The Affair Season 2, Episode 12 – THE FINALE. Let’s Discuss!!!

*Spoiler Alert – if you have not watched the Season Finale yet, save this for later. 

I never name the episodes but this one I am going to call “The House of the Rising Sun.”

Wow, so my theory was dead wrong. But who would have guessed that the two leading women were both the cause of Scotty’s death. I sure didn’t!

Treem threw a lot at us in this episode, so much I had to re-watch it before I could sit down and write this recap. Let’s dig in!

The finale opens up with Detective Jeffries re-examining the accident. He finds a rock with Alison’s name (we find out later in the episode it was Alison’s name on the rock) and Jeffries links her to the murder. Couldn’t anybody have tossed the rock there at any time? Seems like circumstantial evidence to me but I’m no lawyer. By the way, I like the touch of the rock as the table seating.

PART ONE: NOAH

Knowing we find out who killed Scotty this week, I assumed this would be the day of the wedding and it was. Noah is in Montauk picking up Alison at the dock. Noah’s memory of Alison in short jeans shorts and a long sleeve white shirt is much is cuter than the jeans and poncho Alison remembers wearing that day. Alison looks very happy as she is running towards Noah from the dock but this vibe quickly changes when they get back to her new “home”  – The Lockhart’s Lobster Roll. Seems odd she is sleeping in the restaurant, but even odder when Noah says “so this is where you have been living?” Have they not spoken in months?? He has no clue where she is spending her 3 out of 7 days a week? They have an extremely weird conversation like they are old friends catching up. Noah mentions going to France. Alison is all like yeah, go, have a good time, see you when you get back but when he invites Alison to go with him, she simply replies “I will think about it.” As if it’s the last thing in the world she wants to do. Alison throws on an old yellow dress of hers that she found in a closet at Cherry’s house. So many questions here:

1. Why is her dress in Cherry’s closet?
2. Did you notice the dress in Noah’s mind was short and sexy but in Alison’s mind it was long and frumpy? Personally I was not a fan of either version. Didn’t she want to buy a new dress for Cole’s wedding? I mean they were having the wedding at HER new restaurant. She really needs a stylist. IMO, this would have been much better if yellow was her go to color:
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3. Where was Cherry? Did you notice she was nowhere to be found at Cole’s wedding except possibly the ceremony?

A Family Affair

Alison has to set up early so they head into the restaurant (show the rock table seatings) and Noah grabs a booth. Margaret walks in and places a Xanax on the table next to Noah. She thought he could use one, ha! She takes one too. They have come a long way now that they are taking Xanax together and drinking bubbly. It wouldn’t be a family affair without Helen showing up. Margaret invited Helen as her “date.” I guess they are on good terms? I’m confused because I could have sworn in one of the previews with Gottlief, Helen makes mention that she will figure out a way to pay him (meaning Margaret wasn’t helping her). Unless they have another falling out before the Trial in season 3. Guess we will see. Margaret did end up paying for the wedding – how generous of her!  As they are catching up, Alison walks over with a plate of mini lobster rolls. Why on gd’s green earth is she working at Cole’s wedding? Don’t they have staff that works at the restaurant? This is beyond to me.

The Beach Breakdown

It’s a beautiful day to be having a wedding on the beach in Montauk. Noah is keenly listening to the wedding vows “promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and health” and thinking to himself (I believe) how much these words make no sense for him and Alison.

Alison, on the other hand, has a breakdown during the wedding ceremony and runs out crying. This part was absolutely absurd. Her 5 year-old behavior was unnecessary and, quite frankly, I was shocked she divulged to Noah the father of Joanie at COLE’s wedding. Noah follows her through the gate (remember this gate? This was the gate they walked through TO the beach the night their affair began. As they both exit away from the beach in daylight, I believe this is symbolic to the “end” of their affair).

I am unsure why Alison thinks this is an okay time to tell Noah this insightful info but this was an extremely raw and telling scene. Yes, Noah has every right to be mad as hell but his response,” I never cheated on you,” was something, I am sure, we all got a kick out of. We know the only reason Noah didn’t go all the way with Eden was because of her rule about not mixing business with pleasure bullshit. As we watch Noah give one hell of a monologue (I had to include it because there is a lot in this little piece, read it and re-read it), we see an honesty and rawness we have not seen all season:

I had this stupid idea that you and I could make a new start together and all the pain we caused everybody else, it was for a reason because we were meant to be together. You were my one true love. I knew it was naive and people thought I was crazy, but I just didn’t want to be one of those suckers who gets trapped in a miserable marriage and they’re too fucking terrified to leave or they’re drinking too much or leaving a leading a double life. I wanted to be brave and make a choice and be happy and yes, it was hard, and yes, I hurt people, people I really love. I never thought it would be all pointless. Look, I made a mistake. Maybe this was the mistake. Maybe nothing’s a mistake. Maybe it’s all just fucking meaningless, all these decisions that we make ourselves sick over and these choices we think are so important.

