S05.E05: Episode 5

[LoveLeigh]

Sierra struggles to balance motherhood with her burgeoning acting career; Sierra's mother visits uninvited; Helen works her first design gig and begins to focus on herself. 

[Armchair Critic]

ACK I kept waiting for Sierra to kill her child, that was hard to watch.

[LydiaE]

Shouldn’t Stacy be older than 12?

[Maurina]

5 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

ACK I kept waiting for Sierra to kill her child, that was hard to watch.

Me too.  From pretty much the first scene I was thinking "oh shit, the writers are totally going kill off that baby as a plot device".

[NeenerNeener]

I hate everyone over the age of 13 in this episode. It looks like Helen has learned nothing from being with good guy Vik, and Sasha is Noah 2.0.

[chocolatine]

8 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

ACK I kept waiting for Sierra to kill her child, that was hard to watch.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if poor Eddie makes it to his first birthday. I hope with her new-found acting success (which came seemingly out of nowhere), Sierra can hire several nannies who can watch Eddie around the clock.

I don't blame Helen for ignoring Priya's request. It's 100% not her problem that Priya has a bad relationship with her brother and thought the harebrained scheme of introducing Helen as the mother of Vic's child would be the only way to fix it. In my experience, you have to firmly enforce your boundaries with people like Priya, or they'll keep making more and more unreasonable demands.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Do not discuss previews in the episode thread.  If you would like to discuss the previews, you may do so in the Speculation Thread. 

[mxc90]

That drunk woman never got her bra back and went home topless. Just another thing to expect when you leave a Sasha party!

After the crash, Eddie stopped crying and then looked at Sierra thinking "what the f*ck is wrong with you?

Sierra couldn't ask Priya to watch Eddie?

Priya couldn't have had the great actress Sierra to play Helen for one night? Would the brother question Helen's age for havinig a baby?

I am looking forward to Eden's story next week.

[chick binewski]

Other than the Baby in Peril subplot I was surprised how much I didn't hate that Sierra got a segment, mostly because it was great to watch Emily Browning play an actress doubting herself whilst seamlessly bringing her performance of Bovary back to her original interpretation. Also, another reveal of a character who's gonna go ahead and commit a few of the sins of the mother/father.

Helen has become my Noah this season. Whatever her actions over the past seasons she usually revealed some level of authenticity. Priya is played to be awful but old Helen would have at least shown some level of decorum and/or offered an explanation why posing as the mother of Vik's infant might not be something she's want to be on board with. And I have trouble buying her POV of Noah, even though I thought Maura played Helen as being much more tempted to return his 'I love you' rather than Sasha's. Speaking of, can we just get to the reveal that Sasha shot up his fiancee with drugs and shtupped the daughter? I mean, that has to be where this is going, no?

Also, kids? Don't bother studying four to six years because you can have a successful "career" in interior design with absolutely zero experience! This is going to bug me forever.

[preeya]

This entire Sierra POV was "LIKE AN ALBATROSS AROUND MY NECK"

More bullshit added that has nothing to do with The Affair.  WTF

[DoubleUTeeEff]

I had a real hard time believing that someone in Sierra's position wouldn't have a nanny or at least be able to afford a trustworthy babysitter service. I think the cost of a new Range Rover is going to be more than a couple years' salary for a nanny. 

Frankly, Priya's brother sounds like a real asshole so I'm not sure why Priya would work so hard trying to repair her relationship with him and even use lies and deceit to do it. I don't think Helen was at all in the wrong here. For starters, she had a prior commitment. Secondly, why should she pretend to be someone's mother when she's not just because some conservative holier than thou jerk would get his panties in a bunch? None of that is on her at all! Vikram is the one who impregnated someone, it is not her responsibility to make anyone feel better about it. Priya should have just asked Sierra if she could babysit for the evening so she could show her brother the baby and leave Helen out of it. Or not tell him about the baby at all.

Noah telling Helen that he loves her and wants her back was the weirdest thing ever. He tracks her down when she's out on a job? That's the worst timing ever. Couldn't he bring it up at one of the million times he's over at her house?

[EtheltoTillie]

I thought it was well written how Sasha was revealed to be a user asshole phony after all.

No Joanie this week. I wonder why. 

[LibertarianSlut]

1 hour ago, DoubleUTeeEff said:

I had a real hard time believing that someone in Sierra's position wouldn't have a nanny or at least be able to afford a trustworthy babysitter service. I think the cost of a new Range Rover is going to be more than a couple years' salary for a nanny. 

