Season 2, Episode 5

ALLISON'S STORY

Alison awakes in bed. Alone. She passes a hand over the empty side. She gets dressed, realizes how late it is and curses. She rushes over to the big house. Yvonne is dictatorial, barking orders at Allison and ... reading Noah's book, which she turns over to hide when Allison walks in. Yvonne says she is having company that afternoon, her daughter and the daughter's family. Allison says let her know if there is anything she can do to help and Yvonne says, "I just did." Allison asks about Robert's physical therapy. Yeah, what about it. Well, his leg needs to be stretched. Well, Yvonne got Hugo to return to help him. But Allison says that it can't be idle. So, Yvonne grudgingly says that Allison can help Robert work out.

She goes out and helps Robert exercise, even though he'd rather skip it. She asks if she has done anything to make Yvonne mad and he says no. She says Yvonne was reading Robert's book and she hasn't yet. Robert says it's quite intense. Has he read it? Only excerpts that Yvonne read to him. He assumes it's autobiographical, in part and when she seems embarrassed he says he didn't believe all that about them meeting in the lighthouse anyway. He says he hasn't seen Noah around lately and she says he's been with his sick son and she can't go with him, because she's been told to keep away from his kids.

She asks how he and Yvonne met and he said it was when he was with his first wife. Did he cheat? He says they did. Allison then goes all TMI. Um, I blame Noah for not giving her a heads up about the contents of his book, BUT she can't go crying around town about people treating her as a sex object, when she starts sprouting off about her sex life to a man who is in a somewhat troubled marriage of his own. Yes, she feels that he is a kindred spirit, especially now that she knows he's an adulterer too. She probably thinks of him as a father figure. So, maybe she's justified to feel all Robert Palmery, "I didn't mean to turn you on." Yet, I think she's irrational and always has been.

She tells Robert that nothing with Noah was planned. He just kissed her cheek (did he? I don't remember, it starting out platonically at all) and it felt explosive. Then, they were on the beach together and it just happened. Robert grows silent and she senses that she has said too much and is about to return to their exercises, but he resists. She notices that he has an erection and backs off alarmed. He says she doesn't realize the influence she has on men.

Well, that's a theme on this show and she's not sexy, so I get tired of people reacting that way to her. Strange. I mean, even in Noah's version she's no Marilyn Monroe. The men react to her not doing much of anything.

At lunch, Yvonne is ordering Allison around again and I wonder why she would willingly work in this position. Why doesn't she try to find a job nursing that does not involve children. I blamed Cole for "making" her work for Oscar last year, but now I see this is something she imposes on herself. She puts herself in an inferior role and then feels humiliated -- which I guess is something we saw in the pilot with the sex with her and Cole. Yvonne's daughter is there, pregnant, with her son. Yvonne yells at her to get hotdogs for the kid. Of course, being around kids always makes Allison feel more bruised and crazed than usual. They are all ignoring her. She's the maid, not an "assistant." She's invisible to them, unless they want mustard.

She goes back to her cabin and Robert comes and tells her that there's a new writer that Yvonne will be hiring as her new assistant, so she shouldn't feel the need to come up to the house any longer. She stammers. This doesn't have to do with what happened earlier does it. No, and he goes from being polite, to being a little dismissive. Cold as if she did something wrong rather than him being the one with inappropriate feelings. He says, "Don't make this more than it is." Well, at that point, why WOULD Allison want to work for them any longer. If they are these kind of people, it can only lead to more demoralization for her. So, why doesn't she welcome the opportunity to extricate herself? Because she's a nut. I can't feel sorry for her, as if she's been victimized somehow, not when she is laying down on the road and asking the bus to run over her. No one is throwing her under.

She says to Robert, "I don't understand." He curtly responds, "I think you do." Uh? Why does he have an attitude with her? He hobbles out. She calls Noah and doesn't get a call back. Nut that she is, she goes to Yvonne's office and says, "I think there's been a terrible misunderstanding." Making me want to kill myself. She should be going there to curse Yvonne out, not to plead to be reinstated into their haughty lives.

Yvonne's office is empty and Allison reads the pages of Noah's novel. She scans through and every where her eyes land she finds passages about their sex life. She is sex defined. No marriage, no matter how strong, could survive her. So, he's saying his marriage was good and stable and she ruined it by being a vixen. The whole book is like that. She dashes the pages to the ground and angrily knocks books off of Yvonne's shelves. So, if she wasn't fired then, she sure is now.

The thing is, let's say that Noah took creative license and doesn't see Alison that way, he should still have warned her about the book because it will undoubtedly influence the way other people see her. They will think it's about her. His agent Harry already did, so that possibility is not foreign to Noah. Even before she knew the contents of the book, she was afraid of what Robert and Yvonne thought about her. She lied about how they met, now wanting to say they had an affair. He knows she's sensitive about that. So, before he let Yvonne read the book, when she is working as Yvonne's assistant (something he didn't want her to do), he should have told Alison something of what was in the book, to keep her from being surprised by the reactions of others. The fact that he is not sensitive enough to foresee the pain she might face, is one of his character flaws and one that he never has to think about changing, because the women in his life still claw after him no matter how uncaring he is.

And that's a thing. We all know physical abuse is bad. We know emotional abuse (as in verbally berating) someone is bad, but simple carelessness and callousness, not thinking of how you emotionally hurt someone and, once you've done it once, not correcting the behavior to avoid doing it again -- society doesn't judge that kind of meanness. Not on this show and not in real life. No one is held to account for not being a beast, not being a physical abuse, but just having a conscious and chronic disregard for the feelings of others. You can express this character trait continuously and not ever have to pay the consequences for it.

She goes back to the cabin and packs her meager belonging. She calls Noah again and leaves another message. She heads to NY and as she is coming up from the subway the people on the street bump into her, without saying excuse me, without noticing they've pushed her. She's buffeted about by life. I observe this and then she says the same thing to Cole later and I think it's a really good piece of direction on the PTB's part. Then again, if it was that good, maybe they shouldn't have laid it out in the dialogue later. Even so, it's not heavy handed.

So, then she heads to Noah's house, since he won't call her back. Helen answers the door, looking chic with two streaks of blond in her dark hair. Stylish to Allison, but we know how those streaks got there.

She starts off by saying she needs to see Noah and Helen says he's not there. Allison then babbles that she didn't start off to take Helen's husband.

Now, that's the problem. Allison sees herself as some sort of victim who didn't hurt anyone, but she's hurting someone NOW. What if Noah had been there. If he doesn't want to talk to her, what right does she have to go to the home of his children and the wife that he's dumped, because her pride has been hurt. Helen has lost more than her reputation, but Allison thinks her pain justifies the visit. Forget Helen, what if Martin, Trevor or Stacy had opened the door. Does Allison think she has the right to hurt them more, because she wants to talk to the dad who has left them?

How do you go to someone's house and say I am not a sex fiend, when you are there to ask your lover why he wrote about you being a sex fiend? So, I would have been happy if Helen had told her off and smacked her. On the other hand, I always say you should not blame the other person in the triangle. You should blame your own spouse. So, maybe Helen does the right thing, even if it doesn't satisfy me. She tells Allison that no matter how wonderful and understanding Noah seems now, that it will change. He will eventually start blaming her for all of his insecurities, mistakes and failed expectations. It will all be her fault. I guess Allison has learned this already. My question is, when do you ever get to see the good side of Noah. Helen says that in the beginning he seems like Mr. Wonderful and says all of the right things. I've never really known him to do that with Alison. He's always been Mr. Less Than Wonderful. She's only just noticing it now.

She stumbles away bewildered and blubbering. With no where else to go, she gets on the bus to Montauk.

COLE'S STORY

He goes to a house and knocks. Luisa opens the door and he says, "what are you doing here." She says she works there. NOw, I never understood why she was at the Butler house, but as near as I can figure, she was over visiting her mother who works there and she had the little boy she babysits during the day with her. The little boy is at the house. Luisa wants to know what he is doing there, but a lady calls him from upstairs, demanding to know what is taking him so long, and he goes up. I don't know if he is as embarrassed as I am for it.

The drunk woman from his cab is waiting for him. She is naked and jumps him Of course, I feel he is being used and won't want to with Luisa downstairs, but he is pretty into it. But she keeps calling him "ranch hand" and says she knows what he used to do. What? Was he a male prostitute in the past? I guess she just means he used to run drugs, but that's irrelevant. It doesn't make him sexy. It makes him dangerous, I suppose. A "bad boy." She wants a ranch hand, someone rough and dirty. She keeps talking that way to him and he says "shhhh." Yeah, he'll have sex with her, but he tells her to shut up. She doesn't mind being bossed around. That adds to her enjoyment. But then when he is about to climax, she says he wants him to finish on her face. What! He says. So, I think he will be indignant, shamed and walk out but -- no, he is ready to oblige her. And is in the process of doing that when her husband walks in. She screeches that he was supposed to be golfing. He punches Cole, who doesn't fight back, figuring he deserved it I guess. He hops into his pants and runs off.

He goes back to his trailer, sleeps and wakes to the sound of people touring the house. His brother Scott told the realtor that it was on the market. Cole says it is not. I admire Allison for not selling it, even though it is worth a million or two, but I would like to hear why she has not done so. I know she offered it to Cole last season, but the subject hasn't been revisited, even though Noah hinted that he wanted money from the sale. So, I'd like to hear her excuse. Maybe she doesn't sell it because her grandfather built it. But I like to think of it as having something to do with Cole.

Anyway, he tells the realtor to get lost and heads over to Scotty. Scott is on the boat and I wish that Cole would read him the riot act. If he did sell the property, Scott isn't getting any of that money and I want Cole to make him aware of that. He doesn't. Scott tells him he has a business opportunity that takes 2 million and that's why he wants Cole to sell it, for the family. Family? Yeah, Scott says. There's a mother that stands yay high and four brothers. Apparently Cole has forgotten. Luisa comes out and they are surprised to see each other again. Scott is not happy that they know each other. Cole assures him that they don't really. He and Scott yell and he walks back to the cab. Two men come up and ask if he's Scott. He points them to his brother. They are selling drugs. Luisa is infuriated and runs off. Then she is cursing. She left her clothes on the boat. Cole says he will go back for them. She doesn't seem to want to take favors from him. She distrusts him. But he goes and gets her clothes. Scott is angry and accuses him of sleeping with her. Cole denies it and says to stop doing what he's doing (the drugs?) in broad daylight.

Cole brings Luisa her clothes and she barely says thank you. She is calling around to get a ride. His cab is sitting right that and after a minute he points that out to her. She doesn't want to take it and I wish he would just drive off. But she needs to get to work and has no other options, so she gets in the back seat. Cole is amused by her hesitancy. She says he must really hate his brother, since he's helping her. He asks how long she has been dating Scotty and she smirks. She's not dating him. Really?? Does he call what he did with her boss dating? "Absolutely not" says Cole, in a way that makes me laugh, like he wouldn't be caught dead with that woman. Well, she's not dating Scott either. He sees what she means.

She says she is an illegal immigrant. he is surprised. Does he have a problem with that. NO, he doesn't, he says. If she gets caught with a guy selling drugs, she will be deported. I wonder if this means he will marry her just to keep her from being thrown out of the country and I hope that doesn't come up as a reason.

She says it's bad enough she's sleeping with Scott, but he's her boss too. Her boss? Cole is shocked. Where? At The End. Scott works at The End. Yes, he's the manager. She's surprised at how out of touch he is with his own brother.

She gets dressed in the back seat and he can see her when he looks in the mirror. She is irritated. He says sorry and averts the mirror with a smile.

When they get to "The End," she gets out in her flowing blue sarong, which is the "uniform" for the place. She says, "how do I look." He says, you look good. And then he really looks at her. And means it.

She asks how much she owes and he says it's on him.

She goes up the steps. greets her coworkers. Is pretty and pleasant. He sits in his car awhile and then goes into the bar. She's the bartender and he sits down and starts drinking. He said he is not his brother, but she says she drinks like him, as he orders one bourbon after another. He says he is Cole and he lives there, was born there, his grandfather was born there. his father was born there "and your son will be Chinese," she finishes.

