S02.E11: 211

[Tara Ariano]

A series of revelations rattle Noah; Alison makes a momentous decision.

[AlliMo]

Not to defend Noah, because, ugh, but I'd really like to remind that literary agent that Donna Tartt and Jeffrey Eugenides only put out a book roughly every ten years and they've both won Pulitzer prizes and sold millions.

 

I literally laughed out loud at Noah being so genuinely dumbfounded as to why Alison would lie to him. Every time he tosses off a, "I'm sorry, I was a dick," it's an entirely new revelation to him that he'll immediately forget.

 

Edited to add that I do get where the agent was coming from, just because you know he's completely blowing smoke up Noah's ass about what a great writer he is.

Edited December 14, 2015 by AlliMo

[Trillian]

And that's what you get for smashing your friend's Waterford crystal

[Otherkate]

Noah and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

[Primetimer]

Can Scotty hurry up and get himself killed already? No? You mean we have to watch Cole and Alison go into business together and Noah get all huffy about it first? Aw, man....

Read the story

[cardigirl]

Man, I think the actor playing Scotty is doing a great job, so I guess I must be watching a different show. And, I was pretty happy to see Helen's  mother show up, again. I love that actress, and was happy to see that the character wasn't homeless on the street.

I really enjoyed the episode and thought the expression "chickens coming home to roost" was exactly so. I will really be surprised, though, if the writers are planning on this story turning out to be a morality play about what happens when you leave your wife for your girlfriend.

 

(edited to name the right person's mom) 

Edited December 14, 2015 by cardigirl

[izabella]

What in the world is Allison thinking?  If Cole is Joanie's father, does she want her growing up around him?  Did that factor into her decision to go in on the Lobster Roll?

 

I guess that answers the question of whose money is paying for the NYC apartment.   

[Irlandesa]

Why is Noah paying for Alison's schooling if she has money?  Why is Alison getting her post-bac?  From what I know about post-bacs, they're specifically designed to give students who have a degree the appropriate scientific pre-med coursework.  I would assume that Alison already took many of the science courses for her nursing degree. 

 

Why would Max tell Noah about being in love with Helen? 

 

I'm kindo of on Noah's side with this Alison thing.  Gosh there relationship is terrible if she can't tell him that she quit school.  And she absolutely set up their situation so she would not have to tell Noah about the restaurant until it was a fait accompli. 

 

Oscar cracks me up.  He's just this creepy force of malevolence that is everywhere ready to spill everyone's awful secrets. 

[KLeewrite]

Intellectually, yes, I know it's very bad in a committed relationship to drop out of school without telling your fiancé or to go behind his back to buy a business with your ex-husband. But to me, Noah has proven himself to be such a flaming asshole that I fully support Alison in anything that will piss him off.

[Ellaria]

Oscar, Scotty and Max really stirred the pot tonight. Loved the scene between Max and Noah. A lot of truth was spoken and unfortunately some of it may come back to haunt the Author of the Year. (I also loved Max's beach house.)

Cole and Alison buying the Lobster Roll seems like a bad idea for many reasons but I am eager to see where it leads. I can't decide if we are finally seeing that Alison has "found herself" after being lost for so long or if she is being written with contradiction. Whichever it is, I'm intrigued.

However, I'm confused about the closing scene in last year's finale: Noah and Alison seemingly content in their swanky apartment talking about the movie. She claims that her schedule for the next day is "packed." (With what...work at The Lobster Roll?) We have learned that they got married so they must have repaired the problems evident in their last scene from tonight's episode. How did they move from the Lobster Roll discussion to contentment?

[Adultosaurus]

Man, I think the actor playing Scotty is doing a great job, so I guess I must be watching a different show. And, I was pretty happy to see Alison's mother show up, again. I love that actress, and was happy to see that the character wasn't homeless on the street.

I really enjoyed the episode and thought the expression "chickens coming home to roost" was exactly so. I will really be surprised, though, if the writers are planning on this story turning out to be a morality play about what happens when you leave your wife for your girlfriend.

 

Alison's Mom wasn't in this episode (unless I missed her) - do you mean Cole's Mom?

[grumpypanda]

I kept going back to the last scene in last season's finale too and now I'm thinking that Alison and Noah only got married so they wouldn't have to testify against each other.

Even before the arrest the detective was coming down hard on both of them so they were probably anticipating an eventual arrest and wanted to be prepared. Otherwise the marriage doesn't make sense especially after everything that happened in this episode.

I'm glad that Max told Noah about Helen. In your face Solloway!

[truthaboutluv]

This was a rather fascinating episode that I'm still wrapping my head around. Because of that I'm going to try to go point by point so I don't forget all the thoughts jumbling through my head. 

 

As much as I don't care for Alison, I didn't take anything Oscar said seriously. This is a guy we know had been creepily obsessed with Alison since they were kids and is kind of a douchebag. Added to that, he was clearly bitter and upset about losing The Lobster Roll, so of course he would assassinate and attack Alison's character as much as possible. I'm surprised he didn't go after Cole as well but I guess he figured that wouldn't affect Noah much. 

 

A poster way back at the start of the season, speculated about Max being the hedge fund guy Scotty was talking about and I think tonight solidified that and shot Max VERY high up the list of potential suspects. We now know that not only does he have a home in Montauk, but per his own testimony, he was in Montauk the night Scotty died. I've always believed that whoever killed Scotty had to be someone the audience knew but not someone that they were so heavily invested in that it would affect the show if they're found guilty or arrested, which is why Witney was always my top choice. But now I'm thinking Max looks very suspicious. And I am guessing he and Noah never patched things up, so he's out to screw him over, whether or not he's actually the one who ran Scotty down.

