Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; Bosch; Citadel; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Fauda; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outer Range; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Diplomat, Last of Us, Lazarus Project, Orville, Way Home; True Detective; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Sunday, August 5, 2018

The Affair 4.8: I Don't Believe It

This review of The Affair 4.8 will have a spoiler from the hour that upended the entire series - so, seriously, if you don't want to know that, don't read on.

I entitled this review "I Don't Believe It" because I find it hard to believe that Alison is dead. But for her not to be dead, the only thing I can think of was that Noah was lying when he identified her in the morgue. And we've seen no motivation for him to do that. So, although there is a slim possibility that we'll discover what that motivation is, I can't hold out much hope it. (His crying in the dinner in his own very brief segment would then be crying for what he did to Cole, if Noah was lying in the morgue and after. But much as I'd like to believe that, it seems very unlikely.) (Nice call-back in that scene, by the way, of how Alison ad Noah first met, with the attractive waitress bantering with Noah.) (And great acting by Joshua Jackson and Dominic West throughout the hour - good to see the two of them riffing off each in other in so many scenes.)

But back to the matter at hand: I find it even harder to believe that Alison committed suicide. This is certainly what Cole believes - that Alison wasn't a suicide. But if Alison didn't take her own life, who did? I can think of three suspects - I'll list them in order of most likely, first -

Alison's father. We know the least about him, and his motive could be that Alison refused to give him her kidney. He seemed shocked when he got the news that Alison was dead, but he could have been putting on an act.
Ben. He's a liar for sure. But a killer? We've seen no evidence of any violence in him on a level of murdering someone. Possibly he could have flown into a rage in a scenario in which Alison refused to continue her relationship with him. I wouldn't be stunned if he killed her. But his denial to Cole and Noah was pretty convincing.
My wife suggested Luisa. She has a strong motive - Alison alive is getting in the way of both her relationship with Cole, and her getting documented on the strength of being Joanie's adoptive mother. But ... of the three suspects, she seems the least likely to kill Alison.

So with three suspects, none of them terribly likely, maybe we should consider the logic of Alison's suicide. She had her heart broken by Cole, Noah, and now Ben. Plus, her father broke her heart in a different way. That's a lot of heartbreak. But ... sufficient for suicide, for leaving Joanie without her biological mother?

Tough call. But I'm going to go with murder, at this point.

See also The Affair 4.1: Quakes and Propaganda ... The Affair 4.2: Meanwhile, Back on the Island ... The Affair 4.3: Dire Straits (Not the Band) in California ... The Affair 4.4: Ben ... The Affair 4.5: B'shert ... The Affair 4.6: "Good News and Bad News" ... The Affair 4.7: Noah and Janelle