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.”
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.
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.
