S01.E03: 3

[Ellaria]

Did Alison go to the hospital where she once worked, the place that upsets her terribly because of all the sick children, pretend to ask for her old job back, steal a key and unlawfully enter a controlled area -- all for some antibiotic spray and band aids she could get at the grocery store?

Or.

Was the job interview sincere until she got so upset seeing the sick little boy that she had to go cut herself? In which case, I would still have expected her to get the spray and band aids at a drugstore.

I don't know.

 

The hospital visit confused me as well. Of the these two scenarios, I'm inclined to think it was the latter...that she was sincere with the interview until she saw the sick child. Then, by chance, she got access to a key and decided to raid the supply closet. Did she take any medication or just the spray and band-aids?

[Milburn Stone]

And then again, her recounting of the tale that she took only the antiseptic and the band-aids could be false!

[attica]

This show is starting to feel like Memento: I have no idea what's really going on, and I don't trust anybody's version. Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong. A bit of unpredictability is a welcome palate cleanser in my tv viewing buffet.

[Neurochick]

This show is starting to feel like Memento: I have no idea what's really going on, and I don't trust anybody's version. Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong. A bit of unpredictability is a welcome palate cleanser in my tv viewing buffet.

 

I agree.  I love that I don't know what's going on.  To me, most shows try to spoon feed the audience, as if they think we're all stupid.  This show just gives me more questions and I like that.  

[Pallas]

Was the job interview sincere until she got so upset seeing the sick little boy that she had to go cut herself? In which case, I would still have expected her to get the spray and band aids at a drugstore.

 

I think the re-entry interview was sincere.  It's possible that Alison started cutting herself when she was still working in the Peds unit, and may have gotten into the habit of quickly raiding the supply closet to which she then had access.  Seeing the sick boy triggered both her compulsion, and the cover-up mechanisms she once built around it.  It's also possible that she is now in the habit of hiding/shoplifting the "paraphernalia" around her cutting -- a symptom of the defiant guilt she feels about it -- and acted out in the same way by stealing from the hospital, given the chance.  

 

After seeing Noah's daughter nearly choke in the diner, Alison threw up (or, that's how she recounted it: perhaps she actually cut herself then, too). Given how Alison recalled being frozen in place when the boy threw up in the hospital, I'm inclined to believe Noah's recollection of her reaction during the choking incident, in the pilot.  And if the cut she had on her finger when she came to work that day had been somewhere other than her finger, I'd wonder more about her recollection of having cut herself while preparing breakfast.  

 

Actually, I do.  The pilot day was her son's birthday.  She may cut her finger while cutting herself elsewhere.  

[attica]

I get that cutting is supposed to hurt, that being the point. But your tender inner thigh? Owwwww. I felt super bad for her at that.

[shelley1234]

I get that cutting is supposed to hurt, that being the point. But your tender inner thigh? Owwwww. I felt super bad for her at that.

 

For those who are cutters the inner thigh is one of the go to spots.  It is somewhere that the pain is immediate and it is easier to maintain and hide.  I counseled a few people who engaged in cutting behaviors when I was a college therapist and it was almost always upper thigh, at least in the beginning.  It would be interesting in future episodes when I am sure we will see more sex scenes with Alison....if they show old and new scars on her thighs and the discovery of that from Noah in one of their encounters.  

[attica]

That makes sense, shelley1005. I'm still wincing over the post-cut chafing.

[Boundary]

I've only rewatched once but I think there were old scars near where she bandaged herself. Someone with time right now can confirm this but if so, that kinda impressive: not only are they not spoon feeding us, they spend so much effort on a shot that lasts a second but helps build up the character authentically.

[izabella]

Boundary, yes, there was a row of about 10 or 12 neat (tidy) line scars above the most recent cut on her thigh.  All were approximately the same length.

[JudyObscure]

Now, I realize I did see those lines and stupidly thought it was just a bit of rippling. TV might be showing us plenty of sex and violence these days, but I should have known we're still not ready for cellulite.

[shelley1234]

Boundary, yes, there was a row of about 10 or 12 neat (tidy) line scars above the most recent cut on her thigh.  All were approximately the same length.

Ahhh, I didn't notice that. I have to watch the show on my tablet so I don't always get the pretty HD images I have grown accustomed to.

[outtosee]

What I don't understand about this show--and what really bugs me because I pay attention to the little things like this--is that nobody on this show has a New York accent! Montauk is Suffolk County, which is filled to the brim with people who have these hilariously thick New York accents. I love it. 

[Constantinople]

I suppose the clever thing about Noah's POV is that if something comes off as cheesy or stupid, which it frequently does, the TPTB can just say that was the intended effect, to show that Noah is a mediocre writer who lacks imagination.  But that can feel like a cheat too.

[attica]

What was the name of Noah's first book, un-checked out by any of the Montauk library patrons? I snorted when I saw the title, thinking, yeah, he's that guy, but I don't remember it now.

[Constantinople]

What was the name of Noah's first book, un-checked out by any of the Montauk library patrons? I snorted when I saw the title, thinking, yeah, he's that guy, but I don't remember it now.

 

A Person Who Visits A Place

 

FYI, the title of Bruce's book that Caleb was reading at the taxi/train stand is Castle of Man

[RimaTheBirdGirl]

The great Tom and Lorenzo are recapping The Affair.  http://tomandlorenzo.com/2014/10/the-affair-he-kills-her/

[stillshimpy]

I suppose the clever thing about Noah's POV is that if something comes off as cheesy or stupid, which it frequently does, the TPTB can just say that was the intended effect, to show that Noah is a mediocre writer who lacks imagination.  But that can feel like a cheat too.

