Double take! Samantha Jones doesn’t appear in person on And Just Like That, but her spirit is everywhere — and so are her admirers.
The eagle-eyed viewers at Every Outfit on Sex and the City noticed that the Thursday, January 6, episode of AJLT featured actor Ajay Mehta, who originally appeared in a season 2 episode of SATC. Now starring as the father of Seema (Sarita Choudhury), Mehta originally played a busboy who offered to take Samantha (Kim Cattrall) home after she was stood up by a date. Samantha declined his offer, but the duo shared a kiss.
After Every Outfit posted an Instagram photo showing screenshots from the two episodes side-by-side, Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda, shared her praise in the comments section. “Good eye!” the actress, 55, wrote.
Cattrall, 65, didn’t participate in the HBO Max revival series, but the show has included several nods to her character since it premiered last month. After the death of Mr. Big (Chris Noth) in the first episode, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) receives a large bouquet of flowers from her friend, who has moved to London.
In another episode, Carrie recounts an incident from a season 2 episode of SATC where Samantha helped her pull out her diaphragm. After realizing she should have asked permission before telling the story on her podcast, Carrie decides to let Samantha know and the pair have a brief text exchange.
As diehard SATC fans know, Mehta is not the first actor to play two different roles in the series. Justin Theroux famously appeared twice during the show’s original run, playing one of Stanford’s (Willie Garson) friends in season 1 and a love interest of Carrie’s in season 2.
Last year, the Leftovers alum, 50, joked that SATC producers thought they could disguise him by having him change his hair for his second appearance.
“It’s about girls who are dating all the time, [so] you burn through every single male actor in New York,” the Wanderlust actor said during an April 2021 interview with Sunday Today. “I did a small part in the first one. You know, enters frame, says a few things and then leaves frame. And they were like, ‘Why don’t you come back?’ And their idea was that they would just shave my head. And they’re like ‘Voilà! Total transformation.'”
New episodes of And Just Like That are available to stream on Thursdays via HBO Max.