Frankly, Priya's brother sounds like a real asshole so I'm not sure why Priya would work so hard trying to repair her relationship with him and even use lies and deceit to do it. I don't think Helen was at all in the wrong here. For starters, she had a prior commitment. Secondly, why should she pretend to be someone's mother when she's not just because some conservative holier than thou jerk would get his panties in a bunch? None of that is on her at all! Vikram is the one who impregnated someone, it is not her responsibility to make anyone feel better about it. Priya should have just asked Sierra if she could babysit for the evening so she could show her brother the baby and leave Helen out of it. Or not tell him about the baby at all.

Noah telling Helen that he loves her and wants her back was the weirdest thing ever. He tracks her down when she's out on a job? That's the worst timing ever. Couldn't he bring it up at one of the million times he's over at her house?

Yeah, Helen has no responsibility whatsoever when it comes to Eddie.  He is the product of cheating--on Helen!  Everyone should be so grateful that is allowing the baby into her and her kids' lives at all.  There's no legal or blood relation.  I wouldn't blame Helen for not wanting to participate if she were sitting around the house in sweats.  And Priya?  Helen was not the widow, she was the girlfriend.  That's why Vik was cremated--because Helen had no spousal rights.  Stop with the revisionist history now that you want something you can get in any variety of ways.  Call Sierra, as Helen said. Let Sierra pretend to be the babysitter, rather than Helen the mother.  

Regardless of whose perspective it was, Helen had no responsibility to blow off a party to watch Eddie.  Get the fuck out of here with your entitlement, everyone on the cast.  And...what is this "attachment parenting" of which Sierra speaks?  Her mom can't hold the baby, but Stacy can watch her until 2 am?  I thought kids weren't supposed to be too attached to their parents anyway.

Sierra clearly needs a ton of help, and it's not clear why she's not asking for it.  I guess it's consistent with the way she gave birth--as if something's not authentic unless it's the way the elite anoint it to be.  But, girl, you don't need to drive a colicky kid around anymore.  That's what my mom used to do with me in 1980-something.  Now there are all kinds of fancy swings and remedies that can be used from the privacy of home.  The show just needed Sierra driving so that she could get into A Big Accident (which was totally preventable by the way, but come on look at the theme!  This show started with a Big Car Accident and now we have another one.  No way!).  

I thought that was an odd choice for a baby.  He had dark skin and blue eyes.  His mother has light skin and I can't tell which color eyes, and his father had medium skin (I didn't know that Vik wasn't white until it became part of his story) and dark eyes.  At first I thought the show was trying to make the baby look as different as possible from Sierra from her perspective so that the audience could have a visual as to how estranged Sierra feels from her own child.  Then they showed the baby from Helen's perspective and I realized I was giving this show too much credit once again.  It's just a baby who looks nothing like his parents.

Was I the only one who felt complete deja vu to Whitney's story from last week when Sierra was fucking that director?  I never knew sex could be so boring!  

If Noah's theory is true--that Sasha just wants to be with Helen so that he can channel Noah--is Sasha going to try to fuck Eden next, considering it was mentioned that she and Noah had been a thing?  (And I remember that "thing" they had.  It was the episode where Noah was getting ready to hit on his own daughter at the house party in Montauk).

Hey Helen, I have a question that might have been helpful for you to have asked Sasha--how the fuck is Christiana "exploiting" Sasha?  That would be a really good question to ask your new boyfriend, whom you love, who is doling out money to a strange woman.  Was the audience supposed to be thinking, "Sasha, you have no responsibility to your dead fiance's daughter who is not yours!  Hey...isn't Helen in a parallel situation?  You got me again with the irony, show!"?)  Cause I wasn't thinking that.  I just thought Christiana was the script supervisor, coming to retrieve her now-infamous bra.

I don't agree with Sasha on much, but I think he was right that the woman whose home Helen designed wasn't her friend.  She struck me as someone who wanted to keep Helen close to keep her situation on Sasha's front burner, and that was even after giving her the benefit of Helen's perspective.

Oh, we were robbed of our 30 second Joanie segment, damn! 

ETA--I forgot how mad I got when Priya referred to the fact that Vik dipped into the neighbor who was young enough to be his daughter as his "one" mistake or imperfection, or whatever she said in her ignorance.  Your son had antipathy toward children and was banging strange on Tinder before Helen changed him with her Golden Vagina, honey boo-boo.  Watch season two.

Edited September 23, 2019 by LibertarianSlut

[preeya]

29 minutes ago, GussieK said:

No Joanie this week. I wonder why. 

Because this entire ADDED season has gone off the rails. Five episodes of bullshit that I (and I'm sure many others) have absolutely ZERO interest. i.e. Sasha Mann, Sierra & Eddie, the Solloway offspring, Noah's non-ending bullshit, Vikram's family's problems, and Helen's attempt at being a West Coaster.

