The extramarital relationship between a waitress Alison and Noah, the father of four who is a novelist and a school teacher and depends on his father in law financially.
After last week's more straight-forward episode, this one returns both to the split POV device... and to the supporting characters and the world of Montauk, and it's unsurprisingly stronger for all of that.
Like some of the early seasons of Showtime's other hit series Homeland, Telles and West showcased just how powerful father/daughter relationships can be when done correctly.
Episode four was about Alison and Noah as their own distinct entity; episode five explores how this entity coexists with their already established lives. That exploration... makes for an extremely satisfying episode.
On The Affair Season 1 Episode 5 while the lingering affects of a new partner are still apparent between Noah and Alison, things are becoming a bit grittier as real life invades their euphoria.
It's also interesting that Alison is caring for her grandmother who has Alzheimer's. The Affair has been so much about the nature of truth and lying, and the way that our brains remember, don't remember, or misremember certain events.
But the more heartbreaking moment is the more subtle one -- when Cole catches her sneaking out of the house that morning, all he says is how much he loves her dress, before leaving the room, defeated.
