The news that Kim Cattrall will reprise her role as Samantha Jones—albeit only for a brief cameo—in season two of And Just Like That sent the internet into a tailspin last week. A famous “try-sexual”—as in, “I’ll try anything once”—Samantha was, for many fans, the lifeblood of the show. Her escapades were the most daring, her lines the most knowing, and her absence meant a certain pizzazz was missing from the Sex and the City spin-off, with the remaining cast all seeming a little bit… conventional without her. Granted, Miranda jacking in her marriage to Steve for a whirlwind romance with Che is a curveball no one expected to see coming, but still, like her friends—who are either in mourning or seeking a long-term relationship—she wants one thing: monogamy.
Samantha may only be appearing in the second season for what rumors say will be a brief phone call, but it’s fun to speculate about what her London life might entail. (Safe to say, it wouldn’t involve anything as tragic as a school MILF list.) Having previously battled her fear of commitment and enjoyed a years-long relationship with Jerry “Smith” Jerrod, Samantha jettisoned monogamy with the immortal line “I love myself more” in the first Sex and the City movie. It’s easy to imagine her returning to the carefree single life for which her 40-something character became so beloved.
And yet: Samantha is now in her 60s. Beautiful, successful, and liberated though she may be, she is not immune from sexism, and we have seen her battling insecurities and worrying about aging before. Watching her continue to date and have flings in later life would be a far more daring approach to her storyline than ensconcing her in a comfortable long-term partnership. No-strings-attached sex is a radically different proposition in your 40s than in your 60s, and in a way it would be refreshing for Samantha to contend with the same ageism as her contemporaries. And Just Like That has seen the characters confronting their own obsolescence in various ways, but it has stopped short of portraying the brutal reality of how older women are often treated on the dating market. I can see Samantha getting on the apps, but being disillusioned by what she finds there. If my mum’s experience of internet dating is anything to go by, she’ll encounter a lot of men in their 70s who think they can easily snag a hot 32-year-old, preferably one who can care for them as they age.
Of course, if there are interesting, fun, high-powered men in their 60s and 70s out there who aren’t in pursuit of women half their age, Samantha is the one to find them. I doubt it will be on the apps, though. Perhaps she’ll join one of those elite sex clubs that convene in opulent London townhouses, strictly by invitation only, or look more internationally (for some reason, I can see her in Italy). Seeing her negotiate the patriarchal norms that are rife in dating culture needn’t be depressing: I can see her responding with chutzpah and imagination, in ways that act as inspiration for less liberated viewers who might be wondering what shape sex and love in later life could possibly take.
I’ve had enough conversations with my mother and her peers to know that it can be no picnic, but also that there is freedom to be found in giving your life the shape that you want. As a society, we are so obsessed with the cult of romantic love and the belief that a woman’s only value lies in entering a heterosexual marriage and bearing children. Samantha has always refreshingly resisted that, and one of the ways in which Sex and the City is pioneering is the fact that it portrays women living happily fulfilled, child-free lives. Samantha’s freedom from caring responsibilities—either for offspring or an aging partner—is rare for a woman of her generation. I’d love to see what her day-to-day life involves—work, galleries, friendship, parties, lunches, travel; what her no doubt fabulous apartment looks like; whether she has a cat (it would have to be a very glamorous one). That’s not to say that her life should become sexless—though a year of experimental celibacy would certainly be an interesting storyline—but that I imagine her to have a full life in which sex is only one part of a wider devotion to enjoying the most of her time on this planet as humanly possible.
All of this is fantasy, of course, because it sounds as though, sadly, we will only catch the briefest of glimpses of Samantha’s hinterland. But I like to imagine, perhaps, her own spinoff series, in which she is living her best life in a foreign city, at the top of her game professionally, and as adventurous as ever. Besides, if suitors her own age prove to be disappointing, there’s always younger men.