Well, that was a cruel twist.

The Affair Season 4 Episode 8 will go down as one of the most shocking yet beautiful hours of TV this year. We finally caught up to the point Anton, Cole, and Noah embarked on the trip to find Alison, and it was heartbreaking.

Killing off Alison was a ballsy move, but it makes sense. She has been suffering for longer than she can remember. She was conceived as a result of sexual assault, she lost her son, she lost two husbands as she struggled to recover from it.

Her journey since The Affair Season 1 Episode 1 has been full of pain, and while I don't agree with her affair with Noah, she tried to make the best of the bad situations in which she found herself.

The Affair Season 4 resulted in yet more heartbreak for Alison, so it wouldn't be surprising if it all became too much for her. If you watch The Affair online, you know that the idea of happiness was floated for her with the addition of Ben.

He was a beacon of hope and let her know that she even after everything, she could move on. It's just a shame that she decided to end her life after confronting her fears.

I dare say it was a mixture of what happened with Ben, learning the truth about her father, and that trip to California that made her realize she couldn't go on any longer.

The moment Noah went in to view the body, I was in denial. I was sure it was poised to be one of those scenes that built up the suspense only to reveal the body belonged to someone else.

What stood out to me was Cole's initial reaction vs. Noah's. Cole was heartbroken and went on a mission to discredit Ben and prove that he must have caused it.

It's easy to throw the blame in these situations, and Cole was not willing to accept that the love of his life was gone. He was ready to man up and profess his love to her.

Of course, Noah was going to be on the receiving end of Cole's wrath. Cole still lives in a world in which he thinks that the writer is the one who screwed up his relationship.

In reality, though, that could not be further from the truth. Alison's affair with Noah was more about escaping from her mundane life than anything else.

She was filled with sorrow and took her own life as a result. Cole and Alison never really confronted their issues, and that's why their relationship fizzled out.

I wanted to believe that Alison never gave up, but all the evidence was there. Finding out her father was living in such close proximity to her was a real kicker.

I liked that Cole, Noah, and Anton made their way to his house to find out whether he had anything to do with her death because we got 1) more insight into what really happened all those years ago, and 2) Noah and Anton accepting all the hospitality they could get.

It turns out motels are not for everyone, and what started out as a comical hour quickly changed tone. How is Janelle going to feel when she learns that Anton slept with a motel worker while he was supposed to be going on a college tour?

She's not going to be impressed, that's for sure. The motel scenes were especially fun because Noah loved the fact that everyone assumed he and Cole were married and that Anton was their child.

Cole and Noah have never been friends, and that's because of the affair. Putting them together on the road trip allowed them to confront their feelings and shift perspective.

The final two episodes of the season will likely focus on what happens after Alison's death, and it's going to make for a fun couple of hours.

It will hit Cole hard because first, his father killed himself and now his ex-wife.

Cole was frightened that he was going to wake up one day and want to die. It's hard to see him sticking with Luisa because they're not happy together. They haven't been for quite some time, so a parting of ways has been a long time coming.

He needs to find his happy place and raise his daughter.

As for Noah, it was noble to him to view the body, and his initial reaction seemed as though he didn't get a chance to fully process it. People deal with loss in a lot of different ways.

He broke down at the close of the hour when the narrative switched to his perspective, so there's that. That final scene revealed a lot about how he felt about Alison.

To a degree, he resented Alison because she was the one he cheated on Helen with, forever changing the course of their lives.

The waitress in the final scene was too nice, and she reminded him of his fallen ex-lover. It finally showed that Noah is not as self-centered as he appears to be.

With another full season, I'm glad we're going to see how everyone moves on, but I don't think it would have been a bad idea to end the series sooner.

These characters have been put through the mill so I wouldn't mind seeing them find that happy place.