Could that character on ‘And Just Like That’ been saved? A cardiologist weighs in


Spoilers for And Just Like That
At the end of episode one of And Just Like That, Carrie returned home from a concert to see Big slumped over outside the shower, dying of a heart attack following a Peloton spin workout. Big’s phone was just out of reach, preventing him from calling for help. I’m assuming he didn’t have Siri or Hey Google voice commands activated on his phone or that it didn’t occur to him to use these, and I’m assuming they didn’t have any Alexa or Google voice-activated devices in their home. Carrie was more than capable of calling for help though, and of immediately starting CPR, which is what the 911 operator would have recommended, judging by my television knowledge. Instead she stood there staring at him for what felt like an eternity, eventually going to hold him, where he died in her arms. E! got quotes from a cardiologist, Dr. Sion Roy, about whether Big could have been saved.

E! News talked to Cardiologist and past president of the LA County Medical Association Dr. Sion Roy to discuss whether or not Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) could have saved her husband.

Dr. Roy says that although “it was a little unclear exactly what was going on because there was no real significant dialogue,” Carrie should have “called 9-1-1, run over, try to figure out what was wrong while the emergency services were on the way.”

And that’s not all, as Dr. Roy notes that Carrie should begun chest compression when Big started to lose his pulse.

Though Carrie could have been a bit more proactive, Dr. Roy explains that “more likely than not, if we take this scenario at face value, he was probably going to die regardless.”

Not to mention, as Dr. Roy highlights, Big may have been able to call for help himself. “Most heart attacks present with chest tightness, chest pains, and usually, though, people remain conscious [and] to some degree functional,” the cardiologist says. “And so I’m not sure why he wouldn’t be able to yell for Alexa or reach for, presumably, his waterproof iPhone and get it, because he clearly was conscious throughout that extended period of time.”

He continues, “Usually a heart attack doesn’t render you to be immobile. Usually, your pain gets worse as you move, if you’re having a significant heart attack, but it doesn’t usually immobilize you.”

Apparently, per Dr. Roy, “the whole thing” is “a little unrealistic” as it is a fictional television show after all.

“She walked in, he had been having that chest pain for presumably an hour or something like that,” he comments, “and then he collapsed or had his [cardiac] arrest right as she walked in, and it’s just sort of very coincidental.”

The candidate for California State Assembly further adds, “It’s just hard to believe in this scenario, that you wouldn’t have found a way to call for some help in the middle of New York City.”

[From E! Online]

Exactly, Big could have called for help and Carrie could have taken action sooner. Chris Noth did an interview with Vogue where he talked about Big’s death. He said that he and showrunner Michael Patrick King wanted to have that moment for Big and Carrie where they realize it’s the end.

One thing Michael and I agreed on: We both called it the Bonnie and Clyde moment, which is that moment when Bonnie and Clyde are about to be eviscerated by bullets. They have that look with each other, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. They both know that it’s the end. We knew that we had to have that, that I just shouldn’t die alone in the bathroom. There had to be that last moment and no words, no corny dialogue, just a look, and I thought [King] did it so beautifully.

[From Vogue via Just Jared]

I get that they wanted to give those characters one last moment together but there were better ways of doing it than to make Carrie look completely incapable of handling an emergency. The Peloton spokesperson really missed the boat in their response by not shading Carrie for not getting help right away. That ending was unrealistic as Dr. Roy mentioned, but I guess Sex and The City was never known for realism. Those two never would have been happily married in the first place.

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66 Responses to “Could that character on ‘And Just Like That’ been saved? A cardiologist weighs in”

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  1. StartupSpouse says:

    Not hard to believe that Carrie wouldn’t have called for help. Loved her character at the time (in my 20s) but her character was always written as pretty self-centered and useless.

    However, Mr. Big didn’t want to take an early dirt nap. He absolutely would have called for help. And he absolutely would have had ALL the technology enabled to do so.

    • Wiglet Watcher says:

      This.
      Carrie was always helpless for others and herself. She was the worst character.
      That ending was also stupid.

    • Andrew's Nemesis says:

      Well, his career is now permanently toes-up – and good riddance.

      • AlpineWitch says:

        Let’s hope the allegations go to trial and this POS gets shelved for the rest of his life.