 

That said, speaking of that fight, while Noah may have had a point about Max believing he can simply buy affection and love from people, all of it was lost under Noah's bullshit of "you slept with my wife." No matter how many times Max correctly called out that crap, Noah never wavered on this point that Helen was his wife. Yes never mind that he was all too happy to leave her and basically tell her how he didn't want this life with her and the kids. But no, Max the sleaze slept with his wife. The absolute best part was his referring to Alison as a "slip up..." Yes that's what the affair that he blew up his marriage for, with the woman he is now living with and sharing a child with is...a slip up. Okay Noah...still, I found his use of those words very interesting. 

 

The scene of Cole realizing his mother is now a maid was heartbreaking and brilliantly done by Mare Winningham and Joshua Jackson. That said, any sadness I felt for her dissipated in the next scene where Scotty basically reveals that she sold some antiques and stuff to give him money for his pipe dream. I mean there is no way the woman is so clueless as to not see that her son is a freaking junkie and she thinks it will help to sell her stuff to give him money? For all her bullshit about a curse, the real problem with that family is that she is a freaking enabler, which is not surprising, considering she's the one who tried to hide Scotty and appeal to Helen last season, after it came out that Scotty and knocked up Witney.

 

The scene with Cole and Luisa and their mothers and Helen's mom was interesting. I was wondering how long it would take Helen's mom to put together who exactly Cole was. And was I the only one who thought for sure she'd tell Cole that she was only disappointed he didn't go through with it, when she realized he was the one who pulled the gun on Noah? By the way, when Noah was whinging in the end about Alison going into business with her ex-husband who wants to kill him, I rolled my eyes and thought, "oh for crying out loud, he doesn't give a enough of a shit about you anymore to want to kill you." Yes I know what Cole did was awful and wrong but when Noah said that, I just thought he sounded whiny. Of course Noah bugs me greatly, so there is that. 

 

Finally, the most significant thing I took away from this episode...so now Alison decides that after all this, she's just a girl from Montauk and that's where she wants to be? Except wasn't this the same Alison who was more than ready to leave Montauk and didn't want to be there anymore in Season 1? After all, that's why she planned on using whatever share she thought she would get of Cole's share of the ranch to move away. But now, she's decided that this very place is where she belongs? Okay then...

 

This particularly stuck with me because of some other key moments, like Cole telling Luisa if she was worried about them going in business with Alison because she thought he would go back to Alison, that would never happen and Noah's insistence in calling Helen his wife in his argument with Max. A few posters have in the past commented about the show ending with the original couples back together and I've been entirely against that particularly because I think Helen deserves better than Noah and if that baby paternity turns out to be what has been hinted at, then Alison is a major asshole who deserves to be alone in my opinion. 

 

That said, tonight's episode, with all these factors, made me think that may very well be where the show is heading and honestly, I think I could be okay with it, only because it would at least be different. I've said for a long time that I don't feel this has been about some great love story between Noah and Alison, or at least I've not seen in that way. Instead, it's about these two people who found each other and all the lives that were affected because of their decision to be together. Also, I've noted how especially this season, Noah and Alison seem more like a hook up that's just lasted too long. 

 

And so I wonder if the story the writers are eventually telling is about these two people who due to circumstances were just sort of on a collision course to each other - a sort of the elements were aligned for this explosion kind of situation. Alison was still grieving from the loss of Gabriel and she and Cole were both so buried in their grief and pain and guilt that they couldn't find their way back to each other. And everything in Montauk represented that grief and pain for Alison. Noah meanwhile was restless and unhappy because he felt unfulfilled. He was living off his in-laws he hated and who hated him, his career, such as it was, as a writer was basically nonexistent, he had been faithful to one woman for more than 20 years, his kids were stressful, etc.

 

And during all that, he and Alison met and they were each what the other felt they needed at the time, whether or not that's who they really were. Noah saw Alison as the sexy, vivacious woman who awakened something powerful and raw in him and she became his muse in a sense. Alison saw Noah as someone to save her and take her away from the grief and pain and guilt. So they romanticized the situation and convinced themselves it was this great powerful love. But now, with the fog of her grief lifted and Noah's no longer tied to his predictable 20 year marriage and life, the fantasy bubble has burst and they see each other for who they are and are realizing this great love they imagined, doesn't really exist.

 

And so maybe in the end it will be about these two people who selfishly blew up their lives and whose actions caused a ripple effect that affected so many other lives, all to come back to the place where they started and to realize that was where they truly belonged after all. It's like one of T.S. Eliot's greatest quotes "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all the exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." Or I could be giving the writers WAY too much credit of course, lol. Plus the biggest hitch in that theory is the fact that Cole's since married Luisa. But it was just this really strange feeling I had watching tonight's episode.  

 

Why is Noah paying for Alison's schooling if she has money?

 

I have seriously given up trying to make sense of any of this money situation...period because I think it will likely just end in me having a headache.

Edited December 14, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[918lux]

Based off of Cole's testimony, I'm guessing we now know that the true gun scene was the one where Cole was trying to call Noah off Scotty in the front yard?

[Constantinople]

As outraged as Noah claimed to be, Noah didn't offer to pay back the money to Max.