 

That's what I've started to assume is part of what is going on with Noah's memory.  So much of it comes off as a dime-store novel.  Allison's insatiable Noah lust being one of the details that is just turned up to a level that really seems born in a male fantasy land.  Dominic West is an attractive guy, but it's rather difficult to believe that Allison was even close to being that persistent, not to mention careless as all hell in a town where all the real resident know each other.  Suspending all disbelief about how desperately someone might want Noah, her husband seems well liked and even Noah's in-laws apparently recognize her as "the girl who lost her baby".  So there's another detail that would make it even less likely that Allison was cavorting around a town where -- as the figure at the center of a tragedy -- she'd be watched a bit.  

She'd be a bit like the living version of a reality show, unfortunately, it's just how people react to the embodiment of their own fears.   All parents fear something terrible happening to their children, it's not a lovely part of human nature, but it is a part for enough people that it seems so very unlikely that Allison just flits around acting like she sprang out of Penthouse forum letter.   People would know who she was because of what happened to her son, whatever it might have been. 

 

However, there is a cheesy veneer of pastiche going on in the dialogue Noah claims to remember. 

 

By the way, I don't think anything is going on with Noah's FIL and his grandchildren, other than he's about as much fun as a canker sore.  I wouldn't want to hang out with the guy for a day either.  As for the youngest kid's practical joke, the more this all goes on, the more that seems like Noah engaging in some kind of dramatic license (or just plain-old lying) because I'm actually not too much of a nitpicker for "now that couldn't possibly happen" because hey, fiction, suspension of disbelief, but unless that kid got his hanging harness from Hogwarts, no way does a shower curtain rod suspend a human body.  Now that we know more about Noah, it now strikes me as interesting that he's the only witness to this prank, other than the kid.  

 

I don't know who's dead yet, but rather clearly both Allison and Noah are suspects in a death that happened quite some time ago.  So will the body not have been discovered until recently?   

 

Also, I actually didn't think Cole was being gross or manipulative in bringing up his son's death.  I don't think it is that the people of Montauk are supposed to hate bowling so very much, but rather Cole thinks the beauty of the area has been ruined and that building up every square inch of it diminishes it more and more.  I didn't think he was trading on his son's corpse for sympathy, but making a point that there's a lot more to the area for all for of them than constant pursuit of tourism dollars. 

 

So outside of my eye-rolls over much of Noah's recollection -- although I appreciated that he did remember his wife intervening on his behalf multiple times with her mother, one thing I do like is how much better the writing for dialogue and behavior of other people seems to be in Allison's memories.  Just there's a sharp contrast between Noah's fromage and Allison's , at least to my ear.  I think it's purposeful.   

I did wonder for a bit if what we are seeing is Noah relating the plot of his novel. All of it.  Up to and including his memory vs. Allison's, but I don't know.   

 

So for a bit did wonder if the entire presentation was Noah's snowglobe.  His second novel, all based on a waitress he saw once.  

Edited November 1, 2014 by stillshimpy

[Boundary]

That's what I've started to assume is part of what is going on with Noah's memory.  So much of it comes off as a dime-store novel.  Allison's insatiable Noah lust being one of the details that is just turned up to a level that really seems born in a male fantasy land.  

 

I disagree somewhat. I alluded to it earlier but didn't really explain fully my thinking. In Alison's version, she cut herself and bandaged her inner thigh. She even alluded in her voiceover to how big a secret this was. Now, according to her, she later changed into jeans before seeing Noah. In Noah's POV, he instead sees the bandage briefly. Putting two and two together, this would suggest Noah's recollection of how Alison was dressed is the truer of the two versions because Alison herself inadvertently corroborates Noah's version. 

 

We already have seen how demure Alison portrays herself, so to me the question has become, exactly how demure has she really been? Alison's version needs to be cross examined as well. So even though Noah clearly exaggerates at times (or misinterprets, as in "kinky" instead of "assault" with respect to the car scene in the pilot episode) a lot of it is based on reality, i.e. they did have an affair. I figured that the truth is somewhere in between, and since an affair takes two to tango, I think she did fancy him as well, even to the point of stealing kisses in the public library. The fact that most of us in the audience don't buy it (yet) is a function of the story structure, rather than Dominic West's appearance or the actors' chemistry, at least that's how I view it.

 

We are being told (or it's being implied) that we are seeing the beginnings of a seminal affair but we are yet to see how far the two protagonists are going to be willing to risk their marriages and social status. Until we get to see it ourselves, all we are left to judge it by is the flimsy concept of chemistry, itself an inappropriate tool in this instance because the affair starts because of emotional issues, and not necessarily two hot bodies who can't stand to be apart.

Edited November 1, 2014 by Boundary

[LoveLeigh]

I think perhaps Allison cut herself not because she is a cutter but because she wants to lay some groundwork to build a case she has been abused..... just maybe. 

[stillshimpy]

Putting two and two together, this would suggest Noah's recollection of how Alison was dressed is the truer of the two versions because Alison herself inadvertently corroborates Noah's version.

 

Or that he sees it at a different time.  

[DrSparkles]

Why did he ever bother getting married when he has a magic crank?http://previously.tv/the-affair/as-the-affair-progresses-sex-wise-the-affair-makes-noah-its-most-unreliable-narrator/"> Read the story

McNutty rides again!!!