    • Mrs.Krabapple says:

      From the movie, Carrie’s main concern was that she wouldn’t have access to Big’s wealth and properties if they weren’t married. I haven’t watched to new tv show, but Big dying is the best thing that could happen for Carrie — she gets his money and properties and status, without being tied to him and forced to be monogamous. It is totally in character for her to let him die.

  2. whatever says:

    Honestly, the only thing about this that I DID find realistic is that Carrie would have absolutely no idea how to handle herself in an emergency. That is consistent with her character.

    • Jegede says:

      True.

      And I ❤️ that there was NO dialogue.
      I can’t emphasise how cringe inducing it is in the movies, when someone’s dying, and they start reciting soliloquies as they gasp dramatically for last breath.😳😳

    • Kaye says:

      She was mentally planning her funeral wardrobe because, as always, it is all about her.

      Ugh, I used to love this show.

      • Haylie says:

        Yup. She was thinking about where to go shopping for it and having Miranda deal with all the icky estate planing stuff. She would’ve had Charlotte plan the funeral if she could pull it together and stop with the tears.

  3. goofpuff says:

    Oh 100% Big kept cheating on her after their marriage. He cheated on every girlfriend/wife the entire show. Carrie was fine with it as long as she got the $$$ with the shoes and big apartment and closet. That whole Big/Carrie storyline should have ended long ago.

    And I’m not surprised Carrie sucks in an emergency. She’s the one in the group who was always the most irresponsible and incapable. The other girls existed to constantly bail her out of things.

    • minx says:

      Yep. In the first movie Carrie just had to hire Jennifer Hudson’s character as an “assistant.” Carrie sat with her feet up in her little apartment, leafing through magazines, while JHud RSVPed to Carrie’s party invitations. And then Carrie bitched because JHud couldn’t get the area code she wanted for a new phone after Carrie had tossed the old one in the ocean. “I’m a 917 gal!!” What a charmless, superficial character,

    • WithTheAmerican says:

      That whole bit of them playing records alphabetically and dancing happily in their kitchen while making dinner made me want to vomit.

      I know of zero people with a marriage like that, it’s an affectation of screenwriters for some reason who think a record collection is the height of depth.

      And he’s a cheater and she has no character. How could they be in “love” still?

    • February pisces says:

      One thing that annoys me about carries character is that she lived an A list luxury designer lifestyle and yet she had no hustle whatsoever. She wrote her newspaper column which seems glamorous, but the reality is that it’s rubbish pay. And she had no other sources of income, side hustles or ambitions on top on that. Her book deal just falls in her lap, she doesn’t go out of her way to make it happen. She glamourised this lifestyle without showing the work that actually goes into achieving it. Atleast the other women worked hard to achieve their lifestyle.

      • minx says:

        Carrie’s whole story arc from beginning to end was other people rescuing her from her irresponsible ditziness. The European socialite bought her shoes after Carrie’s AmEx card was cut up. Aiden did everything for her. Charlotte and the ring. Miranda arranged drinks with Aiden and Steve at Carrie’s behest, then Carrie asked her to leave! The Russian swooped in, ready to take over her condo payments and sweep her off to Paris. And, of course, Big. And Carrie repaid them by being a selfish friend and to Aiden a crummy girlfriend.

      • MelOn says:

        Well, that’s why she had no money and couldn’t buy her apartment. People who work in little newspapers can’t afford Jimmy Choos, Blahniks and all those designer clothes. I don’t know why they didn’t make her a Vogue or NY Times columnist.

  4. Moxylady says:

    Ryan Reynolds peloton commercial with mr big is pure genius.

    • Christine says:

      I completely agree with you!

    • AmyB says:

      The Peloton Ad has now been pulled. Sexual assault allegations came out today against the actor Chris Noth!! I am sure this will be covered tmw!! Guess Mr. Big really wasn’t too far from the character of Chris Noth. However, I guess we should wait and see how this plays out. Yet, WE ALL KNOW how women coming forward are treated. Eye roll!

      • AlpineWitch says:

        UK and USA trials produce so few convictions that you should be ashamed of yourself for siding with criminals in your comment.

      • SKF says:

        Yo @royalassassin, you know nothing about this topic. First of all, in the USA, only 5 in 1,000 rapists ever see a day in jail (RAINN stats). The UK has similarly bad results, as do most countries. In fact, many are far worse. Rape is one of the only crimes where the victim is treated like a criminal as well and constantly accused of lying. It is incredibly hard for rape victims to come forward and it takes a LOT to do so. They are usually attacked from all sides when they do. False accusations are so incredibly rare (less than 1%). So you might want to back track on your factually incorrect and offensive statements, mate. Signed, someone who was raped.