He suddenly sobers up and gets ready to leave. It was a joke she says. she didn't mean anything by it. He begins to pay. She insists it was a joke. she didn't mean to offend him. He says, he knows. He said his son died. She understands and apologizes. She says they should start over and she owes him a drink. Her name is Luisa. She introduces herself as if it's the beginning. He sits down, smiles.

He goes home and i'm not happy that he's driving after all of that drinking. He doesn't seem like it was a "good" night and that he's on an upswing. When he gets to the house, the light is on. He goes in, is ready to use a baseball bat on the intruder. He goes into the bedroom and finds Allison asleep. I guess she looks wonderful and innocent to him. He awakens her and she doesn't startle. This makes me want to see her version and know if she is afraid of him. She just gives him a sleepy hi. He asks if she is ok.

She says, "do we have anything to drink." He scoffs. "We." She corrects herself, "is there anything to drink." I like that way of the dialogue conveying the feeling that they fall into the old routine so quickly. But it also makes me apprehensive. I don't want him to be pulled back into wanting her, when he was becoming interested in someone else. I don't want her to reject him yet again.

He says that there's nothing but his grandfather's old moonshine. Does she want that? I guess she doesn't, because I don't see her drinking any. "You aren't staying here?" She says. So, if he is staying in a place he keeps it stocked with booze? If that's the case, there should be plenty in his trailer. He says, no he isn't. I like the fact that she crawled into bed, his bed, their old bed, thinking that he was still using it.

He asks if she is ok. Did Noah do something to her. She says no, but sometimes she feels invisible, as if people don't even see her. They only think of her as a sexual object, not as a person. He says, "I don't. I don't see you that way." And I resent her, because she doesn't see him as a human who has been hurt by her, but wants people to see her as a person. She comes crying on his shoulder, oblivious to his own loneliness and tears. She says she is sorry. She says she shouldn't have come there. She shouldn't have just let herself in like that. Is he mad? He reminds her that it's her house. I like that he feels that way, even though no one else does. He doesn't consider it his and even last season before he held the gun on her, he told her he fixed it up for her to sale. He didn't want anything for himself. He says it's ok and she should get some sleep.

I am glad that he is walking away, but inevitably she calls him back (I bet she doesn't in her version) and asks him to just stay with her. He gets into the bed, just to spoon her over the covers (reminds me of Mulder and Scully in Requiem). He kisses her head. She kisses his hand. More comforting kisses, but of course they lead to more. He moves from behind to above her and kisses her. She kisses back and pulls him in.

At dawn he is sitting on the deck. I'm just relieved he's not in bed mooning over her sleeping form. He is peaceful. Scott comes and asks how he is and he says pretty good, but shoos Scott off. Scott realizes he is not alone and assumes he has Luisa there. Scott starts yelling that Luisa is his. Cole says he has the wrong idea and Allison comes out in a blanket, with a question. Cole? I hope that she heard Scott accuse him of sleeping with someone else and meant, "what's all this about" and doesn't think that Cole has just been waiting for her. But in a way it's worse, because she probably doesn't care what Cole has been doing, one way or another. Maybe the way she said, "Cole" just meant don't get into a fistfight with your brother, which, I suppose, would be rather caring and wifely on her part, so I should be satisfied with that too.

In the present, the police detective is talking to Noah's lawyer. The detective says that Cole is a suspect and they have rushed to judgment with Noah. He says that Cole stole Scott's business plan out from under him and owns the End. I am glad to hear that Cole is a success and where did Cole get the money? From Allison's house, obviously. So, either they are business partners or he accepted her offer to use the equity to invest. Either way, I like that she trusted him and that it paid off for him. The police detective angrily tells Noah's attorney to go pound sand. The waiter serving them is Oscar and the sign on the establishment says "Lockhart Lobster Roll," so Cole owns that too and is now Oscar's boss. I'm so proud. Of course, this will backfire, because Oscar gave Noah's lawyer something. I am sure Oscar is just itching to incriminate Cole. I will be satisfied to have Allison more concerned about clearing Cole than she ever was Noah, though. That would tickle me.

Now, with them sleeping together, there's the fear that he might be the father of her ugly little baby. But last year, I thought that Oscar, Noah and Cole would all be paternal possibilities and she did not get pregnant after that. So, she probably won't get pregnant this time either. And I would have a real problem if she knows that Cole might be the father of her baby -- after he's lost Gabriel as well -- and her not telling him, just to stay with Noah. Furthermore, I'd hate for Cole to be so stupid as not to count and realize he's a daddy candidate, since he knows when they slept together and will know when the kid is born. So, I have to assume that the pregnancy comes well after their night.

And I'm glad to know that Allison's current wealth probably comes from her share of the royalties and not just from stupid Noah's book. In fact, Noah's book profits are not enough for him to be able to afford a lawyer. Helen's paying for that. I think there's been a rewrite since last season ended and they are making current Noah poorer than he was last season.

Anyway, I enjoyed the episode. I don't enjoy Cole's pain though. I don't want next week to open with Allison telling a different, distant story of what happened between them. I don't want him wanting more than she is interested in giving. I want him still ready to move on. Josh mentioned "rebound" sex in an interview and I guess this is what he meant. I didn't want Cole to be the one used on the rebound.

In watching, I am so protective of Cole that I don't even notice when surprising things happen. It should have been a surprise to me that Cole and Allison had another night to me, but I can't appreciate it as a plot twist. I only see it as something that will keep Cole a lesser character and make him supporting and cast off, when I want him to be desired and stage center.

My perspective is also so skewered that I didn't even find the ranch hand scenes funny. I just kept thinking, "Oh, it must be awful for Cole to be belittled by this woman who sees him as nothing more than a handy man who is beneath her. He OWNED that ranch. He didn't just work on it." But Cole is not sharing any of my angst. He was just happy to get sex. I laughed at the Max scenes, but when Cole is in scenes that are intended to provide comic relief, I am so anxious about Josh's role on the show that I don't see it as such. It was two hours after I watched that I figured the early sex scene was supposed to be funny and not demeaning for Cole.

Still, even though watching still causes considerable pain, I am enjoying the quiet storytelling this season much more than I could last season, when I cared about Allison and Cole staying together. Now, I've been promised that Cole will have a future without Allison and I content to watch his journey towards it and also entertained by the other characters, whom I can watch with an objective disinterest I could not muster in S1. I was a bitter Josh fan last year and this year, while I still wish he had more to do, I am happy with the definition his character has obtained and pleased with his handling of the role.

Season 2, Episode 4

I didn't realize that four points of views would mean Josh would be off the show for 2 weeks at a time. He probably wants this, as I am sure that the time off he got on Fringe was for his necessities, not the script's, but it tends to marginalize any character development that Cole makes.

HELEN'S STORY

They're in court fighting over child custody. Her lawyer says that Noah left once, asked to come back (well, from his pov she begged him to come back), vowing his re-commitment to their family, only to leave again. And he's still lying. Whitney told Helen that Noah was living with Alison. The judge seems to be on Noah's side until the lawyer says that the kids should not visit Noah's cramped space when they have their own brownstone. This sparks the judge's interest. He wants to know how much it is worth. Helen says that it is not hers. It's part of a trust. Noah's attorney is quick to say the brownstone is worth $3 mil. I don't know why this makes a difference to the judge. Helen was focusing on the fact that she was left with four kids all by herself, but I didn't know she was claiming it was a financial struggle. The judge says that Noah can have visitation with the kids, but they can't be around Alison.

Outside, Helen tells the lawyer how much she hates NOah. It's understandable. She's hurt, but to the extent that she's vengeful, it's irritating because she is using the kids to get back at him, which is realistic and what a lot of women do in divorce, but in those cases, the woman is financially crippled by the divorce and they have an extra dose of bitterness. For Helen, she's just trying to keep Noah and for what reason? I understand that she is lonely, but being with a man who doesn't want to be with you doesn't cure the loneliness. Just the opposite. She can't be clinging to him due to pride because taking him back after all that's gone on would make her seem more pathetic than just being dumped does. So, I don't get it. I thought Helen loved her kids more than to use them to punish Noah. The little kids need and love him. Martin may resent him, but is having issues right now (more than Helen even realizes) and needs him there and Whitney -- well, it definitely takes 2 parents to handle her.

So, why are the writers having Helen act like this. Last year, I think it's because they wanted people to root for Noah to get away from her. But since they've acknowledged that Noah is a creep this Season, why make (or keep) Helen unlikable too? Let her hate Noah -- as she tells her lawyer (now, miraculously Noah's criminal defense lawyer) she does. Let her do spiteful things to him, but at least let her keep her kids out of the melee.

She is getting texts from Whitney saying she hates Grandma and won't go anywhere with her and one can see that she is overwhelmed. But by the time she gets home, Whitney is on the way out with Grandma. When Helen wonders why she changed her mind, Whitney says because Grandma paid her.

Helen tells her mother that the judge freaked when he found out they have money. Noah didn't want the house before, but now he is making a claim (is he? I guess he realized that looking poor makes him more sympathetic) and she wants her mother to talk to her father, because if he knows anything, it's how to protect his money. Margaret says she can't talk to the father and busies herself preparing to leave. Helen balks that her mom is so frivolous and won't take the time to help her, even though she is the one who pulled for this divorce in the first place.

Margaret says she can't talk to the father, because he left her. He ran off with his mistress. Helen doesn't say she's sorry, but she backs off and hands her mother her drink to finish off. They share knowing looks of shared pain. Max surprises Helen. He has taken the day off.

He talks again how he can't believe he has her now, the prettiest, most popular girl in school. He doesn't deserve her, but Noah didn't either and she married him. He seems a bit bitter, but talks about his own divorce and says something about how sleeping together one last time freed them and got rid of the animosity. I can only think this was said to foreshadow Noah and Helen sleeping together at some point, but they already briefly reconciled and it didn't work.

Max wants to give her her present. Doesn't she want it before or after they have sex? He is vulgar about it, but on the border between insulting and amusing. She says, how about the present first. It's a trip for the holiday. She says she doesn't even know where her life will be at by then. He says Noah can take the kids. She says that he doesn't have a place to keep them. He gave Noah $50,000. He ought to be a able to find a place to stay. What?!

She is shocked that he gave Noah money. He said that he just thinks that the sooner she and Noah divorce, the happier they will all be. She says she thought she could do this, but she can't. It's too weird. She doesn't say that although she knew Max had been Noah's best friend, she didn't know that he intended to stay that. I sure didn't. Although Max's personality can put one off enough, this 50K revelation rightly bothers her and I think her reaction is sensible.

Max's bitter side comes out. Obsessed with "f---", he bitingly says that nothing is ever good enough for her and it never has been. Not in school and not now. She coldly says, "Noah is the one who left me." He leaves. I hope they don't make up later. It was as if he dropped a façade. She may not have known that part of him was there under all the friendly bluster, but now that he's revealed it, she'd be crazy to forget. He didn't just seem hurt or rejected, he seemed malevolent. And it was not as if he wanted her because he'd fawned all of these years. He wanted her to prove something to himself, another attainment. He may have looked like a long-time admirer, but he exposed long-term jealousy and resentment. Once someone shows their true self, believe them.

In her bedroom, she looks at her gray hair. Her nails need a manicure as well. At first I forgot this was intentional by the producers. I thought it was an oversight, but they are trying to show Helen disheveled, like they did with Cole. She puts on some music and takes the pot-laced candy that Max gave her. Is this more potent than regular pot, because the way she acts is outrageous. I don't think alcohol or drugs would actually cause this behavior. It's the writers indulging themselves.

She goes to the hairdresser and talks about queefing. She asks the hairdresser if they're friends and the woman says "sure" making it obvious that she doesn't consider them close, emphasizing how alone Helen is. Helen is bothered by the woman at the next table. She feels paranoid, thinks they're laughing at her, like all of her social friends are. They are only concerned about her divorce, because they think it's contagious and might happen to them. She looks in the mirror and sees her mother's face staring back. That's fine, but I would have liked to see a little more sympathy for her mother than she's shown, in addition to the realization that she's looking at her own unhappy future. She pushes aside the melancholy, is loud and laughing, but then realizes that she thinks it is the wrong day and her kids are at school waiting to be picked up. She thought it was Noah's day. She rushes out with foil still in her hair. She stops long enough to tell the woman at the next table to stop laughing.

