'And Just Like That' Finale: Carrie Connects with Samantha Again and Lays Mr. Big to Rest in Paris

Carrie Bradshaw headed to Paris in the And Just Like That season 1 finale, channeling the end of Sex and the City

Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the finale episode of And Just Like That...

And Just Like That… has come to an end — in full-circle fashion.

During the finale episode of the Sex and the City revival, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) grappled with kissing a man for the first time since the death of her husband and figuring out where to scatter his ashes, which had been sitting in her closet for nearly a year.

Her husband John James Preston, a.k.a. Mr. Big (Chris Noth), died of a heart attack in the premiere episode of the HBO Max series, and Carrie struggled with dating again throughout the season.

In the finale though, Carrie went on a second date with math teacher Peter (Jon Tenney) and he asked if he could kiss her. Carrie said yes and the duo kissed, but she later described the interaction to friend Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury) as "charming, lovely, awful, nervous."

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Carrie also recapped the date with best friends Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) but she was still clearly unsettled by her first post-Mr. Big kiss, and decided to reach out to the fourth member of their original group, Samantha Jones.

James Devaney/GC Images

Samantha, played by Kim Cattrall in SATC, does not appear in person in the revival but did briefly text with Carrie in a previous episode. During the premiere, the show explained that Samantha had moved to the U.K. and was estranged from Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda.

"I kissed a man," Carrie wrote to Samantha in the finale.

"The first of many. How was it?" she responded right away, to which Carrie said, "It wasn't Big."

"So, it was small," Samantha quipped, prompting a laugh from Carrie.

"Want to talk?" Carrie texted, as Samantha promised, "Soon."

Later, Carrie got lunch with Big's brother, who wanted to know what she planned to do with his ashes.

"He's on a shelf in my closet, next to my very best shoes," Carrie admitted. "That would say a lot if you knew me better."

Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall in the original SATC. © HBO/ Courtesy: Everett

His brother offered Carrie spots for both Big and her in his family crypt in Connecticut, but she declined. "That's a lovely offer, but I need to think more about where John might want to be before I decide," she said.

The answer ultimately came to her in a dream, after a malfunctioning reading lamp seemed to be giving her signs of Big's presence.

In the dream, Carrie was in Paris, seeing the bridge where she and Big famously rekindled their on-and-off romance in the series finale of Sex and the City in 2004. (Noth was set to make a brief cameo in the AJLT finale but the footage was cut amid the multiple sexual assault allegations against him.)

Once she had the Paris revelation, Carrie initially asked Charlotte and Miranda to join her, but when she found out Miranda was headed to Los Angeles to be with her new partner, Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez), she decided to do it alone.

"You two got me this far, I think I can do the rest on my own," she told them.

Sarah Jessica Parker in Paris in the Sex and the City finale in 2004. © HBO/ Courtesy: Everett Collection

Once in the French capital, Carrie scattered Big's ashes (stored in an Eiffel Tower-shaped clutch) in the Seine River. She then turned back to her pal Samantha.

"I'm in Paris. Want to meet for a cocktail?" she texted her old friend.

"How's tomorrow night?" Samantha replied, to which Carrie wrote, "FABULOUS."

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Upon her return to the U.S., Carrie secured her very own dating advice podcast, aptly named Sex and the City, and shared a passionate kiss with her producer Franklyn (Ivan Hernandez) in the elevator.

"And just like that," she concluded.

Season 1 of And Just Like That… is available to stream on HBO Max.