Stylish, successful, and sexually liberated, Samantha Jones was the boldest of the ladies who lunched on HBO's hit series Sex and the City. A self professed "try sexual" (she'll try anything once), her storylines in the series focused on her numerous brief flings and sexcapades with a wide variety of men in New York City.
While she has numerous irable traits, namely her loyalty to her friends and her unwillingness to back down from confrontation, she could be uncompromising, vain, and incredibly hurtful when forced to confront her feelings. From being consumed with her self-image to cheating on the only man who ever truly loved her, here are 10 ways Samantha got worse & worse on Sex and the City.
SELF-IMPORTANCE
It arrived in the first season, the phrase that Samantha Jones would utter at any hapless hostess that didn't seat her promptly at the best table in the best restaurant in New York City; "Do you know who I am?"
It didn't matter if it was Balzac's or In Bed, Samantha Jones expected to be treated well at the hottest establishments thanks to her connections as a PR director. Her self importance only increased as the series went on, especially in Season 6 when she goes to incredible lengths in order to gain access to the elite Soho House club's pool.
CONSUMED WITH HER IMAGE
Samantha Jones has always known she looked fabulous, and because she's so self-confident, she used her looks to get whatever she wanted out of men in positions of power. In Episode 5 of the first season, when Carrie wondered if she should really accept money from a man who considered it compensation for services rendered during a one night stand, Samantha heartily encouraged it.
She felt that it was only fair that women used their wiles to trade sex for influence when it came to the opposite gender. In Season 6, fearing that her ability to do this was waning, she sought a plastic surgeon to acquire breast augmentation.
TOOK ADVANTAGE OF CELEB CLIENTS
Due to being a sought after PR specialist, Samantha Jones attracted all sorts of A-list talent to her agency. In Season 4, one of these stars was Lucy Liu, who wanted her to handle all her red-carpet appearances, which Samantha used to her advantage.
Not only did she know a celebrity like Liu would bolster her professional reputation, she also knew that she could get certain personal advantages, like using Liu's name to order a designer handbag that has a waiting list of several years. Liu discovered her con however and fired her on the spot.
DUMPED DATES FOR SUPERFICIAL REASONS
Due to her career, her looks, and her active sex drive, Samantha Jones felt that she deserved only the best in partners. She called it "having standards", when in reality more often than not it simply meant she was protecting her feelings from becoming too committed to someone.
Whenever she found something about a date that she didn't like, she dumped them. Superficial reasons included penis size, age, financial stability, and even bad breath. There were plenty of men she could have been happy with but for one reason or another they never measured up.
PLAYED FAST AND LOOSE WITH HER SEXUAL HEALTH
By Season 3, the girls are concerned that Samantha may not be taking care of herself the way that she should. For someone who has as much fun between the satin sheets as she does, they're surprised to find out that she's never had an STD test.
Not only does Samantha need to have a check up done for her own sexual health, she needs to be conscientious of the sexual health of the rest of her partners. She begrudgingly gets tested only because her friends insist, and she vows to make a habit out of it.
GOT JEALOUS AND TERRITORIAL OVER HER BOYFRIEND
It seemed as though when Samantha Jones dated Richard Wright in Season 4, one of New York City's prominent luxury hotel moguls, she'd finally met her match. Rich, handsome, and successful, he was just like her, including how active his sex drive was.
This caused them to have numerous fights about fidelity, which resulted in Samantha often donning ridiculous disguises to tail him and see if she could catch him cheating. Even after they broke up in Season 5, she blackmailed him into letting her use his beach house for a party, and because she was jealous of a few of his former playmates dropping by, she broke several of its windows.
WAS INSENSITIVE ABOUT HER FRIENDS' PROBLEMS
Samantha's personal philosophy that the easiest way to get over anyone was to get under someone else. Therefore, whenever her friends had romantic problems, her advice was to break up with them and find someone to distract them from the heartache.
When it came to Charlotte's struggles with her first husband or becoming pregnant, Samantha largely ignored them. When Miranda shocked the group and had a baby in Season 5 with her boyfriend Steve, Samantha acted as though the child didn't exist until she was shamed into taking interest.
CHEATED ON THE MAN WHO LOVED HER WITH HER EX
Whether she liked it or not, Samantha's protege-turned-megastar client Smith Jerrod worshiped the ground she walked on and was a devoted boyfriend. She had helped him achieve fame and fortune from humble beginnings as a waiter in New York City, and he never forgot her kindness.
During a particularly rocky part of their relationship in the final season of the series, she tries to push Smith away from her by going back to Richard Wright for a one night stand. Only after the hollow and meaningless encounter does she realize the error of her ways, and how much Smith meant to her.
REFUSED TO LET ANYONE SEE HER VULNERABLE
Throughout the series, Samantha notoriously went to absurd lengths to not let anyone see her vulnerability. Even after her first encounter with hotel mogul Richard Wright in Season 4, who verbally demoralized her, she waited until she was in the elevator to cry because she wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
When she contracted breast cancer in the final season of the series, she worried that her boyfriend Smith would leave her if he saw her with a shaved head as a result of radiation therapy. She constantly wore wigs, even if they made her uncomfortable, as a figurative barrier between the world and her true naked self.
WAS SCARED OF COMMITMENT
For all of Samantha's swagger, bravado, and fabulous confidence, she remained a woman afraid to let anyone get close to her. She would rather everyone continue to view her as the proud and fierce woman she was than anything less. Therefore everything had to be her way, from her career to her lovers without compromise.
Samantha didn't have a serious, real relationship the entire series until she met Smith Jerrod, and even then he had to be willing to scale her emotional barriers to get a glimpse of her tender side. She became the most authentic and down to Earth version of herself when she let Smith and the rest of her friends in during the final season.