S03.E10: Episode 10

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

The Affair Ends Its Season With A French Reconnection

Look, it's been a long season. You'd take a road trip, too, if it meant getting away from Noah. ...What? Noah's here, too? Oh, man.

[cardigirl]

37 minutes ago, crashdown said:

I don't know what's wrong with you guys!  I can't wait until next season, when we find out if the cab takes Noah to the airport to go to Germany with Noel, or to Ben's apartment for the cross-country trip of a lifetime!

Noel? Ben?  I'm missing this reference...

[crashdown]

Season 1 of Felicity ended exactly the way this season ended, with the lead character in a cab, whose driver asks "Where to?" before the scene fades to black.  Viewers had to wait until the start of the next season to find out which point on the love triangle was chosen.

[cardigirl]

2 minutes ago, crashdown said:

Season 1 of Felicity ended exactly the way this season ended, with the lead character in a cab, whose driver asks "Where to?" before the scene fades to black.  Viewers had to wait until the start of the next season to find out which point on the love triangle was chosen.

Oh, thanks!  Ha, didn't get the reference.  Should have, I watched that season.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Sheenieb said:

So, I take it Noah is no longer on probation since he can travel and the Keystone Kops never followed up about the stabbing. 

 

No doubt all will be revealed during the first episode of Season 4 in a lengthy barroom exposition with Oscar, the useful fool the writers haul out when a character needs to make a confession but they don't feel like writing out a full scene. 

[taragel]

1 hour ago, crashdown said:

I don't know what's wrong with you guys!  I can't wait until next season, when we find out if the cab takes Noah to the airport to go to Germany with Noel, or to Ben's apartment for the cross-country trip of a lifetime!

LOL! <3 If they add Scott Speedman to season 4, I will be definitely sucked back in. 

Imagine if S4 is just all Noah, all the time. I agree we technically don't have much reason to check back in with Helen, Cole or Alison at this point.

[Lithogirl]

I think that might've been the worst season finale I've seen in years.

[nara]

I actually liked what happened in the episode, but it didn't make sense in many ways.

First the bad...

1. It was not great as a season finale because the female lead wasn't even in the episode!
2. I think it would have been better if they had crunched the Noah mental issues to the first 5 episodes and shown some recovery in the next 4 episodes AND had a time jump of however long parole lasts. THEN his trip to Paris and his state of mind would have made sense.  

Now the good...

1. I actually enjoyed Juliette's POV, especially learning that she has no credibility on her own within academic circles and her husband had multiple affairs.  It made me more sympathetic to her "I'm trying to be edgy by sleeping with a murderer" pathetic attempts to create her own identity in the US.  I thought it was telling that she was very nervous about PDA in Paris after her supposed frank sexuality in the US.  
2. It was also interesting that Juliette apparently accomplished nothing during her time in the US.  Perhaps the university dean was right--and she has done nothing to show her own capabilities separately from her husband.  Whitney was kinda heading down the same path with Furkat, but maybe now she can establish her own goals and go for them.
3. I liked Noah finally admitting that he was a bad father.  Way to finally take responsibility.  I would have preferred it if Furkat had not hit Whitney and was just done with having sex with her and wanted her to just be his assistant.  It's easy to make him the bad guy, but it would have been better if he was just done with her IMO.  She would still be upset and feel used, so Noah could have come to support her and said the same things, but the lesson would have been better and better connected to Noah and Helen's relationship.
4. I liked that both selfish people finally chose their daughters over their own fun.
5. I liked the way it ended with Noah having no where to go.  You reap what you sow, buddy.

Other observations:

1. Whitney is beautiful, but I thought she looked very dull when Noah saw her in Paris.  Go makeup artist!  That was a good way to show her unhappiness.   Similarly, I though Helen looked beautiful in the final scene, and the lights on the tree were impossibly bright--Noah missing what he gave up.
2. The scene of them trying to stuff Etienne into the elevator was horrifying.  What a sad, undignified end to the great professor.
3. Furkat said he sold a ton of those posters.  I'm sorry, but who would buy and display those posters?

[chabelisaywow]

Quote

Why did it take 4 years for her to come to terms with this? 

