Last night, ABC aired the series finale of the Samantha Who? sitcom called “With This Ring.” The show was well-rated in its early days but far fewer viewers tuned in to watch season two. The show was cancelled in May and, though there have been efforts to save the show, it hasn’t happened.
With Andrea about to be married to a star athlete and Samantha torn between rich Winston Funk and photographer Todd Deepler, how will it all turn out?
The three girls are getting pampered before Andrea’s wedding. Samantha (Christina Applegate) is hesitant to bring Funk (Billy Zane) to the ceremony because the wedding will be covered on the news and she doesn’t want Todd to see her with him from London.
Chase (Rick Hoffman) brings Dena (Melissa McCarthy) her stuffed bunny and she accidentally spills the beans that Sam had retrograde amnesia. He can’t believe that he didn’t know.
Funk shows up and gives Andrea (Jennifer Esposito) a vacation at his newly purchased island and Sam feels obligated to ask him to the wedding. A bit later, at her apartment, Todd shows up and says that he’s come back in time to take her to the wedding. She accidentally spills orange juice on the wedding dress.
Soonafter, he finds out that she asked Funk and they have a fight. He’s all set to return to his job in London. She leaves the room. Ss he’s about to storm out of the apartment, Todd grabs a book and sees the hidden engagement ring case in the bookcase and takes it.
Meanwhile, Sam’s Mom, Regina (Jean Smart), has found a bag of lightly salted almonds and questions her husband, Howard (Kevin Dunn), about them. He admits that he picked up a young female hitchhiker on his trip. In the RV, Regina later finds pictures of him from a civil war battlefield, from four diferent days. He says that college student “Jenny” took them. He swears nothing happened and reminds Regina that she didn’t want to go. Regina gets very upset. As they hug, he notices the tattoo on her back. Oops.
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Chase is still upset about his not knowing that Sam had amnesia. How could she still do her job so well? What does that say about the job, or his job? He wants to run away with Dena but she refuses and pulls him along to get ready for the wedding.
Meanwhile Andrea’s Mom may not make it to the wedding in time. A network producer steps in and says that they have network time allotted for the wedding coverage and have actors standing by as back-up parents. On the news, Seth is being interviewed as the guy that introduced Andrea to basketball star Tony Dane and he says that he really regrets it. That gives Andrea pause.
Dressed in her hot-pink bridesmaid gown, Sam enters with Andrea’s dress. While Andrea puts it on, a clip is shown on the news of Funk and Andrea discussing Todd. She insists on seeing all of the footage and, once she does, realizes that wealthy Funk orchestrated Todd’s London opportunity so that he’d be out of the way.
Sam later confronts Funk about sending Todd away. He says that he didn’t do anything bad, he just offered Todd a job. He wanted a job, Funk wanted her. She feels better and just wants to blow off the wedding and get out of there.
Todd and Seth are in a bar, commiserating about their woman troubles and their foolish actions. Seth says that he always envisioned it working out like the end of An Officer and a Gentleman where Richard Gere carries Debra Winger out of the work plant. After talking to Todd, he gets up and heads to the wedding.
Howard and Regina are still arguing about the tattoo and Regina lets it slip that she was at a bar with Samantha in the city. He’s as upset as she had been. She says that she doesn’t want to spend their future in an RV and going to cemeteries and battlefields. Unfortunately, he does. Do they have a future together?
Samantha calls Andrea from Funk’s helicopter and tells her that she’s sorry but she won’t be able to come to the wedding. Though Sam can’t hear it over the loud propeller, Andrea pleads with her friend to come, that she needs her.
Samantha hangs up and the producer introduces Andrea to her stand-in parents, one of whom is Japanese (the network wanted diversity). As things get underway and Andrea stands outside the church with her fake dad, Seth pulls up in his car and the music from Officer and a Gentleman begins to play.
Cut to the airport as Todd is going through security. He sees footage of Sam on the news and leaves the line. Sam and Funk have arrived at the airport and she thanks him for the ride. It was, after all, the only way she’d be able to catch Todd and is a bit of payback for Funk’s manipulations.
Todd is trying to retrieve his checked baggage because he’s changed his plans about going. It sounds suspicious to the baggage clerk and he calls security. Meanwhile, Sam goes to an airline counter and tries to buy a ticket so that she can get through security and find Todd. The woman at the counter gets suspicious and calls security.
The two end up in adjacent security cubicles and Todd overhears her please to be let go. They propose to one another at the same time. They kiss as Samantha’s voice over says, “There’s another kind of fairy tale, one built on star-crossed lovers who fight against the evil empire, who find each other against all odds.”
We next see Andrea and Seth in bed together. She threatens that he can’t tell anyone about this.
Dena and Chase are at the airport and he’s ready to go anywhere with her — with lots of frequent flyer miles and two years of French. Nothing’s tying them down — of course they still have her two big dogs with them in tow.
Todd and Sam run up to Frank the doorman and excitedly tell him they’re getting married. He wishes them luck, lots and lots of it. Todd picks her up and carries her over the threshold and up to the apartment.
There, we see Regina with her luggage. She’s left Howard and has decided to move in with Sam. Todd and Sam stare incredulously at each other. End of series.
While the series finale doesn’t wrap up everything, it does give viewers some closure. Are you satisfied with the last episode of Samantha Who? Is there something that you wished had happened?
Images courtesy ABC.
I really loved this show and hated that it got canceled. I would have loved to have seen Sam and Todd plan their wedding and say I do. And I also hate how her mom and dad broke up. And it would have been nice to see how things happened with Seth and Andrea. And also how things continued with Dena and Chase. I would really love it if they were brought back on T.V. I really thought that it was a great show and hated to see it end.
I hated the ending part where SAMs parents are all of a sudden living apart. I think it was just a very bad way to end the show. But i did like how Sam and Todd get married.
This was a really good series, with a great cast. I also tried to watch but could not find out when it was coming on. The schedule kept changing. Christina Applegate needs to be given another series or either continue this one on another network.
The problem with the lack of viewership had nothing to do witht he show itself. It was because of the odd show times that seemed to change every other week. If it hadn;t been for my DVR I would have missed most of them. I loved the show and would still be an avid viewer if it hadn’t been cancelled. Maybe it will come back some day.
how come abc is canceling everything? They seem to be canceling the really well written shows, like Samantha Who? and What About Brian, which are similar, but really great shows! Anyone think FOX or another station might pick them up?
How do you start a petition to bring this back?
ABC really did a great show a mis-service. The show was well written and very, very funny. I’m sure there were many fans but how could we follow the shows airtime?? Please stop blaming lack of viewership for mis handeled show promotion.