How And Just Like That said goodbye to [spoiler]

Warning: This article contains spoilers for And Just Like That episode 4, titled "Some of My Best Friends."

And Just Like That has officially said goodbye to Willie Garson's Stanford Blatch.

Thursday's episode of HBO Max's Sex and the City revival offered closure to the story line of Carrie's (Sarah Jessica Parker) longtime BFF as well as the fan-favorite actor who died in September after a quiet battle with pancreatic cancer. With only three episodes completed before his death, the show was faced with the difficult task of how to appropriately write Garson out of the show. Now, we finally know how And Just Like That said goodbye.

Near the end of the episode, we see Carrie in her old Upper East Side apartment (she'll later make the difficult decision to sell the one she'd been living in with Chris Noth's Mr. Big). While doing some cleaning, she notices a letter addressed to her from Stanford.

"Dearest Carrie, by the time you read this I'll be in Tokyo. I couldn't tell you — not without crying," the letter says. "And you have had enough crying."

While Carrie struggles to process the letter's words, Stanford's husband Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone) shows up to offer a little more insight — and break some depressing news of his own.

According to Anthony, the reason Stanford left was because he was asked to go on tour with one of his clients, a 17-year-old Long Island TikTok star who's apparently huge in Asia. "I do not get her, but then I'm old, gay, and not Japanese," Anthony quipped while Carrie continued to try to make sense of the abrupt departure, which Anthony said was because Stanford couldn't bring himself to tell Carrie he was leaving with Big's death still so fresh.

"You know Stanny, he hates to disappoint people... in person," Anthony added.

Still, Carrie lamented she would've preferred to hear the news in person from her best friend. "If something good is happening in one of my friends' lives — and I'm assuming he considers this good — I want to know about it. No matter what is going on in mine. Good news or bad, I want to know," she insisted, before Anthony dropped a bomb of his own: He also had received a letter, except his was asking for a divorce.

"I don't get it. We were so happy," Anthony said forlornly, referring to the couple's constant bantering and bickering.

The episode closed with a simple dedication slide that read: "In memory of our beloved Willie Garson."

Prior to the series premiere on Dec. 9, costar Cynthia Nixon confirmed that Garson completed filming of three episodes before his death. Aside from Parker, a majority of the actor's costars were unaware of his private cancer battle until the late stages of his disease.

"Thankfully we were able to shoot with him not just before he was sick but after so it could be something we could discuss and listen to him about," Nixon said in a press interview following his death. "I know that was very important for us and I think it was something that was important to him, too — not to be hiding that from us anymore."

Stanford isn't the only character to leave Carrie for new adventures abroad. In the series premiere, the show explained the absence of Kim Cattrall's Samantha Jones by telling viewers she had left her friends after a disagreement to pursue new PR adventures in London.

And Just Like That is now streaming on HBO Max.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Sex and the City stars pay tribute to late castmate Willie Garson: 'He was a source of light'
• Willie Garson, Sex and the City and White Collar star, dies at 57
• And Just Like That review: An awkward City of the future