I wasn’t so sure the “I never want to see you again” was necessary but I’m sure I would have left as well.

Sunshine and Rainbows

Noah pours himself a stiff drink, almost an entire glass of vodka (remember he had a Xanax earlier) and leaves with – HELEN. They head to the beach (p.s. there is no beach behind Lunch aka The Lockhart Lobster Roll in real life) and have a very open conversation about the fact that life is a never-ending shit show and at this point in their life they are still trying to figure it out.  (#truth – aren’t we though?). Noah mentions that he never even wanted Joanie and Helen discusses her struggle with whether or not to tell Vic to take a job in LA.  You can feel their closeness, how comfortable they are with each other sharing a bottle of wine and how easy it is to strip down (Go Helen) and dive in the ocean. Once I saw them jump in the water, I knew doomsday was on the rise. Water in “The Affair” only means one thing and it’s not sunshine and rainbows.

Both of them, drunk and wet, head back to Noah’s SUV. They argue about who should drive. Neither of them, right? Why couldn’t they just have stayed at the beach longer to sober up? I guess that would defeat the purpose of this entire show but just thought I would mention it. Noah is stuck driving because Helen points out she has a DUI already. Maybe Noah should have notified Helen he took a Xanax, drank a fifth of vodka and a 1/2 bottle of wine. I am so surprised he could even walk!

I still love you, I still want you

Noah is driving, replaying everything in his mind that has happened these past two seasons and Helen is happy & drunk singing Chris Isaak’s “San Francisco Days”

Notice the lyrics:

I still love you, I still want you.
I still need you, don’t hang up and say goodbye.

Walking on the beach last night, hoping things would be all right,
my baby lying on her bed, it’s you I saw instead.
Thinking of the one I love, you’re the one I’m thinking of.
San Francisco days, San Francisco nights.

I meet a girl in Mexico I should of told her then I know,
that I still think of you, we never will be through.
San Francisco days, San Francisco nights.
San Francisco days, San Francisco nights.
I still love you, I still want you.
I still need you, don’t hang up and say goodbye.

(you got the gist).

Noah pulls over because he can’t focus, he is just too fucked up, he needs Helen to drive. This is when we all knew who killed Scotty (at least we think so). Helen is singing, Noah gives Helen that look and touches her hand. Helen looks over at Noah and BANGGGGGGG!

Clearly Helen wants to believe she hit a deer and begs Noah not to look. Noah gets out of the passenger seat, spots Scotty dead on the street and starts crying. Helen is screaming for him to get back in the car. Noah looks up and notices something in the trees but no Alison. I thought long and hard about this part. Did Noah purposely leave this out of his memory OR did Treem want to wait for the kicker in Alison’s POV. I am going with the latter but I thought it was weird ONLY because this is supposed to be Noah’s memory of the day, right? IF he choose to leave it out, it really means he will protect her at all costs.

Noah will also protect Helen at all costs. He tells Helen when he drops her at Margaret’s home, “Listen, I want you to go inside. Take a shower and go to bed.  Just forget this ever happened.  Tell your mom you took a cab home tonight and you never saw me.  I’ll figure it out. But I don’t want you involved.”

Hail Mary

Flash Forward to Gottlieb telling Noah he found Alison’s name rock at the scene and Jeffries is trying to link Alison to the crime. Gottlief comes forth about the pacifier test and Noah is like um, yeah, old news, Joanie is not my kid. Gottlief does come up with what is the correct theory after all : “Maybe Scott knew Cole was Joanie’s father. Maybe he was blackmailing her. Maybe she killed him to keep him quiet. I can now put her at the site on the night of the accident. Hey, for all we know, they got into another fight. She pushed him in front of an oncoming car.” Yeppers, right on Gottlief. This is your Hail Mary pass but will Noah take it?