[LydiaE]

11 minutes ago, LibertarianSlut said:

I thought that was an odd choice for a baby.  He had dark skin and blue eyes.  His mother has light skin and I can't tell which color eyes, and his father had medium skin (I didn't know that Vik wasn't white until it became part of his story) and dark eyes.  At first I thought the show was trying to make the baby look as different as possible from Sierra from her perspective so that the audience could have a visual as to how estranged Sierra feels from her own child.  Then they showed the baby from Helen's perspective and I realized I was giving this show too much credit once again.  It's just a baby who looks nothing like his parents.

Just like when Joanie was a baby living with Noah/Alison, she was blond-haired and very fair-skinned but three years later when she was living with Cole/Louisa, she had the dark hair and olive complexion of a Latina. Now adult Joanie has fair skin, medium brown/blond combo of Anna Paquin. Seems legit.

[scrb]

1 hour ago, preeya said:

This entire Sierra POV was "LIKE AN ALBATROSS AROUND MY NECK"

More bullshit added that has nothing to do with The Affair.  WTF

That’s what I’m thinking as I start watching this ep.

WTF, why the fuck are they wasting a segment on Sierra’s POV?

What’s next, a POV for the UPS guy who delivers to Helen?

They got rid of Alison for this bullshit?

[scrb]

Oh man, why was Helen civil to Eden when she was fucking Noah?

Priya doesn’t look like the same actress or maybe she did whiny in a different way this episode.

If her brother cut her off for some bullshit reason, she should tell him to fuck off.

Of course Noah wants her back.  She showed some restraint not telling him he’s the one who started all this bullshit.

All those years being around each other when they’re fucking other people, because they were co-parenting, they’re amazingly courteous with each other.

I don’t have much to say about Sierra’s segment other than, be real honey, you’re too old to be running around for auditions.  If she hasn’t made it as an actress by now ...

But I guess Sierra is suppose to be much younger than the actress playing her.  Jennifer Jason Leigh played her mother and I’m not sure they’re that far apart in age.

[TexasGal]

18 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

ACK I kept waiting for Sierra to kill her child, that was hard to watch.

I couldn’t believe she left him in her car.  They are totally making Sierra into Alison 2.0 - everyone else sees her as this flakey/slutty person but she sees herself as the most put upon person in the world. 

I barely recognized Jennifer Jason Leigh.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, DoubleUTeeEff said:

I had a real hard time believing that someone in Sierra's position wouldn't have a nanny or at least be able to afford a trustworthy babysitter service. I think the cost of a new Range Rover is going to be more than a couple years' salary for a nanny. 

Seriously. Has this girl not heard of Care.com?! She's sitting on tens of millions of dollars in real estate and can't pony up a couple hundred bucks for a baby sitter?

26 minutes ago, scrb said:

But I guess Sierra is suppose to be much younger than the actress playing her.  Jennifer Jason Leigh played her mother and I’m not sure they’re that far apart in age.

JJL is the recipient of incredible and subtle cosmetic surgery. She's 57. Emily Browning is 31.

And what a perfect addition to the cast JJL made -- another utterly unlikable asshole. 

[nara]

8 hours ago, chick binewski said:

Also, kids? Don't bother studying four to six years because you can have a successful "career" in interior design with absolutely zero experience! This is going to bug me forever.

I think she may have some experience. Wasn’t her store In NYC one that had stuff for home decorating? Also, didn’t Whitney help with art selection? (Not that I saw anything extraordinary in the house.)

2 hours ago, LibertarianSlut said:

Regardless of whose perspective it was, Helen had no responsibility to blow off a party to watch Eddie.  Get the fuck out of here with your entitlement, everyone on the cast.  And...what is this "attachment parenting" of which Sierra speaks?  Her mom can't hold the baby, but Stacy can watch her until 2 am?  I thought kids weren't supposed to be too attached to their parents anyway.

  The show just needed Sierra driving so that she could get into A Big Accident (which was totally we have another one.  No way!).  

I thought the attachment parenting was just a made up excuse to not let her mother hold the baby...

Wasn’t the “accident” a half-hearted suicide attempt?

[ScoobieDoobs]

Did Helen know that Eden was fucking Noah?  Did she imply to Sasha she assumed that?  So why be civil to Eden, when it was clear that she was only talking to Helen to give Sasha her card?  Made no sense.  And why bring Eden back at all?  To show what meanies they are in Hollywood?  What the hell are you doing to this show this season, Treem???

Helen's POV felt like an ep of Entourage from 10 years ago.  OK, Treem, we know Hollywood is a ruthless & tough place.  You can watch Sunset Boulevard or The Player or Entourage (among a zillion other movies or TV shows) and get that.  Why get into any of this stuff?  It's been done & said so many times before.