  5. milliemollie says:

    Carrie let Big die so she’ll get his money. I said what I said.

    • A Girl is No One says:

      I have a weird feeling he left all the money to his secretary. There seemed some foreshadowing there at the funeral

      • milliemollie says:

        That would be AMAZING! Carrie would lose it, I hope you’re right!
        Or Big didn’t have any money anymore and he left Carrie a ton of debt, that would also be hilarious!

      • minx says:

        I’ve refused to watch AJLT but a broke Carrie might lure me in. Maybe they’ll write Aiden back in to bail her out—he finds out Carrie is a widow and he dumps his whole family, because Carrie is just that irresistible.

    • Chic says:

      Yeah.! Which is probably why she and Samantha fell out? Carrie thought she was Uber rich via marrying Big and didn’t want to pay Samantha. So she switched it around to say Sam was sponging off her. Also don’t understand why she got upset about Big leaving Natasha money. Granted Big and Natasha weren’t married long so Natasha probably didn’t get alimony etc.

    • The Recluse says:

      Yep, it was ‘murder’. Where’s Jessica Fletcher when you need her?

  6. Bryn says:

    He couldn’t have survived because its a TV show and they wrote the scene for him to die. Lol. Nonsense

    • smcollins says:

      Agreed. They’re *fictional* characters on a *fictional* tv show. I get that’s it’s on trend to hate on SATC & Carrie, but seriously, this discussion, debate, whatever you want to call it is just ridiculous and pointless (at least so far as writing articles and consulting actual cardiologists about it).

      • Arpeggi says:

        It’s a good reminder of the importance of knowing CPR (or trying even of you don’t), calling 911 and of the usefulness of defibrillators which will save ppl’s life even if you don’t know how to do compressions. Seriously, the main reason why defib won’t save a life is ppl forgetting to use it… In that sense, I think it’s a useful conversation

  7. Merricat says:

    Does SJP have a writing credit on this? Because between Big and Samantha, it all sounds like stuff that she might have thought up.

    • K says:

      You are reading my mind.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      Probably – she likely thinks it makes her sympathetic and relatable. Carrie and SJP have a MASSIVE victim complex and its shining through in these plots.

    • SomeChick says:

      I think it was in his contract that the character would die, so that he wouldn’t have to make any more movies. Charlton Heston did this when he got sick of making Planet of the Apes movies. and there was that interview where the actor said he had to be talked into it.

  8. LaUnicaAngelina says:

    “That ending was unrealistic as Dr. Roy mentioned, but I guess Sex and The City was never known for realism. Those two never would have been happily married in the first place.”

    Yup!

  9. K says:

    In a comparative study effort I watched Hocus Pocus the other night. Strangely, SJP’s character is also dimwitted and useless, but when things go wrong she says “Amok, amok amok!” Which at least serves to alert others there is trouble. Alas for Big, Carrie can’t even manage that much.

  10. Monica says:

    I find it endearing, CB, that although the story has blown up all over the internet, you’re still respecting spoiler ettiquette. ☺️

    • whatever says:

      I appreciate this so much, too!! I mean, I’ve seen this specific one already, but generally, I am so grateful when people respect that. There is so much awesome stuff out there to watch, I can’t possibly get to it all within two days of it going live. I need a little time to catch up on everything!

  11. Noki says:

    Did Chris Noth want this storyline and Big to leave with no chance of returning. I guess he was sick of it too Lol. I wonder how much he got paid for such small screen time.

    • Amy Too says:

      I’ve heard he only wanted to do one episode but I don’t if that’s true or not. It kind of seems like it would be because SATC without Mr. Big and without Samantha is kind of overkill on getting rid of favorite/main characters unless they had no other choice.

    • Jegede says:

      Yeah.
      Noth didn’t even want to do the movies .
      He has been vocal in saying Big had nowhere left to go, as a character.

      • Noki says:

        It seems its SJP MO to beg and manipulate most of her costars(who are also her friends) to continue this dead horse. Cynthia Nixon also strikes me as someone who knows when enough is enough but did it out of blind loyalty.

