Why Did Mr. Big Leave Natasha Money & Is It Simply An Apology?

- Sex and the City -
Why Did Mr. Big Leave Natasha Money & Is It Simply An Apology?

It's every normal person's dream to receive a call that an estranged loved one has left you money in their will. But on And Just Like That, we're not dealing with normal people. We're dealing with the extraordinarily wealthy (and kinda cooky) Upper East Side set who brush off giant sums of cash as an inconvenience. When Mr. Big left Natasha Naginsky a million dollars, it set off a chain reaction that led to stalking, burns, and suspicious, can't-be-trusted "closure".

As most post-death or divorce stories do, this one started in a lawyer's office. Carrie Bradshaw, Big's beloved secretary Gloria, and Miranda Hobbes were reviewing Big's final will and testament when it was revealed via a million-dollar line item that Big, dead and gone, had still been thinking about his ex-wife Natasha.

(It's here where I'd like to point out that Charlotte York clarifies in a later scene that it's not really a million bucks. After taxes, it's more like $450,000, she says, which is her attempt to re-assure that the gift isn't that significant. God bless Charlotte and her insane view of reality. She keeps me young.)

HBO

After the "Natasha gets a million" reveal, Carrie, sleepless in New York, goes on a walking tour of the city and a walking tour of her brain, trying to figure out why Big would've left Natasha money. After legitimately stalking Natasha online and at work, the two Big wives serendipitously meet at a coffee shop in foreign territory: the Upper West Side. It's here, out of everyone's comfort-zones, where we get an answer as to why Big may have left Natasha some cash.

Natasha, after once again tending to Carrie's literal wound after Carrie wronged her, says that she's confused as to why Big left her the cash, too, since they hadn't spoken to each other since the divorce. A wave of relief washes over Carrie and then she says, "For whatever it's worth, I think that money was his way of saying the he was sorry. You know, he was a finance guy. He's not – he wasn't great with words." Natasha agrees and gives Carrie way more grace then she needs to have, and leaves.

But is that the end of the mystery? Is that really the reason Big left her a money?

HBO

Natasha tells Carrie during their coffee date that Big was always a puzzle that couldn't be solved, and between the money he bequeathed Natasha, the dog photo, and the fact that we know that Gloria knew him better than he knew himself... we're set up for some more unraveling. Maybe Big left money to Natasha for one of her sons, who might be his? Maybe Big left money to Natasha to motivate her to keep quiet about a secret she knows?

Also, Gloria doesn't look especially shocked by Big's decision. Sure, she asks Miranda to deliver the news, but she doesn't seem necessarily surprised by his donation. In fact, she's very quick to say, in a defensive tone, I might add, "I knew nothing about it." Why would anyone assume she did? Hmm? The lawyer then goes on to explain that in his experience, when people have unfinished business, they throw money at it.

The money seems like a foreshadow of a bigger Big revelation to come, not Big's way of saying "sorry."

But if the cash really is Big's way of admitting fault, then I'd like to start accepting Mr. Big apologies, immediately.

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