'The Affair' Series Finale Recap: Noah Finds Happiness
The Affair has officially ended. Whitney’s (Julia Goldani Telles) wedding day kicked off the Sunday, November 3, series finale, beginning with Noah (Dominic West) coordinating the flashmob that his daughter wanted so badly — despite the fact that he was uninvited to her wedding. He also shared a great moment with Colin, who revealed to his soon-to-be father-in-law that his parents wouldn’t be able to make it because his dad got drunk and arrested. So, Noah then coordinated a flight for his mother from Ireland to New York, so she could still make it.
When it came time for the wedding, Helen (Maura Tierney) and Whitney once again got into a fight, only to end it in a beautiful moment of Helen walking her daughter down the aisle. The flashmob went perfectly, and Helen filmed it for Noah. When the video wouldn’t send, Helen decided to leave — during the father-daughter dance, of course — and walk to Noah’s motel room to show him the video herself.
While there, Helen said she was basically having a breakdown and stated that if he had an affair 50 years ago and she stayed with him, she’d be praised for it. Now, she’s looked as weak. Later, she blurted out, “If we both die, and you never find out that I still love you, what do I win a prize or something?” While Noah loves her, too, he says that he’s not sure they’re good for each other. That said, they share a dance … and ended up sleeping together.
During the wedding, Whitney finds out about everything her dad planned. So, with the help of her grandfather — he pretended to fall into the pool to distract everyone — she snuck out of the wedding with Colin and her brothers and sister. They then ran over to the motel. She saw her mother and father in bed together, so she stopped the rest of the group. Then, the five of them sat outside the room and snacked on her wedding cake while they waited, all cracking up. Inside, Noah and Helen decided to try things again.
In Joanie’s (Anna Paquin) flashforward scenes, she wandered into the Lobster Roll where she met a very old Noah, who was now running the place. (Cole would not be OK with that!) She didn’t know it was him, but he knew it was her — especially after she said she just found out that her mother, who used to work there, was murdered by her boyfriend.
Later, EJ showed up at her house and after she revealed she is married, he dropped a bomb on her: He is Vik (Omar Metwally) and Sierra’s (Emily Browning) son, and Helen was like a second mother to him. “This place was part of my childhood too,” he said, before also adding that he also restored the Lobster Roll before Noah bought it.
Naturally, she went back to the Lobster Roll. Noah told her he had moved to Montauk after his daughter’s wedding. Then he said that Cole (Joshua Jackson) said all along Ben had killed Alison (Ruth Wilson) because he knew she’d never leave her daughter. Oddly enough, Cole told Joanie the opposite. Noah also informed Joanie about an entirely new side of her mother, explaining that she went away to get help and came back; he said Cole and Louisa tried to keep her from her mother after she fought for custody. “You were her whole life,” he said. “Everything she did, she did for you.”
With that, Noah explained to her that while pain and fear of loss could be transferred through generations, so could resilience, and that’s something her mother had a great amount of. So, she decided to go home to her family.
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Noah then went to visit Helen’s (!!!) grave and read to her a book called Montauk, their daughter Stacey’s memoir. Helen was buried next to both of her parents. While her father died in 2024, both Helen and her mother died in 2051.
The episode came to a beautiful end with Noah, finally at peace, happily dancing the flashmob scene — walking stick and all — on top of the bluffs in Montauk to The Waterboys’ “The Whole of the Moon.”
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