      • Jegede says:

        Manipulate?🤨
        Isn’t it possible these grown adults made the decision cause they like her, or enjoy hanging out in NYC, it’s easy money, or want closure for their characters?

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      Given what has just dropped about North, Big may have been killed off for a reason – he’s been accused of sexual assault by 2 women.

  12. Teddy says:

    Just fyi — the wonderful writer Rachel Handler over at NY Mag is the one who wrote this first. It went viral because she put in print what so many people were yelling at their TV sets, and also the doc she spoke with was so good and also funny. Now it’s a few days later and a ton of sites are doing their own versions. But yeah, do something, Carrie.

  13. CROOKSNNANNIES says:

    Am I… am I the only one who thinks calling it a “Bonnie and Clyde” moment doesn’t work, even as a stretch, considering that Bonnie and Clyde died together? How is this even comparable. This sounds like a very forced analogy, with them trying to sound edgy or something. Their end was because they were both going to die. A relationship ending is not at all the same thing? This is insane.

    • Merricat says:

      The analogy does not work on any level. Lol. Banks robbers riding into a trap and certain death together is not the same as Princess Tutu finding her husband almost but not quite dead on the floor– and not quite dead just for the purpose of having a minute and a half where they both realize he’s nearly all the way dead.

  14. Songs (Or it didnt happen) says:

    Haven’t we all heard and seen enough of people dying needlessly and senselessly when we turn on the news? Like, I don’t think viewers are watching SATC / AJLT to be reminded of the loved ones that could have been saved if only someone did more. They want to see shoes and purses and shit. Read the room.

  15. LMG says:

    It was unrealistic and silly, but it was supposed to be a huge crisis. You never truly know how you’re going to react. Fight or flight, right? Some people totally freeze. I had this moment where I thought my infant aspirated some medication and I complete 100% froze. I ended up calling 911 and I was hardly able to communicate what was happening. She was totally fine (I think she was just holding it in her mouth and that’s why she wasn’t visibly breathing.). BUT every time I think she’s choking (I have a major phobia) I FREEZE. I KNOW I’m freezing, but there’s something that just stops me in my tracks. So……I think Carrie freezing is more realistic than it seems.

    • manda says:

      I think you’re right. I have no idea what I would do but I know I would be petrified that I was doing compressions wrong, etc. Life is so hard 🙁

  16. Arpeggi says:

    That death scene was unrealistic. But then again, death in TV/movies/plays is always totally unrealistic: people take way too long to die, they move too much, they talk too much, no one ever rattles… One of my colleagues dropped dead from cardiac arrest as he was about to walk the dog; though he probably experienced pain he disregarded, from an outsider, it was sudden and immediate. Once he fell, no matter the amount of CPR his partner and then paramedics tried, he couldn’t be revived: that’s how you die from a heart attack.

  17. Erin says:

    I don’t know. Maybe I’m too sensitive, but I totally cried during that scene. I get that she froze. That could be a response to extreme situation… fight, flight, freeze.

    Looking back, could she have called? yes. Watching it…I was in the moment with those characters and feeling for them. I wasn’t thinking about what assholes they both were in the past.

  18. Dizzy says:

    I would think a luxury building that they lived in would have a doorman and a defibrillator.

    • Arpeggi says:

      They have a doorman and the doorman would certainly have a defib (and be trained for CPR). That’s been bugging me since last week. Plus if Carrie freezes/panics, calling the doorman was the thing to do since they’d organize everything else quickly…

  19. SkyeL says:

    Did you all read the latest allegations against Chris Noth?! They’re very believable and incredibly upsetting.

  20. Detnow359 says:

    It was a teachable moment. Granted Noth wanted out the series but she could have called 911 and they still have their Bonnie/Clyde moment. Rather reckless on their part to not have her call

  21. MelOn says:

    LOL! I can’t believe that this is becoming that much of a thing.

    • Indywom says:

      Exactly. We have whole families wiped out in the Kentucky tornadoes but this is what people are whining about. After the news about Christopher Noth today, they will be glad they killed him off.

  22. Marie says:

    Those poor women, Noth is a predator, I hope the women dont face harassment because of the shows popularity

  23. Delphine says:

    I’ve met both SJP and Chris Noth and they’re both total assholes. But at least SJP isn’t a rapist so she’s got that.