I kept going back to the last scene in last season's finale too and now I'm thinking that Alison and Noah only got married so they wouldn't have to testify against each other.

Even before the arrest the detective was coming down hard on both of them so they were probably anticipating an eventual arrest and wanted to be prepared. Otherwise the marriage doesn't make sense especially after everything that happened in this episode.

I'm glad that Max told Noah about Helen. In your face Solloway!

Did Noah and Allison get married before or after Cole and Luisa?

I ask because I don't think the privilege applies to statements before you get married.

[izabella]

I thought it was interesting that Allison says the same thing to Noah after she tells him she isn't sleeping with Cole as she does when he's arrested and tells him she'll get him out of it - "You believe me, don't you?"

[Blakeston]

Alison reminds me of a line from Six Feet Under - when Joe tells Brenda, "It's not sex, it's betrayal. That's your fucking addiction."

 

Noah's been horrible to her, but the correct reaction is to leave him, not to pull this kind of crap. Her behavior in this episode was just absurd, childish manipulation.

 

Did Noah and Allison get married before or after Cole and Luisa?

I ask because I don't think the privilege applies to statements before you get married.

 

So far as I know, we've never been told when, specifically, Noah and Alison got married.

 

There are two different kinds of marital privilege. There's the communications privilege, in which communications made to one's spouse (during the marriage) are privileged - meaning that if a conversation occurred between Noah and Alison while they were married, Noah could prevent Alison from testifying about it (or vice versa).

 

But there's also testimonial privilege, which allows someone to refuse to testify against their spouse. So with Noah and Alison being married at the time of the trial, if either one was asked to testify against the other, they could refuse. So being married could help them in court, even if they got married well after Scotty's death.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Blakeston

[ScoobieDoobs]

Man, I think the actor playing Scotty is doing a great job, 

 

OMG, Colin Donnell is such a shitty actor.  Treem made a very smart move to kill him off.  Idk, his ridiculous hamminess almost ruined the ep for me.

 

Btw, Cole is a noisy kisser.  Sounds like he's eating raw potatoes.  STFU while you're kissing, Cole/Joshua.

 

OK, some things in this ep were just so dumb, my brain is still hurting.  Margaret didn't know Cole's brother is Scotty -- or that his last name is Lockhart.  Could she be so out of touch?  Maybe, but it seemed like a stretch,  And Cherry working as a motel maid & Cole didn't know & then he runs into her at the motel just when she's working?  Too contrived for me.

 

So Max has a wife & kids?  Is this the first we've heard this?

 

Another ep without Maura?  The show def suffers . . .

Edited December 14, 2015 by ScoobieDoobs

[ScoobieDoobs]

Eh, poor you, Oscar.  Boo freakin' hoo.  You treated everyone around like you like crap & now you expect sympathy?  Meh.  Still, he's kind of a hoot as a broke loser.

 

Yet another ep where I'm thinkin' Noah's a thoughtless jackass.  Telling Alison what she should do with her money?  Fuck off, dickhead!

Edited December 14, 2015 by ScoobieDoobs

[briochetwist]

So much to love in this episode!

 

First off, what the hell is Alison thinking?  She lies to Noah for months about school, then, without consulting him, she spends all of her money going into business in another location, with her ex-husband, who is the secret father of her baby.  WTF? So, Noah's obviously footing the bills for housing and childcare, and she clearly doesn't give a rat's ass that he's going to have to leave his kids in New York to be with her. Now that's a loving relationship.

 

Moving on to Noah, loved his visit to Max. Noah still has feelings for Helen, considers his relationship with Alison a 'slip-up' and gets a lot of truth from Max. 

 

Soulmates? That had to be a joke. I love watching these two implode. This episode was awesome. Christmas came early...

 

Yet another ep I thought Noah was a thoughtless jackass.  Telling Alison what she should do with her money?  Fuck off, dickhead,

Not that I'm happy to defend Noah, because I loathe him, but actual couples, people who love each other, usually do consult each about things like that. Maybe soulmates don't.

[albaniantv]

I missed Helen this episode, although she was there in spirit when Noah and Max couldn't even figure out if they had ever been friends or just in competition for her. She's the only main character with any intact integrity, so I guess the writers will start shading her in next.

 

Cole and Allison seem equally damaged. That piercing perfect scene where Cole discovers his mother has become a hotel maid made all those horrible accusations Scotty hurls at him ring true. Cole presents himself as a caring father, husband and family guy when actually he doesn't parent, is no longer married and is disconnected from his family of origin.

 

I'm not sure Allison knows if Cole is the father of her daughter--I know she realizes he could be and is terrified by Scotty's threats to announce it. But we don't really know do we? I mean we saw Noah's lawyer get what must have been the DNA results from the pacifier Helen snitched. Guess they are holding that back for a big reveal during the trial.

[WaltersHair]

So far the show has taught me this:

All the people in this show with real money are real assholes.

All the people in this show who have zero money and desperately want it are assholes.

The people floating somewhere in between are fine.

So the long, long lesson of The Affair is that money doesn't buy happiness?

[tvviewer]

That was a lot better than the last 2 episodes, losing the histrionics of episode 9 and the mismatched nature of 10. Max's scene with Noah was excellent, Dominic and Josh are fantastic actors. In fact, what a cast.

Alison/Cole scenes always work better for me than Luisa/Cole. I hope them buying the restaurant together and sharing a child (if that's the case) means a lot more of those in season 3.

Btw, Cole is a noisy kisser

He can practice on me anytime.