PART TWO : ALISON

In a true Affair recollection, we open to the same exact scene we opened with Noah (feels like season 1) but Alison is wearing different clothes and seems to be very much in her element. Her douchebag in the beamer shows up and they head back to her room/apt above the restaurant. Her room is much nicer than in Noah’s POV. Alison tries to break it to Noah that she has to stay a little longer (or forever) since Cole and her have decided to keep the restaurant open all year. Noah is trying to keep his shit together as Alison explains it’s just half the week, you know – Thursday thru Sunday. Noah reminds Alison he booked a trip to Europe (in his POV, he was just suggesting a trip, nothing was booked). She wants nothing to do with that and says she will just have Joanie stay with her in Montauk while he’s gone. This is getting bad fast. Luckily, Luisa interrupts so she can change into her gown. I guess there was no bridal suite? (lol).

Who’s your daddy?

Alison and Cole find each other on the beach and Cole is looking DAMN HOT! Why did she leave him again? Cole is bugging out about Luisa and how her moods are affected by the monthly cycles of the moon. Um, HELLO – PMS. All women are legitimately crazy a few days before their period. Not a shot Alison was an exception. Cole confesses to Alison that Luisa can’t have kids and Cole still hasn’t wrapped his hear around that fact that he will never be a father. I was hoping Alison would not break it to Cole on his wedding day that he actually was a father (thank you for saving that for season 3). Alison gives Cole some sound advice “You can wait five, ten, twenty years for the perfect girl to come along to give you the perfect child, but what if she never shows up?  This is your chance to be happy again, Cole. You should take it.” I love them together. I have a feeling once Luisa finds out Cole is the father of Alison’s baby, she may not be around much longer. This could lead the two of them back together and well I’m not writing season 3 so I guess we will just have to wait and find out.

Scotty shows up fresh out of rehab. Noah pulls Alison aside and explains to her that the commuter card is not going to work with me, I want you to come home, we should get married. WE SHOULD GET MARRIED?? Hmm, did Noah really say this? Not trusting this part of Alison’s memory so much.

Wedding vows are not meant to be broken

Back on the beach for the ceremony but this time Cole & Luisa have written their own wedding vows which are so much more, um, beautiful:

“Luisa, I promise I will be faithful to you with my body and with my heart. I will stay open to you, and I will bring you into my confidence. I promise I will never make an important decision without consulting you first. I want you to trust me above all others, and I want to be worthy of your trust. I will support your dreams, and I will give you the space and the freedom to turn them into reality. And I promise to show you each day how lucky I am to have you in my life. ”
“Cole, I promise to seek a deep understanding of your wishes, your desires, and your dreams. I promise to be there for whenever you need me. I promise to keep our lives exciting, passionate, and full of adventure.”

All that Cole vows to Luisa, Alison has failed with Noah. Every single one. She is freaking out internally but does not walk out as she did in Noah’s POV.

She walks into the kitchen to have a drink but rethinks this idea when she sees recovering alchy Scotty. Scotty is all hey, I’m back, lets discuss me being a partner. Scotty’s has literally been out of rehab for one minute. Cole, thankfully, puts him in his place pretty quickly. I mean they are at Cole’s wedding after all. Is this really the appropriate time? Cole’s like dude, be sober a year and we can discuss your partnership. A glaze comes over Scotty’s eyes as Darth Vader takes over and Scotty downs a glass of whiskey.

Darth Vader walks outside and Alison follows him. This is the scene we saw from the surveillance tape. Scotty threatens Alison with revealing the truth about Joanie . Alison is scared (as she should be, Scotty is scary). You may or may not remember but in the surveillance tape, Alison is wearing the same dress as she is from her view, not Noah’s.

OBVIOUSLY Oscar is standing there when Alison walks back inside and so begins one of the most memorable scenes in the finale

The House of the Rising Sun

Scotty is a hot mess when he gets up on stage and I literally had a throw pillow over my face when he opened his mouth. I thought for sure he was going to make “THAT” announcement but he surprised us all with an eerie yet stunning rendition of  The House of the Rising Sun. I was floored by Scotty’s voice. He definitely should have started a band instead of managing a restaurant.  I tried to put Scotty’s rendition in but Showtime wasn’t allowing that so here’s the original:

Alison whispers and then belts out to Noah “Joanie is not your daughter.” Again, another interesting way to tell him. One thing is for sure, she reveals this information at Cole’s wedding. Alison walks out.

This is where I got lost. We see Alison walking down the street the dark, foggy road (just like in Noah’s daydreams). Why in the world would she have left the wedding and WHY is she walking down a long, dark road by herself at night? Did you notice the car that passed her on the road? (where was this witness during the trial?)