At the school, she is talking too much as she picks up the kids. Stacey has made a rocket and it blocks the rear window. Helen tells her to push it down. A woman is yelling at Helen to move her car, which was parked in a handi-capped space. Helen backs out. Stacey hits her head. A woman in the parking lot is almost hit. They call the police. Helen is incoherent, not cooperative. Noah comes and as Helen looks at him from the police car, he seems confident and in charge. Everything she us not. He kisses and hugs the kids. Comes towards her. Stacey wasn't buckled in. What is THAT all about. She says only At the car, "why are you doing this to us." In jail, she is crying. Mascara running down her face. The foil having bleached her hair white. In jail women are talking about their baby daddies and how one is not going to see the kid, which is the same thing that Helen was doing to Noah, but we don't know if she appreciates the comparison or feels that she has nothing in common with those women.

NOAH's STORY

Noah is in court and when his lawyer lies and says that Alison is not living with him, he tries to protest and interject the truth. He wants to object when the judge says that Allison can't be near the kids. He does say that the plan was to have her leave when he had the kids, though. He definitely does not recall the judge doing an about face and being on his side as Helen did.

Alison is waiting for him for lunch. She looks fresh and happy. An oasis where he'd like to escape. She tells him about an apartment she's found that's perfect for them. It's light and airy. He tells her that the judge says he can't live with her, so they can't take the apartment. She is angry and hurt. She says maybe they should give Helen what she wants. What? is she saying that he should only be a weekend father and not pursue joint custody. Is that what she thinks. She says she doesn't know what she thinks. He says it sounds like she does.
He gets a phone call and has to go.

He goes to the school and tends to his kids. When he confronts Helen, she is more high than miserable. She asks why does he get to mess up and she doesn't. Then, she giddily keels over. He takes the kids home. Trevor tells Stacey their mom is in jail, but Noah denies it.

When he goes through the house, he sees Helen's clothes strewn everywhere and it's clear to him that she's been having sex. When the kids asks if he will be staying there, he looks at Helen's rumpled bed and says no. He tells them to pack their things. They're going some place else. We wonder where they are driving. Is he going to Alison? He tries to make small talk with Martin, who loves sports. Martin knows that Noah is faking it. When he reaches their destination in a modest suburban neighborhood, we still don't know where they are, but the man mentions that his father is inside. Noah says that if Nina'd told him that, then he wouldn't have come. So, it's his sister's place.

The kids run and play with their cousins who have a new trampoline. In the house, his father ignores him, but is happy to watch a ball game with Martin. Noah tries to watch too, but doesn't even know which athlete plays for which sport. Martin tells Noah he's blocking the view of the screen. When he sends Martin off to get nuts, the dad corrects Noah about a player playing for the NFL, not baseball. Noah says he realizes that (belatedly). The father tells Noah that when his mother was ailing with cancer, she tried to fix him up with a pretty blond, but he said no, because he loved his wife. Noah is disgusted.

He goes into the kitchen. His sister is friendly. Does he remember the first time Noah brought Helen to the house. She offered Helen wine and Helen actually made a face. Did she really? Yes, Nina mimics it. Did Helen really drive those kids when she was high. He says yes and in a way it's a great thing. He didn't have a custody chance before. Now that this has happened, he might actually make a bid for full custody (which makes him look horrible). Nina becomes hesitant. Does he really think he can raise those four kids by himself? He says he can and is angry that she doubts it. She says she's sorry, but she loves those kids and she doesn't think he's up to it, even though she and Helen have had their differences, Noah is selfish and did leave to have an affair. He is furious and says they're going. She can't believe it. "This is why I never visit" he yells. He grabs his kids. Stops a protesting Martin from watching the game, actually has to get on the trampoline and chase and pull a resisting Trevor off of it. To spoil the rest of their night after their mother has been arrested and Stacy has been in a car accident is a bit much and proves that Nina's instincts about him being an awful father are right.

He takes them all to a motel. He calls Alison and tells her where he's at. He hangs up and wonders why Martin has been in the bathroom so long. He opens the door, even though Martin is yelling for him to get out. He calls Alison. Gee, he remembers that she's a nurse. She tells him to put pressure on Martin's stomach, try to get him to hop on one leg. He tries, but Martin shrieks at him. Noah tells her that Martin won't let him touch him. Eventually Martin feels the urge to evacuate and tells Noah to get out of the bathroom. Later Martin is asleep and Noah is stroking his head.

He gets a call and Alison is down in the parking lot. She is smiling. She has brought him a pack of beer. No pressure about choosing between her and the kids. She just makes him feel good. She's being that oasis in the desert again. He goes down to her. I question his judgment about leaving his kids alone in a motel room, given the security issues. Even if he's always in sight of the room, it doesn't seem to be the safest neighborhood.

Season 2, Episode 3

NOAH'S STORY

Noah and Alison are having sex on the couch and he is anxious that it's not good for her. She says it is. He doesn't want to climax unless she does. She says she will if he would just keep on going. I like the fact that he feels he is dissatisfying her in bed. I hope he is.

He wants her to come swimming, says it's a beautiful, salt water pool and she hasn't been in it all during their trip. She says she doesn't want to. He playfully grabs her and says he will make her go, tugging. She doesn't think that's fun and sharply stops him. He sobers up and says ok. See, this is why people don't like Noah. I think Treem has accepted that they don't, but she has no idea why. She thinks it's only because he's an adulterer. She doesn't understand that he's a jerk. This woman's SON HAS DROWNED. He may not know all of the details, but he knows that. Why can't he figure out that that might be why she doesn't want to go swimming -- especially not in a salt water pool designed to replicate the ocean. Last year, Cole said that it took her a long time to even be able to bathe again (and his delightful mother had to help her). Well, Noah may not know that, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon (other than Ben Carson) to conclude that the drowning just might be related to her reservations.

He tells Alison she's an enigma, which is how she must have seemed to Cole as well. Insular, withholding. He asks her what she would say if he asked her to marry him. She says that depends on the size of the ring. I like that flip answer. He takes a ring from a drawer and presents it to her when she enters the room. She is shocked and not exactly thrilled. She looks like she wants nothing to do with the ring, but then accepts it, more with resolve to change than with joy. I am glad that he has this view of her reaction.

He goes and has lunch with Max who has just closed a lucrative deal. He talks about his divorce and Max mourns sympathetically. Noah says that Helen won't be single for long -- glad that he thinks she's desirable, even with four kids. Max is noncommittal and doesn't let on that he's dating Helen. I look forward to Noah's reaction when he finds out -- as I do Alison's reaction to Cole's dating. Obviously, I hope Noah and Alison are both a little jealous. Max gives Noah $50,000, clarifying it's a gift, not a loan. And of course, it's amusing to the audience left to assume it's more out of guilt or the hope that the divorce should go as smoothly and quickly as possible than it is general affection for Noah. "The sooner you and Helen are divorced, the happier everyone will be."

Reading an interview, I see that Treem cut an oral sex scene out of the 2nd show. I guess that woman Cole picked up in the cab paid more than her fare. This surprises me because I noticed her coming on to him and giving him her card, but since she was vomiting, I didn't think that would lead to sex. I mean, it's not much of a turn on -- but maybe men don't need one. Also, that scene did end rather abruptly, so I should have known something was cut from it. In Cole's state of mind, maybe it's natural that he hooked up with someone as desperate and reckless as himself. Treem said she cut it because she was showing Cole having a bad day and how bad could it be if he got random oral sex? But a physical connection with a stranger can be very depressing, if you're not out for fun but feeling rejected by love, by the world. It's not a mark of virility, but a sign of low self-esteeem and diminished personal values and worth. Stable, confident, unmiserable people don't have a casual encounter with drunken people they meet in a cab. So, I don't think it would have ruined the mood Treem was trying to set. I don't know if I would have liked that scene or not. I'm sure it wouldn't have discussed me as much as Alison's hook up with Oscar though.

Noah and Alison go to dinner with the landlords, Robert and Yvonne. Noah is disapproving when Yvonne asks how they met and Alison says that it was in a light house when he was researching his book. She makes it sound so romantic and he gives her the side eye. When Yvonne offers more wine, he declines and cuts Alison another look when she quickly accepts.

Yvonne and Noah talk books and Alison says she doesn't read much. Robert says he's not a book person either, but Noah says that's not true of Alison. She says she hasn't read anything since Catcher in the Rye. I thought she and Noah bonded over a book last year. It may have been Peter Pan, something she read to her son. I mean, maybe that's not great adult literature, but I thought Noah was impressed because they both agreed about some insightful passage she recalled. Then, I think in the library he found that she had read his book, checked it out. So, this thing about Alison being a non-reader is new and meant to draw lines between her life and Noah's. But I don't particularly like it. I didn't like Cole being painted as a Neanderthal next to nurse Alison last year. They tried to tell us that's why she was drawn to Noah because he was so different from the riotous Lockhart clan. Now, they're telling us that she's part of the dumb locals. I don't want the Montauk people to be portrayed as less sophisticated and intelligent, either Alison or the Lockharts. You can demarcate personality distinctions without making one side high brow and the other low. I think it's a cheap divide to put between Noah and Alison, although heaven knows I'm not against them being divided. I want her to realize her mistake in leaving Cole the way she did (and her conversations with Robert go a greater way towards this end than I ever could have hoped). I want her to regret it and I want Cole to have moved on.

After the foursome, Alison, Yvonne, Noah and Robert finish eating, Noah and Alison go into the study to talk books. It's reminiscent of the way the men would retire to the smoking room to enjoy cigars while the women cleaned up in the old days. In Alison's version, she encourages Noah to go. He didn't want Alison to read his book, but looks like he would welcome Yvonne's input. She says an author told her that if the ending comes hard to you, it's because the rest of the book is bad. If the book is written well, the ending should come naturally, which I suppose is a metaphor. If the relationship was meant to be, then it wouldn't encounter so many roadblocks, I guess.

Now, this is another Jerk Noah moment. Alison knocks on the door and he impatiently says can't it wait. Why do you think your girlfriend would interrupt you for no good reason when you are in a closed door conversation in a stranger's home? Even if you find her a general irritant, in front of people you don't know well, wouldn't you respond to her kindly for appearances sake? But he snaps at her like she's a big nuisance and I'm not sure that Treem knows this shows how selfish he is. Even in his own narrative, he's a jerk and that's been true for the entire life of the series, although I don't know if that's been the intent.

Alison presses for him to come out again, says this is important, but Whitney bursts in. So, this is where he's living now and with Alison? She thought he said they weren't living together. Alison and Noah had told the landlords that they'd both been married before, but didn't say they'd had an affair, but Whitney makes that clear. Noah tries to get Whitney out of the house, but she says she wants to stay there, because it's nice. She doesn't want to go to his little shack.

He pulls her away. How did she even get there. She took a taxi. Is that a ring on Alison's finger? He's not even divorced yet, Whitney shrieks. Later, he is talking to her on the deck while Alison stays inside. Does Mom know she's here? Oh, why does he still call her "Mom". Why not use the more formal Helen, since they aren't a family anymore, Whitney sneers. But she settles down and says she's miserable. She says that being with her mother and grandmother is like living with two depressed witches. She wants to come and live with him. He says he's trying to make it so that she can live with him some time. She says she doesn't want it to be some time. She wants it to be permanently. He says to make that happen she has to do him a favor. Whitney guess what it is: don't tell Mom he's living with Alison.

He wants to know why she made up that school girl fantasy story about how they met for Yvonne. He wants her to share herself with him. Tell him something that she's never told anyone else. She makes a wry joke, but then confesses everything. She says Cole was there. He brought her clothes. He says he thought Jane brought them. She says she lied. She says nothing happened with Cole. They just talked. And I'm glad she didn't tell him that Cole had been a creeper (in her version), but says they talked, like they shared something. She says she slept with Oscar. He says he's not crazy about it, but ok. She goes on and says last year she tried to hurt herself, cut herself. Tried to drown herself. He is shocked and asks her if she ever still feels like doing something like that. She says she doesn't, but the look on her face indicates her answer might not be completely truthful. She wonders if he wants his ring back. He says that there's nothing she can tell him that will make him abandon her. He doesn't want her to think she has to hold things back.

In the end when he goes to the mediator, he is shocked to be served with divorce papers. I guess Whitney finked him out and told Helen he was living with Alison. So, will he ask Alison to move out "just until the divorce is final" so he won't lose custody of the kids?