I thought it was because she finally realized that Noah took the rap for Alison and not for her.

I don't think Noah and Alison ever "needed" each other - they're just both selfish assholes.

I don't think Alison is in a good place at all - as evidenced by the "what about Joanie?" comment when she was supposedly offered that job.  Who in their right mind fights to regain custody of their child and then completely disregards how taking a job in another state would affect them?

I seriously hope Cole comes to his senses as well.

[Emme]

But what about the major loose end: are Helen's parents still trapped in the panic room???

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, nara said:

The scene of them trying to stuff Etienne into the elevator was horrifying.  What a sad, undignified end to the great professor.

You know, just as they were wheeling his body out of the room, I thought to myself, how are they going to get it into a Parisian elevator? And then when I actually saw how, I wished I hadn't asked.

[Chas411]

Quote

 

I liked the way it ended with Noah having no where to go.  You reap what you sow, buddy.

But I did like that he made peace with himself and owned up to his past mistakes. I wish we could have seen how he got to that stage though.

Everything Seemed to wrap up for the Solloways whereas Cole and Alisons storylines have been left completely unfinished.

Edited January 30, 2017 by Chas411

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Emme said:

But what about the major loose end: are Helen's parents still trapped in the panic room???

Reminds me of this:

 

[nara]

1 hour ago, Chas411 said:

But I did like that he made peace with himself and owned up to his past mistakes. I wish we could have seen how he got to that stage though.

Everything Seemed to wrap up for the Solloways whereas Cole and Alisons storylines have been left completely unfinished.

Agreed that we should have seen some of the transformation of Noah. :(

Maybe next season will focus more on the affair between Alison and Cole...

[scrb]

Will have to say Irene Jacob looked great for an over 50 woman, especially the opening scene.

[Valmarmar]

Disappointed. It's like they skipped a couple (or more) episodes to get to this point.  Wish had skipped French woman story completely, or resolved it over the phone !!  I look forward to more unveiling of Cole.  Of all the mains, he seems to have a depth that hasn't been revealed in full.   Will tune in out of curiosity. 

[Songbird]

9 hours ago, Emme said:

But what about the major loose end: are Helen's parents still trapped in the panic room???

I'm sure their grandkids let them out. :) Helen left them at the house too after she locked her parents in the panic room and took off to the bar, where she had a drink or two and a chat with Alison. I'm sure the kids heard them screaming for help. Possibly. Maybe. Hopefully. Lol   That was my thought anyway. ;)   Gawd this show is all  over the place!  

[Chas411]

Also can we assume the kids are ok and at peace with Helen being the actual killed of Scotty. The show rushed to a reunion between her and Vik but they completely glossed over the fucked up say she announced to all of them that it was her who was driving the car.

[MaggieG]

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 1:11 AM, chocolatine said:

The thing that redeemed that for me a tiny bit was that even the other French people in this episode were having none of her Eau So Frenchiness. The firing scene in particular was glorious.

That really was amazing. That lady was having none of it. She dismissed her in a Miranda Priestly type of way. "That's all."

18 hours ago, taragel said:

LOL! <3 If they add Scott Speedman to season 4, I will be definitely sucked back in. 

Scott Speedman is currently on Animal Kingdom on TNT. Not a bad show. Some good eye candy :)

I hated that we didn't get some sort of resolution with Cole and Alison.

[Duke2801]

11 hours ago, scrb said:

Will have to say Irene Jacob looked great for an over 50 woman, especially the opening scene.

I agree; I think she looks great period - for any age!  As does Helen/Maura Tierney, who is a year older!

[DFWGina]

I hate subtitles especially around a storyline I don't particularly care about.  We fast forwarded through the subtitles so I do not know (or care) what happened.  

Questions I need answered:

When did Noah get cured of his drug dependency and mental breakdown/illness?  And how?

When did Helen get back with the Doctor?  And how?

Did Alison take the job?  

Did Cole's wife find out about Cole's infidelity with Alison?

[taragel]

5 hours ago, MaggieG said:

 

Scott Speedman is currently on Animal Kingdom on TNT. Not a bad show. Some good eye candy :)

I hated that we didn't get some sort of resolution with Cole and Alison.

