Part Three: Alison

That's new, skipping Part One of this episode and delving right into Part Three. Each two hours will be one full segment? That will be really hard to track.

Alison feels weird being at the house without Noah. She wonders what everybody thinks about her being there, then realizes that nobody knows she's there. She wants to talk about what she is to him when he returns. He says she's the best thing that ever happened to him. He left the broken toilet to her to fix.

Alison is left peeing by the side of the lake. A fisherman is making his way to the end of the pier as she's doing so.

They are at a writer's retreat, as the covers of past published novels are framed on the walls. Noah's unpublished book, Descent, sits on the desk. He dedicated it to Alison. She chooses not to read it and to go for a walk instead. A man (the fisherman?) picks Alison up on her way into town. He says Yvonne wants them to sell and move back to the city. Alison protests. Alison has blisters on her feet when he drops her off in town and buys Band-Aids, which she applies while watching children playing.

While eating lunch, she asks the waitress how much she makes an hour, assuring her she's not looking for a job. $7.50 plus tips. When she arrives home, Cole is there, flipping through the pages of Noah's book. The conversation goes poorly. When he asks to use the toilet, she says it broken and Cole says he'll fix it with Noah's tools. He'll get his from the truck.

While he's fixing the toilet, a woman arrives with a welcome basket. While they're chatting, Cole leaves the house and just leaves, almost forgetting to give her the most important part of the puzzle – their son's toy chest.

Yvonne takes that moment to invite Ali (suddenly I want to call her Ali) up to the house for lunch. Alison accepts.

Robert offers Alison the job as Yvonne's assistant, and she accepts. Yvonne also happens to be the head of Bradford Publishing, a major publishing house.

When Noah arrives home, he's in a pissy mood, asking her if Dover Sole tastes fishy. He thinks he'll be broke, jobless and homeless in a month and without custody of his kids. Noah asks what's going on with her house. Is she selling it or what? He notices his manuscript is gone. She put it in a drawer for safe keeping. He's not pleased with that, wondering if she read it. Then he's angry with her for accepting the job offer from Robert and Yvonne. He storms out of the house, and she attacks a bottle of white wine.

Moments later he comes back in. He apologizes, saying he's an asshole, asking forgiveness. They have sex on the kitchen counter, her hand in a bowl of salad.

Noah notices the toilet works and asks if Yvonne called the plumber. That's right, she says. They sit down to dinner, toasting to each other.

Alison meets the attorney, John, at the hearing. She's surprised that he's Noah's counsel. She's angry Helen was involved with choosing legal counsel, and it's even more unacceptable that Helen is paying. John says he's sure this will work out exactly as it should.

Part Four: Cole

Cole is sitting in a car by the airport, he's a taxi driver. His passenger is Helen's father, who wants to engage in small talk, which is not readily accepted by Cole. He starts waxing poetic. It turns out he was inspired by Noah's actions with Alison. He decided that if that poor, talentless schmuck deserved to be happy, then why didn't he? He looked up the girl he spoke to about Noah about in The Affair Season 1 and they just spent the weekend together in Barcelona. He's leaving his wife after 40 wasted years. He thinks Noah is just destined to fail. Nothing you can do about it.

Cole almost runs over a child in the driveway after dropping Bruce Butler off. It's close, but he manages. He meets a woman, however.

When Cole leaves the depot, he runs into Scotty. Scotty wants to know where Alison is and what she's doing about the house. People need the money. As for Cole, he's living in a camper outside the house he used to share with Alison. When he gets there, a figure is moving inside. It's not Ali, but Jane, gathering some of her things. He wonders where Alison is, but gets no response. He wants the address so he can send Alison her stuff. He looks terrible, all bloated and red-eyed. Different than he did when Alison saw him at the cabin.

Cole decides to go driving, despite being overtired and probably drunk. His passenger gives him her card. She's very discreet. She's going to throw up. He pulls over to allow her to do so. Later, Cole starts falling asleep at the wheel and almost wrecks the car. He pulls over to do some coke to wake up. He goes home and gets Alison's things and drives to her place, where he gets some coffee at the cafe. He spots Noah going to the train depot, and that's where he does the finger gun.

Noah arrives at the house, goes inside and sees the book, but passes it by, opting not to touch it. Alison is wearing a sweater and pants in his version. He looks terrible, and she's worried about him. She thanks him for bringing her things. Although he lost the ranch, he says he wanted to look at a horse nearby.

He asks if Noah is good to Alison. She assured him he is and offers to make him some eggs. He thought of something funny the other day and wanted to share it with her, but he forgets now. She's been thinking about a special day they shared before she got pregnant. Before he goes, he asks if she's ever coming home. She doesn't think so. He says he just needed to hear it. Before he gets into the car, she runs to him and hugs him, thanking him for coming all this way. She asks him to promise to keep in touch. Of course he will. Cole sleeps in his cab.

Cole is at the courthouse. He sees Alison and her new baby girl, Joanie. Alison introduces them. They're about to announce the charges, and they go in. Noah is charged with obstruction of justice, leaving the scene of a crime and vehicular homicide. Bail is set at $500k.