'The Affair' Season 5: Joanie digs deeper into mom Alison's death but the answers are not what she was looking for
The upcoming fifth season of the hit Showtime drama, 'The Affair', focuses on the redemption arc of the main character Noah Solloway (Dominic West) in the aftermath of the big reveal about the other half of the titular affair, Alison (Ruth Wilson). At the same time, following the show's narrative of focusing on two simultaneous plotlines, the story with a 10-year leap will see Alison's daughter Joanie (Anna Paquin) return to Montauk to dig deeper into her mother's death. While Joanie is searching for answers regarding whether Alison's death was a suicide or murder, it is expected that she might find out more than she had bargained for.
Paquin's character Joanie Lockhart is the child of Alison and Cole Lockhard (Joshua Jackson) and her character is described as one who “returns some years in the future to piece together the truth about what happened to her mother, bringing the whole story full circle.” In the epic season 4 finale, we saw what had really happened to Alison, as her then-boyfriend Ben had murdered her. Of course, Joanie doesn't know that, and even though the plot of the fifth and final season will explore her journey discovering the truth, it will simultaneously also showcase how desperately Joanie does not want to end up like her mother.
In the official trailer for season 5, we hear Noah's voiceover announce how a parents' trauma can reflect and become inherent in their child, and that is exactly the case with Joanie. When Joanie announces she doesn't want to meet with the same fate as her mother, the trailer shows side-by-side flashbacks from Alison's past being re-enacted in Joanie's present. "I spent my whole life trying to be the opposite of Alison," Joanie says in the trailer as we see her cycling the way Alison used to, while the very next moment, she is being told by what we assume is her romantic interest, that she is "f*cking broken."
While it's not confirmed, it can be speculated that Joanie's quest for finding out the truth about her mother's death might end up being a journey of realizing how similar she and her life has been to the same mother she has always consciously tried not to be like. Scenes of Joanie spreading her arms out for her child are parallelly shown with those of Alison doing the same for her, but the most traumatizing aspect of it all is seeing Joanie go through the same domestic abuse and violence that viewers have been familiar with in case of Alison's life. In the trailer, Noah also says that, sometimes, parents set out on a path and it is up to their kids to end that journey, and Joanie, if she really has set out to explore her mother's past, might not be met with the most perfectly happy ending. Let's just hope it's not as sad and extreme as it was with her mother.
'The Affair' season 5, which will be its final season, premieres on Sunday, August 25 at 9 pm, only on Showtime.