And WTF was with Priya wanting Helen to pretend Vic's baby is hers?  Er, huh?????  Um, is Treem turning this show into Three's Company or Frasier?

You know, I grew up loving Jennifer Jason Leigh, but for the life of me, I did not recognize her.  Had no idea who was playing Sierra's mother until the ending credits rolled.  Thought maybe it was Ally Sheedy.  Anyway, it was a throwaway part -- which reminds me, no Joanie this week & not missed in the least.

Edited September 23, 2019 by ScoobieDoobs

[TVFan17]

Did Noah and Eden ever actually complete the act and have sex?  I honestly can't remember if they did.  I recall the two of them about to have sex -- while Alison was ready to give birth -- and then Noah wandered off and it didn't happen that night.   But I don't recall if he and Eden ever tried it at any other time.  I guess I blocked her out of my mind.

So maybe Helen didn't care about what Noah did when he was no longer with her (instead, he was cheating on Alison), but I just don't even remember Helen finding out about Noah and Eden at all.

In any case, I don't understand the purpose of bringing Eden back all of a sudden.

[LoveLeigh]

4 hours ago, GussieK said:

No Joanie this week. I wonder why. 

Because this season is thriving on the Joanie teasers and everything else is filler. This episode about Sierra is shoe horned in I feel. And Helen's conflict with Vic's mother is also extra.

I am frustrated to get to full Joanie episodes, because I think that is all this season should even be about. 

Edited September 23, 2019 by DakotaLavender

[ScoobieDoobs]

So Sierra's now predictable shtick of expecting Helen to raise her kid is reminding me of that annoying commercial where people ask their neighbors to do pretty much everything for them.  That commercial is unbearable & dumb enough -- but to see it being copied here reminds me how much unoriginal shit is going on this season . . .

[Armchair Critic]

50 minutes ago, TVFan17 said:

Did Noah and Eden ever actually complete the act and have sex?

I was going to say that, I don't think they ever had sex and Eden was more into Noah than he was into her. So her badmouthing Noah may have been a bit of sour grapes.

[DiabLOL]

So I never could stand Priya and often wondered last season why Helen had much to do with her at all given how awful she was with her for no good reason other than subscribing to the old Mother In Law has to be a monster no matter what. Well maybe Helen and Vik never married but still MIL trope. Anyhow, given how shitty she's always been to Helen and that Vik left nothing to Helen, maybe that house, and that Vik fucked the next door neighbor and got her pregnant then why oh why would Priya ask anything of her again let alone something as ridiculous as pretend to be the mom. Upthread someone mentioned that Helen's age would raise an eyebrow but hello, the writers actually tried it when Helen was asked to have a baby by Vik! 

So it was ridiculous writing all around to make Priya a shrieking, insulting caricature and for Helen to have to feel bad and have doubts about Sasha for his advice to just say no to her and because of how he dropped that guy at his own party AND the weird stepdaugher or whatever who showed up). Helen owes her nothing. I'm surprised she has anything to do with her now that Vik is gone. 

I've never been a big fan of Helen's but I did feel bad for her for the way Noah and Allison violated her space in addition to cheating. I'd say she's been exceptionally gracious with Noah, Alison, Vik, Vik's mom her shitty kids, etc etc etc 

Also why should she raise Vik's and Sierra's son? Is she that sentimental? I repeat: he left her nothing and impregnated the neighbor and all this after she uprooted to join him in California. 

I get the impression that she's so disappointed in life that she doesn't really care that much at this point about Noah's or Vik's infidelities and now she's suspicious of Sasha as well. All in all she seems oddly detached. 

[izabella]

3 hours ago, scrb said:

Priya doesn’t look like the same actress or maybe she did whiny in a different way this episode.

If her brother cut her off for some bullshit reason, she should tell him to fuck off.

Priya definitely should have told him to fuck off.  He cut off their relationship because Priya married a Muslim.  That would have been a heartbreaking decision for Priya, and it must have taken a lot of courage for her to go against her family.   I can see how she might wish for a way to repair that relationship with her family, simply because she misses being part of them.  She still shouldn't have asked Helen to lie, though.  I'm sure Sierra would have been happy for Priya to take care of Eddie.

[scrb]

3 hours ago, TexasGal said:

I couldn’t believe she left him in her car.  They are totally making Sierra into Alison 2.0 - everyone else sees her as this flakey/slutty person but she sees herself as the most put upon person in the world. 

I barely recognized Jennifer Jason Leigh.

But that's the MO of all these POVs, the characters whose POV it is are reasonable while the other people are monsters.

They always come across as martyrs.

Before this pointless Sierra POV, she's always appeared as this ridiculous character.

