Mr. Big's death in And Just Like That explained: why fans still blame Carrie more than the Peloton

It has been almost five years since And Just Like That opened its very first episode by giving Mr. Big a heart attack after his 1,000th Peloton ride, and the discourse has simply refused to die with him. He texts Carrie, heads for the shower, clutches his shoulder, and goes down.

Carrie comes home from Lily's piano recital, finds her husband on the bathroom floor, and — this is the part the internet has never processed — does not call 911. She holds him. Shower running. Fade to devastation.

The Peloton got indicted first

The immediate aftermath was corporate chaos of the finest vintage. Peloton's stock dropped double digits intraday, and the company scrambled a cardiologist from its wellness council, Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, who issued a statement defending the bike's honor by throwing Big's entire lifestyle under the bus — the cocktails, the cigars, the steaks, the season 6 cardiac event:

"Riding his Peloton bike may have even helped delay his cardiac event."

The bike, in other words, was the only one at that crime scene doing cardio responsibly. Peloton also revealed HBO never told them how the bike would be used — confidentiality! — and then speed-ran damage control with a Ryan Reynolds-produced ad resurrecting Chris Noth by the fireplace, which aged approximately as well as milk once the assault allegations against Noth surfaced days later. December 2021 was a long decade.

But the jury came for Carrie

Here's the thing: the Peloton was exonerated almost instantly. Carrie was not. Fans did the math — Big was conscious, phones existed, censored-rage tweets flew ("This is the MOST disrespectful s***") — and the verdict hardened into canon: she chose a cinematic embrace over an ambulance. Every anniversary, every rewatch, every new season of AJLT, the clip resurfaces and someone new discovers that Carrie Bradshaw witnessed a medical emergency and responded with eye contact.

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The creative team's defense, for the record, is that it was never supposed to be a procedural. Noth and creator Michael Patrick King designed the moment as their Bonnie-and-Clyde ending — two people who know it's over, no dialogue, just a look. Noth put the character's arc bluntly to Vogue:

"There was nowhere to go with it but six feet under."

So why does Carrie still catch more blame than a machine that was literally present at the death? Because the bike had a crisis-management team, and Carrie had a voiceover. One of them issued a statement citing cardiology. The other one wore the perfect grief dress. The internet knows exactly which of those it will never forgive, and just like that... it's her.

Previously we wrote: Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz's Buffy reunion at the Emmys came with shade