And Just Like That... it was over. Carrie Bradshaw’s story came to an end on Thursday, Aug. 14, when the series finale of the Sex and the City aired on HBO to mixed reviews from fans. Now, showrunner Michael Patrick King is defending the And Just Like That... finale ending, claiming that Carrie was always meant to end up with...herself. Spoilers for the finale ahead!

After decades of watching Carrie look for love in all the wrong (and some of the right) places, fans were surprised to see And Just Like That... end with Carrie single and alone in her giant house, content without having a man by her side. Those who wanted to see Carrie get her happily-ever-after romantic ending were definitely let down, but in a post-finale interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Michael explained that this was always meant to be Carrie’s journey in the Sex and the City revival.

“Who Carrie was at the end of Sex and the City and who she is at the end of And Just Like That is someone who has had great growth, great life experience. Now she’s ready to say the very shocking sentence, ‘Maybe just me,’” he explained. “It’s really about the character, where they've been and where you want to leave them. This is where we wanted to leave her.”

sarah jessica parker in the and just like that series finale
Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max

The writer-director added that he wanted Carrie’s ambiguous ending to both honor the fans’ desire for her to be “taken care of,” and also his desire for the show to make fans feel “that they’re taken care of.”

He continued, “That if you have someone, you’re reflected. And that if you don’t have someone—which is so important—if you just have yourself, that’s the most important reflection Sex and the City and And Just Like That could do, because that’s the DNA of the brand: the individual versus what society says you should be. The goal for us was to create a moment where Carrie feels the love for herself from herself, and what she’s created in that world, that she’s created in that magnificent house.”