ALISON'S STORY

It starts at the dinner party. Yvonne looks at Alison's engagement ring and says it's sweet, in a manner that suggests it's small and cheap. When she's offered more wine, in Alison's version she declines and says she's had her fill. Yvonne says that they should wed there, since her daughter didn't want to do so and they had a vacation wedding instead. Robert says she made the wedding a bigger do than it had to be and Yvonne said she was being a good mother. She says that Alison and Noah can have their wedding there and Alison says they haven't set a date yet. Yvonne talks about kids and Noah says he has 4 and doesn't want more. Alison is shocked. Yvonne says that it's the woman's call anyway. Men will always resist but once the baby is there they will fall in line as if it was their idea all along. Robert takes her drink and tosses the rest of it into the plant. She protests that that was the good 2005 bottle.

They love each other, but are ill-suited. Their differences are less cartoonish than the Butlers, but like the Butlers showed us Noah and Helen's future, Robert is an experienced version of Alison for the audience to compare (and Yvonne is perhaps a less dead on version of Noah). After dinner, Alison starts to clear the dishes with Noah and Yvonne quickly pulls Noah away. Alison is left behind, not only as the "little woman" but as the servant. Robert sees her stacking plates and says she is good at it. She says she used to be a waitress.

In the kitchen he doesn't let her throw away the salmon. He is saying it. He asks if Alison can keep a secret. She says she can, her tone indicating she's had lots of practice. He has a dog, 1/2 wolf. Yvonne wanted to get rid of it, but the dog ran away. He's been feeding it on the sly and she mustn't tell Yvonne. Whitney barges in and the scene is pretty similar to Noah's version, except instead of saying she came in a taxi, Whitney says she took an Uber.

I think Noah is aware his daughter is rich and spoiled though, so his perception of Whitney isn't completely different than Alison's.

Whitney sees the ring on Alison's finger and demands that she take off. She rushes Alison and Noah pulls her away. After Noah takes Whitney out onto the deck, Alison hears them from inside the guesthouse. Whitney is loudly calling her a slut. She stiffens and opens a cabinet, remembering the box of Gabriel's that Cole brought to her. She opens it and takes out a stone. She rubs it, comfortingly.

On the deck, Noah says that Whitney is out on the pier smoking. Alison asks where Whitney will sleep. Noah says probably in their bed. Where will THEY sleep then. He says she can take the sofa and he can take the floor. Alison is resigned, rather than resentful. The obvious question is why Whitney can't take the sofa, but I guess he doesn't want to sleep with Alison, to rub it in Whitney's face.

He says that kids are great when they're young and he just wishes they never grew up. Alison is stricken. This is the same kind of thing he said to Cole at the ranch last year and no warm-blooded human being would continually say such things to the woman he supposedly love who lost her young son. You might put your foot into it once or twice, but not continually. How many times do Treem and writers think they can get away with this stuff without the audience losing patience with them as much as we do with Noah.

She asks if he wants his ring back, I suppose, in light of Whitney's reaction and the trouble it could cause in his custody battle. He says he wants her to keep it, but from his tone it's not clear that he means he wants them to stay engaged. He could mean just that he wants her to keep the ring if they break up. He says all of his life he's been afraid of what other people would think and he doesn't want to do that anymore, meaning he wants to go ahead and marry her, no matter who disapproves.

She asks him, what is the worst thing he has ever done. He says, "probably this." And although it's clear he means leaving his wife and children, the way he said it makes it sound like Alison is the worst thing, his biggest sin. Even if she's not his biggest regret, who wants to be thought of as a sin or regret. Mr. Insensitivity's Strike Again.

He asks her what is the worse thing she has ever done. She says darkly, "I've done lots of things."

The next day she awakes to Whitney making her breakfast and being sweet. Alison accepts some eggs, which seems terribly stupid to me, but it seems they were not laced with arsenic. Whitney asks for Scott's number. Alison refuses and points out that there's a restraining order. Whitney says it's not real and Alison says the police think it is. I like to think she was protecting Scott from being arrested. Whitney presses for the number and Alison says it wouldn't be appropriate. Whitney then stops pretending to be her best friends and turns on her angrily again, but is all friendly and "Hi Daddy," when Noah enters. Again, that's a little silly because Noah knows she's a brat and she is bratty in front of him, so why hide it. He is surprised that the two women were seemingly chatting over breakfast and when he leaves with Whitney even more surprised when she gives Alison the "call me" signal. Alison kind of shrugs.

Later, she is sitting outside and Robert comes along. She is melancholy and he asks her about the engagement. Does she love Noah. Very much she says (ugh), but she's been married before and she's not sure they should rush into anything. Married before? She looks so young, Robert remarks. She doesn't look that young. She says they married right out of college (so does that mean Cole went to college too?). She says the thing is, she and her first husband had a son and they lost him and she doesn't know if she can be with a man who never knew Gabriel (and who is an insensitive lunkhead). Was that her son's name? How did he die. It was secondary drowning and she should have known. He died in his sleep. She should throw in that she was a nurse, to boot, to emphasize how stupid her actions were! She says that this is the rock that she found on the beach with Gabriel. The water washed it smooth and she told Gabriel whenever he was feeling anxious, he should rub it and it helped calm him.

Has she been carrying all of this inside? Alison says she has, tearfully and, not for the first time, I think she should have had an affair with ROBERT. Does Noah know about this. He knows some of it (and doesn't really care!). She says she thought if she started a new life, in a new place with a new man, the pain and sad memories would go away, but it's always there. So, I think of her telling Cole that it's not Gabriel she wanted to forget, but him and I wonder if she sees that leaving him didn't help. Robert says that no one can understand you completely and he made that mistake with his first wife. He thought if she didn't understand him 100% then it wasn't true love. He now knows that basically, we are all alone. No one can be everything that you need. They can just walk with you on the journey. He doesn't say that Yvonne is a mistake, but I'm hoping that Alison is looking at her husband in a new light and begins to see that because she was lonely with him, because he didn't grieve like she did, didn't mean their relationship was a bad one.

Actually, Robert's words to her formed some of the best dialogue in the series, so far.

When they go in the house, Yvonne is upset because Robert fired his physical therapist. The guy was pessimistic about his recovery and that offended Robert. Yvonne quietly tells Alison to make sure he does some leg stretches. So, this shows that although she can be brittle sometimes, she genuinely cares for Robert and doesn't see Alison as just a servant, she recognizes her medical training as well.

Yvonne gets a call about the dog (Pete?). He killed a neighbors chickens and she will call animal control to pick him up. Robert objects that they will just put him down. Yvonne says that's what needs to happen anyway. I don't really understand this. If they just kept at home and contained, would he be a menace. He ran away, but I got the feeling that it was because Yvonne didn't want him near the house, more than the fact that he was wild and wouldn't stay in one place. Robert says he will kill the dog instead of a stranger doing it. I don't understand this thing (it happens in the Walking Dead a lot) of wanting to kill a loved one, rather than letting a stranger do it. Shouldn't strangers do that type of thing? There's a sense that you can do it more lovingly, but when you're going to blow someone's brains out with a shot gun, how loving and gentle an act can it be??

I just don't think that even Yvonne would expect or let Robert do such a thing. It's gone from thoughtless insensitivity to cruelty. And this is the most hammer, heavy-handed way of trying to make a point about how we are heedless of the feelings or pain of others or tying Robert to Alison. It's unrealistic and emotionally manipulative. Plus, I saw the same thing done on Marvel Agents of Shield recently and Ward didn't kill his dog either!

Alison goes with him to find the dog, because Yvonne is afraid he'll hurt his leg or some such nonsense and I don't know why Alison doesn't offer to take it to Montauk or something where it doesn't have to be killed. I don't know why she's just standing there with no advice or offer to help. The dog comes. Robert shoots. Alison covers her eyes. But when she opens them, Robert has shot up in the air and let the dog run away (to kill more neighbor chickens, I guess).

Robert and Alison don't speak of the secret they now share. Back at the house, Robert says he killed the dog. Yvonne asks Alison how it was and Alison said it was quite beautiful in a way, which makes Yvonne think she is a freak. It was a stupid subplot all the way around. Designed to make character points but destroying plausibility in the process. Of course, when Yvonne finds out the dog is alive, she won't trust Alison any longer.

Later that night, Alison gets in the pool. She swims strong laps. Noah comes home, sees her is surprised and happy and joins her in the pool, pulling off his trunks. So, what would have been an inspirational moment turns smutty. From the house, as they frolic, Alison can see Robert in the distance. Maybe he sees them (but is not close enough to know that they're doing something in his pool that chlorine can't cure) or maybe he's just reflecting on his own troubled, "she would make me kill my dog" marriage. So, Alison has Noah in her arms, with the prospect of becoming Robert in her future.

In the future they are in the lawyer's office (the same lawyer Helen used for the divorce. So, this guy does divorce and criminal law) and he tells them they must have a change of venue, because the town hates Noah. As do we all. Tell him about that night. Well, Noah knows it looks bad but he had his bumper fixed and was caught on tape with the mechanic because he'd hit a deer. He hit a deer? The lawyer is skeptical. Was Scott Lockhart riding that deer? That's one of the funniest lines in the series! Alison is quiet, tense and jumpy, like she knows Noah is lying or we are supposed to think he is. Noah says he didn't want to be out anyway. After all it was her ex husband's wedding and he doesn't know why he was even invited.

Alison says that Cole was trying to be friendly. Was he, Noah questions. YES, he was, Alison defends. And I like her taking up for Cole. When Noah says that he hated Scott because he got his teen daughter pregnant and was a "lowlife" I wish Alison would show more Lockhart loyalty, but she doesn't.

There was an episode last year without Cole and Helen that was painfully dull, but this episode wasn't. When I don't see Cole in the promo for next week, I am not happy that we go 2 weeks without him. On the other hand, I thought the parallel between Robert and Alison was a good and thoughtful one and it helped me explore Alison's doubts about where her relationship is at more than any words could have.

Season 2, Episode 2

PART THREE, ALISON

I was amused that Alison is starting to see Noah as somewhat of a jerk as well. Selfish and insensitive, easy to ridicule either openly or in his disapproving grimace. The producers much have gotten so much feedback about negative viewer perception that rather than try to "redeem" the character, they decided to run with his selfishness.

They start off in bed and he is leaving. He resists being pulled towards her, briefly because he doesn't want to be late and she says, sure it's HER insatiable sexual appetite that's causing the problem, right? They laugh. He says she should not use the bathroom because it broke. When? Just now (so that tells us this is starting where the beginning of Noah's story started last week). She says she will get the landlady to take care of it. He doesn't have to worry about it. His agent Harry, hooked him up with the owners, Robert and Yvonne. Alison wonders what he told the owner about her. Who is she to him? Do they assume they're married. He said he doesn't know. She says they need to have a discussion about their connection in the eyes of the world. He says he promises they will that evening.

What does she care what his agent or the owners of a cabin think about them? And if she didn't want to seem like a dishonorable woman, then maybe she shouldn't have slept with a married father of 4.

She looks at Noah's manuscript pages on the desk and sees the dedication to "Alison". She smiles and then stops reading (which is probably not what really happened) gets dressed, goes to town and is walking when her calloused feet start to hurt. This is a woman who was cutting herself a few months ago. Why should calloused feet be a problem. She stops on the side of the road and the strap of her shoe is biting into the back of her ankle. She looks like she might turn back but a car comes along and it's her landlord. He offers to give her a ride. She hesitantly accepts.

He says she looks like she belongs there (really? he sure summed that up fast) and she must have grown up in a small town. She says that she did. So, she looks like she is missing Montauk already. But is she missing the PEOPLE there? I can't wait until she starts to miss Cole. Unfortunately, Josh let slip that Cole gets married. I had guessed that he might be the groom at the wedding Alison attended last season, because Alison was saying that the people might fight but they're still family, talking about Oscar and the detective asked her why SHE was at the wedding. I wondered whose wedding it would be where Alison wouldn't be attending and Cole's was the only name that came up, for me. So, now that has been confirmed by Josh, but I want to avoid spoilers as much as possible. Still, I hope she is jealous when she learns that Cole is happy and in love again. And I hope he doesn't look like he wants her back at that point, which will ruin everything, because she wasn't healthy for him either and Josh's explanations about how he drove her away by not sharing his grief with her are just a way for him to understand why his character was cuckolded. Actually, Cole didn't push her away any more than she did him.