I'm watching that, too. But Speedman and Joshua Jackson on the same show, is like all my 90s fangirl dreams come true. Lol. (Assuming Josh comes back...and there's a plot for Cole...)

[Milburn Stone]

I guess only one person in America thought this was a fantastic season finale, and that person is...me.

I especially appreciated that the "cliffhanger," if you can call it that, was not like the sensationalistic ones of seasons past, but was more character-based.

And speaking of character, by now it should be clear to everyone that Noah is the central character of The Affair. Even the other principal characters exist mainly as foils to Noah, to show his progressions and regressions. That was the intention from the beginning and has remained so. It's safe to say that if you don't want a show about Noah, The Affair isn't your show! (A conclusion I know many of you have reached.) For those who can accept that Noah is the center of the constellation that is The Affair, it remains IMO a fascinating show.

[grommit2]

OK fans...lets get our house in order:

We saw lots more Whitney.  That makes me very happy.  You can never have enough Whitney. Unfortunately, she was only whiny whitney for the first half of her appearance.  But half of Whitney is worth it.  Of course, we must note that the Whitney scenes were seen through Noah's perspective, so we really cannot be sure exactly what was going on.

The episode ended with a happy Christmas theme, but Noah was left out.  In the past, this meant he would head to a bar, get drunk, hit on a few women, they would be fascinated by this famous writer, go to bed with him, he would freak out, and end up in the drunk tank hallucinating that Gunther was attacking him.  Yawn.

Noah did not pop pills in this episode, and his neck was scarred, but not taped over.  

It is very suspicious that Noah's son said hello to him at the Brooklyn house...more Noah hallucinations?

Helen's parents are still locked in that panic room (remember, it locked from the outside). Will lawyer Gottlief get there in time?   Now there's a real cliff-hanger.  

Are the Livingston police still looking for Nicole's killers?  Oops...wrong show.  

Our favorite professeur de francais (eh?  5 years of french classes pay off)...is about to lose her job in France.  Her husband is deceased.  Will she go back to "Livingston" college? In her perspective, she had hot steamy sex with Noah in the hallway (BTW...exactly how do you do that?) and would seem to be ready to move across the pond.  Can she get the job translating "Descent" into French?  

Alison and Helen know what happened on that fateful night.  Alison pushed lecherous singer Scotty into the path of the car.  Noah saw(?) Alison lurking in the bushes.  The only key player here is Cole...he knows only that Noah killed his brother. Also, do the kids know that Noah was not the driver?

The question I have is why Alison was walking along that road.  Where was she going?

What little factoids will Oscar drop to stir the pot?

Now that the show is on hiatus, will Cole be able to finish that waterfront house?  

And the final scene of the entire story:  Everyone reconciles during a trip to Block Island.  But the Viking Fleet return boat hits a whale.  The boat sinks, and all passengers are tossed into Buzzards Bay. 

[Lemons]

So Noah went to his apartment, stared in the window and suddenly realized that it was him, not the guard, who stabbed himself.  So the hallucinations went 'poof'!  The broken shoulder and need for painkillers also went poof!

noah has found a cure for some serious symptoms of mental illness - paranoia hallucinations. He should be lecturing at medical schools and tell the doctors how he cured himself. It's a miracle!!!!!!

[DarkRaichu]

14 hours ago, Lemons said:

So Noah went to his apartment, stared in the window and suddenly realized that it was him, not the guard, who stabbed himself.  So the hallucinations went 'poof'!  The broken shoulder and need for painkillers also went poof!

noah has found a cure for some serious symptoms of mental illness - paranoia hallucinations. He should be lecturing at medical schools and tell the doctors how he cured himself. It's a miracle!!!!!!

Make sense.  That was how he could afford a trip to Paris for a week, plus the last minute tickets from Paris to New York on Christmas Eve.  With that kind of breakthrough, money was no longer a problem for Noah.

Noah's parole officer must have been effected personally by that cure (perhaps her sister/uncle/mom/son/cousin was cured thanks to Noah) to look the other  way while Noah went out of the country for a week.

