The Sex and the City extended universe tends to have an unceremonious way of off-ing folks. Big experienced death by Peloton. When Willie Garrison, the actor who played Stanford Blatch, died in real life, the show just shoehorned in a storyline about how he’s now a Shinto Monk. And who can forget Lexi Featherston exclaiming “I’m so bored I could die!” before falling to her death in the 2004 SATC episode? Well, Variety has confirmed that our “queer, nonbinary, Mexican Irish diva” Che Diaz will not be returning to And Just Like That... Season 3 and while it probably won’t be because they’ve died or become a monk, never say never when dealing with the brains behind HBO’s most baffling show. In January, after Sara Ramírez posted about the “duplicitous” entertainment industry’s shameful silencing and blacklisting of Pro-Palestinian performers, viewers couldn’t help but wonder (sorry) if they were coyly referring to being shown the door at HBO. But Miranda-philes know that Ramírez’s onscreen love interest and AJLT lead Cynthia Nixon has also been very vocal about her pro-Palestine beliefs and no rumors have been circling about her departure. A source confirmed to Variety that Ramírez being written off the show has nothing to do with their politics and instead, it’s just that the “character had reached a natural conclusion.” So with that in mind, I thought it was only right to bid proper adieu to a character that did the impossible: unite a fanbase famously divided by rivalries like “Aidan vs Big” and “Carrie, insane or not?” Che, thank you for being such a terrible stand-up comedian that watching you made me feel less bad about my own foray into stand-up comedy in my twenties. Without you, my faith and adoration in Steve being the best partner would have potentially wavered, a foundational truth I’m not brave enough to stray from. And thank you for fingering Miranda so hard in Carrie’s kitchen while Carrie recovered from hip surgery in the next room that you turned Miranda’s gray hair red again. You might have been such an insufferable character that a number of think pieces wondered if you were harmful to progress made for LGBTQIA+ representation on television, but I think it was Beyoncé who once sang, “You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation.” And that is the sort of corny note passed off as a full punchline that Che Diaz would close their comedy concerts with. So in honor of them, and in the hope that the writers don’t brutally kill them off but rather just say they moved back to Los Feliz, I’ll leave it at that. Sash-Che away!
