S01.E07: 7

[Tara Ariano]

With summer coming to an end, the Solloways return to Brooklyn.

[Primetimer]

And other not-quite-burning questions about the latest episode of The Affair.

Read the story

[sunflower]

Is it just distance from their characters?  Why do I love Helen and Cole and are only slightly interested in their main characters spouses?  I'm biased out of pure love for Joshua Jackson through Pacey and Peter Bishop, but he was just fucking awesome. He's just such a fucking man.  The counting scene, when he mentioned he couldn't remember the order of the numbers?  Beautiful. 

[GeminiDancer]

I was not expecting the affair to come out so soon, to be honest.

 

Noah continues to be a dick, with how he was saying that Alison was coming on strong as part of his justification for the affair. Of course, Helen would take him back. I do think she knew about the affair in Alison's version when they met.

 

My heart broke for Cole when he blamed himself for Alison's affair and when he told the counting story. Between Cole and Helen, Cole is definitely the more sympathetic spouse for me. That being said, trying for another child is a bad idea since it's so obvious that Alison is still in love with Noah.

[AlliMo]

Helen and Noah's biggest problem in their marriage is that their children are sociopathic little monsters.

[Milburn Stone]

Can someone explain what happened to the brother who ended up in a coma, and why it happened? I rewound to watch it again and confirmed that yep, I heard all the words correctly. I just couldn't make any sense out of them.

[GeminiDancer]

Hal tried to return the cocaine to the cartel and got beat up for it, in response.

[Higgs]

Alison to Noah, on Block Island: "I like you. I like everything about you. I like the way you talk. I like the way you think. I don't even care what you're saying. I just like listening to you."

Noah (later that day): "I don't know what the hell happened back there, but let me make one thing very clear. There is nothing about you that seems easy. And whatever darkness you think you're hiding, it's written all over your f*cking face. And you know what? I kind of like it."

Noah is immediately attracted to Alison in a manner dramatically different from his immediate reaction to the younger and prettier woman at the swimming pool. Both are shown having hot, marital sex (oxymoron?), to make the point that sex is a necessary but by no means sufficient condition for their relationship (and because the producers' contract with the premium cable channel requires a minimum amount of semi-nude gratuitous sex).

"Sociopathic" kids? Martin has freed a captive horse and shown great initiative in researching a means of pulling an idiotic, macabre trick on his father, whose profession he considers worthy of public scorn. Whitney, her mother's and/or grandparents' (some traits skip a generation) snobbish, disrespectful adolescent (redundant?), is a fairly normal mean girl in her private school. Trevor's inability to write a thesis statement and his younger sister's carelessness in chewing her food are no reason to call in the shrinks.

Edited November 24, 2014 by Higgs

[blixie]

Hal, the Taxi Driving brother dug up the stash and tried to sell it back to the Big Boys, who kicked his ass. It's not clear to me if they still owe the dealers a % of what they were going to sell, or if they paid full price and were making the profit after selling. In any case they are out both the drugs and the money, and the brother is laid up, gee  yeah guys I'm glad you realized dealing coke might have some legitimate dangers. 

 

Glad this episode at least answered my question about The End being both a "club" and hotel. 

 

I feel so bad for Cole, because he doesn't get how far gone his marriage is, and it was all so one sided, I'm like her silence is deafening my man. So many marriages fail to survive a child's illness/death, and they simply don't want the same things (I hate this place/I kind of like it).

 

Color me surprised that Noah had a mostly honest conversation with Helen, but overall there is more give and take between them, except for that whole bit where maybe Helen's not quite angry enough because she has or had at some point something going on with Max, and because that's her model, infidelity isn't a deal breaker in the world she comes from.

 

I know a lot of people bitch about the murder mystery, but for me my interest in those scenes is more about the time jump, and how all these relationships have shaken out in the future. Up till this episode I had assumed Allison and Noah were together, and shared a child, but now it seems just as likely the child is Cole's, and that she and Noah aren't together. I still think she and Cole are done, but yeah I'm interested in what's happening that has led them to be suspects in a murder investigation.