[RedFiat]

1 hour ago, DarkRaichu said:

Make sense.  That was how he could afford a trip to Paris for a week, plus the last minute tickets from Paris to New York on Christmas Eve.  With that kind of breakthrough, money was no longer a problem for Noah.

Noah's parole officer must have been effected personally by that cure (perhaps her sister/uncle/mom/son/cousin was cured thanks to Noah) to look the other  way while Noah went out of the country for a week.

It was a damn nonsense episode that makes me wonder if it even happened.  Noah's perspective was ridiculous- Juliette's was devastingly real from the firing, to the hope and then let down of her husband's death, and right down to calling Noah's novel "not very good" So I was hoping they would have at least had an examination of a mentally ill Noah but the walking disaster gets to go to Paris instead.  A real lunch bag let down.     

[LilaFowler]

Really strange show.  Maybe the writers have finished the Noah Solloway side of The Affair and will focus entirely on Allison and Cole next season?  I'm assuming that Cole still thinks that Noah killed Scotty and has no idea that Helen was driving or that Allison was there and involved. Did Cole confess his infidelity to Luisa?  What was that drama with the inspector permit guy? The show will probably conclude in Montauk.  It's really the only thing that makes sense.  The four main characters have no real reason to interact anymore.

As for this episode, I rolled my eyes hard when I saw that Juliet would get a POV.  Boring.  But I guess if this season was to wrap up the Noah/Helen storyline as is my theory, then maybe she was necessary since Noah didn't really interact with Helen that much.  Did Juliet serve a purpose? Maybe. Noah seems to be in a better place with himself and his kids and he chose others over himself first.  Having nowhere to really go on a holiday that celebrates love and family is a teensy bit poetic, I'll give them that. He's not really a family man anyway.  He's probably happier alone.  As for Helen, she seems to have managed to cope with having killed someone and gotten away with it.  How nice.  Never really liked her. She got Vik to return to her? Ugh. Vik, why do you hate yourself so much?

[Valny]

After reading these comments I am so bummed, I don't even want to watch. First, I wasn't happy with the preview seeing the French lady again,but no way I was thinking they would spend so much time on her backstory. I had asked my friend at work if she watched and she said she was very disappointed and proceeded to tell me there wasn't even any Alison or Helen stories going on and when she told me they featured Frenchie, I got pissed!   So now I am in no hurry to watch the finale and will probably ff through the boring lady stuff.

[Milburn Stone]

10 hours ago, LilaFowler said:

Did Juliet serve a purpose? Maybe. Noah seems to be in a better place with himself and his kids and he chose others over himself first.

Your comment makes me think that one way Juliette helped Noah was that she related to the very most important part of himself--or certainly, the part of himself that he experiences as the most important--which is as a writer. Helen doesn't seem to take his writing seriously, and Alison was as angered by his novel as she was in awe of it. (And in any case, her opinion, being an untutored one, couldn't mean much to Noah.) But Juliette knows the difference between good literature and bad, and found great value in Noah's novel. (The fact that she finds little value in one of his earlier novels further validates her praise of the later one.) 

[Glade]

Quote

“I see a fourth season that will bring all the characters back together in a way that would feel really satisfying and surprising and end a journey.”

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/remote-controlled-the-affair-sarah-treem-season-3-finale-1201947786/

This is what Sarah Treem has said publicly about S4, which doesn't sound like she is writing the Solloways out.  However, I do hope the last season is Alison/Cole heavy, since so much of S3 was given to Noah or wasted on Juliet.  It will, however, have to be "surprising" if the Montauk characters ever spend any time at all with the Solloways other then random bar run-ins. 

[chocolatine]

4 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

But Juliette knows the difference between good literature and bad, and found great value in Noah's novel.

Does she though? The university dean made it pretty clear in her scathing firing speech that Juliette had only been given her job because of Etienne (who was also the one originally invited by "Livingston University" to authenticate the manuscript) and that she's essentially worthless to the academic world without him.

Noah just gets a hard-on for whomever raves about his novel (remember Eden?), whether they know the difference between good and bad literature or not.

[Isazouzi]

On 31/01/2017 at 4:12 PM, MaggieG said:

That really was amazing. That lady was having none of it. She dismissed her in a Miranda Priestly type of way. "That's all."

