Before 'And Just Like That,' Samantha Was Annabelle Bronstein On 'SATC'

May 26, 2024

During the And Just Like That... Season 2 finale, Kim Cattrall made her highly anticipated return as Samantha Jones. OK, technically, it was just a cameo, but fans were still thrilled to see the beloved Sex and the City character call Carrie from London, if only for a few moments.

To recap: Samantha called Carrie to break the news that she couldn’t make it to Carrie’s “last supper” dinner, since her flight to New York was delayed. However, she bid farewell to the apartment via speakerphone. “Thank you for everything, you f*cking fabulous, fabulous flat.”

Carrie then wondered if her long-distance pal was developing a British accent. “Who’s Samantha? This is Annabelle Bronstein,” Samantha replied. If it’s been a while since your last Sex and the City rewatch, you might have missed the reference to Samantha’s one-time alter ego, who debuted in Season 6 of the original series — on Aug. 24, 2003, in fact!

Exactly 20 years ago in “Boy, Interrupted,” Samantha was upset that she couldn’t get a membership at Soho House for its exclusive rooftop pool. While visiting the club to talk her way off the waitlist (to no avail), Samantha stopped in the restroom and found someone else’s membership card — belonging to one Annabelle Bronstein.

Samantha then assumed Annabelle’s identity to enjoy Soho House’s pool. She even brought her friends to enjoy the amenities. (Samantha has always been a girl’s girl!) However, the charade came to an end when a Soho House employee interrogated Annabelle-slash-Samantha about her identity.

“Ms. Bronstein is in London for the week,” he informed Samantha — who quickly slipped into a British accent to avoid being caught, adding that she found her missing membership card “on top of the telly.” But alas, her performance was no match for the skeptical British employee, and Samantha and her friends had to flee their short-lived luxury hangout.

HBO

This was a memorable episode for other reasons, too, as it marked one of Carrie’s most underrated flings: her rekindled relationship with her high school sweetheart, Jeremy, played by a fresh-off-The X-Files David Duchovny. Jeremy was in town receiving mental health treatment, he explained, at a facility he compared to “Canyon Ranch for the brain.” (Jeremy didn’t share specifically what he was going through, but the name of the episode is a nod to Susanna Kaysen’s memoir Girl, Interrupted, which chronicles the author’s experience at McLean Hospital.)

While several of Carrie’s one-off hookups were obvious (and hilarious) mismatches, she and Jeremy seemed to share a genuine connection — and great chemistry, too. Ultimately, though, Jeremy decided it was best to put things on pause until he’d completed his treatment at the program. If Carrie didn’t begin seeing Aleksandr Petrovsky shortly thereafter, only to return to Mr. Big, it seems she and Jeremy might have picked up where they left off.

But of course, Sex and the City’s most enduring love stories are between friends — and in the case of Carrie and Samantha, a 20-year-old inside joke might be the best proof yet that all is well between the two despite their past bad blood.

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