And Just Like That has officially bid farewell to Willie Garson‘s beloved character Stanford Blatch.
As Perezcious readers know, the actor tragically passed away two years ago following a secret battle with pancreatic cancer. He was just 57.
Willie had been filming the first season of the Sex and the City reboot when he died. During the first few episodes, Stanford and his husband Anthony Marentino (played by Mario Cantone) split up. To make up for Willie’s sudden absence, Stanford then moves to Asia to manage a TikTok star. Since then, Anthony has struggled to move on, but on Thursday’s episode, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) offered up an important update in hopes of helping him. The scene also seems to serve as the character’s final send-off.
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In the episode, Carrie reveals she received a letter from Stanford, who was no longer managing the young star after they got into an argument. She shares:
“Stanford asked me to speak to you. He’s back in Japan, in Kyoto. He went to see the geishas and he’s staying.”
She explains Stanford has found a very unexpected new job:
“He’s a Shinto monk. … No bit, he had a big, ugly fight with his TikTok client. She fired him and ran off to Berlin, he wandered around Kyoto for days crying. [He] eventually found his way into a temple where, I guess, he stopped crying and he wrote, ‘Carrie, for the first time in my life, I felt peace, real peace.’”
Aw!
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Anthony then wonders, “Why didn’t he tell me this himself?” Per Carrie, Stanford is afraid to tell Anthony in case he mocked his newfound happiness. Sad! Instead, he started all the paperwork for a divorce, she notes:
“He also wrote that, ‘My lawyers have enclosed all the legal work needed. The apartment and all of my belongings are now his. I want no attachments. I have let go of all things that no longer serve me and I let it all go with love.’”
The fact that Stanford could move on leaves Anthony “stunned” considering he’s struggled to do the same, even though the show introduced a new love interest for him in an Italian poet named Giuseppe (Sebastiano Pigazzi). Getting a bit teary, Anthony achieves his own peace, saying:
“Good for him. Good for him.”
The friends then share a toast to “Stanny,” and Carrie says she’d like to “keep the photo” of her BFF since she’d grown “very attached” to the sight of him in a traditional Japanese robe. Hah!
A bittersweet ending to his love story, but it’s nice to know Willie’s character has found peace. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know (below).
[Image via Max & FayesVision/WENN]