The Sex and the City Birkin Curse Will Continue in And Just Like That... Season Two

Kim Cattrall may not be returning to And Just Like That... season two, but her legacy will live on. Over two decades after Samantha pined after a Birkin so much that it lost her a job, it looks like the Hermes bag is returning to the spotlight in an upcoming episode of the new season.

In new photos from the set of the show, Sarita Choudhury is seen in character as Seema on the streets of New York City carrying an orange Birkin. She looks very chic until, out of nowhere, a man comes and snatches the bag from her hands. Seema is left in shock, running after the man in heels, her off-white Fendi caftan blowing in the wind behind her.

And just like that...Seema is Birkin-less. Likely, this purse-snatching incident will play out on the show, in at least a B storyline in one of the episodes.

There is a precedent for Birkins taking the center stage on Sex and the City. Back in season four, we follow Samantha’s journey to obtain a Birkin, a saga that ends in her getting fired from a job. She goes to purchase a red 35 cm Birkin only to learn there’s a five-year waiting list at the time. “For a bag?” she asks. “It’s not a bag,” the sales rep responds. “It’s a Birkin.” Of course, these days, many would probably happily wait five years if it meant they only had to pay $4,000 for a large Birkin (now, the same bag she coveted will cost you at least five figures). In a desperate attempt to skip the line, Samantha name drops her newest client, Lucy Liu. A few days later, and Lucy shows up to lunch with Samantha carrying the bag. “Some nice man dropped it off at my hotel this morning,” she says. “It’s not really my style, but hey it’s a free bag.” Samantha explains the mix-up, but Lucy is unimpressed that Samantha would use her name (and drop a whole lot of f-bombs in the process during some angry calls to Hermes’ PR rep). So, Lucy fires her new publicist and leaves with the bag in hand. And thus, like Seema all these years later, Samantha is left Birkin-less.

Of course, the Birkin’s return to the SATC universe begs another big question as well—is Seema’s bag even real? Not in the context of the show—Choudary plays a wealthy woman who likely would carry around such a bag—but is the prop a real one or a fake? Back in February, Sarah Jessica Parker revealed to Vogue that the blue Birkin she carried in a season five episode of the show was actually a knockoff. “Pat [Field] had a person and she was like, ‘Do you want one? I can get you one.’” Parker turned her down, but they did use Field’s “person” to get a big blue “Birkin” to cover up Parker’s growing baby bump for filming. “Look how big that bag is,” Parker said. “That bag had one job to do and did it very poorly. Maybe if it was a real Hermes bag it would have done a better job,” she joked.

Now, two decades later, and the Birkin has returned to haunt AJLT. As for if Seema will ever be reunited with her precious bag, we will have to wait and tune into the show to find out. Of course, we can also wait and see if she’s wearing it in other pictures on set, because as we know, Birkins are meant to be worn, and if she gets that baby back, she probably won’t let it out of her sight.