The highly anticipated appearance was teased for months before Thursday's finale.
Spoiler alert! If you haven't seen the season 2 finale of And Just Like That, proceed with caution.
Back and more fabulous than ever! Though her cameo was brief, Samantha Jones returned in all her glory to the Sex and the City universe in Thursday's season 2 finale of the Max reboot, And Just Like That.
Fans didn't have to wait long for the much-discussed appearance from original star Kim Cattrall as it happened in the episode's first five minutes. In the scene, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) walked into her old apartment to prepare for her "Last Supper" meal when she received a phone call from Sam, who is living her best PR boss lady life abroad in London.
Looking better than ever, an upset Samantha informs Carrie from the phone in a car that her flight is three hours delayed and she won't be able to make it to New York in time for the meal.
"I was going to surprise you!" Samantha laments.
"Oh my gosh, well you did. I'm very surprised," Carrie admits, smiling.
It's a real-life-imitating-art moment as the series leads had hoped to surprise fans with this cameo, only for it to get leaked earlier this year.
Declaring herself, "f**king furious," Samantha says she'd wanted to "pay my respects" to the apartment that had been with the OG women through so much. She asks Carrie to put her on speaker and tells the apartment (with a slight British accent), "Thank you for everything, you f**king fabulous, fabulous flat."
When Carrie teases her friend about her accent, Samantha says she's "Annabelle Bronstein" from "Indja," a throwback to a past episode of Sex and the City where Samantha tried to get into the Soho House pretending to be a woman named Annabelle Bronstein only to learn that woman was British. Sam had tried to play off the flub by declaring she's from "Indja."
Samantha ends her call with Carrie saying, "Ta and cheerio, and have a great night."
The endearing scene reeked of everything fans loved from the original franchise. The characters had seemingly made up from their discussed past rift, leaving their conversation light and thoroughly enjoyable.
For the memorable cameo, Samantha wore her signature color -- a cherry red dress with shimmery golden jacket and oversized gold jewelry. She carried a lime green purse.
Cattrall previously shared that her one stipulation for appearing in honor of the franchise's 25th anniversary was that she be dressed by original Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field.
"It's very interesting to get a call from the head of HBO saying, 'What can we do?' I went, 'Hmmm. Let me get creative,'" Cattrall recalled with a laugh during an appearance on The View back in June.
"And one of those things was to get Pat Field back," she said. "I just thought, 'If I'm gonna come back, I've got to come back with that kind of Samantha style. I've got to push it.' And we did."
ET previously spoke with Parker, whom Cattrall has had public tension with for years, about her former co-star's return.
"I was really excited about the idea," Parker told ET. "I thought it was a really good idea and I was thrilled that, you know, we could make it happen and that it worked for her and it's just really nice to see. It's really nice. I was really pleased."
After a lengthy friendship throughout the course of Sex and the City's six-season run and two subsequent films, Samantha and Carrie are estranged on And Just Like That after a business argument. The character of Samantha was previously represented on And Just Like That with a series of back-and-forth texts between her and Carrie following the death of Carrie's husband, Mr. Big (Chris Noth).
In the season 1 finale, Carrie and Samantha agree to meet up for a drink while she's in Paris and Samantha is living in London. Of Cattrall's highly anticipated scene, Parker previously said that the show will continue to showcase Carrie and Samantha's distant friendship.
"I think it reflects the relationship that we've been sharing via text for last season and this season. You know, this is a hugely important relationship for Carrie, it's been filled with affection," Parker shared with ET of the cameo. "We just thought it was a really nice idea to put a face to the text, really in large part to celebrate the 25 years of [Sex and the City]."
Parker also praised showrunner Michael Patrick King's placement of the scene, saying, "Just the way Michael placed it where it was placed and the sentimental moment in which it occurs is just a really nice little thing."
Co-stars Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbes) and Kristin Davis (Charlotte York) previously told ET that they were disappointed that the secret of Cattrall's cameo was ruined earlier this year after the news was leaked.
"We were hoping we could keep it under wraps, and she would just pop up as a person who's watching the episode and it would be this delightful unexpected surprise," Nixon told ET. "Unfortunately now it's been blown, which is really a bummer. Most of it was just this surprise of her coming back. I think we all are emphasizing it's really brief, it's just a moment, so don't be expecting anything other than that."
Seasons 1 and 2 of And Just Like That are currently streaming on Max.
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