# "The Affair": New Showtime Series \*\*spoilers\*\* **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200 "2014-10-13T14:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/81 "2014-12-22T20:32:44Z")
Whoever is dead Allison probably shot them and stashed the gun in a mutilated dog corpse. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/82 "2014-12-22T20:42:54Z")
And then spends the rest of the series toying with the black detective? ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/83 "2014-12-22T22:44:04Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I thought that was part of the detective’s set-up. The tow truck driver was put there specifically for Noah to see him and freak out. Remember how Noah was pissed off about being brought in just for one seemingly trivial question about his car? That makes sense. …I think you’re right. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/84 "2014-12-23T00:07:47Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > EDIT: Actually, wait a minute. We only saw Scott alive in Noah’s memory. So technically maybe Noah made that up to throw the cop off the trail. Alison’s memory doesn’t include Scott. The daughter is warning them about possible statutory rape charges against Scott, and the whole family seems worried about those charges, but I suppose it’s not entirely impossible that Noah & Alison killed Scott while the family just thinks Scott moved or something. But that would be super weak writing, I think. But I thought we established that what we are seeing is what they actually remember, not what they are telling the cop. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/85 "2014-12-23T01:24:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But I thought we established that what we are seeing is what they actually remember, not what they are telling the cop. Good point. So we know Scott is alive months after Noah’s flat tire. Meaning there’s no relevance to the flat tire incident that we the audience are aware of. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/86 "2014-12-23T14:22:57Z")
I’m sure this will come as no surprise to most of you, but… In the first episode when Cole appears, I’m thinking: Hey, I recognize that guy. Is he Pacey from _Dawson’s Creek_? No No way. But the more I see the guy, the more I’m thinking: Yeah, that’s Pacey from _Dawson’s Creek_; no can’t be. Looked him up last night, and yep-- that’s Pacey from _Dawson’s Creek_. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/87 "2014-12-23T15:16:36Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But I thought we established that what we are seeing is what they actually remember, not what they are telling the cop. It’s complicated… I still don’t know. In the final scene, Allison’s hair was shorter but I don’t think it was as short as some of the interview scenes. Do we still think that there may have been two dif crimes being investigated at dif time periods? OTOH their could be investigations of the same crime going on at dif time periods… maybe new evidence or an appeal. Another thing… I had never heard of the supposedly infamous time-out rooms that the NYC public schools use to warehouse teachers while their cases are being adjudicated. I wonder if the teacher Noah was banging in his classroom after hours also got sent away but to a dif one. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/88 "2014-12-23T16:04:42Z")
I have given up trying t reconcile how the two versions don’t line up. The finale was just too different to have any real explanation and basically in my head just chalk them up to be basically parallel universes (not literally, the show isn’t sci fi; I just follow both and keep them separate). ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/89 "2014-12-23T19:26:52Z")
After the wildly disproportionate recountings of the finale, I’m starting to wonder if Noah’s story is really Noah’s actual book. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/90 "2014-12-23T19:40:52Z")
Actually, I found the finale to be one of the best uses of the narrative technique to date. It reminded me of the comedian’s routine about police questioning a witness to a robbery: “Face? Yeah, I’m sure he had a face. Probably two eyes and a nose. The gun? It was a 9 millimeter Smith & Wesson snubnose…” I don’t know anything about guns, so substitute a proper, super detailed description to make it funny. The fact that Noah remembers Cherry and Scott both being there, while Alison essentially doesn’t remember _anything_ other than “Cole has a gun!!!” rang very true to me. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/91 "2014-12-24T14:35:25Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I have given up trying t reconcile how the two versions don’t line up. The finale was just too different to have any real explanation and basically in my head just chalk them up to be basically parallel universes (not literally, the show isn’t sci fi; I just follow both and keep them separate). The whole narrative technique made sense as part of an interview when they were being asked to remember and when one or both had a reason not to be honest to their actual memories… but now that the interviews are over it makes less sense. I like the idea that Noah’s story is actually Noah’s book but I doubt that they were true to that this whole time. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/92 "2014-12-25T02:16:14Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > After the wildly disproportionate recountings of the finale, I’m starting to wonder if Noah’s story is really Noah’s actual book. One has to wonder whose memory it is when we’re seeing something that involves neither Noah nor Alison. I’m thinking of the several scenes with the detective (at The Point, back at The Point, with the recording the Tow Truck driver made). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/93 "2014-12-27T14:30:30Z")
Rewatched the last episode and I think Alison did it. The look on her face is more panicked when the detective arrives, and the way she tells Noah that she’s going to make sure he gets out-- the only way she can do that is to confess. Well, not the only way, but I think that is what she means. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/94 "2014-12-27T21:55:27Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > One has to wonder whose memory it is when we’re seeing something that involves neither Noah nor Alison. I’m thinking of the several scenes with the detective (at The Point, back at The Point, with the recording the Tow Truck driver made). I agree, this does seem to be a problem–how can the detective asking the hotel front desk clerk about “Solloway” be a memory of either Noah’s or Alison’s? Granted, there aren’t many such scenes. But the writers will have to do some fancy footwork to convince us, by the end, that all we’ve seen is justified. (Such as, for example, making the detective one of the viewpoint characters of Season 2…and that would make what we’ve seen so far a preview of the detective-viewpoint segments to come.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200/95 "2014-12-27T22:08:44Z")
My understanding is that in Season 2, the writers will show us other points of view besides just Noah’s and Alison’s. I would’t be surprised to see S2.1 open with the point of view of someone else. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-affair-new-showtime-series-spoilers/701200.md?page=4)