Now they have this one segment (and it fucking better be just a one-off) where poor Sierra is carrying the weight of the world, on her multimillion dollar home and Range Rover, driving like a maniac because baby Eddie is torturing her.

[HC87]

All we need now is the French professor to show up again.

I can'remember, at least a premium cable show anyway, go so completely off the rails.

It's kind of fascinatingly bad.

[ScoobieDoobs]

The actress playing Priya looks like she could be Vic's sister -- not his mother.  Just sayin' . . .

Please, Treem, no more Sierra POV's.  Felt like we were watching Eddie playing Baby Survivor -- to see what Sierra could do to him that he'll live thru.  It was really gross.

Edited September 23, 2019 by ScoobieDoobs

[weaver]

9 hours ago, scrb said:

That’s what I’m thinking as I start watching this ep.

WTF, why the fuck are they wasting a segment on Sierra’s POV?

What’s next, a POV for the UPS guy who delivers to Helen?

They got rid of Alison for this bullshit?

Makes me wonder what happened behind the scenes with Ruth Wilson, because this stuff they are throwing at us this year cannot possibly have been part of Treem's Five Year Plan for the show.  

Dominic West looked so silly in his scene where he declared love to Helen,  I felt sorry for the actor.   

Edited September 23, 2019 by weaver

[sadie]

If we were supposed to feel bad for Sierra this was a major fail. Poor rich white lady driving her RR around and her zillion dollar mansion hasn’t figured out how to hire a babysitter in 4 months? Huh? So she endangers her baby several times and......what? What was the point? Do hippy dippy types just not know how to function besides meditation and daily vision quests? Ugh.

Helen, dear Helen. Why she hasn’t told Priya to politely F off is beyond me. I kept waiting for her to tell Priya “you have been hostile, dismissive, cruel and completely rude to me since the day we met, made it clear I had zero say in Vic’s burial, you continue to take jabs at me but now that YOU need a favor you expect me to be the bigger person? You got balls of steal lady, go away and never darken my door again, if you want to see Vic’s love child she lives next door”. But no we just see Helen stumble over her words and feel bad. Ugh. And isn’t it common knowledge everyone in Hollywood is an ass, please don’t act surprised now. 

Ill watch until the end because this used to be a brilliant show (see Season1) but gah, what is happening with these people? 

[hoodooznoodooz]

Thrilled that they omitted that horrible opening song.

Had no idea that that was JJL. I also thought it was Ally Sheedy, but didn’t realize that’s who I thought it was until another poster mentioned it. Ha! One of JJL’s roles in an Altman film had her providing bored, paid phone sex.

Emily Browning. Violet/Series of Unfortunate Events. Sex in a restroom sitting on a toilet. Ewww. I don’t want to see that. Do people even do that? 

Why do we need yet another passive aggressive mom.

I enjoyed Priya yelling that Helen looks lovely in white. 

I couldn’t see what the director wanted but didn’t get until the final take. 

I do believe that if Helen loved Vikram, she would want to help out with Eddie. Not be obligated, but want to.

Sierra s- - - s for going to a club after film shooting, instead of relieving the 12-year-old babysitter. At least she didn’t BF Eddie after snorting cocaine.

[stormy weather]

At this point I feel personally insulted by the writers of this show because I can't believe they thought we were going to find ANY of the things that happened on this episode (read: season) even remotely plausible. A few examples:

1. Sierra leaving her baby locked inside a car (out in the sun, in the middle of the day, in California) while she auditions because "mommy really needs to get this job for both of us" instead of, I don't know, selling her house or her SUV? Asking her mom to help her out with money? Asking Priya/Helen if Eddie is set to receive any inheritance money from Vik? Renting out a couple rooms on AirBnB and maybe getting a live-in nanny? 

2. Sierra going to the after party and banging the director for absolutely NO reason knowing she left her 4-months-old baby in the care of a 12-year-old for an entire day. WHY THO.

3. Sierra crashing her car into a garbage truck with said baby on it because she is "oh-so-exhausted". I mean, are we supposed to feel sorry for her?
Anyway, someone should take Eddie away from Sierra or she should get some help because he is not safe with her. But hey, this week on Sarah Treem's "List of PSAs formerly known as The Affair": Post-partum Depression!

4. Helen not laughing in Priya's face when she asked her to pose as the mother of a newborn baby even though Maura Tierney is 54 (in life and, I presume, also on the show).

5. Helen not even questioning the fact she found "the" bra in the fridge and Sasha explaining he "threw that in there because he didn't know what to do with it". What?! I mean, is this a thing people normally do?

4 hours ago, weaver said:

Dominic West looked so silly in his scene where he declared love to Helen,  I felt sorry for the actor.   

And we didn't even get to see his point of view on that scene, which actually would have been interesting because the way it happened in Helen's POV was so completely random, stupid and out of context it didn't make any sense.