Josh did talk about that large tattoo he got (on his back where Cole doesn't have to see it) being insensitive and I definitely agree with that. I said last season that Alison should leave him for that Gabriel tattoo alone.

So, in the car with the landlord, he tells Alison that his wife hates the town and he is going to have to sell. "No," she yelps and then apologizes for speaking her mind about a stranger's decision. He says he feels the same way. But his wife can't stand the stagnancy. What does she do for a living? The landlord is surprised that she doesn't know. His wife is the top editor for a big publisher. With Noah being a writer, the landlord obviously thought she'd be aware of this. Alison said she didn't know and said she knows nothing about publishing?

I'd think this would show a divide between her and Noah, but in the cliffhanger from last season, they were happy after his 2nd book was a success. They had money and a new baby, so I don't think he believes she is too uninterested in his career and it's not the obstacle for them that I might hope it would be.

She eats lunch at a diner and asks the waitress what she makes. Why is she thinking about working there? Alison says no. And with her nursing skills, I wonder why she is considering another job as a waitress. Working for Oscar (who was a harasser) seemed to stifle her, so why wouldn't she look for medical jobs, that have nothing to do with pediatrics? Even being a receptionist would be better than being a waitress. Last year I wondered why Cole would let her work as a waitress rather than sell the ranch, but maybe it's her low self-esteem that keeps her working as a waitress and not financial straits. And how much of that low self-esteem was always there and is not a function of having lost her son and feeling helpless or at fault because of the secondary drowning?

In town, she sees children playing and saddens. Back at the house, the landlord asks her over for tea and says she looked bored earlier that morning. Oh, is she bored already?

She goes and his wife is a whirlwind, talking on the phone, to people in NY. The husband needs physical therapy but won't get him. Alison advises him and the wife says she sounds like she knows what she is talking about. Alison says she was a nurse. When the wife leaves to make another call, the husband says why doesn't Alison work for them as the personal assistant Now, other than giving him some physical therapy tips, I don't know what about her makes him think she'd be good at being an assistant to a publishing exec. Is she good at making phone calls, typing emails, etc.? They don't know and they don't seem to care. The wife is happy when the husband says Alison is her new assistant. But the wife seems to be somewhat of a pain, so I wonder if they will soon lock heads.

Alison heads to the guest house and, to me, she sees a bike there. I had wondered about her own bike that she had in Montauk and thought she would rent one instead of trying to walk 6 miles into town. So, I'm not sure what the bike meant. Did Cole bring it to her? If so, that was really thoughtful. Did Cole ride the bike there? Or was there a car/truck in the scene too that I missed and didn't bother to rewind to find out? Any way, when she sees that bike, she has trepidation. I didn't know why, but Cole is inside the house when she enters.

He's pleasant in a sarcastic way, rather than a warm one. He is sitting at the desk, reading Noah's manuscript on the table and she locks it up. He says, "You seem a little nervous to see me." She says, "Well do you have any weapons on you." Relax. He just came to bring her her stuff. He says he was nice enough to bring her belongings rather than have her friend do it. I wasn't sure who the friend was. I thought it might be her sister-in-law (but it turned out to be the woman who worked at the diner with her) but I think it was wrong of the person to give Cole the address, without letting Alison know. Even if they hadn't broken up badly, you don't give someone's ex the address they're staying at with the man they had an affair with during the marriage. She says she thinks he should leave. He sits down. Shouldn't she offer him something after he came all of that way to bring her her clothes, he demands? She says that depends on whether he's armed with a weapon this time. He says he has to use the bathroom. She says he can't, it's broken. He asks where the tools are. She doesn't have an answer. "don't tell me the guy doesn't even have tools." He says he'll get the tools from his truck. So, he's handy, self-sufficient, not ineffectual. That wouldn't impress me. I just want someone who knows how to call a plumber. I'd perhaps prefer that to someone who does it themselves, but maybe Alison doesn't.

He fixes the toilet, but menaces Alison, cornering her against the wall at one point, but laughing it off when he sees her anxiety. He leaves. She is outside, still calming down when the landlady comes up. She feels guilty when Cole comes back carrying Gabriel's toy box. "The most important piece of the puzzle of all." He says he is SURE she didn't mean to leave that behind. She is tortured, angry, heartbroken as she takes it from him. When he goes the landlady asks who he is. She says just someone she knew who delivered her things. The landlady asks if he is single. Alison stutters and says she guesses, she doesn't know. The landlady said that she wants to introduce him to someone who has the same weakness as she does: a man with rough hands.
I really resent Josh playing the guy with rough hands. Why would you cast him as a cowboy or, as Josh says, the "Marlboro Man" when his strong points as an actor are not brawn -- just the opposite, in fact. I think Cole would be a more interesting character if he were identified by his wit, not his "rough hands" and ability to robo root.

At least he is not disheveled in her version as he is in his own and I'm glad she still sees him as somewhat together, even if he feels otherwise.

The landlady says living with a writer is a horrible thing with all of their secret worlds, when Alison tells her that she hasn't read Noah's book yet. So, I guess Alison feels that Noah is keeping parts of himself from her, keeping secrets.

Alison fixes dinner. Noah comes home in a horrible mood. Says he had a bad day. She asks if there is anything she can do to help? He says, what's she going to do with her house? Is she going to sell it or what? I absolutely LOVE this. Alison is starting to see Noah as someone who would use her for her money, which makes them alike, since she was trying to stay with Cole just until he got HIS money from the ranch. But it's hilarious and it's a nice contrast from Cole who fixed up her house and refused to buy it from her, even for a dollar, because he considered it hers. Of course, Noah probably wouldn't sell cocaine to make ends meet, so Cole's superiority ends there, but I'm sensing that's not how Alison will see it longterm. Anyway, Cole was against using a family legacy to make money and I gather Alison feels the same way about the house that her grandparents left to her.

He storms, asking if she read his script, when he sees the pages in disarray. He TOLD her he didn't want anyone reading it. She says no she didn't, defensively. She was afraid of it blowing away, because it's been windy. That's why she moved it.

She says she got a job and when Noah hears it is with the landlord, he thinks that's a terrible idea. I'm not sure why. I mean, they aren't important enough to his life, his family or his work, for it to be that awkward and he doesn't plan to live in that guesthouse forever anyway. So, what does it matter if Alison seals a few envelopes for them? He walked out of the room, but later returns and apologizes for being so cranky. She says it's ok and they have sex at the counter, which -- is that good for anyone? Are there Dominic or Ruth fans who find that a turn on?

Flash forward. In the future, she gets to the courtroom pushing a strolling, on her way to see Noah and is stopped by Noah's new lawyer. She says they can't afford him and wonders if Helen is paying? Why is Helen making decisions, after all SHE is his wife now. This makes Alison look bad, because even in her own version, rather than being relieved that her husband will have good legal representation, she is just jealous of his ex-wife, the one she stole him from. It seems petty, under the circumstances. The lawyer patronizes her and says they'll contact her if she's needed.

PART FOUR, COLE

He is driving around in the taxi, looking beat, hair shaggy, can barely keep his eyes open. He picks up a fair at the airport, it is Butler, Noah's father-in-law. He gets in and asks Cole a question, Cole is not in a talking mood and doesn't answer, Butler asks if he can speak English. Cole says, "of course, I speak English." Butler says he is leaving his wife. He figures if his no-talent son-in-law can do it, he can too. This gets Cole's interest. Cole asks what happened to the son-in-law. Butler is startled by the question, because Cole honed in on the part of the conversation that mattered least to the self-interested Butler. I almost think he will recognize Cole at this point, but he doesn't. He just says he feels bad for his son-in-law in a way because he has no money and is living in a small place with the mistress he ran off with. What information does Cole want with his questions? Does he want to know if Alison is ok, being treated well, is happy? Or does he just want to know if he can get her back.

He drops Butler off at home and is backing up when he almost hits a kid who ran out behind the car. He is paralyzed with fear and jumps out of the car. The kid is ok. A woman comes out after him and Cole apologizes profusely, frightened at what he almost did after losing a son of his own. Is it her boy? No, she says, she is babysitting. But isn't that Butler's house? How is this kid related to Butler? The woman's mother comes out and is talking in Spanish. The woman tells Cole not to worry about it. Nothing bad happened. I think she's not a very good caretaker if she's this nonchalant about the kid almost getting hit by a car.

Cole drives on and picks up a woman who makes a pass at him. Honestly, he and Noah think every woman they encounter is hot for them and then orders him to pull over, because she's drunk and sick to her stomach. Cole listens to her vomit, disgusted. He drives alone and falls asleep at the will, veering into the opposing lane of traffic. He awakes with a start and takes cocaine to stay alert. He smokes a cigarette. I didn't know he did that. Maybe a bad habit he picked up from Alison -- or Diane Kruger.

Back at the taxi depot he puts his cash into a safe. They put a lot of emphasis on this safe as they did last season and I wonder how it will figure into the plot, if they aren't smuggling drugs anymore. Cole only has a few dollars in there, probably not much more than a few hundred. So, if it's stolen, I don't know why it would be significant. The guy at the desk tells Cole to take a nap. He says it's fine. Scott comes up and hassles him. He says that their mother wants to see him and she is living in poverty, since the foreclosure. Cole should see it and he needs to help the family. He hasn't seen them in months. Mary Kate is pregnant. They need the money and he should demand half of Alison's house. It's a community property state and Cole is entitled to 50%. Cole doesn't even bother saying that he won't live off of his ex-wife and I appreciate that. We all know he won't do that, no matter what ever else he is capable of. And they are trying to "redeem" him since the hostage scenes in the cliffhanger, but they aren't overdoing it too much, because Cole can still menace with the best. Cole says that if Scott doesn't get the ____ out of his way he will run him over. I like the mad serious way Josh delivers the line. They are setting it up to make Cole a suspect in his own brother's murder, which I don't buy at all. Scott hangs onto the car window and Cole drives off, not exactly running him but not exactly non-threatening either.

He goes back to Alison's house. He is living outside in a trailer. I guess because it's hers and he doesn't feel he should be inhabiting it. The trailer is a mess with discarded fast food cartons everywhere. Glancing at the house, he seems someone inside and runs in. Alison? He calls, with soft hope. It's Jane her friend. She didn't know Cole was home. She was packing up things to send to Alison. Cole says he'll take them himself. Jane doesn't think that's a good idea. He says she was trespassing on his property and if she doesn't want him to call the police, she'll just give him Alison's address and he'll mail the UNDERWEAR to her. Well, she had Alison's permission to be there, so I don't know why that police threat worked, but maybe she was just understandably afraid of Cole. Which is fine, but she should have texted Alison that very moment and let her know Cole had the address. I think she was a very careless friend.

So, Cole drives up to Alison's house. On the road there he stops, goes into a diner (the same one Alison visited) and sees Noah on the street. He extends his arm and makes his finger into a gun, which he shoots at Noah. This is the shot they use in the promos for the show, to indicate that Cole is still murderous, but that's not how he comes across in the episode.

Cole drives up the road to Alison's. I guess it looks peaceful to him, beautiful everything he wanted in a life with her, but doesn't have and hadn't had in a long time. He is in her house looking around at the rafters. She comes in, book in hand as if she's been out meditating, all Walden's Pond. Rather than being apprehensive when she sees him, the guy who broke into her home in her absence, she is so grateful that he came that long way to bring her things. And I guess this is realistic, from his perspective in the sense that guys always think they are doing you a favor and being nice when what they are really being is STALKERS.

But I'm not sure if men who press themselves on you really know the attention is unwanted. I think they lie about it after the fact. In Cole's case, maybe Alison was warmer than she let on in her version.

She still can't believe he came all that way and he says he was in the area. Oh, what for? Oh to see a horse. "What? I thought you had to sell the ranch." He did, he says. I don't know what this means, that he lied and now she knows it and she caught him making up an excuse to see him again or ... does she think he still goes around looking at horses even though he no longer owns a ranch? I guess it's the former, but it's hard to tell from their expressions.

