to her than an ATM.” Miranda confirms that she and Charlotte are still being iced out as well, remarking, “We texted and called, but we never heard back.” Never mind that it’s not in Samantha’s nature to be passive aggressive over confrontational. If she had a problem with Carrie, not only would she be direct about it (as she was when Carrie judged her for blowing the Worldwide Express guy), but she wouldn’t punish Miranda and Charlotte by extending her anger to them as well.
Alas, what can the writers do when Cattrall has been so unaccommodating…until now. “At least” bothering to make a cameo that further reiterates she will never actually be appearing on the show. Delivering her lines to Razzie Award-level perfection when she declares, “My flight’s three hours delayed Carrie, I won’t be able to make it there in time.” Carrie acts like she has no idea what Samantha might be referring to when she asks, “In…in time for what?” Samantha exclaims, “The last supper. Miranda and Charlotte told me all about it. I was gonna surprise you.” Again, we’re supposed to believe Samantha suddenly shifted from “dark mode” to texting everyone freely. But, of course, because her presence, telephonic or otherwise, is still so rare, Carrie acts like a teen girl whose crush has finally given her the time of day when she replies, “Oh my gosh. Well you did, I’m very surprised.”
Samantha keeps carrying on the “breezy” conversation by adding, “Well the fog finally lifted. But the crew? Maxed out. Oh I am fucking furious.” Carrie then asks us to suspend our disbelief further by assuming that Samantha would come for anything longer than a dinner by saying, “No, no, no. Don’t worry. We’ll just get together tomorrow.” Samantha reminds her ex-bestie who the fuck she is by explaining, “Honey, I just left Heathrow. I was flying back on the first flight in the morning.” With Carrie incredulous that she would fly “all the way to New York” (a mere five hours from London) just to come to her party, Samantha adds, “Well it is your apartment and I have to pay my respects.” This mimics her attachment to it in the Sex and the City movie from 2008, during which Samantha flies out from L.A. (instead of just pretending she was going to fly out from London) to help Carrie pay the so-called necessary respects to her “single girl” apartment that she’s not getting rid of, per se, so much as moving out of to be in a more spacious apartment that Big bought for them. Although no one is expecting Samantha to show up (just as no one is in “The Last Supper Part Two: Entrée”), her arrival is met with screaming delight as Samantha explains, “A lot of shit went down in this place. Attention must be paid.”
And it is, as the four women (plus Charlotte’s daughter, Lily, who would have been roughly four years old at the time), proceed to put on a fashion show of Carrie’s clothes for one another. Because, in case even the person with the most casual knowledge of Sex and the City wasn’t aware, clothes are “a thing” with this show. Rivaled only by shoes and purses. Yes, it’s often superfluous in the city, but no one ever said New York wasn’t the world’s main hub for capitalism. Carrie’s friendships are proof of that, with the likelihood of these women remaining friends if one of them had strayed from the “correct” socioeconomic path being nil. Even “starving artist” Carrie manages to out-rich everyone in the group by marrying Big (then later inheriting his fortune). This being how she’s able to keep her “single girl” apartment as a “spare” even when she moves out of it in the Sex and the City movie. Which, of course, turns out to be handy when Big leaves her with her metaphorical dick in the wind by clamming up and not being able to come to the wedding venue (a.k.a. 42nd Street NYPL) to marry her. Making continuous unanswered calls to her saying that he can’t go in without her, like the scared little puto he is.
And so, even though “it took four friends three days to put twenty years into thirty-eight boxes,” Carrie hires an assistant to help her unbox all that shit and put it back in the “single girl” apartment she couldn’t give up until Aidan (John Corbett) came back along in the And Just Like That… era. As the years went on before this point, it appeared as though nothing would have ever convinced Carrie to give up that place, so intertwined as it is with her identity. Not just for Carrie, but for Samantha, too. Which is why we’re expected to believe she would break down all her barriers to materialize for “The Last Supper.”
Instead, she makes Carrie hold the phone up on speaker so she say, “Thank you for everything. You fucking fabulous, fabulous flat.” Carrie interrupts with, “Uh, Samantha, do you have a British accent?”And yes, to add to the extremely forced aura of this cameo, the writers conjured the SATC “Easter egg” of Annabelle Bronstein, the woman whose Soho House card Samantha used in season six to gain entry into the exclusive pool. And the same episode where the non sequitur cameo of Geri Halliwell occurred. Now matched only by the non sequitur cameos from Sam Smith and Samantha in this season of And Just Like That… But wait, as Cattrall asks, “Who’s Samantha? This is Annabelle Bronstein. I’m from Injuh.”
And just like that, in roughly one minute and fifteen seconds, Cattrall effectively ruined her character by bothering to do this cameo at all, choosing not to stick to her guns about refusing to be involved in this latest “chapter.” As Samantha would have said, “These bitches need to be put in their places.” By not kowtowing to their desire to “use” her again. Especially for such banal and mundane purposes.
