
Almost a year after it last left us, The Affair returns with the aftermath of Noahâs dramatic (and fake) courtroom confession to the murder of Scotty Lockhart. It was a decision in which he tossed his ever-fluctuating loyalty from new love Alison to old love Helen: Alison may have pushed Scotty in front of the car, but Helenâs the one who ran over him like a roadkill possum. Unsurprisingly, this passionate but perhaps misguided courtroom stunt landed Noah in jail for three years, and we pick up with him after his recent release, where heâs stymied by a really unfortunate beard.
Unlike The Affairâs usual spilt hour, this entire first episode revolves around Noah, and honestly, thatâs likely to its detriment. Of the four main playersâNoah, Alison, Helen, and Alisonâs ex, ColeâNoah has always been the least sympathetic. Over the course of two seasons, weâve seen him blossom from an unsuccessful, bitter novelist to become even worse, a completely arrogant asshole novelist, fleeing from his family to start a new one with Alison. Cole, Alison, Helen, all appear to have reasons behind even their most heinous actions, but not Noah, except for the cause of his own assholery.
The show seems simultaneously aware and not aware of this fact. Thereâs a great meta shoutout at a heady college dinner party that calls out Noahâs controversial grab of Alison last season, forcibly having sex with her standing against a tree. His student Audrey (played by Sarah RamosâHaddie from Parenthood has been found, everyone!) calls him out on just that moment, while also describing his book as âa training manual in how to be an asshole.â The dinner only seems to point out how removed Noah is from anyone else âs perspective, or about thinking of the womanâs side of it at all (When asked about the opposite sex at dinner, he condescendingly and faintly enthuses, âI approve of women; I think youâre all great.â Chee, thanks). To the treeside tryst he self-absorbedly answers, âI think she enjoyed it.â As self-absorbed as they are themselves, we really have to applaud those dinner-table college students as they explode, âAre you fucking kidding me?â
That dinner party also offers a valuable allegory to Noah and how he sees himself, with all the discussion of âcourtly loveâ and Lancelot types. Check out Noah and how full of himself he is at Helenâs first prison visit. Heâs practically beaming with pride. He threw himself on a knife to save his ex, and also his kids from their mom possibly going to prison. After years of primarily feeling guilty about deceit, itâs understandable that the act of finally being punished would be ironically freeing for Noah. He even tells Helen as much in the visit: âI owe you that, after all I put you through.â He also tells her to âwait,â as if thereâs something romantic about her pining for him all those months heâs in jail like heâs The Count Of Monte-frickinâ Cristo or something. Or, more appropriately, like Lancelot: cocky, full of himself, telling Helen that heâs strong enough to handle this, that heâll be out before she knows it.
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His manner at the funeral, and the fact that the three-year absence is mentioned, tells us that none of that came to pass. Not even their star-crossed love story, as Helen asks âWhat about us?â and he gapes at her incredulously. The three years changed Noah much more than he thought they would, and Helen is now irrevocably branded as the person who put him there. Never mind the fact that she didnât ask him to lie for her, or that she tried to talk him out of it. That she did just exactly what he asked her to do. Classic Noah.
Because, to his mind, a clean slate is always bestâmoving forward beats going backwardâand one fortunately pops up almost immediately with a French classics professor (Irène Jacob). Thatâs one of the main problems with this premiere and the series overall: That Noah Solloway is somehow so instantly irresistible to women. Helen has thrown away any number of possibilities in favor of her philandering ex. Alison also upended her whole life. Now Juliette almost immediately invites him into her home and her bed, based on his novel and his convict status. Itâs mind-numbing.
Are we being too hard on Noah? Heâs obviously had a hard time of it. Most prominently in some random glimpses and flashbacks at the hands of a prison guard, played by Brendan Fraser with a previously unseen level of menace (and eyebrows). The guard figure hulks around Noahâs fatherâs funeral, outside his class, even a wine store, but at this point we have no idea if he really exists, or is just a figmentâalthough the episodeâs shocking ending veers toward the former.
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After Noah âevisceratesâ Audrey in class, itâs nice to see her get that chance for some payback, not just at the dinner, but on the porch afterward. Noah chides her about getting out of her comfort zone, when she tries to explain what itâs like to be a woman in a male-dominated society: You never have a comfort zone. Noah gets to feel a bit of that himself (loudly emphasized with some discordant jazz) when he realizes he also is not safe on the street, in his class, in a wine store, even in his own home. The guard looming behind him symbolizes Noahâs past, his misdeeds, the things he just canât get away from, even as he tries his hardest. As Juliette describes in the church, itâs âshadow upon shadow upon shadow.â
His stabbing then seemsâto him and to usâsomehow inevitable. Maybe itâs a lesson about karma. Maybe itâs a cautionary tale that even though he was doing it for ostensibly the right reasons, this level of deception was never going to turn out the way that he hoped. Like so many things in his life, Noahâs hopeful fantasy again gets trumped by a shockingly brutal reality.
Stray observations
- Really loved Jennifer Esposito as Noahâs sister Nina, who believes in his innocence even though she doesnât know the whole story. She also offered one of this bleak episodeâs only laughs: âTo grieve.â
- The other laugh: When all the students turn around to stare incredulously at Noah.
- Much as we like Helen, sheâs kind of a stuck-up rich person, right? Pretty rude to Nina at her own dadâs funeral. Helen leaving with the kids though, was not about any of that: It was about the fact that Noah so clearly didnât want her there.
- At least thereâs one woman Noah canât win over: His parole officer.
- Why wasnât Whitney at the funeral? Still mad at Noah for that hot-tub incident that none of us will ever get over?
- Was Noahâs rant against âShe couldnât help but wonderâŚâ a knock against Sex And The City, which used that phrase just about every episode?
- This was just a check-in for the premiere, but Iâm sure I will be watching every week, so I might possibly check in again. Have to say, even when I donât agree with all of the showâs choices, itâs a lot of fun to write about, just because thereâs so much there. And the performances are always spectacular.
- UPDATE: Due to the numerous requests in the comments below, weâll do a comments space for The Affairâs remaining nine episodes this season. See, the system works! See you next week!
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