[EyesGlazed]

Alison Bailey:  Retired drug mule.  Shampoo squanderer.  Mouth breather.  Restaurateur.

 

Yech.  Put me in the camp of This Was A Stupid Move.  First of all, just on a basic prudence level, you don't take your entire inheritance and put it into a restaurant.  That's a notoriously difficult business.  Even if your restaurant survives a year or two, it takes a long time to show a profit.  Montauk will be seasonal, so you can't count on a full or near full restaurant year-round.  How about a nice safe bond fund and a few growth stocks?  Second, as to your relationship, what does it say that you don't talk to your fiancé about it at all?  How is it a good idea to go into business with your ex-husband and his fiancee?  And why not let Noah, who is obviously jealous and uncomfortable, know that your ex-husband whom you're going into business with has a fiancee?  Might make him feel better, duh.

 

I was on Noah's side this episode.  In case you can't tell.   Assuming that it's true that he is writing at 4:30 in the morning in the bathroom every day before going to teach and earn a non-writing living, then he was working hard and trying to be with his kids while Alison was just pissing around taking long walks around the city instead of going to class.  I'd be mad if I were him.  If Alison wanted to quit school, she should have told him.

 

And why, why doesn't Alison go back to being a nurse??  That's a darn good profession, not to mention important and needed.  I'd have a lot more respect for Alison as a nurse.  

 

The scene with Max and Noah was great.  Though I wonder when Max does any work.  He seems to be drinking and/or partying every time we see him.  I really felt for him when he was, very deliberately, confessing his love for Helen to dumbstruck Noah.

 

Oscar reminded me of boys from college who couldn't get laid and would develop fierce conspiracy theories about how evil and heartless their crushes were.  I agree with whoever said he's fun as a broke loser.  But at the same time, what he said struck a chord in the context of the episode -- I am starting to wonder if Alison is going to leave Noah.

[HumblePi]

Can Scotty hurry up and get himself killed already? No? You mean we have to watch Cole and Alison go into business together and Noah get all huffy about it first? Aw, man....

http://previously.tv/the-affair/all-about-the-affairs-not-so-great-scott/"> Read the story

I'm with you on Scotty getting himself killed already.  I'm so sick of him that I'm ready to run over him myself and take the heat for it too.

Edited December 14, 2015 by HumblePi

[cardigirl]

Alison's Mom wasn't in this episode (unless I missed her) - do you mean Cole's Mom?

Oh golly, I mean Helen's mom.  I hate calling her "the Gorgon" and loved that she had taken up spinning.  LOL.  I'll go fix. 

[blixie]

 

So Max has a wife & kids?  Is this the first we've heard this?

 

No it's not, and it's one of the reasons I'm still Max's #1 fan, he kept counselling Noah to stick it out with Helen was because he'd fucked up his own marriage which actually did  mean something to him (as well as him not wanting Helen to experience that pain). Yeah Max is obnoxious, but mostly in the way I imagine all  hedge fund managers to be, but this episode reiterated to me what a loyal friend he's been, certainly he gave Noah that 50K to expedite the divorce that was already in process, but he did what he could to make sure the divorce didnt' happen before that, including giving Noah the black mail money for Oscar. 

 

Loved seeing Luisa and Cole so happy and solid, sad to know fucking Alison/Scotty can blow that up at any time. UGH. 

 

I found that last conversation so painful, because I just don't care about their relationship, and Alison in particular no longer feels like a real character, NOAH as much as I hate him feels like a real consistent person, Alison seems to do whatever the plot needs her to do not just week to week but scene to scene. Meh.

[HumblePi]

I had ventured a guess several episodes ago that Max was the one responsible for Scotty's death. It was the episode where Cole was at Scotty's boat and Scotty told Cole about his wish to purchase the Lobster Roll. Cole asked him where he'd get so much money and Scotty told him that he had an investor, 'a hedge fund guy'. Max is a hedge fund guy and now Max has a lavish home in Montauk. Max has also gone downhill from the suave, dapper, Wall Street financier to a slovenly, depressed broken-looking man. Many people had opportunity and motive to snuff Scotty but I think that a hedge fund guy that may have hit the skids financially just might have more motive than others to do the deed.

 

I thought it was really ridiculous in this episode that Noah was relegated to using the bathroom as his office considering that fancy apartment has about 2500 square feet to spread out in. The living and dining rooms were massive so couldn't they find a corner in one of those rooms for a small desk? I don't think Noah would tolerate this and I don't think Alison would expect him to use the bathroom for an office. I found that really hard to believe that even Alison would expect Noah to use the bathroom as his office to write his new best seller in.

Edited December 14, 2015 by HumblePi

[attica]

I'm not proud of this, but: Scruffy t-shirted Max? Rrrowr.

 

I'm perfectly happy to believe that Alison avoided telling Noah about dropping the class. I'm not so willing to believe that asshole Noah would a) remember the date of the final exam without prompting; b) would think enough of anybody besides himself to bring flowers to the school. Unless he was looking to bang Allison's classmates, that is.

Edited December 14, 2015 by attica

[DarkRaichu]

In my book Alison is as much as an a-hole as Noah if not more so.  It was one thing to leave the baby with a nanny to pursue a dream of becoming a doctor.  However, she'd rather walk around NY for 5-6 weeks instead of spending more time with her baby?  Then she abandoned 1 dream to pursue another without concern of her baby well being, not to mention Noah's kids.   

Why not just give the baby up for adoption if she obviously did not care about her?