[Razzberry]

Damn, just when I was beginning to like Sasha -

Extortion only works when you have something so bad on the victim they'll pay to shut you up.  Sasha wrote that check for 25 grand so quick I'm guessing he may have boned her when she was about 13.

[ScoobieDoobs]

6 hours ago, weaver said:

Makes me wonder what happened behind the scenes with Ruth Wilson, because this stuff they are throwing at us this year cannot possibly have been part of Treem's Five Year Plan for the show.  

Dominic West looked so silly in his scene where he declared love to Helen,  I felt sorry for the actor.   

Yeah, as I was watching the awful Sierra POV, cringing at the site of her leaving poor Eddie in the car alone, I was thinking would we be seeing any of this horrible shit if Treem coulda worked things out with Ruth?

And what about Sasha’s “daughter” or stalker or extortionista or whoever the fuck she was?  What was her purpose?  To show us how sinister Sasha really is?  That’s it?  All these characters, like Sierra’s mom & Priya, just thrown in & out.  It’s because of the terrible writing this season.  Margaret has a real connection to the show.  These new characters, randomly tossed at us in this ep, feel so forced & fake.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, weaver said:

Dominic West looked so silly in his scene where he declared love to Helen,  I felt sorry for the actor. 

I laughed out loud at the close up of his face because it was JUST. THAT. RIDICULOUS. It was some kind of a combination of derp face mixed with an enfeebled fruit bat. 

1 hour ago, ScoobieDoobs said:

 It’s because of the terrible writing this season.

This season, last season, the season before that...

[hoodooznoodooz]

Mommy desperately needs this acting job because she needs to put food on the table.

Because she cannot wait on tables the way the rest of us did. Which also helps for networking, especially in LA. 

Because her mom was Hollywood royalty. 

Heck, I’d happily take care of Eddie, simply because Vik was the only character with an ounce of soul and integrity.

[Razzberry]

What's with the ugly privacy doors right next to large windows at Helen and Sierra's?  It makes no sense.

A gift that says "You should be mourning my son."  That brother sounds even more intolerant than Priya, if that's possible.

[hoodooznoodooz]

UO, but if I were Helen I would have tried to help out Priya, maybe by offering to have breakfast with the brother and her the next day, since I think Priya said that it was a 24-hour layover? Again, Helen loved Vikram, right? The love of my life died almost 30 years ago. All I wanted to do was show love and gratitude toward his surviving family members, because they were a huge reason he became the person I loved. Even though some of them were racist and the reason he didn’t let me meet them because of that. You grasp at anything you can when you ache to see him again. Spending time with them was still comforting for me. I don’t know. Maybe I am weird. My love died suddenly, so maybe that’s the variable that makes me so different from Helen.

[Double A]

I'm enjoying the season for the most part. They had two major characters disappeared so they had to do something and the new POVs are a fresh ride so far. The one thing I can't suspend any kind of reality for tho is the zero involvement of Vik's parents with his child. They have them focused on Helen but that would only make sense if she had the baby. In any other world that couple would be all over the child especially considering the circumstances. In the white sari scene, Priya must have passed Sierra in the driveway with the baby! But she's bringing Helen and not the baby a gift? Nah that's just not working. So it doesn't matter what Priya is saying I'm always wondering why she's wasting her time with Helen and not spending time with her grandchild.

[ScoobieDoobs]

So was Jennifer Jason Leigh well cast as Sierra’s psycho mom?  Well, she been playing loons, weirdos & freaks for 30 years, so I guess so.  But when the creepy director said how turned on he was by her, I was kinda thrown off — cuz she never was considered a hot chick type.  But then again, the director was so creepy, who knows what would turn him on.

The quick bang btw Sierra & creepy director was pretty needless.  Was that Treem telling us she thinks the Me Too movement is no biggie or doesn’t exist?  Ugh.  Treem’s view of Hollywood, particularly in this ep, is so oddly unoriginal & out of touch.

OK, we had gotten the back story on Sierra before — that she had a famous actress for a mom.  But the weirdo/psycho mom stuff in this ep was new.  Unoriginal as hell, but new.  Jeez, I thought Sierra was gonna start bawling & ask JJL why she didn’t let her use wire hangers as a kid or why she had to call her Mommie Dearest all the time . . . 

Well, at least no Trevor (& his rip-off Glee storyline) in this ep.  I did like to see that Stacey is a considerate, kind & thoughtful girl.  What a refreshing change to see ANYONE like that on this show.  Ah, but especially in the Solloway family — where her father is a meandering asshole, her mother is drifting in her own dream world & her siblings are hopelessly surly & completely self-absorbed.