[Milburn Stone]

Hal, the Taxi Driving brother dug up the stash and tried to sell it back to the Big Boys, who kicked his ass. It's not clear to me if they still owe the dealers a % of what they were going to sell, or if they paid full price and were making the profit after selling. In any case they are out both the drugs and the money, and the brother is laid up...

 

I think what's hanging me up is that I figured the Lockharts were the importers (that's why it was coming in by boat), and that they would sell to dealers. Not buy from them. If they're selling to the dealers (who then take it to the "street," or wherever you deal drugs in Montauk), then they don't owe the dealers anything--the dealers owe them. But I guess what you're saying is that the Lockharts are the customers of the dealers, not the suppliers to the dealers. But if they're the customers of the dealers, what kind of dealer would allow them to buy anything without being paid in full for it? The dealers were giving them the coke on credit, on the promise of being paid once the Lockharts sold it? That would surprise me.

[RandomX]

I wonder what Noah's note said - apparently it wasn't quite vague enough, given how quickly Mare Winningham harrumphed over it.

So Scotty was spotted with a hot little brunette number and has a few more on the side. Made me think of the Whitney speculation.

Edited November 24, 2014 by RandomX

[GeminiDancer]

 

I feel so bad for Cole, because he doesn't get how far gone his marriage is, and it was all so one sided, I'm like her silence is deafening my man. So many marriages fail to survive a child's illness/death, and they simply don't want the same things (I hate this place/I kind of like it).

 

I'd definitely agree that they're heading in opposite directions, but I think this is an instance where she needed to be silent, to let Cole be vulnerable with her. It's said that Cole is someone who bottles up his emotions, and this was the first time I believed it about him with the way his emotions came flooding out. I think he never grieved for Gabriel because he was being the support to Alison. This time, she needed to be the support for him.

[blixie]

 

The dealers were giving them the coke on credit, on the promise of being paid once the Lockharts sold it? That would surprise me.

 

It's unclear to me what the arrangement was, Cole seemed to initially imply they had already fronted the money, and we're getting pure profit, though in real drug network, based on uh some personal experience,  that would NOT be the case, they would in fact be fronted coke and then would only get to keep a tiny percentage of the profit. You never work *with* the mob/cartel, you are always always working for them at their discretion, and they just showed the Lockharts how true that is. Freelancing is not a part of that business plan.

[shelley1234]

There has been a lot of discussion about how there isn't a lot of chemistry between Noah and Alison and I think this episode really highlighted that for me....as the chemistry and relationships between the married couples was much more on display. I believed both of their relationships....the dysfunction and the love that was once and is now lost.

Joshua Jackson also knocked it outta the park in this episode. Mesmerizing.

Who thinks you can sell drugs back to a drug dealer? What are these people?

I also thought of Whitney when they joked with Scotty that he was seen about town with some brunette.

I always look for those moments when their two accounts overlap and tonight's episode was Noah hugging his family and shutting the blinds and then seeing in Alison's account that it was in response to seeing her creeping in his window on the street.

Edited November 24, 2014 by shelley1005

[jrlr]

I immediately thought of Whitney, too.   I loved the offstage fight that Helen's parents had, with the rest of the family creeping around trying to hear what was being said.  I love the fact that this is so character driven, and that the characters have so much to reveal.  At this point, Alison still breaks my heart  the most of any of the characters;- but so does Cole after this episode.  I did think the Broooklyn scene with Alison and Cole kind of slipped off the subtlety rails when Cole said he hates the city and Alison said she kind of likes it.
 
Noah continues to be an asshole, but I guess he redeemed himself somewhat by telling Helen about the affair; and Helen won some sympathy for the scene in which Noah accuses her of always waiting for him to become someone and she replies that that's what she thought he wanted.  And I'd cross the street if I saw Ma Lockhart coming in my direction - she's a master manipulator and she's dead serious about her position of matriarch of this testosterone-loaded brood.  Kind of Ma Barker, but with a lot of expensive land and all her teeth.

