The zenith of ‘The Last Supper Part Two: Entree’, the second season finale of And Just Like That, came less than a minute into the episode. Thirty-five seconds in, to be precise.
Knowing the preceding ten episodes were just biding our time until Samantha Jones’ fabulous return to the Sex And The City cinematic universe, the writers decided to not let us wait a moment longer.
At the 45-second mark, Kim Cattrall was back where she belongs, in her rightful place as the deliciously quippy and sexually liberated PR executive.
Cattrall, who famously shot the scene without interacting with any of her former co-stars, only lasted 74 seconds—which, as Samantha would attest to, is hardly long enough to keep a woman satisfied.
But, in this minute of screen time, Cattrall as Samantha proved that we were robbed of the reboot we deserved (oh, what could’ve been!), delivered a Patricia Field styling masterpiece (including a genius nod to SATC with her chartreuse Fendi First purse), and took us straight back to 2003 with this innocuous throwaway line.
We’re, of course, referring to Samantha’s reference to Annabelle Bronstein.
During her car ride back from Heathrow, Carrie questions Samantha if she’s picked up a British accent, subtly acknowledging her time in London.
“Whose Samantha?” Cattrall replied, leaning into her British-Canadian accent. “This is Annabelle Bronstein. I’m from Ind-ja.”
In the words of Rihanna: this is what we came for.
With that one line, AJLT finally delivered what we had hoped for the show—intelligent throwbacks to the source material that acknowledges what we loved about the original.
Who Is Annabelle Bronstein?
Now, if you’re reading this and were born after the turn of the millennial, you may not have picked up on the reference as quickly.
For the uninitiated, Annabelle Bronstein is Samantha Jones’ British alter-ego, a character introduced in a season six episode of SATC released exactly 20 years ago to the day. The mastermind of it all!
In the episode, entitled “Boy, Interrupted”, Samantha pretends to be after running into British socialite Phoebe (played by Geri Halliwell nonetheless), who boasts about the merits of Soho House’s exclusive rooftop pool.
“What else can you possibly do in this heat except sit by the pool and sip cocktails while they mist you with Evian” the Spice Girl said.
Desperate to get in, turns out Samantha Jones is also at the mercy of Soho House’s “bullshit” waitlist (as she describes it), so she decides to take matters into her own hands.
When fate interrupts by handing Samantha the membership card of one Miss Annabelle Bronstein, she decides to steal her identity to enjoy the fabulous pool for herself. Sadly, her pool party was foiled after the Soho House membership team alerted Samantha to the fact that Annabelle is a) British and b) in London for the week.
Thankfully, Annabelle got to live another day, 20 years later.
Though, as pointed out by Evan Ross Katz, Cattrall’s return to the Manhattan-centric version of And Just Like That was as a guest star and not a series regular, the scene was everything we hoped for and more.
Sure, the writing was a little chunky, especially considering how ready Samantha was to hop on a flight to farewell Carrie’s “f*cking fabulous flat” rather than her husband, Mr. Big, but we’ve come to expect that from the show.
But whatever the circumstances that brings Cattrall back into the fold, we welcome it. Come, Samantha, come, Annabelle, come all.