 

I did not particularly care if Noah was footing all the bills when they were in NY. He was also a jerk and they deserved each other.  Too bad they put children (a baby no less) in the middle of their shitty relationship.

Edited December 14, 2015 by DarkRaichu

[GeminiDancer]

I don't think Max did it. I think Whitney did it, and Noah is covering for her. I do believe that Max did see Noah hosing down the car.

 

Noah has "Grass is greener" syndrome. He's not happy with his wife and kids, have an affair. Not happy in the relationship with his mistress, come close to cheating on her too (assuming he hasn't done it already that we've seen). Not happy with the success of his book, plan to leave his mistress and child for two years to write his next book. Max is right. Noah will never be happy with what he has. He'll always want more and to hell with those he hurt to get it. It was hysterical seeing Noah get all huffy about Max and Helen. It's a natural reaction, yes, but what lack of self-awareness. He disrespected his wife by having an affair and taking said mistress to their bed, and he's upset about Max going to Helen?

 

I wonder if Max was really giving him loans and Noah perceived them as gifts.

 

Now, considering that Alison dropped the class weeks ago, wouldn't Noah have at least noticed that she wasn't sitting with her books and studying late at night? Or is he that far up his own ass to pay attention?

Edited December 14, 2015 by GeminiDancer

[cardigirl]

OMG, Colin Donnell is just such a shitty actor, I think Treem made a smart move to kill him off.  Idk, his ridiculous hamminess almost killed the ep for me.

 

 

Well, he's been really effective in the role of Scotty for me.  Playing a charming loser is usually a thankless task anyway.  I think he's done really well showing some pathos even as the character degrades further into drug addiction.

Just for comparison, could you tell me who's acting you've enjoyed?

Edited December 14, 2015 by cardigirl

[ChromaKelly]

The bathroom office was ridiculous. He could have had a corner of the dining room or their bedroom. Give me a break. I have lost any and all sympathy for Alison. Wandering around the city trying to find yourself while the baby is with a nanny? Yes, Noah was blowing her off while in the shower, but tell him right then that you are thinking of dropping a million dollars on a restaurant with your ex! Don't make it sound like "I need to talk to you about random everyday crap".

[izabella]

I had ventured a guess several episodes ago that Max was the one responsible for Scotty's death. It was the episode where Cole was at Scotty's boat and Scotty told Cole about his wish to purchase the Lobster Roll. Cole asked him where he'd get so much money and Scotty told him that he had an investor, 'a hedge fund guy'. Max is a hedge fund guy and now Max has a lavish home in Montauk. Max has also gone downhill from the suave, dapper, Wall Street financier to a slovenly, depressed broken-looking man. Many people had opportunity and motive to snuff Scotty but I think that a hedge fund guy that may have hit the skids financially just might have more motive than others to do the deed.

 

I don't think Max is broke.  He was just fine the last we saw him, and it seems he's bought a new Montauk house which he did not have before.  I think he was spending his week off at his vacation home, and chose not to shave and/or get dressed all fancy.  I spend the day in yoga pants and a t-shirt if I'm not going anywhere, too.  Is he depressed?  To some extent.  He loved Helen, and he found out that she's not into him now any more than she was back in college.

 

But I don't see anything there that looks like a motive to kill Scotty.  Even if he is the hedge fund guy, he wasn't relying on investing in the Lobster Roll with Scotty to save him, or else he would have been at the foreclosure auction.

 

As for Noah in the bathroom, I forgot at first that his office had been turned into the baby's room, so I initially thought he was in the bathroom because it resembled the sterile white rubber room where he wrote his best selling novel, lol.

Edited December 14, 2015 by izabella

[cardigirl]

I had ventured a guess several episodes ago that Max was the one responsible for Scotty's death. It was the episode where Cole was at Scotty's boat and Scotty told Cole about his wish to purchase the Lobster Roll. Cole asked him where he'd get so much money and Scotty told him that he had an investor, 'a hedge fund guy'. Max is a hedge fund guy and now Max has a lavish home in Montauk. Max has also gone downhill from the suave, dapper, Wall Street financier to a slovenly, depressed broken-looking man. Many people had opportunity and motive to snuff Scotty but I think that a hedge fund guy that may have hit the skids financially just might have more motive than others to do the deed.

Except I don't think Max has hit the skids, at least, not financially.  Noah was visiting him in his new place in Montauk, which was absolutely gorgeous BTW. 

[ChromaKelly]

The bathroom office was ridiculous. He could have had a corner of the dining room or their bedroom. Give me a break. I have lost any and all sympathy for Alison. Wandering around the city trying to find yourself while the baby is with a nanny? Yes, Noah was blowing her off while in the shower, but tell him right then that you are thinking of dropping a million dollars on a restaurant with your ex! Don't make it sound like "I need to talk to you about random everyday crap".

[scrb]

That was great, Noah being outraged that Max betrayed him, after he betrayed Helen.

 

That must be the writer's empathy at work there.

Edited December 14, 2015 by scrb

[taragel]

This episode had a lot of dumb packed into it. The biggest was...if Noah's story is that he hit a deer, not Scotty, and that's why his car needed to be repaired, who gives a shit if Max testifies that Noah hosed some blood off his car in Max's driveway? That still tracks with the deer hitting story. It's not a very damaging thing that Richard Schiff should worry over, honestly. That was a lazy reveal. They could've ended it by revealing that Max was a business parter to Scotty/gave him the money to try to buy into the Lobster Roll (although I guess that might be irrelevant to the case).

