"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, November 10, 2014

The Affair 1.5: Alison's Episode

An excellent episode of The Affair tonight - 1.5 - which broke ground in a variety of important ways, including 
  • The first half is Alison's and the second half is Noah's story, reversing the usual template of Noah going first.  This gives us, in effect, a straight hour of Alison's - since she had the last half in last week's episode - and she uses it to really good effect.  Her scenes with Noah are the best we've seen of the two of them, from her perspective.   She's the least conflicted she's been with Noah - which makes sense, given the end of last week's episode - and is really enjoying the relationship.   This is confirmed by her mother, who recognizes the liberation of Alison's sexual energies.   And although her mother is a bit of a nut, it's clear that she's speaking the truth.
  • We learn in Noah's interview with the detective that he's telling the detective everything we see on the screen - he asks the detective if he really wants to hear all the details of his home life. This presumably means that the same is true with Alison. 
  • We also get some great details from Noah about what it's like to be a teacher - this, again, in Alison's episode.  Noah's explanation of why he loves being a professor rings true - at least to me, because, what he says pretty well sums up what I love (teaching) and don't like at all (academic politics) about being a professor.   Alison responds to this by kissing Noah, and shows the deepest feelings for Noah we've seen from Alison so far.
  • The fight that Noah has with Oscar is likely significant to the police investigation.   At this point, it seems that Oscar is the most likely killer, though you never know.  Noah is justified in being angry at Oscar, after he shows up unexpectedly at Noah's place and blurts out where he saw Noah - Ditch Plains - not where Helen expected.   This is the first lie that Noah has been caught in, and though he talks his way out it, we're likely to see more in the future.
  • And - we now know who the victim is: Scott, Cole's brother.  I guess there's a chance that there will be a different victim in Alison's story, but so far the two accounts have not differed on such major points.
Looking forward to next week.



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