Edited November 24, 2014 by jrlr

[Boundary]

Do Noah and Alison even like each other? Yes they do. Exhibit 1: She just ran after him to Brooklyn. He ended the affair because of drug dealing and confessed to his wife because of blackmail. Exhibit 2: He can't even get a hard on for his wife anymore. Both circumstantial evidence, I grant you, but enough to convict.

[outtosee]

Yeah, seriously. I'd be scared of her too!

 

"You stay. You sit down and you serve. And use the sharper knife."

 

Yes ma'am...

[Blakeston]

I can't stand Mare Winningham's character. (Why couldn't she be the mare who ran off? Hi-yo!)

 

She was the one insisting that the decision to sell the ranch should be entirely her son's. And now that they've come to the obvious conclusion that it's necessary, she's the one insisting that they keep up the ridiculous coke-selling nonsense.

[Beebee111]

I continue to enjoy the show and its characters, though I would like to see more character development surrounding Helen. I want to know what's beneath the surface and why she reacted relatively placidly to the news of the affair. I expected more rage all around, and was surprised to find the betrayed spouses displaying such low self esteem. Me thinks Allison that either is already pregnant with Noah's baby, or that the affair will continue and she will become pregnant with his baby. These two haven't faced enough consequences from their family/spouses to deter them from their lust (i.e., the complete wreckage of the affair is yet to manifest).

Of course no one knows how they would react until something happens to them, but for crying out loud there should be some outrage.

[Constantinople]

If I understood the timeline in the episode correctly,

 

• Alison, and her friend/coworker who conveniently lives in Brooklyn but works in Montauk during the summer, stop by Helen's store
   
• Helen and Alison chat, and Helen thanks Alison for saving Stacey when Stacey was choking way back in the pilot episode
   
• Helen gets a call about Noah's possible heart attack (I think Noah made the call)
   
• In the hospital, Noah confesses to Helen that he had a "fling" with Alison over the summer, but it's over
   
• Helen never asks Noah what the hell Alison is doing in Brooklyn and visiting Helen's store?
   

That strikes me as kind of odd.

[Direwolf]

If I understood the timeline in the episode correctly,

 

• Alison, and her friend/coworker who conveniently lives in Brooklyn but works in Montauk during the summer, stop by Helen's store

   

• Helen and Alison chat, and Helen thanks Alison for saving Stacey when Stacey was choking way back in the pilot episode

   

• Helen gets a call about Noah's possible heart attack (I think Noah made the call)

   

• In the hospital, Noah confesses to Helen that he had a "fling" with Alison over the summer, but it's over

   

• Helen never asks Noah what the hell Alison is doing in Brooklyn and visiting Helen's store?

   

That strikes me as kind of odd.

Maybe Helen does not want to spark Noah's possible interest in seeing Allison, if he knows she is in town. She figures out pretty quickly that the affair was with Allison in the hospital. Seeing Allison in the shop triggered her memory.

[Milburn Stone]

It's not that I question the timeline above, it's that I don't understand it. What is the reason for concluding that when Alison walks into Helen's store, it is before Noah's confession? I assumed it occurred after Noah's confession. Helen's behavior struck me as plausibly the behavior of a wife who knows that the "other woman" has just walked into her store, and wants to behave as civilly as possible so as not to create a scene in front of the other customers, yet still get across to the "other woman" that "I know who you are and what you did" and "don't you dare show your face in here again."

 

Also, just so I get what Hal did, tell me if this is a fair summary. Hal, somewhat echoing his brothers' feelings, has a case of "buyer's remorse" about the coke, since it has become too hot to handle. He decides on his own to take it back to the "store" they bought it from (i.e., the mob), and explain nicely that he and his brothers don't want it anymore, and could they please have their money back. Consequences occur. That about right?

Edited November 24, 2014 by Milburn Stone

[Boundary]

I continue to enjoy the show and its characters, though I would like to see more character development surrounding Helen. I want to know what's beneath the surface and why she reacted relatively placidly to the news of the affair. 

