And Just Like That… may officially be over, but I’m still finding it hard to forgive the Sex and the City reboot series for the original sin of not bringing back the show’s best character, Samantha Jones. (Yes, it’s objectively true that Kim Cattrall did not want to return, but still, didn’t Sam’s legacy deserve more than becoming the text friend?)
Well, this week just so happens to mark Cattrall’s 69th birthday, and in her honor, we’ve rounded up Sex and the City’s very best Sam-centric plotlines—from her breakup with Richard (and ensuing flyer-posting spree) to her brief stint as Brady’s babysitter, as well as more serious moments, like Samantha’s experience with cancer. Find them all below.
Samantha babysitting for Brady
I love the Sex and the City episodes that give us a little glimmer of Samantha’s compassionate side, and that’s exactly what we get when she sends a majorly stressed-out postpartum Miranda to take her hair appointment with a highly coveted stylist and volunteers to keep an infant Brady alive for an afternoon (with aplomb, it must be said). Who’d have thought that that baby would eventually have a baby?
Samantha sticking up for Charlotte (and Shayla)
It’s always nice to see Samantha come to a friend’s defense, especially when said friend is an extremely angry Charlotte ruining a baby shower because the mama-to-be—gasp—stole her baby name. There’s really only one response to such a brazen theft of the name Shayla, and it’s a drunken, Sam-uttered, “You bitch!”
Samantha’s run-in with ultra-mean teen queen Jenny Brier
Samantha’s decision not to have children must have been extremely validated by having to plan the million-dollar bat mitzvah of Jenny Brier, a wildly grown-up-seeming 13-year-old played by Kat Dennings, who managed to make Samantha genuinely grateful for her own less-than-fabulous childhood. If only we’d gotten a spinoff series about a teenage Sam working at Dairy Queen! The Carrie Diaries, who?
Samantha getting cheated on (and papering New York with mean flyers about her ex)
I mean, if you finally quit bed-hopping and opened your heart to a guy, only to walk in on him cheating on you, wouldn’t you hurl a giant framed painting to the floor and then post his picture all over Midtown Manhattan? (Bonus points for the cameo from Grey’s Anatomy star Chandra Bailey as possibly the only chill and understanding NYPD officer in the whole city.)
Samantha’s lesbian arc
Was the plotline involving Samantha’s relationship with temperamental artist Maria 100% politically correct? Absolutely not—but this is Sex and the City we’re talking about, so who really expected that? “Yes, ladies, I’m a lesbian” is absolutely the most iconic way to come out, even though Sam later proved to be somewhat more bisexual than Sapphic.
Samantha’s hard launch of Smith’s career
Sam’s much-younger sweetie Smith was lucky to have his (somewhat reluctant) girlfriend catapult him into the hot-guy stratosphere when she secured his status as the Absolut Hunk (and soon got him a role in a Gus Van Sant movie, NBD!). “First come the gays, then come the girls, then comes the industry” may just be one of the wisest business judgments anyone has ever made…
Samantha’s breast cancer diagnosis and treatment
In the hands of a less gifted actor, this storyline might have felt phoned-in or inauthentic, but Cattrall’s ability to portray Samantha’s sudden and surprising vulnerability after being diagnosed with breast cancer (and being forced to lean on Smith for support in a whole new way) ended up giving our previously footloose and sex-obsessed Sam a whole new level of depth.