Drunk Scotty says to Alison out of nowhere “Fancy meeting you here.” Scotty is sleeping it off before he can go back to The End to ask for his job back. Um,  didn’t Alison leave BEFORE Scotty finished singing? How would Scotty be in the rowboat already? Also,  I don’t care how drunk you are, who gets in a deserted boat on the side of the road to sleep it off? You are just asking for someone to hit you. Scotty starts in with Alison, requesting her to cut him in to the restaurant and he will forget all about the Joanie/Cole connection. Scotty gets more intense and decides he doesn’t want to sleep in the rowboat, he wants to sleep with Alison. Since the entire town has already slept with her, he feels he should get a shot too. Alison loses her shit (as she should), he starts to attack her and BAMMMMMMM!

Helen & Noah pull over, Helen is screaming for Noah to get back in the car, Noah walks over to Scotty’s body, sees Alison in the woods. Alison mouths “I pushed him, I pushed him.”

What does Noah do? He gets back in the car and LEAVES Alison there? WHAT? I have thought about this a million times. Why. Why does he leave her? I have read some commentary that Alison never sees Helen in the car but she DOES see Helen (re-watch it).  She watches Noah get into the passenger seat and drive away. Will Noah ever tell Helen that he saw Alison at the scene of the crime? (another question for season 3). I believe he left Alison because

1. Helen has no clue she is there (protecting Alison)
2. Noah had to get out of there quick before someone drove by
3. He was in a full state of panic and knew he had to get Helen home fast (protecting Helen)

April come she will 

Alison walks back to the wedding as if nothing happened, as if she never left. It’s the perfect alibi. I still have no idea how not one person drove by and witnessed this accident. It’s the Hamptons for christ sake and it’s not the winter. Nobody left the wedding during that time? When Alison goes back, the place is basically desolate as she is cleaning up the coffee cups (again, why is she working at the wedding?). Noah comes back and asks Alison to dance with her as April Comes She Will plays in the background. Now they both have an alibi. BUT how come not a single guest at the wedding came forth and said Alison & Noah were at the wedding, I SAW THEM? Noah tells Alison he left the car with a mechanic and the mechanic said he will fix it in the morning. Again:

1. What mechanic is open this late?
2. How on earth did Noah manage to drop Helen off, drive to a mechanic and leave his car (after explaining he hit a deer),  and get back to the wedding a few minutes after Alison walked back to the restaurant? NOT A SHOT
3. I forgot about Max – didn’t he also drive to Max’s to wash off his car????
4. How did Noah get back to the restaurant from the mechanic? Did he call a cab? Uber? Isn’t there someone who would testify he/she drove him back to the restaurant? Just saying….

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  Some people have a child to keep a marriage alive, unfortunately this relationship is now bandaged together by murder. It wasn’t an accident Noah & Alison were dancing to Simon & Garfunkel’s April come she will and it wasn’t an accident they replayed this song during the credits.

GUILTY

The last scene opens up in the future. Noah explains to Alison that Jeffries has to take the stand or he will get convicted. Alison says if that happens it won’t be good for her, he needs to tell the truth. Noah can’t convict Helen because she is the mother of his children. Is Noah not acting as the father to Joanie? Alison tells him he will have to choose. Noah opts to put Jeffries on the stand. It looks like he is screwing over Alison but at the last-minute, deciding to be the GREAT MAN, Noah confesses to a crime we know he did not commit. He protects both Alison & Helen.

And the court goes WILD!

Will Noah go to jail and write Ascent during season 3? Remember Noah started Descent in a detention type class in season 1.
Who really killed Scotty – Alison, Helen or Noah? Was it Noah’s fault for making Helen drive? Was it Helen’s fault for hitting him? Was it Alison for fighting off rape? All three of them had a role in it and had they just confessed in the beginning, we wouldn’t really have a show to watch.

To my Affair readers thank you so much for tagging along with me this season. I love and appreciate every single comment and response to all of my recaps. To BM – I apologize for falling asleep during your Affair party and missing the Facetime recap, it was such an honor to be invited to be part of you discussion. I will be on Periscope tonight (in my pjs) at 9pm to discuss The Finale. (periscope name is luluandlattes).

Can’t wait for Season 3!!!

XX

P.S. I know many of you were wondering what happened to my Homeland recaps and to be quite honest it just wasn’t as exciting to me anymore. Carrie cried the entire season, episode 11 was better than the finale AND the fact that Quinn is now off the show (Carrie finished that for him), I am done.