Stanford’s Sendoff On And Just Like That... Is Dividing Fans

Spoilers for And Just Like That... Season 2 ahead. Stanford Blatch’s journey has taken an unexpected turn. In the penultimate episode of And Just Like That... Season 2, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) reveals the fate of her best friend Stanford, who had to be written off the show in Season 1 after actor Willie Garson died in September 2021 following a secret battle with cancer.

Fans will recall that Garson appeared in the first several episodes of AJLT before his unexpected death. At the time, Stanford’s husband Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone) explained that he had run off to Japan to manage a new TikTok star and asked for a divorce in the process. Carrie indicated that her beloved Stanny was still overseas in the Season 2 premiere, when she wore a silk kimono and remarked that her friend “had sent it from Japan.”

On the Aug. 17 episode, Carrie sat Anthony down with some classic cosmos to reveal that she just received a letter from Stanford, who has decided to live the rest of his life as a Shinto monk, and even included a photo of him in a monk’s role. “Good Photoshop, what’s the bit?” Anthony quips, leading Carrie to assure him that he’s found his calling. When Anthony asks if he wrote to Carrie and not him, she responds with an explanation from Stanny, who was worried his husband would make fun of him. “Like I just did,” he admitted.

The letter also came with divorce documents from Stanford, revealing that their apartment and all of his possessions now belong to Anthony. “I have let go of all things that no longer serve me and I let it all go with love,” Carrie reads aloud, a sentiment that Anthony is actually impressed by, leading to a sentimental toast for closure. Naturally, fans were very divided on Stanford’s eventual ending, questioning why in the world the AJLT writers would make him a monk.

Despite the criticism about Stanford’s sendoff, other fans made sure to applaud Parker and Cantone for their delicate yet emotional performances — and admitted that they still got teary-eyed when their characters toasted to Stanford.

In a 2022 interview with Variety, showrunner Michael Patrick King revealed his original plans for Stanford on AJLT, which wasn’t too different from the storyline they had to craft after Garson’s death. “Stanford was going to have a midlife crisis,” he said. “Stanford’s character always had a borderline career as a manager, and we were like going to explore the fact that it wasn’t a real career. Anthony and him were probably going to have split anyway.”

However, it was still no less difficult writing him off completely. “It’s the most threadbare writing I’ve ever done just to move him along without much maneuvering, because it was just so sad,” he said. “There was no way I could write myself out of that in any charming, cute way.”