 

Considering her reaction to her father's mistress, I too was surprised by her reaction. I don't think an affair with Max is a thing but something was off about her reaction.  At least Cole had a context by which he could justify in his head why Alison cheated. Helen seemed to buy Noah's explanation about feelings of failure and success. I think that Noah is in denial about his feelings for Alison, he's got the incentive, but Helen accommodating the same delusions doesn't ring true to me. Maybe she's planning a proper revenge. Maybe she should start figuring in the murder speculations!

 

 

It's not that I question the timeline above, it's that I don't understand it. What is the reason for concluding that when Alison walks into Helen's store, this event occurs before Noah's confession? I assumed it occurred after Noah's confession. 

 

 

I think it's reasonable to assume that after Helen was called to the hospital she never went back to the store. It looked like she stayed with Noah until he was discharged.

[Milburn Stone]

I think it's reasonable to assume that after Helen was called to the hospital she never went back to the store. It looked like she stayed with Noah until he was discharged.

 

 

So, then, is this correct in terms of timeline? Noah goes running->Noah has "cardiac" episode->Noah confesses to Helen in hospital->Noah and Helen go home and have huggable moment with family->Alison witnesses huggable moment through window, after her long solitary walk that occurred after the store confrontation. Ergo, store confrontation had to occur sometime before Helen was called to the hospital, because it couldn't have occurred after that, because there's no plausible space in the timeline between the confession and the huggable moment for that to have occurred. But wait, no--there was also that fight between Noah and Helen, where voices were raised. That occurred in their home. Was that before or after the huggable moment? I guess it occurred after, because the huggable moment was the first thing that happened upon Noah and Helen's arrival home for the hospital. And it doesn't matter, because Alison sees the huggable moment after the store moment, not the other way around. Phew.

[Cirien]

Do Noah and Alison even like each other? Yes they do. Exhibit 1: She just ran after him to Brooklyn. He ended the affair because of drug dealing and confessed to his wife because of blackmail. Exhibit 2: He can't even get a hard on for his wife anymore. Both circumstantial evidence, I grant you, but enough to convict.

While the lack of a hard on with his wife could certainly point to that, I think it's more likely that Oscar's words, and the guilt rather than feeling for Alison were affecting his erm performance

[shelley1234]

Yeah, seriously. I'd be scared of her too!

 

"You stay. You sit down and you serve. And use the sharper knife."

 

Yes ma'am...

 

I kind of expected that to connect with Alison and her self mutilating side story and was surprised when it didn't.

 

If I understood the timeline in the episode correctly,

 

• Alison, and her friend/coworker who conveniently lives in Brooklyn but works in Montauk during the summer, stop by Helen's store

   

• Helen and Alison chat, and Helen thanks Alison for saving Stacey when Stacey was choking way back in the pilot episode

   

• Helen gets a call about Noah's possible heart attack (I think Noah made the call)

   

• In the hospital, Noah confesses to Helen that he had a "fling" with Alison over the summer, but it's over

   

• Helen never asks Noah what the hell Alison is doing in Brooklyn and visiting Helen's store?

   

That strikes me as kind of odd.

 

That's assuming that both sides of the story coincided and that neither one of them is telling tall tales.  I couldn't decide in my head if Helen knew about the affair or not when she was talking to Alison in the store.  I wanted to assume she did since it totally seemed like the waspy way of thanking someone while really telling them to go fuck themselves.  

[Direwolf]

While the lack of a hard on with his wife could certainly point to that, I think it's more likely that Oscar's words, and the guilt rather than feeling for Alison were affecting his erm performance

Legendary hard on. :) 

[Cirien]

Re: Helen's subdued reaction to finding out about the affair. She has been pushing for them to go therapy. She must have on some level known from watching her father and mother that Noah was cheating on her. It wasn't a surprise to her. Not because she's been having one herself, Even when Noah tried to suggest that she'd been having an affair.

[Boundary]

Going to the store was such a stupid thing for Alison's friend to suggest.

