We’ll always have Paris, until we don’t
Welcome to the season finale ofThe Affair!
Maybe all we needed was to drop the hysterical, crazy pill-popping flashbacks?
We begin with what seems to be wintertime in the future, and we are in France.
Credit: Bruno Calvo/SHOWTIME
All together now: ooh-la-la.
Noah is no longer a wild-eyed lunatic but a hunky pillow for Juliette.
Shes nervous because she has an appointment at the university to tell them the truth about her husband.
Noah is charm incarnate and lures her back to bed.
They walk around beautiful Paris and kiss a little bit.
But then Juliette gets busted by some frenemies (or, rather, frenchemies).
Honestly, one of them is wearing a beret.
I immediately get some PTSD-like feelings on rememberingAwakenings.
But there Etienne is: erudite and charming and eloquent.
He seems miraculously back, but those of us whove watchedGreys Anatomyknow this cant last.
Sure enough, before long Etienne is mixing up Sabine with a young Juliette.
Worse, he mixes Juliette up with his first wife, whom hedoesindeed seem to have loved better.
Or, more specifically, they dont know where Etienne ends and Juliette begins.
Im guessing Juliette doesnt either.
She walks to the Pantheon and dang, nice location scouting,The Affair!
)When she leaves, it is snowing.
He has a gift for her, an early rare edition ofLe Morte dArthur.
But then the phone rings and, ugh, its Sabine with some bad news.
Etienne is dead from a massive stroke by the time she is home.
Theres a bit of uncomfortable physical comedy when they cant get the body into the teensy European elevator.
Afterward, in the empty house, Sabine has fallen asleep in her mothers lap.
Noah is at the door.
He loves Paris, though, and enthuses to Juliette about cheese and things.Oui oui!
Also, I think the camera is higher up, so you really see it from his view.
This was the sort of thing I missed this season.
Anyway, they part and he wanders into Librairie Auguste Blaizot.
before he finds good oleLe Morte dArthur.But when he leaves the store, he sees a giant vagina.
But no no, its a poster for our friend Furkats exhibition.
In fact, his gallery is across the street.
Hes having a show tonight and tells Noah hell put his name on the list.
Noah waits for Whitney in the lobby.
She comes in, looking tired and drawn and totally overloaded by dry cleaning and packages.
She does not seem all that thrilled to see Noah.
Shes drinking a glass of wine and reading Noahs first novel.
She bristles at his judgement.
Shes like, Oh hey, by the by, you are not the expert on affairs.
That would be my husband.
She gets that fateful phone call and yet tells Noah everything is fine.
He does indeed present her with the book, but with much less fanfare and wrapping.
She watches Furkat lavish attention on her replacement and tries to pull him away to talk.
Furkat hauls off and hits our girl!
They stroll along the Seine and Whitney asks who Juliette is and if he loves her.
Noah says, rather sagely, that hes trying to more careful with that word.
But he is mostly concerned about what he just witnessed.
He tells his daughter that what happened was absolutely not okay.
Whitney is all, but hes an artist!
Hes supposed to be passionate.
And man, poor Whitney: I think your 20s are going to be very, very difficult.
Noah tells her gently that love isnt supposed to be pain.
Whitney, true to form, is ready to strike back.
She says, Oh you mean like how you treated my mother?
You may as well have hit her.
She looks really young and tells him she just wants to go home.
He tells her hell take her.
(I press pause and call my father to say hi.)
Hes rewarded with a smile.
He goes to Juliettes house.
If they have sex in the hallway, we dont get to see it.
They have a long and very interesting conversation about watching someone you love die.
About the lies we tell ourselves.
She realized she didnt mean any of the things she said earlier she really did love him.
She had this idea that she was the lady in the tower, waiting to be rescued.
But now she realizes it was actually Etienne.
Sheesh, this is sad.
Noah can empathize, especially the part about watching someone be sick.
So again, here is where it would have been nice to see how Noah got himself together.
But whats important here is that hes being very sweet and kind to Juliette in her time of need.
When the cab pulls up to the brownstone, Noah can see his family inside.
The kids laughing, the pretty tree, and hello!
Dr. Vic laughing at Helens side.
Merry Christmas to us all.Phew.
So it seems like these two are on the road to recovery.
Helen catches sight through the window and they gaze at each other and wave.
Its a real moment.
And, as our French friends might say,fin.
So its a little weird we just left Alison and Cole where we did, right?