 

What's funny is that the actress, who does a lot of voice work, is the French voice of Meryl Streep. ;-)

[LilaFowler]

1 hour ago, Glade said:

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/remote-controlled-the-affair-sarah-treem-season-3-finale-1201947786/

This is what Sarah Treem has said publicly about S4, which doesn't sound like she is writing the Solloways out.  However, I do hope the last season is Alison/Cole heavy, since so much of S3 was given to Noah or wasted on Juliet.  It will, however, have to be "surprising" if the Montauk characters ever spend any time at all with the Solloways other then random bar run-ins. 

Thanks for that link.  Interesting.  How could these four people possibly reconnect enough to make a story line stretch over 10 episodes?  Helen and Noah have moved on and are apparently going to co-parent effectively. Noah and Allison decided that they aren't in love anymore and since Joanie is Cole's, they have gone their separate ways and got a divorce.  Baffles me a bit.  I guess we'll find out!

[DarkRaichu]

1 hour ago, Glade said:

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/remote-controlled-the-affair-sarah-treem-season-3-finale-1201947786/

This is what Sarah Treem has said publicly about S4, which doesn't sound like she is writing the Solloways out.  However, I do hope the last season is Alison/Cole heavy, since so much of S3 was given to Noah or wasted on Juliet.  It will, however, have to be "surprising" if the Montauk characters ever spend any time at all with the Solloways other then random bar run-ins. 

Quote

This season also features two new additions to the cast: She calls casting Brendan Fraser “a moment of casting genius.” “We wanted someone who was going to be able to match [West] and control him,” she says, adding that much of his performance is ad-libbed. “It’s always good in the third season to bring in some new energy, and his energy is great.”

Brendan Fraser was the highlight of the season.  Too bad most of his scenes existed solely in Noah's imagination

[Glade]

2 hours ago, LilaFowler said:

Thanks for that link.  Interesting.  How could these four people possibly reconnect enough to make a story line stretch over 10 episodes?  Helen and Noah have moved on and are apparently going to co-parent effectively. Noah and Allison decided that they aren't in love anymore and since Joanie is Cole's, they have gone their separate ways and got a divorce.  Baffles me a bit.  I guess we'll find out!

Well, I guess if Helen's parents died and she moved herself and the kids into their mansion in Montauk, and Noah moved nearbye since he wants to live in that town and to be near his kids, that would fuel lots of drama and interactions between the original four main characters and maybe we'd actually see characters like Alison's mom and Cherry/the 'cursed' Lockheart brothers come back into play.  But no, it's really not necessary in any case to continue the story for ten more hours.

[Lone Wolf]

My favorite part was the Foucault pendulum.  

[MamaMax]

Ok, the whole entire things was ridiculous.  Everything we saw in Noah's perspective up until this episode would indicate that he is seriously, gravely mentally ill.  And <poof> all better???  Nope, not buying it. 

ALSO ---- wouldn't Noah be back in prison for stalking the guard and his family??? He's on parole, shows up at a guards home, high as a kite, and nothing happens? I call bullshit.  Willing suspension of disbelief? This is a bridge too far.  I  would have only been satisfied if Noah was in jail, rehab, or a psychiatric hospital. 

 

Oh, and when he said to Juliette "I was on the brink"... DUDE YOU STABBED YOURSELF IN THE NECK AND DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS YOU, you weren't on the brink, you were wayyyyyy over the cliff. 

Edited February 3, 2017 by MamaMax

[gingerella]

I find it bizarre and incomprehensible that the show runners could finally reveal that Noah stabbed himself in the motherfucking neck, and then just shift their attention to hall fuckery in Paris, without so much as another thought that, oh I don't know, maaaaybe their viewers might wanna know WHY the fuck their main character just revealed that he stabbed HIMSELF in HIS OWN FUCKING NECK. JesusHChrist, Treem should never be allowed to create a show, like ever again. Fuck.This.Show.