 

While the lack of a hard on with his wife could certainly point to that, I think it's more likely that Oscar's words, and the guilt rather than feeling for Alison were affecting his erm performance

 

 

True enough, Oscar's blackmail resulted in a tremendous amount of stress on Noah. I suppose confessing proves his "I'm a good person" schtick. It also was a smart thing to neutralise Oscar. However, the reasons Noah broke up with Alison (the drugs) and confessed to Helen (the blackmail) had nothing to do with his feelings, or lack thereof, for Alison. 

[Milburn Stone]

II couldn't decide in my head if Helen knew about the affair or not when she was talking to Alison in the store.  I wanted to assume she did since it totally seemed like the waspy way of thanking someone while really telling them to go fuck themselves.  

 

This.

[izabella]

I always look for those moments when their two accounts overlap and tonight's episode was Noah hugging his family and shutting the blinds and then seeing in Alison's account that it was in response to seeing her creeping in his window on the street.

 

Someone inside a lighted room would have a hard time being able to see someone outside at night, so that seemed like bad writing to me.

 

So Whitney thought her mom was having an affair, not her dad.  I wonder if that's true, and if not, what she was doing while Whitney thought she was meeting up with someone. 

[Direwolf]

Sarah Treem confirmed the timeline on Twitter: "Hope you all liked ep 7. The timeline keeps coming up - Alison meets Helen in the store on her side before Noah's panic attack on his."

[Constantinople]

If I understood the timeline in the episode correctly,

• Alison, and her friend/coworker who conveniently lives in Brooklyn but works in Montauk during the summer, stop by Helen's store

   

• Helen and Alison chat, and Helen thanks Alison for saving Stacey when Stacey was choking way back in the pilot episode

   

• Helen gets a call about Noah's possible heart attack (I think Noah made the call)

   

• In the hospital, Noah confesses to Helen that he had a "fling" with Alison over the summer, but it's over

   

• Helen never asks Noah what the hell Alison is doing in Brooklyn and visiting Helen's store?

   

That strikes me as kind of odd.

 

That's assuming that both sides of the story coincided and that neither one of them is telling tall tales.

As far as I can tell, the stories coincide. As others have noted, in Alison's account, Alison stopped by Helen's shop before walking by the Solloways and watching the family hug fest through the window. In both Allison and Noah's version, Noah pulled down the shade.

I also don't see what tall tales are being told, unless you're suggesting that Alison did't stop Helen's store but just imagined everything. In which case, why should I believe Alison was ever in Brooklyn?

 

 

[Maximona]

You could see how completely demoralized is Allison by Life In Montauk by how quickly she capitulated to Ma Lockhart's bullying.  A scribble on a piece of paper stuck to the bottom of a pie box!  And probably stuck there by a Known Enemy of the Lockhart Clan.  That would not have been difficult to laugh off.

 

I loathe the entire Lockhart family -- including Cole who would never have showed up in Brooklyn if it weren't for the missing drugs.  I mean, yeah -- Cole is marginally less loathsome than his brothers and his mother.  But I don't buy him as anything other than a patriarchal small town jerk, and I was not moved by his Let's make a baby so you can never leave prompt at the episode's end.  When Allison emerged from the subway into the glorious NYC hustle and bustle, that was the first time I'd actually seen her look happy.  Like life had some promise.  And this was before her GF planted the idea, You're in LUV with a married man, so I like to believe that it was freedom and the possibility of reinvention that was making her happy, not the prospect of closer physical proximity to Noah.

 

Personally, I think the scene in the store plays much stronger if Helen does already know about the affair -- it's that icy, mannered WASP thing as someone above mentioned.  And yes, it would have been utterly impossible for Noah standing in a lit room to make out a person's face on the dark street below, but, of course, this is Allison's subjective memory of the moment -- she's ashamed of stalking him, so she imagines he sees her.

[blixie]

I think it's important to remember Helen said she already suspected, seeing Allison in her store would have just fed into those suspicions which are then confirmed by Noah in the Hospital, so yeah I think her interactions w/Allison were all about her waspy smack down and fuck you to Allison for daring to waltz into her shop after having screwed her husband.

