fantasy lives
by rantywoman
I sorta love this theory:
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/30/my_crazy_sex_and_the_city_finale_theory/
Nearly 10 years ago, in February 2004, “Sex and the City” aired its final episode. It was an episode that, in its final moments, didn’t just subvert the six seasons that had come before but seemed to repudiate them. At the end of the journey, all four women who’d found satisfaction in friendships, in work, in casual sex and, yes, in shopping were paired off with a monogamous life partner — even Samantha, whose gleeful pursuit of no-strings sex was among the show’s most popular elements.
The end of “Sex and the City” is almost bizarre in the degree to which it indulges a viewer’s wishes for the characters over the realities of the show, in which love is difficult and finding the right partner is arduous, and over the stated desires of at least one of the show’s four lead characters. In a generally quite positive reappraisal of the series in the New Yorker this year, Emily Nussbaum wrote:
In the final round, “Sex and the City” pulled its punches, and let Big rescue Carrie. It honored the wishes of its heroine, and at least half of the audience, and it gave us a very memorable dress, too. But it also showed a failure of nerve, an inability of the writers to imagine, or to trust themselves to portray, any other kind of ending — happy or not.
But there’s another explanation — a far less likely one, but one that cuts to the very heart of just how difficult life had been for Carrie Bradshaw before her final rescue by Big. I cannot know whether this is what the writers intended — indeed, I highly doubt it, but I am judging the work on its own terms and not by authorial intent. I believe that, even within the world of the show, nothing depicted actually happened. The show’s protagonist, the writer Carrie Bradshaw, wrote herself three best friends and an ultimately heroic lover. She is, finally, alone.
thebitterbabe 
This theory has thrown me.
I loved SATC and now feel there were some Matrix-like workings I didn’t catch. It is good to be thrown but mid-air it feels uncomfortable and that’s not even considering the landing. I am well and truly weirded out.
The author is probably right– her theory is not what the writers intended– but still… it is kinda weird that Carrie was walking alone at the end, right? And I always felt like something was off about that phone call from “John.”
Yeah, the John call was one step too far in the knitting of it all up. And while this theory may not be what the writers intended, it does fit in … to which I say “great” , SATC has been twinpeaked.
And hey – amazon just messaged me to say my copy of The Woman Alone is on route. Thanks for bringing this into my world. I am well looking forward to reading it. I’ll let you know how I get on with it.
The scene where the other three women were sitting around the table with nothing to say was weird too. Maybe there is something to this theory. The whole ending seemed “off.”