[nara]

2 hours ago, ScoobieDoobs said:

So was Jennifer Jason Leigh well cast as Sierra’s psycho mom?  Well, she been playing loons, weirdos & freaks for 30 years, so I guess so.  But when the creepy director said how turned on he was by her, I was kinda thrown off — cuz she never was considered a hot chick type.  But then again, the director was so creepy, who knows what would turn him on.

The quick bang btw Sierra & creepy director was pretty needless.  Was that Treem telling us she thinks the Me Too movement is no biggie or doesn’t exist?  Ugh.  Treem’s view of Hollywood, particularly in this ep, is so oddly unoriginal & out of touch.

Well, at least no Trevor (& his rip-off Glee storyline) in this ep.  I did like to see that Stacey is a considerate, kind & thoughtful girl.  What a refreshing change to see ANYONE like that on this show.  Ah, but especially in the Solloway family — where her father is a meandering asshole, her mother is drifting in her own dream world & her siblings are hopelessly surly & completely self-absorbed.

1. I am not into women, but I think JJL would have been considered hot in Fast Times and Backdraft.

2. Like the Game of Thrones people, Treem does not seem to know what pleasurable sex looks like. 

3. What became of Martin, the other Solloway? Did he become fairly normal? As I recall, he was the one who faked a suicide attempt in the first episode to get out of going to his grandparents, but we haven’t seen much of him since his stomach maladies got resolved.

And Stacey will go on a killing spree in the final episode. They have not done a school shooting yet. I wish I were making a bad joke, but I am not sure I am.

[AngelaHunter]

I just watched this and all I kept thinking was, "Why"? It's the last season, so we really need to get into Mother of the Year, Sierra's life, and HER mother's life? I did not recognize JJL. Poor Sierra, who lives in a luxurious house in Los Angeles, drives a friggin' Range Rover but can't afford a baby-sitter (or maybe doesn't want one because of her hippy-dippy, "Ohmmmm" beliefs in having a baby attached to Mom?) Maybe we found out earlier how she lives such an extravagant lifestyle with no visible means of support but I've forgotten.  Anyone know? Does every woman in this show have to screw some jerk to get ahead? It's like the 1950s.

So: Sasha is an asshole (the only thing I agreed with was Noah saying he was just using Helen to "get into" his role as Noah) but we've known that all along.

Priya is a presumptuous asshole and her brother is a king-sized asshole and Priya wants to make Helen feel responsible for her not seeing her brother by wanting Helen to lie and deceive and pretend that she - at her age - is the mother  of someone else's infant. Who the hell would do that? Not me. As much as Helen has annoyed me over the years, it's not up to her to fix this woman's family troubles.

Noah is, of course, an asshole, stalking Helen at her new, overnight career as interior decorator-to-the-stars and looking like a homeless dog with his protestations of "I love you!" That scene made me cringe.

16 hours ago, weaver said:

Dominic West looked so silly in his scene where he declared love to Helen,  I felt sorry for the actor. 

I felt sorry for him too. From what little I've seen of him in other movies, he's a decent actor.

Sasha kindly informs Helen that Christina(?) just hired her out of gratitude/asskissing because she thought Sasha was going to get her depresssed hubby back in business.  Well, yeah. Don't interior decorators need to go to school for some time, to learn so much about design and fabric and colours, etc? Amazing Helen can do that with no schooling we've seen.

So what happened after Sierra smashed up her Range Rover? Shouldn't she be arrested for driving under the influence of drugs and with a baby in the car? How is she going to get around now? Oh, and she has a hell of nerve pressuring Helen to cancel her plans to babysit Vik's child. 'I've had this baby for FOUR whole months!" Should have thought of that when you screwed Vik with no precautions. Geeze. Deal with it, Sierra. Helen has 4 messed up kids of her own.

[CarpeFelis]

23 hours ago, Giant Misfit said:

JJL is the recipient of incredible and subtle cosmetic surgery. She's 57. Emily Browning is 31.

And what a perfect addition to the cast JJL made -- another utterly unlikable asshole. 

Not that subtle. I kept wondering exactly what she’d had done to her eyes, because there was something off about them.

With all her bitchy little putdowns, it’s obvious why Sierra has so little self-esteem. I wondered if her “notes” while running over the script were really intended as sabotage and was LMAO when the director hated it being performed that way. And as the Anvil of Foreshadowing SHOCKINGLY predicted, going back to doing it her own way absolutely nailed it. Take that, Narcissist Mom! (And who didn’t anticipate her flaking out on her promise to babysit? Flu, yeah, I’m so sure. Probably a hangover combined with spiting her daughter for daring to score a starring role.)

Speaking of that starring role - if Sierra’s playing the lead why can’t she ask for a perk like on-set babysitting?