[taragel]

What I couldn't understand (and seemed contrived) was how, if the store situation really went down (and presumably it did, because Jane was there too), how would Helen not immediately blurt out to Noah when he confirmed the affair was with Alison "So that's why she was in my store today! Did you bring her here so you could keep the affair going?" or some such? It really sort of defies all logic that she wouldn't bring that up.

But more importantly, thank God they finally gave Joshua Jackson something to work with. He was incredible. Whose heart wouldn't break at his story about Gabriel and his tears! The tears and the scruff! As someone said up thread, I finally saw the strong silent side they've been trying to say he had all season. I wish they'd made him play it a bit gruffer previously so this was even more of a revelation. But yes, he's such a fucking man, indeed. Very alpha hero (aside from the drug dealing bits) even down to the chivalry of "Don't sit there, you'll get your dress dirty" and laying down the newspaper in the middle of his shock and grief. Damn. Who cheats on that for Martin's Dad?! (Even Cole couldn't believe it when he heard the name.)

I get it on paper--they are different people, they're not good at communication, but... damn. She was so blank/cold/checked out in response to it all. How does it not change things for you to learn that he's been harboring all this (the same way it changed things for Noah to find out about the drug dealing)?

It's harder to like Noah and Allison every week. His excuses to Helen were shameful -- blaming everyone except himself. I think her shock was in part over not knowing this had been going on and feeling betrayed as his best friend, not just his wife.

I also loved Cherry's line about telling being a selfish act and you've already been selfish enough. Indeed, Noah. Indeed.

The mystery stuff is getting harder to integrate but I'm still intrigued to see where it goes. And the hints at various potential red herrings -- Do they make a baby--and is that her future kid? Do they sell the ranch and relocate to the city despite Cole's discomfort? It's hard to imagine he wouldn't want to be a full-time dad. Is Scotty's little brunette Whitney? Why didn't the detective ask if there was a reservation under Bailey? etc. I like having all those little quandaries as part of the story too.

[shelley1234]

 

I loathe the entire Lockhart family -- including Cole who would never have showed up in Brooklyn if it weren't for the missing drugs.  I mean, yeah -- Cole is marginally less loathsome than his brothers and his mother.  But I don't buy him as anything other than a patriarchal small town jerk, and I was not moved by his Let's make a baby so you can never leave prompt at the episode's end.  When Allison emerged from the subway into the glorious NYC hustle and bustle, that was the first time I'd actually seen her look happy.  Like life had some promise.  And this was before her GF planted the idea, You're in LUV with a married man, so I like to believe that it was freedom and the possibility of reinvention that was making her happy, not the prospect of closer physical proximity to Noah.

 

I have little if any problems with Cole...other than him being a drug dealer and all.  I think his reaction to Alison cheating was not what you would expect from a small town jerk.  If anything he was much more emo about it than I have ever expected.  Cole showed up because of the missing drugs...yes,  but he only spent a couple minutes talking about it before it became absolutely clear why he really came to see Alison.  

[GeminiDancer]

 

Someone inside a lighted room would have a hard time being able to see someone outside at night, so that seemed like bad writing to me.

 

Brooklyn streets are pretty well lit at night, so it'd be totally plausible for someone inside to see someone outside.

 

 

You could see how completely demoralized is Allison by Life In Montauk by how quickly she capitulated to Ma Lockhart's bullying.

 

I didn't see that moment as her being demoralized by life in Montauk. I saw that as "Oh crap, my mother in law just found out that I've been having an affair. The house of cards is crumbling." That being said, if looks could kill, Alison would have been dismembered. Scary woman that Ma Lockhart.

Edited November 24, 2014 by GeminiDancer

[Boundary]

Helen delivered her "just a waitress" jab again: "Destroying this for a waitress"(paraphrasing). I know she's the victim here and deserves to vent but it's been her consistent line attack regarding Alison. It's as if the future monied Alison is in response to this. 

[Kiss my mutt]

Did it look like Alison didn't have her dress zipped up all the way? I wondered if she was putting on weight due to a pregnancy though later on it shows her about to take her pill.