[islandgal140]

On 1/30/2017 at 5:08 PM, nara said:

1. Furkat said he sold a ton of those posters.  I'm sorry, but who would buy and display those posters?

I could see Prof Franch's asshole students from the 1st few episodes buying them and wallpapering their dorm rooms/apts in them.  All of them. The women would see them as edgy and empowering and the guys ... well, you know. 

Edited February 6, 2017 by islandgal140

[izabella]

Every time I see Furkat, my mind transposes the letters to Fukrat.  Sigh.  I can't help it.

This season was ridiculous.  They mostly skipped past all the things that were or would be interesting about these people, and gave us tangents instead.  Writers and networks need to learn that you can't use filler for a whole season just to stretch it out.

Edited February 7, 2017 by izabella

[scrb]

Too expensive for students.

Parisians wouldn't be bowled over by Furkat's crotch shots.

They could go to the d'Orsay to see a real work of art, Courvet's Origin du Monde.

[Double A]

I still don't hate this show! I found Juliette's POV and the city porn of Paris an unexpected relief after the last couple of episodes. I was never so glad to see an unwanted character! My affection was what you would feel for the water girl at the end of a marathon, but I was ready for a break. Plus her messy life details make her attraction to Noah make sense.  

Even though the ending was like a poof rather than a bang, I'm good with it. No way was everything going to be wrapped up in a nice little package labeled "finale" and damn all the characters deserved a minute on a plateau. They've been through a lot. Many unanswered questions and lots of dysfunction still to play out. There is plenty for Season 4 to do!

[Snewtsie]

I just cancelled Showtime.  I kept it only for this show and this season was just too disappointing to continue. 

[EyesGlazed]

On 1/30/2017 at 3:14 AM, Glade said:

And NO, Whitney, cheating on your spouse/getting a divorce as a result is NOT the same thing as domestic violence.  I think it really cheapens domestic violence to suggest that.  

I too thought that was a false correlation and took Noah's self-awareness in the wrong direction.  Having an affair is not the same as beating your wife, sorry.  As much as I think Noah has been a jerk over past seasons, he's not as bad as the writers seem to want to portray him now.  

The season has veered too far off the central theme of exploring what happens when an affair breaks up two marriages.  Too much focus on Noah's jail time and Madame ESF.  Also, while at first it was easy to hate the cheating characters, now I think the show is veering too far in the direction of portraying Noah and Alison as fundamentally screwed up human beings whose affair was only a product of their character failings and who must be punished for straying.  It was far more interesting when the show made it ambiguous whether Noah and Alison were really in love or were really suited for each other.  Especially now that the show has done a good job (I think) of presenting each of the marriages in a complex way.

I am still in on this show, however.   I am curious what they will do in the final season.  Also, it was great to spend some time in Paris this episode, regardless of whether it advanced the plot!

[Palomar]

Well next season could be dealing with another Allison pregnancy and not knowing who the Daddy is. And of course Cole will find out about Allison's involvement in his brother's death (yet another betrayal for keeping it a secret).  Not much more can be said about this sad saga.

[healthnut]

Late to the party. Just binged watched the season over the weekend. This was an awful end to a very mediocre season. Juliet is snoozville, subtitles, really? I would've rather had Whitney's POV. I could care less about French prof. Sarah Treem is saying Juliet has a big decision to make next year. WTF? Why would they bring her back. I agree there is no reason for S4 and unless I see Cole & Allison in the previews for next season, I'm out. This was such a well done show, it saddens me this season was such a let down. 

[Jax7917]

Looks like Noah is going to disappoint his kids yet again when he heads to montauk to see his cheater in crime and doesn't make it sledding 

[Jax7917]

Just finished binge watching all seasons . 

Helen looks just like Stephen Tyler .. what's up with both leading women's hideous lip jobs on this show ? 

Helen needs to watch the movie " he's just not that into you ." I thought he'd eventually miss her after they separated , but no . He seemed actually repulsed by her . 

Why Is Alison so irresistible to everyOne? Is it her terrible duck lips or her luscious personality that makes the guys fall at her feet ? 

[grommit2]

Oh gee...I am suffering from Whitney withdrawal.  I need my Whitney.  You can never have enough whiny, complaining, self-centered, college dropout, entitled, young adult.  When does this series restart?