Happy Monday TV fans! So the wait is finally over and I am absolutely thrilled to have new episodes of Showtime’s The Affair back just in time for summer. The Affair is a guilty pleasure of mine for sure, but there is something so hypnotizing about this show that just reels you in. The acting and the writing is phenomenal and just when you think you know something, you see things from another perspective and it complicates the story even further. Season 1 still remains my absolute favorite and I was waiting for something really dramatic to happen in season 3, but in the opening minutes of the season 4 premiere, I already felt that unknown mystery clawing at the surface, capturing my undivided attention. Please note spoilers are ahead if you have not gotten a chance to watch the latest episode yet. In last night’s episode, “401,” Noah moves out to L.A. and tries to fit himself into his family’s life again, but is finding it harder than he ever thought possible. Meanwhile, Helen meets a new neighbor and battles her own anxiety, trying desperately to find some sort of inner peace and happiness. My top 5 moments from The Affair season 4 episode 1 are:
5
“I like a man with a past.”
Part one of the episode opens up with Noah and we learn that he is living in L.A. and back to teaching. It’s great to see Noah trying to move on and make a difference in the lives of others again, which is something he has a lot of passion for. In his class they are reading Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” and Noah does his best to get everyone to participate. While some of his female students have no problem paying attention to Noah, he takes notice of a student named Anton who sits in the back of his class, refusing to contribute. Noah’s class is interrupted by the presence of the principal who I already predict Noah will be pursuing romantically before he knows it, but he quickly realizes a lot has changed since he was last teaching. Noah has trouble entering the grades in the computerized system, but tries to do the best he can, recognizing that he needs something constant and stable in his life. When he finds out that Anton is repeating the course and the entire school year because of a plagiarized paper, he pays even closer attention to him. After reading his paper, he confronts Anton and realizes that Anton absolutely wrote the paper and has more potential and intelligence than anyone is giving him credit for. I have to say that I much prefer Noah as a struggling teacher to the smug writer and I think he is taking a step in the right direction.
4
“Let’s try scanning your body.”
In part two, we see everything from Helen’s perspective and learn that she is facing a lot of anxiety in her new home. While everything appears to be fine on the surface, Helen cannot shake the overwhelming sense of panic whirling around inside of her. She hallucinates feeling an actual earthquake and goes to see a therapist for some guidance. Helen is clearly not a fan of some of her therapist’s new age methods, as she much prefers just talking about her feelings rather than scanning for them. After initially stating she doesn’t have any problems, she focuses on Noah and how much he annoys her, which then leads to her explaining that pretty much everything in L.A. annoys her. Helen complains, “Every goddamn day is sunny and I hate this ocean.” After her therapist asks her about the ocean being an attention whore, Helen has had enough and leaves. The anxiety doesn’t go away, however; as Helen begins to realize that her son, Trevor might be gay and then has to deal with Vic’s intrusive mother judging her passive aggressively. Helen hilariously interrupts his mother and says that she has to do something and enjoys a much needed glass of wine by the bath tub, but she still has trouble relaxing. Helen meets her neighbor, Sierra, who has a carefree attitude and tells Helen that she would like to be friends, but is there something more here? We’ll have to stay tuned to find out, but one can’t help feeling sympathetic toward Helen and desperately wanting her to find some kind of happiness after all she has been put through.
3
“More ridiculous than trying to out your son in a Mexican restaurant when he might not even be gay?”
In both part one and two, Noah joins Vic and his family at a Mexican restaurant after he was unable to attend Trevor’s school function. Noah is initially upset that he was left off the list, but tries to make the most of it and really connect again with his family. Noah is hilariously surrounded by a Mariachi band when Helen tries to get Trevor to express himself and admit that he may be gay. Noah asks to speak to Helen in the restroom and is outraged that she is trying to get Trevor to admit this when he may just be confused. While the story changes slightly from each perspective, Noah tries to get Helen to realize that he doesn’t know his children anymore and he just wants the chance to be able to become a part of their lives again.
2
“You’re the earthquake.”
When Noah is speaking to Helen in the restroom, it finally clicks that Noah is the “earthquake” and that even though she has a new life, he is still in it. When Noah is around, Helen feels like she is waiting for the next disaster to happen and asks him to stay away from her as much as possible. While it’s important that Helen has finally realized the source of her anxiety, she is about to have an entirely new problem to deal with. When she is speaking to Vic later that night, he collapses on the bathroom floor and is unconscious. While we are unsure if Vic will be OK or not, it’s clear that Helen will not be getting a moment of inner peace anytime soon. But will she be able to handle something this devastating?
1
Is Alison missing?
In the beginning of the episode, we see Noah meet up with Cole and they discuss how “she” didn’t show up to pick up Joanie. Noah explains that she has been officially declared a missing person, which gives us fans a new mystery to dive into. While her name is never mentioned, we assume that they are discussing Alison and we learn that this news comes 6 weeks after the timeline we just watched with Noah in California. However, it’s clearly important that they did not mention her name so perhaps there is a lot more to this mystery than meets the eye. When Noah is in California, he leaves a message for Alison, but doesn’t talk to her so can we assume that she has been missing all this time or is there an event we are unaware of? Either way, I am extremely excited for this new mystery to unfold and I am even more invested now that I know that it somehow involves Alison. Stay tuned!
I hope you enjoyed the list and feel free to post your own theories and thoughts on The Affair below in the comments section. Thanks so much for reading and happy viewing!
Best,
Amy Koto, TV Fanatic Girl
@TV_Fanatic_Girl
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