 

Speaking of which, I don't know why Alison and Cole would want to go into business together. At all. It makes very little sense. And I can't see Luisa going for it, even if she wants a restaurant to run. He wants to cut ties to his old life; Alison's never wanted anything but to get free of Montauk. Now suddenly she's just a "girl from Montauk" and that's all she's ever been and this is where she belongs. She really is lost, I guess. Her motivations change from one episode to the next.

 

I thought Joshua Jackson was really fantastic in the scene with Scotty and the way he talked with him about rehab. He plays warm/caring so very well, it's hard to reconcile when he's playing the aloof/asshole sides of Cole, for me. 

 

There's nothing more to really say about how toxic Alison and Noah are. (I too found the fact that he wrote in the bathroom not the living room or some other place in that ginormous penthouse totally ridiculous.)

 

I think it's interesting though to see how things seem to be getting slightly reconned from previous scenes--like in the recap how they point out that Cole and Alison are very awkward together as if they haven't seen each other in ages and he's never met her kid...yet they're business partners? And of course that happy loving tableau interrupted by Noah's arrest seems ludicrous now.

 

I'd briefly forgotten that when we first met Max he was just getting divorced as well (though I especially don't remember any kids being mentioned). Noah's even a shitty friend. Who tells their best friend, even in a moment of heated anger, that they're worthless except for their money? That's some cold soul right there.

Edited December 14, 2015 by taragel

[islandgal140]

I still don't understand any of the money situation on this show.  We were all speculating that Alison's land must have sold for multi-millions ($5, 10, 15+ million), but yet they need to pool their money together because neither has enough on their own to pay $1.5m for the Lobster Roll. WTF?!? How can beach front land in that area go for so little?!?!

 

I just can't warm up to Luisa. I didn't have as much of a problem with her prior pull yourself up with your bootstraps speech she gave Cole a few episodes back but I thought what she said at that sit down at Cole's family home was just incredibly callous. Cole and his mom were talking & looking at a wedding pictures of Cole's mom and dad. The mom says how she was sorry for Luisa's sake that the horse farm was no longer in the family because she would have liked to have seen Luisa and Cole married there just like her and her husband were. Luisa ponders that wasn't that where Cole and Alison were married to which the answer is  yes and she then says 'well than I'm glad it is gone!'  Really?!!? I just think it is stone cold. That was a family endeavor with lots of memories besides Cole and Alison. To be glad it is gone based on that sole fact is so fucking selfish! If they had got married in a church would she had been glad it had burned to the ground? Girl, bye. 

 

No it's not, and it's one of the reasons I'm still Max's #1 fan, he kept counselling Noah to stick it out with Helen was because he'd fucked up his own marriage which actually did  mean something to him (as well as him not wanting Helen to experience that pain). Yeah Max is obnoxious, but mostly in the way I imagine all  hedge fund managers to be, but this episode reiterated to me what a loyal friend he's been, certainly he gave Noah that 50K to expedite the divorce that was already in process, but he did what he could to make sure the divorce didnt' happen before that, including giving Noah the black mail money for Oscar. 

 

Nice to see another Max fan on the boards. Yes he is obnoxious but I am always such a sucker for a man carrying around decades of unrequited love, especially given his wealth and relative good looks (must multi-millions probably look like Trump and Murdoch) he would/could be modelizing a different Victoria Secret model every night.  I thought it was interesting that Noah gave not a damn about Helen and the good looking doctor but man did he come out of his seat fast with the outrage screaming 'you fucked my wife' when he found out Max and Helen hooked up. He forgot what time it was - he left Helen TWICE! - and got all possessive. As much as I don't like to give Noah any benefit of the doubt, I give him leeway for his surprise because no doubt it would have been weird to hear that a BFF that you had around your wife and family for decades (with a wife and kids of his own) had been secretly not only coveting but in love with his wife all that time!  I probably stand alone but I would have like have seen Max and Helen be together if just to fix Noah's wagon. 

 

Alison is a total flake. I just can't with her. Part of my outage is the colossal waste of money. Lying to Noah and got the man paying for classes &  a nanny while your ass is wandering the streets tried to 'find yourself' 

 

I can see the story going where the original marrieds are back together but I will lose some respect for both Cole and Helen for taking back those 2 tools! 

Edited December 14, 2015 by islandgal140

[ChromaKelly]

I'm also lost on the money stuff. Why couldn't Cole pay for the Lobster Roll? I thought he said he didn't want to touch the money from the house. If so, well that's your problem, buddy.
Then in a previous ep Alison says the house is still in escrow, but her and Noah have that fancy apartment. Did Noah solely pay for that? Was there any fallout from Cole burning the house down? Even if the new owners were going to tear it down, would it affect the sale in some way?

[GeminiDancer]

 

I'm also lost on the money stuff. Why couldn't Cole pay for the Lobster Roll? I thought he said he didn't want to touch the money from the house. If so, well that's your problem, buddy.

 

He initially didn't want to, but he had to in order to buy the Lobster Roll.

 

 

Then in a previous ep Alison says the house is still in escrow, but her and Noah have that fancy apartment. Did Noah solely pay for that?

 

I'm sure Noah paid for the apartment from book sales. At this point, it's been over a year since the Thanksgiving episode, so the sale's complete now. She's, in essence, sitting on money.

 

 

Was there any fallout from Cole burning the house down? Even if the new owners were going to tear it down, would it affect the sale in some way?

