Helen and Noah act out in very different ways.
Tonights episode poses a few big questions: How well can you ever really know someone?
Can fathers and sons become reacquainted?
Credit: Jeff Neumann/Showtime
Can husbands and wives?
When is it okay to be your true self?
What happens when a lifetime of pretending to be someone else catches up to you?
He wants to introduce them to his new girlfriend: Margaret, Helens mother.
Start the ticking time-bomb at this exact moment.
The Butlers seem to like Vic and sort of casually hate on Noah, which makes Helen even angrier.
After dinner, Helen is still fuming on the walk home.
Vic is essentially like, Theyre crazy but that was fun.
Helen laughs in his face, so Vic pretends hes joking, too.
Helen, c’mon dont ruin things with Vic!
Unsurprisingly, Noah doesnt show up to the aforementioned school meeting for his son.
Helen is pissed but makes all the excuses: Martins illness, the divorce, the murder, etc.
A silent and surly teenager, Martin isnt exactly helping his cause.
Helen, still enraged over Noah going AWOL, goes to see Noahs sister, Nina.
And you know who else has had it?
She tells Helen off, delivering a pretty amazing yet devastating speech.
The long and short of it?
Nina thinks Noah used Helen as an escape from his horrific family life.
Is Nina the smartest person on this show?
Helen leaves immediately, almost barfing on the driveway on her way out.
Shes clearly spiraling and ends up calling poor Max.
Who, thankfully, has been out of the Solloway orbit for some time now.
And THEN she aggressively seduces Max despite my screaming NOOOOO at the TV.
Afterward, Helen continues acting like a lunatic as she presses Max for how muchheknew about Noahs troubled childhood.
Max, finally, loses it.
I cant believe I fell for this sh-t again.
Its never about us, its always about him, he says.
Go live your life, Max!
Helen, on the other hand, is being straight-up awful and Ihateit.
She tells him he doesnt know her and she doesnt know him.
Could Helen just be waiting for people to fail her?
Martin is AWOL and when he finally shows up, he tells Vic to f-ck off (not nice!
), after which Helen piles on with the whole Yeah, youre not his dad.
Finally, Vic says he needs a drink and takes off.
(Call me, Doctor!)
Helen goes to talk to Martin, who tells her he was at his grandfathers lake house with Noah.
Helen doesnt like that one bit, immediately jumping in the car and arriving in Pennsylvania just after dawn.
Real cool, Solloway.
Things get awkward fast.
Or he thinks Im his first wife, whom he loved better.
You wrote about it in your book.
Noah looks vaguely tempted, so she drops the robe and turns around.
Shes not thrilled and stomps off.
He sees Gunthers family gun shop, so thats a nice trigger to start his descent into seeming madness.
Inside the house, Noah surveys he the hospital bed and the mess his father left behind.
He starts cleaning up, or rather, throwing everything away.
He finds a tin of old letters and dog tags and medals.
He heads to the hardware store and runs into an old classmate, a genial fella named Grant.
They chat it up a bit about their kids and jobs, and this dude tells him hes famous.
But he also, very sweetly, invites Noah to dinner.
Later, Martin scares the hell out of Noah by sneaking into the lake house.
(Question: Do Martin and Helen both have cars?
That seems kind of unnecessary for a New York City family).
So, this is where hes been spending time instead of going to school!
Hes not excited about Noahs presence, but Noah presses on and invites Martin to Grants house for dinner.
While Noah gets emotional, Martin confides in his father about hating school and wanting to join the Army.
He was clearly very close to Noahs grandfather.
Noah pops some more pills.
(Uh, we get it, show.)
Father and son arrive at Grants house.
Theyre friendly and even have a cute teenage daughter for Martin.
Later, Grant says Martin is just like Noah (hmmm).
Some doofus named Stevie arrives and hes clearly got a bone to pick with Noah.
Hes readDescent as it turns out, they all have.
(I do enjoy when they call it50 Shades of S0lloway.)
Noah takes the opportunity to ask Grant and Stevie if they remember Gunther, but they dont.
is like, dude, you are a hot mess.
(Martin officially knows the real Noah better than Helen does.)
For his part, Martin seems to be absorbing what Noahs saying.
Finally, Noah begs him to go back to school for Helens sake.
We know its not Martin, but Noah doesnt.