[EyesGlazed]

Max:  Don't get all sensitive and tell Helen about your affair just to make yourself feel better.  Noah same day to Helen:  I had an affair!  I can't keep it from you!
So is Noah (A) being a selfish jerk and unloading his guilt on Helen?  (B) coming clean in the hope of making amends and repairing the marriage?  © subconsciously preparing Helen and himself for the fact that he won't be able to stay away from Alison and their marriage will end?
 
I really can't decide.

 

 

Did it look like Alison didn't have her dress zipped up all the way?  I wondered if she was putting on weight due to a pregnancy

I noticed this too.  

 

For those posting about The End's being a hotel as well as a club:  I believe The End is modeled on a place in Montauk called The Surf Club.  It started out as a boutique low-key beach hotel, but then the bar-and-patio scene became so popular that it is now known more for that.  The Surf Club was the first yuppie-hedgie hangout in Montauk and was seen as the invasion of Hamptons glitz and money into Montauk.  As you can imagine, people have mixed feelings about it.  It's still so popular that cars are parked along the highway for half a mile on either side of it on weekends.  

Edited November 24, 2014 by EyesGlazed

[Maximona]

 

Brooklyn streets are pretty well lit at night, so it'd be totally plausible for someone inside to see someone outside.

I live in trendy Greenpoint.  I assume the Solloways live in either trendy Park Slope or trendy Brooklyn Heights.  Plenty of dark, ill-lit streets in both nabes.

 

 

Cole showed up because of the missing drugs...yes,  but he only spent a couple minutes talking about it before it became absolutely clear why he really came to see Alison.

 

Cole may love Allison.  Allison may love Cole.  But so what?  It's not  working for her.  She needs to get out of Dodge.  She's smarter than he is.  Partners obviously bring different traits to marriages, and interestingly, I know several successful marriages where the wife is dumber than the husband -- I'm talking hetero-normative marriages here -- but none that work when the wife is obviously smarter than the husband.  I'm not exactly sure why that is.

 

I suppose one reason why I'm so firmly in the Allison camp is that Ruth Wilson is a really good actress.  Much better than anyone else on that show.  She is really selling me on her character's version of reality.

 

I also 

[jrlr]

Helen can be icy,but I totally believed that she knew about the affair when Alison - in one of the stupidest, high-school-ish scenes EVAH - walked into the shop.  I saw almost a gauntlet thrown down between the two women, and I think Alison's frozen reaction was from guilt and shock at seeing Helen as anything other than a spoiled rich woman who is used to getting her own way.  But I think she still loves Noah (God knows why) and really wants to keep the family intact.  Alison IS in love with Noah (again, God knows why), but the entire Brooklyn sequence made me think that Alison is really waking up to the truth of her stifled Lockhart existence - her reaction when she emerged from the subway onto the street was full of wonder and the tantailzing appeal of a completely different world than Montauk.

 

Everyone here seems to dislike Helen for different reasons.  I actually don't dislike her, but I cannot forgive or forget that incredibly nasty dig at Noah when she was trying to get him to stay home with the kids for a semester and almost as an aside mentioned that maybe that way he could finish a book more than once every ten years.  THAT was a completely emasculating, put-your-spouse-in-his-place remark, and I wonder if Noah can actually bury that memory somewhere in his mind and not think about it.  

 

At this point it seems like Alison will get pregnant with Cole and they will move to the city, as she wishes to.  Cole is a Montauk boy through and through, but even he seems to be getting pretty sick of the hold the ranch and Ma Lockhart has over him.  As for Noah, it wouldn't have bothered me at all if he'd had a heart attack instead of a panic attack (shades of The War of the Roses and Tony Soprano).  His confession to Helen was decent - in a way - but he's still lying to her when it comes to his emotions. I want to think that he really loves Alison, but he has treated her like shit.  Come to think of it, he loves Helen, but he's treated her like shit, too.  Not liking Noah at the moment.