She asks if she can make him something. She is in the kitchen cooking, looking all happy in her home (but in a big sweater because Treem thinks he sees her as closed off -- which is the opposite of what he is perceiving in his version of the events). He tells her Mary Kate is pregnant. While she dices in the kitchen, he is on the sofa, self-conscious. He says that he thought of funny he wanted to tell her. What was it? He can't remember. There's an awkward pause, but it's a nice moment. My mom says she would think of things she wanted to tell my grandmother after my grandmother passed. She'd even pick up the phone to call her sometimes. My grandma said that when my mother married and moved away from home, it took her awhile to stop going to my mother's bedroom to wake her in the morning. You get used to sharing part of your life with another and your body still has the muscle memory of doing it, even when that person is gone.

She senses his awkwardness. She asks if he remembers a day they spent together, before she got pregnant. They were out and made pancakes afterwards. Yes, he remembers. That was a good day, she says. He agrees. She pulled out a happy memory from all the bad ones they've had and built a bridge. They hug and she thanks him again for coming. As he is ready to part he asks if he can ask a question. She seems afraid that it might cause tension. But his is quiet, sad, pitiable. Not menacing as in her version. He wonders if she is ever coming back home. She says, no she doesn't think so. He nods. Josh says he needed to hear that, because it opened the door to stop hoping and let him return to life, a new life without her.

In the future he is going to the courtroom. He looks dapper, in a button up shirt (but still has a bit of a stomach. Probably Josh's real one, but in Cole's past version of events, I think wardrobe gave him a little added pot belly). He sees Alison and she is frantically trying to shush the baby. She looks out of control, frantic. She says she's SO sorry about his brother's death. I had hoped her reaction would be more personal, like she had lost a brother too, rather than just giving a friend condolences. He asks if this is her daughter. Yeah, whose kid WOULD it be, Cole. Cole heads into the Courtroom and she says maybe the baby will be quiet enough for her to go back in. Inside, Noah is charged with Scott's murder: leaving the scene of a crime, vehicular homicide: obstructing an investigation (he did get his car fixed, to protect his kid I think whom he thinks was driving. I think it was Martin. Noah may think it's Whitney). Alarmed, Noah looks at Alison and the baby. Cole looks over to the strained Alison looking frozen, but comforting her baby. He better not be thinking of confessing to the murder so as to keep Alison and her daughter safe, because I'd kill him myself if that crossed his mind. Although, from the spoilers, I know Cole has his own life now and wouldn't give all of that up to comfort dopey Alison, so his life is spared.

Ok episode. Not exciting or funny. Josh said the show is mostly a slow character study and maybe it's too slow, but I prefer that to a lot of action that makes Cole look homicidal or loserish. Altogether, the episode was not as painful as it could have been for me and I look forward to seeing the next, rather than dreading it.

S2, Episode 1

NOAH

After the end of last season, there was very little this show could have done to make the beginning of S2 at all tolerable to me. Yet, like the proverbial needle in a haystack, The Affair found the only ticket back to Montauk that I would accept: levity. The opener did everything right, in my view: Cole was not on, so I did not fret about him. Allison was seen only briefly, so I did not fume. I'm indifferent to Helen. She received a lot of airtime and I could enjoy it, without feeling emotionally drained. Noah was, well the writers seem to have embraced a growing consensus that he is a selfish loser, rather than the sensitive intellectual Allison appears to see. So, he was put upon for the entire 60 minutes and it was delicious.

If this was a ploy to get us to be more sympathetic to him, it failed for me. The more he suffers, the more satisfied I am. It starts with his agent being disappointed with the new ending to his novel. Of course, I know that the book turns out to be a huge success, so whatever pleasure I get out of his writing being berated is short-lived. I think we're supposed to be pulling for him to prove everyone wrong. I only want to see him fail harder.

The agent, Harry, tells him that the plot with the four brothers is rich. It's like East of Eden. Well, neither Noah nor the audience knows enough about Cole's family to appreciate their dynastic qualities and I don't want to. They seemed like a quartet of small town thugs with Ma Barker at the helm. They came off as "low class" and while I know we need the sharp contrast between the Lockharts and the Butlers, but it shouldn't be Wasps vs. Neanderthals. The Lockharts were undermined last year, because their quaint small town values were just a cover for drug dealers, who would taint the community they supposedly want to preserve. They don't want a bowling alley in their town, but they don't mind using taxis and fish to smuggle cocaine. These aren't people I want to know better and Noah supposedly writing about them in his novel just reminds me how badly Sarah Treem failed to meet her goals in S1. She didn't create the Trasks from East of Eden or the Ewings from Dallas. She created a motley collection of "blue collar" bad guys from whom the fair Allison needed to escape and I resent Joshua Jackson being mired in that pile. But he wasn't in Ep 1, so I didn't have to focus on the waste of his talents and could enjoy the comic turns Dominic was given to play and why not? He's better in those scenes than he is at romance.

Noah's agent tells him he should change the ending to his story, unless he wants to have to give back the advance he got. He hurries back to the brownstone to move his things out. Margaret is there on a mission to berate him. She tells him his things are in the basement and his kids have been sent away. He hired a truck to move his things, but Margaret points him to two suitcases and a mangled set of golf clubs. He says half the stuff in the house is his. She says not until it has been inventories and assessed. Then, Helen can send him his things or just write him a check for what it's worth. Fuming he tries to collect his books. They're paperbacks. They have no monetary value, but Margaret clearly wants to hurt him, more than anything else. He takes a painting from the wall. His father painted it himself, but her daughter is in it, Margaret insists; he must not remove it. He threatens to push her down the stairs to her death and swear it was an accident if she doesn't get out of the way.

Just then Martin opens his door. He was home all of the time! Oops, Margaret shrugs wickedly. Martin isn't feeling well (I think he's the one who killed Scott) and that's why he stayed home. He's been seeing a psychiatrist, which Noah isn't glad to hear, but the kid actually should have been seeing one since last year when he pretended to hang himself as a JOKE. If Noah hadn't covered that stunt up, Scott Lockhart might still be alive.

As he leaves the house, Trevor runs up and is glad to see him. He says Helen told him that Noah was going through a mid-life crisis and would return home when it's over. Noah says that actually, they are getting a divorce. Trevor socks Noah in the face. I laugh, but I don't understand why Treem has Helen and Cole holding onto these jerks. With Helen, it's not even that she just wants to save her family, but she seems to want NOAH, not just the father of her kids. Why?? I don't see anything in his personality that would make any person cling to him after so many betrayals and even before he had an affair, he was still insensitive. Frustrated at the way she was raising the kids, with pent up resentment about it. So, maybe he felt supportive to her, but all along he was unhappy with their life. His feelings were justified and she should have been more responsive maybe, but once he left her, returned because she begged him and then left her again, I cannot understand why she still doesn't want to let him go. And the thing about him is that her parents' criticisms are true. He scoffs at that materialism, but he benefits from it. He's a hypocrite. If she admired him for his idealism when they were young, the years should have shown her that much of it was facade. Maybe he just gave in to her strong will, but even so. Even if she is the one who made him sell out, now that he has done so, what is it that's left about his personality that she doesn't want to lose? No, he's not like the privileged boys she grew up with, but he hangs out with them (Uncle Max).

When we saw Noah's house, I didn't even know where he was staying. I thought it was Allison's house. The commode breaks when he flushes the toilet. He shakes his head in a "what else could go wrong" manner.

Noah heads to a family law mediation and meets up with Helen. In his version the lawyer is nice and tries to help them reach compromise, but Helen is antagonistic. She doesn't anything from him and makes it clear that she doesn't think he possesses anything worth giving. The house is hers. Her parents lent them the money for the down payment. The store is hers. Noah says he doesn't want any of it. He just wants joint custody of the kids. She says that he doesn't even have a place to put them. He says that after his book is published he can get a bigger place, for all of them. Oh, he can afford a four bedroom place? Helen is amused that he thinks his 2nd book will have that kind of success. He tells her that the advance he got was for $400,000. That silences and surprises her. Congratulations. But no, she still isn't making any claim to it, she tells the mediator.

Outside, they quibble about whether they should look for a new mediator. He blames her for not seeing the kids. She says that they don't want to see him. Will she convince Whitney to talk to him. She indicates she will. What about Martin? Well, she says, he has a stomach ache. It's probably stress (stress from killing Scott). Noah says that Martin doesn't tell him he's having problems. He doesn't actually believe that Martin is and that's carried over from S2. Helen wants to know, is he living with Allison? He avoids answering. She says that he doesn't want Allison anywhere near her kids. He tells her that she's an a------ and that she can't always get what she wants. She remarks that he's unbelievably selfish (true story) and wonders how she went so long without noticing that.

Back at the cabin, Allison is cooking a gourmet meal. She spent the day walking in the small town (eye roll) and enjoyed it. They're smiling. He asks her to dance. She says there is no music. He says the chirping birds are their music (gag). Afterwards, he sits at the end of the pier in a chair and takes his small, peaceful surroundings in.

In the present day, he's in jail. The investigator tells him it's a small town and a local boy was killed. Plus, the judge lost his own wife to a hit and run driver. Noah's chances aren't good and maybe he should take a plea. Noah is mostly silent. I think he's covering for Martin.

HELEN

Next we get Helen's view and when we're at the 45 minute mark, I realize that we won't get Cole and Allison tonight. I find myself searching to see if the second episode is available yet. I actually want more. That's rather shocking, especially since I dread seeing Cole mope around and beg to have a part in Allison's life. Still, I have to admit the show has been engrossing. I was more than ready for another 60 minutes.

Helen is having sex with Max and he's doing an excited play-by-play, "I'm filling you up. Can you feel it." Yes, I feel it a bored Helen deadpans, clearly astounded by the Marv Alpert enthusiasm. When he's finally finished, I know that she's just dying for him to get off of her, but he takes his time. He gets a phone call and is playing with her leg, raising it up in the air as he talks. Afterwards, he enthuses about her perfect breasts and orders breakfast, clearly anxious to begin their couplehood. She has other things to do, has to attend an event with her mother and doesn't want to appear in public alone with everyone asking where Noah is. Max says to skip it. She can't.

She goes to the mediation. Noah is late and arrives in a player's leather jacket (in his version he wore a suit). The mediator is surly and wants to hurry them along so he can make more money. She's polite and passive. He's the one that's smirking at the idea of her store being worth anything of value.

She has an e-cigarette and slips some pot into it. Smokes on a park bench.

At home, Whitney is going to write about how Cole pointed a gun at her (ugh) for her book report. Margaret says that if she does, Margaret won't pay her tuition anymore. Margaret is trying to cook them dinner. Trevor is crying because his dad told him they're getting a divorce. Margaret says she wants Helen to stop wasting her time doing things the nice way and sue Noah for divorce. Helen says she is sure he will come home eventually. They've been together 25 years.

At dinner, Helen tries to talk to the kids and share family time. She points out that Margaret never could cook. So, they have to suffer through the meal. She tries to bring up their spirits. She goes to meet her mother at a social function and is surprised that Max is there. It keeps her from being alone and having to ward off the Noah questions. At their table with 3-6 others, Max enthuses about what a catch she was in college, how beautiful, how he was devastated when she went for Noah. Helen enjoys the attention and does begin to sparkle, tells jokes of her own. Her mother is beaming at how Max is impressing their friends. Helen doesn't demur when Max suggests that they are a couple now. Margaret says she doesn't know what Helen saw in Noah anyway. She says she and Max and Noah were inseparable and they were all sleeping together. Helen says that's not true. Max slips her a brownie with pot in it for a treat later. When they get home, Margaret leaves them to say goodnight alone, but not before lying about her age (changes it from 70 to 63 or so). Max comments that she must have had Helen when she was 18. She kisses Max more enthusiastic about him than she was this morning. Yes, he's a boor, but she sees he does care for and value her at heart and she appreciates it. When he's gone she sits on the stoop and smokes some more pot. At night she's in her bed alone and looks up at the wall, eyeing the empty clean spot that Noah left behind when he took his father's picture.

In the present day, Helen shows up at the prison. The detective has somehow become Noah's BFF. He tells him his lawyer is on his way. Noah says that he can't afford a high-priced lawyer (so his book wasn't all THAT successful, I guess). A demure and sorrowful looking Helen shows up and says that she is paying for the lawyer.