 

None that we know of. It could very well be possible that the insurance may write it off.

[grumpypanda]

In my book Alison is as much as an a-hole as Noah if not more so. It was one thing to leave the baby with a nanny to pursue a dream of becoming a doctor. However, she'd rather walk around NY for 5-6 weeks instead of spending more time with her baby? Then she abandoned 1 dream to pursue another without concern of her baby well being, not to mention Noah's kids.

Why not just give the baby up for adoption if she obviously did not care about her?

I did not particularly care if Noah was footing all the bills when they were in NY. He was also a jerk and they deserved each other. Too bad they put children (a baby no less) in the middle of their shitty relationship.

Well said! Alison really doesn't give a crap about anyone but herself. I dislike her even more than Noah now. Noah might be a horn dog but he's financially supporting Alison and their baby while she takes long walks and contemplates the meaning. I would be livid if I were paying for a nanny while my partner basically does nothing all day. Was she actually pretending to study?

I just can't get over how extremely selfish she is. Now she expects Noah and the kids to abandon their lives because she suddenly wants to move back to the place that she so desperately wanted to get away from just a few years earlier.

It's a pretty awful thing to do to Cole and Lousia too knowing that Joanie may be his baby. I'm starting to think that she might actually be evil like Noah said.

Edited December 14, 2015 by grumpypanda

[ScoobieDoobs]

Well said! Alison really doesn't give a crap about anyone but herself. I dislike her even more than Noah now. Noah might be a horn dog but he's financially supporting Alison and their baby while she takes long walks and contemplates the meaning. I would be livid if I were paying for a nanny while my partner basically does nothing all day. Was she actually pretending to study?

I just can't get over how extremely selfish she is. Now she expects Noah and the kids to abandon their lives because she suddenly wants to move back to the place that she so desperately wanted to get away from just a few years earlier.

It's a pretty awful thing to do to Cole and Lousia too knowing that Joanie may be his baby. I'm starting to think that she might actually be evil like Noah said.

 

What I'm annoyed by is, we don't get a sense of who Alison really is -- even from her POV.  We are getting a clear pic of what people around her think of her -- Oscar, Noah, Cole & even a bit from Luisa & Helen & Noah's agent & Jon Gottlief.  But not from Alison herself.  Gah, Treem, this is maddening!  Is it because Alison doesn't know herself?  Nah, that's dopey.  It's cuz Treem is holding out on us.  

 

I'd like Alison to share her suspicions about Joanie's daddy.  Talk, Alison!  Tell us who the fuck you are!  And Treem, will ya fuckin' direct Ruth to close her mouth, for shit's sake -- and wipe the drool coming outta there, please?

 

 

 

Is PTV acting nuts today?

Edited December 14, 2015 by ScoobieDoobs

[blixie]

 

That still tracks with the deer hitting story.

 

I thought the same thing, but I guess the idea is why did he wash the blood off it's only deer blood, he could have taken it to the shop with the blood on it if he only hit a deer, but yeah that wasn't some huge point score. I think it was more about Noah being butthurt that Max turned on him, like how dare he, after Noah's been literally the crapiest friend ever?

 

I also think it makes no sense that Luisa wants a fresh start enough to be insulted by Cherry saying she wishes the ranch was still around, but how fresh a start can you have when "your' restaurant is 50% owned by the same ex you didn't want to emulate 20 minutes ago. Fucking dumb writing. 

Edited December 14, 2015 by blixie

[izabella]

If he only hit a deer, he SHOULD have taken it to the shop instead of washing it, because a shop would easily be able to tell that it was a deer because of the fur and skin that would be stuck to the blood and guts on the car. 

 

Noah's hiding something from somebody or he wouldn't have washed off the car and wanted to keep the repair work on the car a secret.

Edited December 14, 2015 by izabella

[Former Nun]

If he only hit a deer, he SHOULD have taken it to the shop instead of washing it, because a shop would easily be able to tell that it was a deer because of the fur and skin that would be stuck to the blood and guts on the car.

 

 

It was that RED NOSE.  He knew the world would never let him forget it.

[evilmindatwork]

 

 

 

The bathroom office was ridiculous. He could have had a corner of the dining room or their bedroom. Give me a break. I have lost any and all sympathy for Alison. Wandering around the city trying to find yourself while the baby is with a nanny? Yes, Noah was blowing her off while in the shower, but tell him right then that you are thinking of dropping a million dollars on a restaurant with your ex! Don't make it sound like "I need to talk to you about random everyday crap".

 

 The living and dining rooms were massive so couldn't they find a corner in one of those rooms for a small desk? I don't think Noah would tolerate this and I don't think Alison would expect him to use the bathroom for an office. I found that really hard to believe that even Alison would expect Noah to use the bathroom as his office to write his new best seller in.

I thought it was maybe because the kids were in the house and he wanted quiet time to focus on writing? I think it's in Noah drama queen nature to do that, mostly so he could make Alison feel guilty for turning his "office" into the baby room. He could have easily sat in a corner of the living room and put some headphones to focus. I'm sure Noah can afford noise canceling headphones. 

Edited December 14, 2015 by evilmindatwork

[izabella]

If Noah is getting up in the middle of the night to work, he could work anywhere in that house since it would be quiet.  He didn't have to be in the bathroom.

