The Affair 1.2: Time Travel!

No, there wasn't any actual time travel in last night's The Affair 1.2, but Noah was sure talking about it to Allison in a pivotal scene, and he got the multiple worlds solution to the grandfather paradox just right, kudos to the writers.  (See my 2-minute explanation of this business on Vidoyen earlier this year.)

Meanwhile, there was an important convergence of the Noah and Allison renditions of the story of their affair near the end, when, for the first time, it's clear that Allison is as attracted to Noah as he is to her.  When he tells her he's been thinking about her all week, and asks if she's been going through the same, she replies, in a sultry, vulnerable voice, "Of course."  Two crucial words in this ongoing story.

The overarching mystery of the death - not only who did the murder, if that's what it was, but who was murdered - continues to loom menacingly in the background.  I was pretty sure after the first episode that it was Cole - Allison's husband - but now I'm not so sure.  Maybe it was one of Cole's brothers - perhaps the one who was on the verge of doing something with Noah and Helen's underage daughter - but who knows.  It could also be Helen's father, played as a consummate a-hole by John Doman (his specialty, I mean that as a compliment), who clearly has a list of enemies, with Noah on the list.  Or it could be Cole after all.

But the slowly unfolding story of Noah and Allison, and their attraction to each other, remains the appealing centerpiece of this series, beautifully played and evocatively photographed, and shown at the perfect time, when the summer has just gone from North America, and with it the sand and the water and the sun all above it which is shown to such good effect on The Affair.

See also The Affair Premiere: Sneak Preview Review



some real time travel 

#SFWApro

Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music