I enjoyed this episode, which doesn't mean the show is improving. It was good because it was light and relatively meaningless. It can't be like this all of the time and the producers have yet to prove they can handle the deeper subject matter they want to juggle without dropping all of the balls. Again.

Episode 10

The show ends having made a mockery of everything they used to promote its debut 10 episodes ago. The characters have wildly divergent memories of an event no one would actually forget and Sarah Treem declares that it doesn't matter which version is true or not, all that matters is how it made them feel.

If the truth doesn't matter, why have you had audiences trying to divine it for the last 3 months. And if the characters' feelings are of paramount importance, why can't they just indulge them without false memories?

We still haven't gotten to the murder we've waited for for so long. We know Scotty has been hit by a car and we know that Noah is ultimately arrested, but we leave Montauk before the accident occurs. We don't know why it happened. We don't know whose wedding everyone was attending. We have as many questions about that mystery, which is really a sub-sub plot in the show, as we did when the series started. If the show hadn't been renewed for another season, I don't know how the finale would have unfolded, but anything would have been better than what we got.

And, ending the way we began (with the maybe rape scene closing the first two stories in the pilot), we continue to get endings that serve to heighten interest for the next episode, but have very little to do with the plot going forward. Cliffhangers should ask an important question, that is not only answered, but integral. Here, they just tease, only to be forgotten later.


Noah's Story

Noah's at the swimming pool where it all began. I hope it is a flashback letting us know that the preceding 9 episodes have been a dream, but no such luck. He runs into his admirer from before. She reveals that she is engaged now and when Noah tells her he is separated, she is sorry she missed out (on what I don't know). They end up having sex. Then he has sex with everyone he encounters and does it at school, where he's caught and punished.

He is sent to a "rubber room" to wait until the charges against him can be heard. Some people have been coming there every day for a year or two. If he leaves, he will lose his chance at reinstatement. He ends up using the time to write his book. Apparently, he's the only one who found something productive to do, because the man next to him (who was reading Infinite Jest for the second time) tells Noah that he's his hero.

Noah's agent says the same. He loves the book and asks Noah what it's like to be single. No ties, sleeping with as many women he wants. Noah says that his older kids hate him and he is living in a room the size of a shoebox. The agent asks if he misses his wife. Noah flashes back to being in bed with Alison. I learn on twitter that the scene is from Alison's story, not his. Treem says that they don't recall every even in their own stories. I have been afraid of this. For instance, when an episode ends without them having sex, I have been aware that maybe they actually did, they just didn't divulge it in their narratives. When Noah remembers an encounter that Alison omitted, if it's not contradictory to hers, then I feel that it may have happened. What I don't think is that they actually repressed the memory and wouldn't admit it to themselves until now, which is how Treem explains the flashbacks they have from the other's story. So stupid. Considering everything else about the liaison that Noah and Alison have recalled in their own stories, why would they "forget" relatively innocuous moments? The way Treem uses the memory gimmick, these people aren't giving us their biased recollections, they're suffering from selective amnesia and are actually mentally unstable if they truly recall events the way Treem says they do. Actually, she's the one who's mentally unstable, if she thinks failing to write a complete plot and using the media to explain away all of the script's discrepancies is the way to produce a television show.

Anyway, to me, in Noah's flashback to Alison in bed, she looks unhappy. I don't know where the scene is from. It appears to be the first time they slept together at the inn. She initially hated it and was looking for a quick exit. When Noah recalls the scene, it is in slow motion. Even a joyous movement of the mouth can look like a grimace in slo mo. Still, I'm wondering if Noah is remembering a point during sex when Alison looked regretful or disappointed. If that's something he wouldn't let himself admit until now, then I'm happy to know it. In fact, any time he has her being less enthusiastic about their pairing than she is in her story, I like to think he's telling us a truer version of Alison and her inner emotions than she is. I grasp onto that. But maybe he's just revealing his own securities. Does he see her kiss Cole goodbye at town hall, because she did and was more affectionate towards Cole than she knew? Or does he see it because he feared she was using him. When she talks about the affair in retrospect is she trying to make it seem like she met Noah at least halfway so as not to take the blame for its failure, while he sees that she was never as whole-hearted as he is? Of course, I'd embrace that.

She doesn't make it seem like she tries very much with Cole. So, I'm not sure why she would go out of her way to tell the audience that she gave her lover every chance, if she didn't, but I suppose no one wants to be the one who let the other down. With the cocaine, Noah recalled that she was more intent on helping Cole cover up the crime than she was guilty about it. He saw her as being a full Lockhart participant. Again in this episode, from his POV I thought Alison was back in the family, not just a visitor at the home. Is that the way it seemed to Noah, or do Treem & Company just slant it that way, to fool the viewers into thinking that Alison has reunited with Cole, only to surprise them in the second half of the story?

The character points of view have been so manipulated, that you don't trust them as having a purpose other than building suspense, anymore.

The agent tells Noah he can get him an advance in the six figures and Noah is overjoyed. We learn that he hasn't seen Alison in four months. They've been out of touch.

Helen calls him over to the house and shows video of him beating up Scotty at the abortion clinic. Why didn't he tell her who their son was sleeping with. He's surprised to see she's having him followed. She says she's not, her mother is. She's doing it to help in the divorce proceedings.

Helen also knows about all the women he's been sleeping with and that he's not on his job anymore. He can't believe she let her mother spy on him. She says no one let's Margaret do anything. She screams that she hates him and he says, sure, that's why she wants a divorce. But, she melts, she doesn't want a divorce. She misses him. She wants him back. This is too hard. She can't do it alone.

She says it's not fair that she thought everything was fine and he loved the person she was. She gave him all the things he'd always wanted, including the four children, the family he grew up without. He changed and he didn't let her know. He never gave her a warning that he had outgrown her. She's been in therapy and she can change. She's learned new coping tools.

She breaks down in his arms and he comforts her. She asks him to come back. He kisses her and jokes that she wiped her nose on his shirt. She says, "does that turn you on." They laugh and become amorous.

Maura did a great job in this scene, but it's such a humiliating one. As an actor, do you mind groveling if it gives you good material? Maybe not, but as a fan, it's very hard to watch and I honestly don't know why The Affair writes scenes that turn so many people off. I mean, even if the producers mistakenly think people just want Noah and Alison together, they can't think having Helen beg him to take her back makes him look good, since he does reunite with Helen only to dump her again. How ... to me, even if you were rooting for Alison and Noah, that would turn you off of them. And if you were never rooting for them to begin with, it's just infuriating.

Whitney presumably had the abortion, but it's not mentioned. At first she is glad to see her father back, but then when Helen and Noah say they will press charges against Scotty because she was only 16 when the affair happened and he is at least 30, she turns against Noah and says he can't sleep with Alison, return and act like he's her father. He says "I AM your father." She says that he's a sociopath. Helen told her so. Helen looks guilty and says she was mad at the time. Sociopath! Sociopath, Whitney screams. Thanks a lot, Noah says as he retreats to the bedroom.

It's funny, because after the pilot, I called Noah a psychopath. I think he feels guilt, but that doesn't stop him from continually hurting others. But he's so self-centered. I believe that ego is more the trait of a psychopath than a sociopath. I think the writers may have been getting "sociopath" complaints online from the audience, so they threw that in for laughs and it was amusing.

Helen gets into her pajamas. Noah asks did she really just go into the other room to change clothes. Yes. Why? She says she doesn't know. She gets into bed in sweats. When he thinks about the Lockharts, Whitney says she is the one who chased Scotty not the other way around, Noah suggests that maybe they shouldn't press charges. After all, Whitney was almost 17. Helen is astounded and, guessing that Noah is reticent because of Alison, she says she is pressing charges, with or without Noah. She turns her back to him. He asks if she wants him to leave. She says, "please don't," I think that's nice dialogue.

Noah's phone rings and he sees it is Alison. He doesn't answer. Then she texts, "your daughter is here." Since he hasn't seen her, how does he know where "here" is for Alison?

He heads over to the ranch. Alison opens the door. She looks bigger. First of all she is wearing a shapeless dress, but it's white so I guess Noah sees her as angelic. It has a belt and looks like a choir robe. Her arms look bigger, but I don't know if that would be the show's wardrobe or just Ruth's body. I don't know if they want her to look pregnant or not, but if she would have gotten pregnant four months ago ...

Helen eyes Alison and Noah looking at one another. She says that Whitney is inside "with my mother-in-law." Her language ties Alison to the Lockharts in Noah's mind.

They go into the kitchen and when Whitney sees her parents, she lashes out at Alison, "I thought we were friends, how could you call them?" Um, why did Whitney think Alison was her friend? What interaction has she had with her? I could see if Martin thought that, since he'd hung out at the ranch, but when have Alison and Whitney been around each other?

Noah asks where Scotty was and Alison says he left. Where'd he go. Alison says she doesn't know. It turns out later that Scotty was there. Does Noah think that Alison was complicit in lying to him? In his version of events, it seems so.

Cherry tries to convince them not to press charges. She says they lost the ranch and will all be homeless soon, Noah looks sadly at Alison. Helen tells Alison to stop looking at her husband and yells, "what is wrong with you?!" Cherry says please don't speak to her daughter-in-law that way. Helen says that that daughter-in-law slept with Helen's husband. Cherry says she knows and that everyone in the room has done bad things. So that seems Cherry is admitting that she did something bad. What? Was telling Alison that she wished she had died instead of Gabriel one of them? If so, that would indicate that she and Alison have forgiven one another. At any rate, Noah would not have known that Cherry knew about the affair (or that Cherry would have reason to say they've all done bad things), so that part seems like it really happened.

Just as Noah is about to leave with Whitney, Scotty comes down the stairs and says, "Are they gone, Ma?" Noah lunges after Scotty. Scotty can probably fight better than that. He's younger than Noah and has probably been in brawls, while Noah hasn't, so I don't know why Noah always gets the better of him, but that makes me remember that there is video of their fight at the abortion clinic, so we know that that must've really happened.

Noah chases Scotty outside and has him down on the ground. He is punches Scotty's face back and forth, when Cole comes out with a gun and says, "get the ___ off of my brother." He says that Noah should give him a reason not to shoot and cocks his gun. Helen, Alison and Whitney all stare in horror.

We see detective Jeffrey investigating. When he saw him leave the police station, Noah bribed the mechanic who fixed his car $10,000 to say he never saw Noah and the mechanic got it all on tape, which he gives to the police.

Alison's Story

She is at some yoga retreat with Athena and her boyfriend. They are all getting along, suddenly. Namaste.

She's in a sweatshirt and still looks like she could be pregnant. It is only because I see her drinking beer later that I think maybe she is not and at 4 months along, she would know if she was. So, I want to assume she wasn't pregnant at the time. If she is, I have to conclude that the baby is not Noah's and she lied to Cole about not being the father, which would make me hate her more than I do, if that's possible. I hope they don't go anywhere with the paternity tease.

Athena wants to fix her up with someone who will help her reach sexual peak. Alison says she doesn't need that. When they part, Alison hugs her warmly and Athena says she thought she just might call her "mom" when Alison doesn't.

Alison goes to Phoebe's. She tells her she is not going back to her husband and not running off with Noah. She says she needs time for herself. Phoebe can't believe she had an affair and left her husband all while she was gone. Alison says that there was a moment when it first started when Noah looked at her and really SAW her and she has never felt so aroused as at that time. Now it seems everything since then has been her and Noah trying to circle their way back to that time.

Phoebe says they can't, because it never really existed. I don't know if this is telling the audience that Alison is fantasizing about something that doesn't exist in real life, that she's tracing a dream and Noah just looks good to her because he doesn't come with the burdens of real life, he's an escape, not an alternative. Is this the message to viewers? Even if it is, Alison doesn't believe that. Alison saying that she and Noah were trying to circle their way back tells me that she is not over Noah the way she is Cole and I am disheartened.

Phoebe says that she thinks life is all about having someone to donate a kidney too when you need it. Phoebe looks around and she has no one. Alison says that she'll donate Phoebe a kidney if need be and that not having a donor is preferable to being lonely in your own marriage (which is a good way to describe what Alison is feeling. The writers have some talent when they aren't trying to play cutesy games). Phoebe says that Alison shouldn't mind her, after all she's never been married. Alison says she is going to try to sell her house. Phoebe asks if Cole is still living in it. Alison says she doesn't know. Probably.

