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cover story Loved and lost ‘The Affair’ resolves the departure of a major character in its final season By Kenneth Andeel TV Media O ne of Showtime’s award- winning prestige dramas is coming to an end. On Sunday, Aug. 25, the fifth and final season of “The Affair” kicks off, and this conclusion promises to resolve the cliffhangers of Season 4 and reward fans who have been loyal to the series for five years with satisfying closure. “The Affair” began as a relatively focused experiment that told the story of an il- licit relationship between two married individuals and the consequences of said affair. The show used multiple char- acter perspectives, flashbacks and flashforwards to unfurl the drama, and it established early on that none of the main char- acters were reliable narrators. It was suspenseful and subtle, and initially the story of “The Affair” was designed to be contained in a single season. The success of the experiment led to renewal after renewal, and here we are five seasons later. The show boasts an impres- sive cast, and the ensemble is one of the reasons the series works so well. The series was built around the story of waitress Alison Lockhart, played by Ruth Wilson (“Jane Eyre,” 2006). Alison was in a dark place after the loss of her child and made up one half of the titular affair — the other is Noah Solloway, played by Dominic West (“The Wire”). Noah is a writer and a school teacher with what most would consider the perfect family: he has four beautiful children with his wife and first love, but, of course, all is not as rosy as it seems. While both lead char- acters are sympathetic, they are also deeply flawed, and neither is a particularly reliable narrator. Two television veterans make up the supporting back- bone of the series: Joshua Jack- son (“Fringe”) played Alison’s 2 | Screentime Maura Tierney stars in “The Affair” husband, Cole, and Noah’s was about as big as they get long-suffering wife, Helen, for a television show: Alison is played by Maura Tierney was found dead after an ap- (“ER”). Both struggled hard to parently successful suicide, keep their respective marriages but in the penultimate episode alive, but the flashforwards re- of the season, it was revealed veal early on that things never that she had actually been get back to normal for the murdered. The sad details of jilted spouses. Alison’s life and death are sure Fans are in for some major to affect all of the characters changes this season, but be- in a big way in Season 5, but fore I tell you about the losses, a grown-up Joanie will be es- let me tell you what the show pecially interesting to watch. has gained. Yet another deco- Whether the crime will be rated actor from film and tele- solved remains to be seen. vision has joined the cast: Anna Killing off a lead character Paquin (“True Blood”) plays is obviously a huge risk for the grown-up version of Alison a show to take, but in this and Cole’s daughter, Joanie. particular case, it was unavoid- Now to the losses. The able: Wilson asked to leave aforementioned cliffhanger the show, so the writers were August 21, 2019 | East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald forced to find a way for Alison to disappear. Thanks to the myriad of questionable and self-destructive decisions the character has made over the course of the series, there were likely a lot of options. Wilson has been diplo- matically (or strategically?) coy about her exact reasons for departing. The issue of pay parity has come up in several interviews, but in subsequent comments she clarified that she never discussed the matter of compensation with the show’s producers. In an interview with the New York Times, Wilson said, “It isn’t about pay parity, and it wasn’t about other jobs. But I’m not really allowed to talk about it. There is a much bigger story.” A mystery, it seems. The mystery deepened when it was announced earlier this year that Jackson would not be returning to the show, either. His reasons are even more mysterious — Jackson hasn’t commented at all on his departure, and some fans suspect it was an act of solidar- ity with Wilson. Whatever the secret reasons for the pair’s exit, there’s no disputing that Season 5 of “The Affair” will be a significantly different show. The forecast for Season 5 isn’t all about losses, though. Pa- quin’s arrival is welcome news for fans, and her character’s story arc adds a new gambit to “The Affair’s” bag of tricks. With two absent parents and signifi- cant trauma in her past, Joanie is sure to be a fascinating char- acter. It’s a shame we’ll only get one season to get to know her. The timeline-twisting narrative devices the series uses will con- tinue, and fans will get to keep speculating about which char- acter’s experiences come closest to the truth. It isn’t always easy for a longstanding series to introduce a major new character this late into its lifespan, but many are predicting Paquin will carry the last season’s ups and downs without a hitch. The final season of “The Af- fair” begins Sunday, Aug. 25, on Showtime.