[Beebee111]

 

Helen delivered her "just a waitress" jab again: "Destroying this for a waitress"(paraphrasing). I know she's the victim here and deserves to vent but it's been her consistent line attack regarding Alison. It's as if the future monied Alison is in response to this.

There's is definitely a class bias here. I shudder to think how their relationship will change if/when Alison ends up as step-mother to her children.

[blixie]

 

I have little if any problems with Cole...other than him being a drug dealer and all.

 I definitely have a problem with him not really seeing his wife's pain,but what is interesting is she holds that *against* Cole, that he won't see HER, and what she's going through, the ways staying in Montauk are making her miserable, the way he angrily denied her desperate plea to start over somewhere else, and guilt tripped her for even asking, when his brothers wanted to sell the freaking ranch anyway.

 

Conversely she's enamored of Noah, because he doesn't see her as broken and grieving, it's fascinating that she's essentially attracted to guy who has no interest in who she really is or what she's actually feeling. Like the recap mentioned I'm not sure why Noah is required to start over, grief has utterly warped the hell out of her.

[GeminiDancer]

 

I live in trendy Greenpoint.  I assume the Solloways live in either trendy Park Slope or trendy Brooklyn Heights.  Plenty of dark, ill-lit streets in both nabes.

 

Of course it depends. I haven't been around Brooklyn Heights since high school, but I know as I walk towards Prospect Heights, it gets dark. It's way better lit on the other side of Flatbush Avenue. I'm in Ditmas Park, and I can definitely see people across the street at night.

 

I totally peg Noah and Helen as the type who'd want a well-lit area, near Berkeley Carroll/Packer (depending on the neighborhood).

Edited November 24, 2014 by GeminiDancer

[Maximona]

 

Conversely she's enamored of Noah, because he doesn't see her as broken and grieving, it's fascinating that she's essentially attracted to guy who has no interest in who she really is or what she's actually feeling.

 

Exactly!  It's not as though she's looking for Noah to rescue her from something, it's more as though she's looking at him as an opportunity to reinvent herself into something.  More Becky Sharp than Jane Eyre.

[Cirien]

I live in trendy Greenpoint.  I assume the Solloways live in either trendy Park Slope or trendy Brooklyn Heights.  Plenty of dark, ill-lit streets in both nabes.

 

 

Cole may love Allison.  Allison may love Cole.  But so what?  It's not  working for her.  She needs to get out of Dodge.  She's smarter than he is.  Partners obviously bring different traits to marriages, and interestingly, I know several successful marriages where the wife is dumber than the husband -- I'm talking hetero-normative marriages here -- but none that work when the wife is obviously smarter than the husband.  I'm not exactly sure why that is.

 

I suppose one reason why I'm so firmly in the Allison camp is that Ruth Wilson is a really good actress.  Much better than anyone else on that show.  She is really selling me on her character's version of reality.

 

I also 

Allison may have a nursing degree, but when did we learn that is fact smarter than Cole. Having a degree just means you're academically able not that you are smarter than someone who doesn't. I'm not trying to be argumentative but when did we learn that Cole is fact thick?

[shelley1234]

Allison may have a nursing degree, but when did we learn that is fact smarter than Cole. Having a degree just means you're academically able not that you are smarter than someone who doesn't. I'm not trying to be argumentative but when did we learn that Cole is fact thick?

 

Agree.  I never saw Cole portrayed that way at all.  He works the land and doesn't wear a suit and tie, but I see his portrayed as a man very knowledgeable about his community, his family and the world around him.  He is the silent, brooding type who may not deal with things in front of him, but his mere presence at the town meeting alone shows that he is not a man who lacks intelligence.  

[Guest Accused Dingo]

That's assuming that both sides of the story coincided and that neither one of them is telling tall tales. I couldn't decide in my head if Helen knew about the affair or not when she was talking to Alison in the store. I wanted to assume she did since it totally seemed like the waspy way of thanking someone while really telling them to go fuck themselves.

No one can make "Thank You" sound like "Go Fuck Yourself" like a wasp.

Edited November 24, 2014 by Accused Dingo