Id like to begin this recap with some honesty especially since you wont find any such thing fromthesecharacters.
This episode just straight-up bummed me out.
What the heck,The Affair?Why are you doing this to us?
Credit: David Giesbrecht/Showtime
At this point I dont trust anyones narratives.
(Except Cole, of course.
We begin with Helen, who clearly has decided to blow up her whole life.
After discovering Noah at the lake, she packs him up and takes him home to Brooklyn.
Noah is rather comatose in the car, but he finally does say he needs help.
Youre telling us, buddy.
But this ignites something in Helen a need to be needed?
A way to repay him for going to jail for her?
Perhaps all of the above.
Cause if were all working out this whole I-know-you-better-than-anyone-else thing, this bothers her.
Vic comes home and is, reasonably, put out to discover Helens ex-felon husband is downstairs.
He, actually, thinks of the children and about how there is a maybe murderer on the loose.
(Were all agreed Noah stabbed himself, right?)
Helen promises him shell get rid of Noah but asks him to look at his gross neck infection.
Vic does because hes a good dude, even after Noah calls him Dr. Ruhlala.
But of course, Noah doesnt care about his neck, he just wants his drugs.
Turns out hes been popping at least 10 pills a day.
Vic isnt falling for it.
Of course Helen doesnt listen instead, she brings Noah some softer pain medication and an Ambien.
Noahs parole officer calls, but he ignores him, despite Helen pleading with him.
Shes like, Yo, bro: Whatsupwith you anyway?
In better news, Whitney breezes in looking for a tent.
She gives exactly zero you-know-whats.
Helen helps Noah inside while Whitney puts it all together and looks thoroughly disgusted.
She tells her mom she is out, for real.
Why do you hate yourself so much?
You guys, how weird is it for Whitney to be the voice of reason?
She wakes up and goes upstairs and starts making dinner.
Is that whats happening here?
Vic comes home, and Helen lies without batting an eye that Noah is gone.
This lie is quickly revealed when something crashes below.
Vic looks at Helen and is like, I think Im done here.
He tells Helen hes done waiting for her.
And why wont she just tell Vic the truth about what happened that fateful night?
He leaves, but not without an excellent parting shot: Ill miss the kids.
Noah appears and is all, Oh, hes gone?
I hope it wasnt me!
They step out onto the back deck, and shes like, Listen, you oughta stop punishing yourself.
Then brace yourself she suggests they start over.
Helen, Helen, Helen.
We had a good run, but you are officially as awful and deluded as everyone else.
She kisses him, and they go downstairs and start to have sex.
He stops and looks at her.
Its tempting to not even bother with recapping Noahs memory of this day.
I dont believe anything.
There, behind the counter, is this episodes bright spot: Lois Smith, who plays Gunthers mom.
Noah picks up a knife (great) and chats with her.
She also gives him jerky.
You are what you eat, bro.
In the car, Noah is a pill.
But the real pills are almost out.
You see the panic set in, but time has a fuzzy drugged-out quality.
He remembers being in jail beaten up.
Then hes back in his old house and hearing his kids above them.
And Helen is much, much creepier.
Kind of a hotter Annie Wilkes with her pills and telling him to just lay down.
He sleeps and remembers Freaky Fraser torturing him.
Because Freaky Fraser seems to know a lot more about Noah than your average Google search would have revealed.
He pushes Noah to snap and then beats him some more and gives him more time in the hole.
Noah wakes up in this reality and hears Whitney and Furkat on the street.
He goes outside and meets the delightful Furkat, who introduces himself as his daughters lover boss.
He starts reciting Noahs crimes telling him he knows them all, which he sure seems to.
He punches Noah out, and Noah loses consciousness.
As he sleeps, he hears jail doors open and shut.
He clearly hallucinates Freaky Fraser smoking a cigarette in the brownstone and he has the knife that Noah bought.
They fight and fight and fight and… guys, Im sort of over this.
Then, theres Helen waiting for him upstairs.
In Noahs mind, shes all slinky and come hither-y and is all, lets drink.
I do not buy this version of Helen in the slightest, though maybe Im just in denial.
Shes acting more like Freaky Fraser, rattling the pill bottle at him.
Again, they go downstairs, making out.
She keeps saying, I know you, and that clearly is not sitting well with Noah.
And this is how fast the power dynamic of sex can change.
After, she turns over and cries, and he stares at the ceiling.
If I can have one wish, its for a Cole episode next week.