Edited December 14, 2015 by izabella

[truthaboutluv]

Cole and Allison seem equally damaged. That piercing perfect scene where Cole discovers his mother has become a hotel maid made all those horrible accusations Scotty hurls at him ring true. Cole presents himself as a caring father, husband and family guy when actually he doesn't parent, is no longer married and is disconnected from his family of origin.

 

YMMV but I don't see how anything junkie, "blame everyone for my fuck-ups" Scotty has said about Cole is true. And how does Cole present himself as a caring father, husband and family guy? When Luisa first meets Cole, he is very much damaged and emotionally a wreck, which is why she eventually had to show him some tough love to get him to finally stop feeling sorry for himself and walking around broken and wounded. 

 

Cole doesn't parent because the one child he had is dead from a tragic accident and unless I've missed it, he is unaware another exists, assuming Joanie is his because Alison certainly hasn't told him. He is no longer married because his wife cheated on him and left him for another man. And he is disconnected from his family because he realized that the ranch they were engaging in illegal activities to keep afloat was gone for years and his mother never bothered to inform them of this, among her other lies. And his brother is a selfish, manipulative asshole who knocked up a teenage girl who Alison and Cole both warned him to stay away from and never actually took responsibility or suffered any consequences for it as with everything else.

 

And yeah the mother working as a maid was heartbreaking until you learn that she was selling stuff she could have used to take care of herself to give her junkie kid money and enable more of his bullshit. By all accounts, Cole did put the well being of his family on his back for years until he realized a lot of it was lies and bullshit and decided he didn't want to do it anymore and why should he? Why should he continue to enable Scotty like the mother is also doing and not live his life for himself?

 

Max has also gone downhill from the suave, dapper, Wall Street financier to a slovenly, depressed broken-looking man.

 

The first time we met Max in Season 1 he was a slovenly guy with a wrinkled looking suit, doing blow in the middle of the day in the back of a taxi cab. So I don't know that Max was ever really the suave, dapper, Wall Street guy. He had his moments but the first impression wasn't so great, imo. Judging by that house in Montauk, I'd say despite his physical appearance, Max was still doing just fine financially. I guess things could have changed in the months leading up to Scotty's death. 

 

I thought it was really ridiculous in this episode that Noah was relegated to using the bathroom as his office considering that fancy apartment has about 2500 square feet to spread out in. The living and dining rooms were massive so couldn't they find a corner in one of those rooms for a small desk?

 

Yeah that was really dumb to me too.

 

I do believe that Max did see Noah hosing down the car.

 

Also, even if he did, Noah has given his story of hitting a deer, so he could just say that's what Max saw. I don't think Max would be able to tell the difference between human blood and animal blood. That said, Noah covering for Witney I think would tie perfectly to the distance that's gone on between them. The fact that they keep letting us know Witney cut Noah off, that he keeps writing her apology letters, etc. I can see Noah in his mind, covering for her as the ultimate apology to her and to get her to trust and just talk to him again. 

 

I just can't warm up to Luisa. I didn't have as much of a problem with her prior pull yourself up with your bootstraps speech she gave Cole a few episodes back but I thought what she said at that sit down at Cole's family home was just incredibly callous. Cole and his mom were talking & looking at a wedding pictures of Cole's mom and dad. The mom says how she was sorry for Luisa's sake that the horse farm was no longer in the family because she would have liked to have seen Luisa and Cole married there just like her and her husband were. Luisa ponders that wasn't that where Cole and Alison were married to which the answer is  yes and she then says 'well than I'm glad it is gone!'  Really?!!? I just think it is stone cold. That was a family endeavor with lots of memories besides Cole and Alison. To be glad it is gone based on that sole fact is so fucking selfish! If they had got married in a church would she had been glad it had burned to the ground? Girl, bye.

 

Yeah that really bothered me as well. She could have just said she was fine with not getting married the same place Alison and Cole did but to say she was glad the people lost their livelihood, their legacy and history was just, "say what now..."

 

I can see the story going where the original marrieds are back together but I will lose some respect for both Cole and Helen for taking back those 2 tools!

 

Yup, my sentiment as well and main issue with that ending. 

Edited December 14, 2015 by truthaboutluv

[Anne Elk]

So last week Noah was talking about swanning around France like it was no big thing, and this week suddenly he seems concerned that they're going to have trouble making ends meet if Alison invests her money. Apparently Noah's wonderful personal qualities don't include being able to plan more than 6 months ahead financially. Nice.

 

Everything that literary agent was saying basically boiled down to "There is no way I am going to convince love-addled college girls to buy a biography of Omar Bradley. Could this guy please get over himself." At least, it did in my head.

 

I too am baffled about why Alison needed to be brought into the Lobster Roll deal. I thought at first that the idea was that she would just be a hands-off owner, providing the money while staying in Manhattan with Noah. But she seems to actually want to run the place. How could anyone, even optimistic happy Cole, believe that Luisa and Alison working together is a good idea? Especially after that remark Luisa made about the horse farm when they were planning their wedding? I guess this is just Alison reacting again in her usual passive-aggressive way: She feels uncomfortable in Manhattan, it's where Noah turned into such an egomaniac asshole, so her solution is to take her opportunity to force him out of Manhattan. I think that passive aggression may be the key to Alison -- she looks like she's out of control and needs rescue, she certainly sees herself as lost and victimized, and yet she always seems to get her way in the end. 

 

Could it be any more obvious that neither Alison nor Noah give a damn about the kids? Now that they have a nanny with an apparently unlimited commitment to their family, they spend barely any time with them. And Noah is STILL griping about Alison turning his office into the nursery.