'The Affair' season 5 focuses on Joanie's cluelessness about Montauk as she braces to face her dark past
This article contains spoilers for episode 1.
Season 5 of 'The Affair' is already off to a great start, and with Alison's departure, and her daughter Joanie's life in a time in the future playing one half of the narrative, there's a new chance to look at the Montauk we have loved and are so intrigued by, when Joanie finally returns to the town in the next episode.
The next episode, aka episode 2, is expected to uproot Joanie (Anna Paquin) from her visibly uncomplicated married life. Sure, there are problems between her and her husband, but those are minor clashes that every married couple seems to have. In fact, Joanie's husband Paul is actually one of the kindest and most considerate characters on the show, who understands his wife's dark past and the complex internalized issues it has given rise to in her. He's a loving father to their two kids and a passionate lover to Joanie - all things that most TV wives seem to be lacking once they topple over the 30-year mark. So when Joanie is told her next assignment is in Montauk, not only does it uproot her from this calming married life, but it also plummets her back into the darkness of her past.
Yet Joanie takes the offer up, surprisingly without any qualms. The trailer for the next episode shows her telling her husband that she is, of course, going to move back into her dad's old house, in Montauk, aka the very same house where Alison (Ruth Wilson) had died. And while all of that internal conflict and anxiety on Joanie's end is going to be in full play in the next episode, we will also get to see a side of Montauk through a bystander's eyes. The last we saw Joanie, she was a mere child of five. Her mother was still alive, and she was super close to her father. In episode 1 of season 5, Joanie hints at the possibility that Cole, her father, might have died, as she tells her husband the reasons she is distant during their intense lovemaking session is because she misses her dad. And while it's one of the worst examples of post-coital-pillow-talk, it does offer us some closure on what exactly happens to Joshua Jackson's character after he exited the show with Wilson, following season 4.
With Joanie returning to Montauk, her distance and cluelessness will serve as the prime narrative for her half of the plot at least. For all we know, Noah (Dominic West) and Helen (Maura Tierney) could still be in Montauk and their involvement in Joanie's life will heighten. The trailer for season 5 has already revealed what sounds like words of advice from Noah to Joanie, as he talks to her about the lessons she should learn from her deceased mother's life. But Joanie's involvement in Noah and Helen's lives will also mean looking at the couple from the eyes of a third party, who just knows them because the man had an affair with her mother, which took up their whole lives.
'The Affair' season 5 airs on Sunday nights at 9 p.m, only on Showtime.