When Alison spoke about that moment with Noah, she flashed back to the beach, after the party that she catered for the Butlers. Online people pointed out that her flashback was from Noah's story and didn't happen in Alison's. In Noah's story, he fingered her. In her story, they just kissed and she told him that she was attracted to him. Alison's not especially modest and I don't know why she would "repress" a romantic encounter with Noah on the beach, in light of everything she has admitted in her story. I remember her telling the Detective that at that time she hadn't been unfaithful to her husband, she'd just kissed a man on the beach, but since she never had any real qualms about being unfaithful in the first place and never tried to resist Noah until after they'd already slept together. I don't know why her memory wouldn't divulge the scene in the flashback, if it had happened in her memory. It's just Treem & Company trying to be cute with a construct they've already rendered meaningless.

When Alison goes out to the kitchen at Phoebe's Mary Kate is sitting there. Mary Kate is cold. Alison asks about Hal. He's fine. The house. They lost the house. Alison says she is sorry, but it's the condolences offered by a stranger, not by a friend. Alison pointedly doesn't ask about Cole, which makes me mad. Mary Kate says if she'd known that Alison was there, she would have waited in the car. "Really?" Alison is more argumentative and sarcastic than contrite. Is that how it is? Yes, Mary Kate says, when you leave your family without so much as a goodbye note, that's how it is.

Phoebe comes out and asks if Alison wants to go surfing with them. Mary Kate says that Alison doesn't swim. Phoebe says that Alison can watch. Alison just wants a ride to her house. Is that all right with Mary Kate. Mary Kate is not happy about it and Alison snippily says, "just drop me at my house and then you never have to see me again." I wouldn't have taken her to the house at all. On the one hand, I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing that I'd considered her a friend and my feelings were hurt. On the other, I wouldn't let her in my car, even for a 10 minute drive.

Since Phoebe is a surfer, maybe she can give an objective description of what happened the day that Gabriel drowned and Alison will discover that she was wrong to blame Cole. Of course, it's stupid that no one has ever discussed these things before, that she never asked Cole why he wasn't watching Gabriel before, or even that Noah and Alison don't discuss the different memories they have of the first time he saw her house and the shower episode. With the drowning, just for the medical report, you'd have think people would have discussed their recollection of the incident two years ago and not give Alison and her doctor excuse for lengthy exposition on the subject.

They drive up to the house and Cole comes out and I am glad he is being charming, like Josh and not all mopey. He says that they will have a great time surfing and then Alison gets out of the car and he immediately puts his hands in his pocket. Body language that says she has emasculated him I guess. He is no longer jocular.

In the house, she says it looks great. He says that he's been fixing it up and it will make it easier for her to sale. I'm glad that he's acknowledging it as her property and not trying to hold onto it or make a claim to her money. He thanks her for answering his calls and texts. Not. She tells him to understand that she couldn't do that.

He says after 20 years, he can't believe she wouldn't even talk to him. And if she had nothing to say to him for four long months, what does she have to say now? Wait a minute. It dawns on him that she's not there to talk to him. It's summer time, the tourists will return and she came back to sell the house, didn't she? She didn't want to see him. She says this was a bad idea and turns to leave.

Is it Noah? She says she hasn't seen or talked to Noah since she last saw Cole. It's not about him. It's about her (reminds me of Cher's line, "I didn't leave Sonny for another man. I left him for another woman: me."

So, Cole says they've been together 20 years. IN the pilot, Alison estimated they'd had sex 10,000 times, which seemed outrageous to me. For 20 years, that's 500 times a year. Rather ambitious. Maybe Alison isn't that good with math, as her next offer to Cole proves.

Alison says that he should keep the house. She will sell it to him. He says he's broke. They have no money. She says then she will give it to him. I like the fact that she will give up some money, since that all that seemed to be keeping her with him. On the other hand, I don't want her pity and that's the most she seems to feel for Cole. Cole says giving him the house would make her an idiot. She says that she just wants him to have something he loves. He says, "I love YOU." So embarrassing. The scene seems real though, excruciating, but real, so it's hard to watch in a good way -- a better way than most of the show is.

He says that people can get over this. They can go back to therapy. She says she doesn't want to do that. It's too hard. It's not fixable. Nothing can fix it for her but Gabriel. She doesn't know why he was taken away from them, but he was and there's no other way to repair what they had. Every time she looks at Cole, his face, his body, she sees Gabriel all over him. She just wants to get away from that. Does she want to forget Gabriel, he asks? "I want to forget you." Whoa! Of course, I flinch for Cole, but I think that's a brilliant exchange there.

She is quiet for a moment and you can see the thoughts churning in her head as she pauses and I know what's coming next. "Why didn't you watch him?" "What?" He says, not understanding. "On the beach, I went to the house to get a towel and you were supposed to watch him. Why didn't you?"

Cole leaps up and is next to her standing, his face close to hers, "Why didn't you just take him to the f___ hospital," he snarls. And THAT it Josh's best moment in this episode, not that junk at the end of the show. Cole tells Alison to get out, says he never wants to see her face again. I just wish he meant it.

Then, Mary Kate runs in and says that Whitney is at the house. Her parents want to press rape charges against Scotty and Cole needs to get there. She tells Alison to come too. Why, why in the world would that be necessary? This is so contrived that it wasn't worth watching, much less writing about later.

At the house, Cole asks how old Whitney is and wipes a hand over his face when she says 17. Cherry says maybe if she could speak to Helen, mother to mother, they could keep the Solloways from pressing charges. I wish Cole would say something about how wrong Scotty was. We did see him tell Scotty to stay away from Whitney in the series' beginning, but I'd like to know that Alison still sees him as having some inkling of morality.

Cole tells Alison to call Noah. She says she doesn't want to. Cole says Noah will come to the house if he gets the call from Alison. Well, if he got a call saying Whitney was there, I think he'd come. Alison wouldn't need to call him, but this is the way to lead to the big moment that Treem has in store for us, so it has to happen, whether or not it makes sense. She says in Alison's mind, Cole used her to set up a trap from Noah, that forced Alison to choose between her husband and lover. She stepped between them and chose Cole. Well, it looked like she would have chosen him without this "trap." I see the scene as needlessly making a villain out of Cole. Worse than a villain, a weak crazy man for whom we can no longer root. With the rape scene, most of the audience believed the wife's version over Noah's. With this scene, I believe Noah's version. I think it's insane to suggest that the two have different memories which involve different people, a different place and a different reason for the gun showdown.

Treem says that all Alison saw was Cole's gun and everything else (Scotty) was secondary to her. So secondary that she (or Noah) begin making up things that never happened? That's not a sign of different points of view, it's a sign of schizophrenia. It would be more believable that events are fuzzy than that they be very specific and 100% different from the events Noah said he witnessed. Treems says that the points of view diverge the most during traumatic events, like Stacey's choking. In real life, your mind is more focused during a traumatic event than during others. So, I don't think that's when you start wildly imagining, even if you don't notice everything other witnesses to the event noticed.

At any rate, the memories were so different that I had to believe one didn't happen, that maybe we were seeing drafts from Noah's book, rather than "reality." But in interviews, Treem insists that this is not the case. It's all just Alison and Noah's honest recollections. Ugh!

Anyway, while they are waiting for the Solloways to come over to the house. Whitney asks Alison if she really slept with her dad. Alison says yes. Whitney is grossed out. "Why? He's so old and your husband is so hot." Alison just swigs her beer, noncommittally. It is a hilarious moment, but it breaks the fourth wall. It is more a joke based on online comments (why would anyone cheat on Pacey?) than on anything the characters would really say, but it's a nice touch.

Helen and Noah arrive. Cherry leaves and Cole says that she agreed to give them a moment. Noah tells Whitney he wants her to leave right now. She refuses. He curses at her. Cole says, "Is that the way you talk to your children?" He said he figured Noah to be a good father at least. He wonders what Noah has that would make Alison go with him, since she won't go with Cole anymore (or something stupid like that. I can't bear to rewatch to clarify). What does Noah have, because kindness certainly doesn't work with Alison. Noah says that that's something between Cole and his wife and he'd be glad to talk to him another time, but not now. He rises to leave and Cole says he's not going anywhere. He pulls out a gun and points it from one Solloway to the other. Clearly, if Cole had pointed a gun at Noah's wife and kid he would have remembered that. For Alison to remember such a heinous thing if it never happened makes her horrible. She has to make Cole a monster so she can feel better about choices she never felt guilty for in the first place??

Alison tells Cole not to shoot the Solloways. She's the one he's angry with. So, he turns the gun on her and she yelps. Or would she prefer that he kill himself. He puts the gun to his head. She says, "God no!" He says he should blow his head off and that would be the last memory she had of him and she'd have to live with it, just as they both have to live with the memory of her son.

She says that Gabriel wouldn't want that. He says that Gabriel isn't there. She says he is. He is with them every day. And he loved Cole so much. He wanted to be like Cole. Cole starts crying (sigh) and puts down the gun. He leaves a crumpled man. Helen hurries Whitney out and turns to ask if Noah is coming too. He looks at the shaken Alison and refuses to leave her. When they are alone, he hugs and comforts her. Gag.

If Alison's view of events is correct, it's once again curious how Noah has no memory of Gabriel, just like he never remembers Athena. The fact that the people in Alison's life don't ever show up on his radar is telling, especially when her son's drowning defines her and (from her POV) he's so supportive of her regarding the subject. It's not even worth mentioning from his POV. The closest he's come to acknowledging it was to tell Helen "she was in a dark place." Noah is not Mr. Sensitivity.

At one point, Cole said, "And what do you think I should do about that?" Even though he is being a violent psycho at the time, it still reminds me of Peter Bishop talking to Olivia in the sweetest Fringe episode, 6B.

Fast forward. They are in a modern NY apartment. She has just come out of the baby's room. Is she down for the night, Noah asks? "I think so." They are cuddly on the sofa. Alison, with a chic, short bob, asks him what his day looks like tomorrow. They are turning his book into a movie and he has a meeting about actors. The doorbell rings. It's the police. They arrest Noah. Put him in cuffs. Alison can't leave until Juliane comes to be with the baby. But she promises to get Noah out. "Do you believe me?" She asks. For me, that's a curious question. What reason would he have not to believe her?

Someone said they were both wearing wedding rings in the scene.

Josh didn't tweet anything about the finale or the show. I can only hope that he's not returning for S2. I don't want to hear that he's renegotiating his contract for more money. I just want to hear that he's not coming back. That way, I won't be compelled to ever see any of these characters again.

If he does return, while Helen will probably have a fling with Max, she'll still love Noah and their family (I still think Martin is headed for a break down) will keep bringing them together.

Cole and Alison have no family, but maybe we'll learn more about Gabriel's death, which will break down the wall between them. Maybe beyond their child, they had a love that was not apparent in the first season. We don't know why they got together in the first place. We assume it was for financial security on Alison's part, partly because of what Athena said. But maybe she was really in love and we'll discover that in the first season. I recall her telling Jeffries that Oscar was invited to the wedding because deep down they are family, no matter what fights they have. I am waiting for her to rediscover that blood tie to Cole. Being away from him for four months wasn't enough to make it return, but maybe eventually ...

In her place, I would want to be away from Cole for the townhall speech, for the tattoo, for the outburst at the dinner with Athena, for all the ways that he pricks her feelings about her son's death without realizing it. So, I don't fault her for wanting out, especially if he expects her to be around Cherry often, even if Cherry is not the monster that Alison makes her out to be. It's an oppressive environment. Add to that the fact that she blames Cole for Gabriel's drowning in the first place and I completely understand her not wanting to be married to him, but I don't understand the attraction to Noah, who is much less giving than Cole. I don't understand lying to Cole and agreeing to start a family with him, only to cheat on him all over again -- after being the first to push him away when he wanted to go to the hospital with her. You can leave someone, without being cruel and uncaring. I blame her, not for her anger towards him, but for her indifference.

If she acknowledges that she was blind towards him, I would be interested in seeing them together, but I don't want her to reconnect with him out of pity or guilt. It would have to be true affection that outweighs what she says she feels for Noah. The best of all worlds would simply be for this show to be cancelled because other's find it as silly as I do.

The creators started with a good concept, but were unequal to its execution and have to explain their ideas in the media, because they're incapable of transmitting them in the show itself.