From the first moments of Season 1, Episode 1, I knew The Affair was to be a show like no other. It was smart. It dealt with happenstance and the subsequent emotional and physical fallout. The Affair was brilliantly written, acted, directed and produced. Fiona Apple's haunting lyrics and music in the song that opens each episode prepares the viewer for the turbulence ahead. I was hooked.
So I approached the Series Finale with both anticipation and dread. I needed to see how the Solloways and those connected to them would conclude their stories. I knew that the Series would not wrap up nicely, but I wanted to see if the show's producers would leave us the viewers with the satisfaction that an adequate catharsis would happen to these characters. Enough change to allow these people who we grew to love and hate, and love again change and grow. And that is exactly how the Solloways and everyone else left us.
I guess I knew in my heart there would be no antiseptic hermetically sealed formulaic conclusion. And that is why I dreaded the ending. Because I would have to leave these people, although they grew in character, to suffer through further uncertainty. But that's the beauty of this show; we look and Noah, Helen, the memory of Allison, Joanie in the future, Cole and even the perennial pain in the ass Whitney, and know that there are sure to be more bumps in the road. Episode 5.11 tells us all who know and love these characters that enough growth has occurred amongst them so that future challenges will be met with weathered perspective and experience. We know this as we watch the final scene: a flyaway of an aged Noah on a cliff humming The Waterboy's, The Whole of the Moon, and dancing to the choreographed flash-mob steps from Whitney's wedding. Queue lump in the throat!
So I approached the Series Finale with both anticipation and dread. I needed to see how the Solloways and those connected to them would conclude their stories. I knew that the Series would not wrap up nicely, but I wanted to see if the show's producers would leave us the viewers with the satisfaction that an adequate catharsis would happen to these characters. Enough change to allow these people who we grew to love and hate, and love again change and grow. And that is exactly how the Solloways and everyone else left us.
I guess I knew in my heart there would be no antiseptic hermetically sealed formulaic conclusion. And that is why I dreaded the ending. Because I would have to leave these people, although they grew in character, to suffer through further uncertainty. But that's the beauty of this show; we look and Noah, Helen, the memory of Allison, Joanie in the future, Cole and even the perennial pain in the ass Whitney, and know that there are sure to be more bumps in the road. Episode 5.11 tells us all who know and love these characters that enough growth has occurred amongst them so that future challenges will be met with weathered perspective and experience. We know this as we watch the final scene: a flyaway of an aged Noah on a cliff humming The Waterboy's, The Whole of the Moon, and dancing to the choreographed flash-mob steps from Whitney's wedding. Queue lump in the throat!