'The Affair' season 5 episode 7 follows Whitney and Joanie on the path of forgiveness while the effects of trauma still prevail
This article contains spoilers for episode 7.
As its final season inches closer towards the epic finale, Showtime's 'The Affair' charts the whole redemption of Noah Solloway (Dominic West) act with ultimate acceptance and forgiveness from his firstborn - Whitney (Julia Goldani Telles).
But Whitney isn't the only child forgiving their parent, as in a more futuristic narrative, we see Joanie (Anna Paquin) edging closer towards the cliff dive that was long overdue. After the previous episode filled her with resentment and hatred for her mother for killing herself, Joanie finally sees the light and digs up the dirt on the reality of Alison's death. She learns her mother didn't abandon her for her own pain, but sadly, that's not enough for Joanie to drown out hers.
The episode opens with Noah's narrative. It is his eldest child Whitney's wedding and preparations are in full swing. Just the way she has always imagined - the venue is her grandfather's Montauk house, where she will marry Colin in a backyard wedding. Sadly, the finances are too much of a burden to bear for Noah, who is struggling to keep his daughter happy. They have arrived earlier than Helen and the rest of the family, but Margaret - the grandmother - is not helping much. From making last-minute changes in who spends on what to making the entire scene seem like an inconvenience in the wake of her husband Bruce's Alzheimer's - the only thing saving Whitney's wedding is Noah standing up to Margaret.
The two still have to find crockery, plates, and other arrangements to decorate the tent Whitney is getting married in, along with finding a proper wedding dress of her choice. Things take an unfortunate turn when Whitney and Noah drive by the same diner where Alison used to work, and Whitney is bent on making a small detour in there. As they step onto the premises, memories begin to surface and Noah is faced with the uncomfortable topic of leaving his family for a woman who waited on his table, and things are only made worse with Whitney's stance about the whole thing. Years might have passed, but the issues haven't been resolved at all, and as Noah finds himself at a tough spot, things, however, take course for the better when they go dress-shopping.
Things once again get complicated for Noah when the wedding dress of Whitney's choice comes with an enormous price tag. The retail employees almost berate the two, and Whitney - out of frustration - snaps back. But while all of this would have impacted Whitney for the worse, she shows remarkable maturity by taking happiness in how her father ended up getting rashes because he wanted to get wildflowers for his little girl. Or the way she sings in the car and he joins in as if years ago, he hadn't deserted his wife and four kids for a waitress at all. It is Noah who suggests Whitney wears Helen's dress for her wedding, and later when she panics about marrying Colin, Noah is the one who tells her how difficult these decisions are. It's a choice that you have to make every day, he reminds Whitney, and even though she resents him for making the wrong choices all these years, somewhere in those father-daughter moments, we see a side to Noah and his baby girl that we haven't seen in a while.
Things don't go as smoothly in Joanie's case however, even though she embarks on the journey towards acceptance and closure too. Having found the possible link between Ben Cruz and her mother's alleged suicide, Joanie decides to track the suspect down. She 'pretends' to be Gabriel, who is suffering from PTSD and seeks out Ben, who now runs a psychiatric facility for army veterans. She goes in talking about suffering abuse at the hands of her husband, and as Ben begins their session, he asks her to sign documents officiating the treatment and requests permission to record their session, which she gives. Ben begins their session with some EMDR treatment and asks her to dig up her memories that have caused her traumatic stress - something that Joanie does by reenacting the possible events leading up to her mother's death.
When she takes things a little forward by calling herself names, Ben asks her to stop, saying he would have never spoken to her mother that way. Turns out, he had recognized her the moment she took off her glasses, and after a drawn-out process of owning up to Alison's murder, Ben tries to justify himself never coming clean, saying the ball is in Joanie's court and she is the one who gets to decide whether she wants to hand him to the police or shoot him with a gun. This being too much for the already sensitive Joanie, she brings cops to Ben's home the next day. But the whole plan backfires, as Ben tells the officers that she is a patient at his facility, who has recently been exhibiting homicidal instincts towards him. He provides the signed documents and plays the recordings from their fake session, the part where Joanie got aggressive after Ben confessed to killing Alison.
One would think this is the most messed up joke this season of 'The Affair' has played on its fans, but the real twist comes when Joanie - aching to forgive her mother for thinking she abandoned her - attacks Ben, and the former army man pins her down, with his arm wrapped around her neck. Joanie's asphyxiation fascination kicks in, and she asks Ben to choke her harder, making him deduce that she just wants someone to put her out of her pain. It's tricky, but it is also insightful, the way the crafty, all-wise Ben handles the situation. The man who clearly murdered Alison believes he has paid for his crimes and doesn't deserve to serve a sentence. But even though his confessions pull Joanie closer to forgive her mother, he drops the whole "you are just like her card", wrecking her once again.
'The Affair' airs on Sundays at 9 pm only on Showtime.