[CarpeFelis]

5 hours ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

UO, but if I were Helen I would have tried to help out Priya, maybe by offering to have breakfast with the brother and her the next day, since I think Priya said that it was a 24-hour layover? Again, Helen loved Vikram, right? The love of my life died almost 30 years ago. All I wanted to do was show love and gratitude toward his surviving family members, because they were a huge reason he became the person I loved. Even though some of them were racist and the reason he didn’t let me meet them because of that. You grasp at anything you can when you ache to see him again. Spending time with them was still comforting for me. I don’t know. Maybe I am weird. My love died suddenly, so maybe that’s the variable that makes me so different from Helen.

Priya (or as I like to call her, Fucking Priya) has always been rude and dismissive with Helen, not to mention competitive. (Such as showing up with her sewing machine to do repairs on his clothes, IIRC.) She made it  clear all along that she thought Helen was Not Good Enough for her precious baby boy. And then there was the thing about not wanting Vik cremated as HE wished and giving Helen no say in the matter. She’s also obnoxiously pushy: three missed calls AFTER Helen gave her an unequivocal no and then she shows up at her door!

Gosh, no, I just can’t imagine why Helen would not be thrilled to bend over backwards to do Priya such a huge favor!

[CarpeFelis]

One more thing: LOCK YOUR FRONT DOOR ALREADY, Helen! When Fucking Priya just waltzed right in I wanted to smack her.

[CarpeFelis]

45 minutes ago, AngelaHunter said:

Maybe we found out earlier how she lives such an extravagant lifestyle with no visible means of support but I've forgotten.  Anyone know?

I don’t think Sierra actually owns either the house or the Range Rover. I thought they belonged to her absent parents, and in this episode her mom said she got the house in the divorce.

[izabella]

I love to hate Priiya.  I mostly love that she irritates Helen just by showing up and it escalates from there.  Helen does an admirable job of not shoving her out the door.

[ScoobieDoobs]

18 hours ago, nara said:

1. I am not into women, but I think JJL would have been considered hot in Fast Times and Backdraft.

2. Like the Game of Thrones people, Treem does not seem to know what pleasurable sex looks like. 

3. What became of Martin, the other Solloway? Did he become fairly normal? As I recall, he was the one who faked a suicide attempt in the first episode to get out of going to his grandparents, but we haven’t seen much of him since his stomach maladies got resolved.

And Stacey will go on a killing spree in the final episode. They have not done a school shooting yet. I wish I were making a bad joke, but I am not sure I am.

ITA that JJL was very cute in Fast Times, but her creepy roles, like in Single White Female, mostly cemented her rep as not someone you'd first think of as being hot.  When the director said how he was so hot for Sierra's mom, I was thinking maybe they shoulda cast someone like Michelle Pfieffer or Sharon Stone -- both of whom were famous for being sexy.  Still, JJL gets my vote for being able to play a psycho/loon better than either of those 2.  Besides, I liked seeing her again.  So why the heck didn't Treem give this terrific actress more to do?  Was she in this ep for 2 minutes or 3 minutes?  And just to do a Mommie Dearest rip-off?  Oy, Treem, c'mon . . .

As I watched the 2 seconds Stacey was on, I thought the same thing about Martin.  Where is that surly kid?  So far, Treem's writers have been extremely lacking in coming up with any storyline for Stacey.  Her first period & now babysitting.  Um, OK, I think they've run out of ideas for a 12 year old, so a school shooting might make sense.  But then again, I could see them doing that for Noah, since his storyline is also going completely nowhere.  I know it was Helen's POV, but the stuff with Noah made absolutely no sense.

Wow, Helen sure is closing the door on a lot of people this season, isn't she?  In this ep, she closed the door on Noah, Sierra & Priya -- and she woulda closed the door on Eden if she was in her house when Eden came up to her.  It all feels weirdly like a sit-com.  I wouldn't mind the subtle humor, but it feels strange.  Margaret acting like Margaret is a hoot.  But Helen's behavior this season is so oddball.  She makes sense & she's logical one minute & then she's stupidly impulsive the next.  It's making my head spin watching this. 

I'm also really bothered by the stupidity of Helen becoming an interior decorator to the Hollywood elite in 2 seconds -- and with zero experience.  This is just so unbelievable & dumb.  OK, she owned a knick knack shop before.  That wouldn't make her knowledgeable about being a decorator, which involves details like having contacts with furniture suppliers, as well as various types of building contractors, not to mention the skill required to be an effective decorator.  Sure, Sasha could get her jobs, but could she do the jobs?  Ah, but I guess Treem expects we wouldn't think about this.  Such shitty, shitty writing this season.

Edited September 24, 2019 by ScoobieDoobs