It’s a Cole and Madison memory split
Well?
Not quite as excruciating as last week, I guess?
Which isn’t to say I wasn’t sayingoh noooooat least three different times during this one.
Credit: David Giesbrecht/SHOWTIME
Let’s dive in and sink back into the ocean, shall we?
She’s at a court hearing about whether or not she can have unsupervised visits with Joanie.
Luisa, who takes the stand and makes it clear she thinks that Joanie should be with her mother.
But, no matter: Alison’s lawyer tells her that Cole’s agreed to shared custody.
Alison drives out to Cole’s building site with coffee and muffins.
He’s not having it.
(Related: Who looks sexier counting tiles than Cole?
Who, I ask you, who?)
It turns out he’s mad because she lied to him about seeing Noah.
(If only he knew thehalfof it!)
She continues to lie, btw, about how long she saw Noah for.
He’s like, I just can’t trust you.
Alison gets a call from her therapist.
There’s another patient that can use her wisdom.
Alison is like, listen I get it.
The girl is like, yeah no that’s not at all what I was saying.
In truth, she seems to really be comforted by Alison.
Cole is like, um, how’s that going to work with shared custody?
He then gets mad as that clearly hasn’t crossed Alison’s mind.
He says, “Why can’t you just be happy and say thank you?”
(Alternate tag line for this show?)
He’s calls her chaos and stomps off.
She goes to a bar and is all, I need a drink and guess who shows up?
Wearing rather adorable glasses.
I see her much more as a martini person.
Also, I can’t believe I spent so much time thinking about Helen’s cocktail choices.
Anyway, she sidles up beside Alison.
Helen is acting just a wee bit nuts, and I hope we see why in a later episode.
She brings up the fact that she was delighted to hear that Joanie was not Noah’s daughter.
She reveals that Noah has been staying at the brownstone, which seems to surprise Alison.
She pretends that Vic is still her boyfriend, which surprises me.
However, they smile at the idea that they’re both now divorced from Noah and clink glasses.
Helen asks: Who was he with you?
Alison calls him charming and ambitious and very smart and a man who could take care of things.
Helen laughs at this and is like, yeah, no.
I found him to be insecure and somewhat spineless.
Alison is all, hey, he sounds like a whole other person with you!
Helen is like, people see what they want to see.
Alison takes this time to sincerely apologize for all of it.
And Helen is big enough to say it wasn’t Alison’s fault.
She thinks she stopped making Noah feel important.
(Now I’m really not sure if I trust this memory.)
Alison tries to talk about the night of the murder and Helen is not hearing it and walks off.
He was seen at a New Jersey toll booth.
NEXT: Cole is tempted by the fruit of another
It’s a Cole memory, hooray!
We join him and Luisa in their argument outside the courthouse.
Everyone is wearing different clothes.
I’m totally with Luisa who is like, the path of least resistance is best.
Cole drives out to his house and finds a stop work notice on his building.
He’s real bummed about this.
With classic bad timing, Alison arrives.
They bicker about new surveys and about getting roofs on a house before winter.
Cole gets home and Luisa is like hey, let’s have a baby.
We can adopt or use a surrogate.
And I’m raising my hand for a question now: Why wasn’t thisalwayson the table?
Cole chooses to plead exhaustion and defer the conversation for another time.
Oh look, it’s our exposition guy, Oscar!
He counsels against this as I again wonder when we all became friends with Oscar.
“Shut it down,” Oscar tells him.
Meaning everything, I suppose.
Alison again shows up to work to tell Cole about the grief counseling.
She’s much more annoying in Cole’s memory.
But the conversation goes pretty much the same way.
But this time she makes the not untrue point, well ifI’mcrazy,youget to be sane.
Luisa, no fool, is like whoa dude.
They talk about the picture of him by the tollbooth near “Livingston University.”
Sure, that makes sense.
And that’s where Alison goes to see him.
(Not his actual wife, but Alison, it should be noted.)
And here comes the part that had me full body eye-rolling to the point of pain.
He admits that surprise!
he was actually just in New Jersey to attempt to talk to her therapist.
Because phones don’t exist.
And this would all be too easy if he was just easier.
(Also, why do they keep saying goupto New Jersey when I believe it is geographicallydown.
Cole was like well seeing you with Joanie made me think about us getting back together.
He’s like, I can’t tell themthatbecause then I have to tell them everything.
Um, no, that’s not true either.
But, the point is, he’s like I’m not Noah, I can’t do it.
She’s like, it’s your call.
Everyone is acting so weird.
He goes home, and Luisa wakes up.
He tells her the truth about his New Jersey trip.
She says, why did you lie for so long about something so simple?
ANOTHER tag line forThe Affair!
He gets into bed, and she’s like I still think you are still lying.
He’s like no can do tonight.
She’s like, but we keep coming back to each other.
She also says that this is more about Cole’s fear in not being the good guy.
Would he rather be a happy jerk?
Or a miserable hero.
He sits on the beach and thinks for a while.
But in the morning, he’s home and making breakfast for Luisa.
She’s relieved to see him and says of course she’ll still have him.
But boy, is thatnota look of happiness on Cole’s face.
Can’t Cole be happy?
