'The Affair' season 5: While Sierra and Helen have been on good terms before, the baby's entry could end their relationship
The trailer for 'The Affair's fifth and final season bears a striking moment where Helen Solloway (Maura Tierney) questions her actress neighbor, Sierra's (Emily Browning) decision to bring a child into the world. The child belongs to Helen's now-deceased husband Vik with whom Sierra and Helen had both slept with in season four. Which brings us to the question — how exactly will Helen and Sierra's friendship, or whatever it is they share at this point, be affected with a new baby in the picture.
In season four, we saw Helen and Sierra's bond reach new heights when the younger woman was able to take the cynical Helen to a very hippie-moon circle retreat. They indulged in all things zen and discussed motherhood, in the wake of an ongoing argument Helen had with Vik, where she was concerned about ending up pregnant.
Vik, who had just discovered he has pancreatic cancer and was trying to hide his fear about dying, reminded Helen that she was almost menopausal and not likely pregnant. All of this amounted to a whole new air of cynicism in Helen as she tried to relax at the retreat where younger mothers discussed what motherhood actually meant.
Meanwhile, what Helen didn't know and Sierra was itching to spill, was the fact that she had already slept with Vik. In one very poignant scene, Helen tells Sierra that she doesn't want to have a baby as that part of her life is a closed chapter now. It makes sense because she already has four children with Noah (Dominic West) who has been busy having extra-marital affairs since the start of the show.
Helen did not know at that point about her current husband's indiscretions. Instead, Sierra tells her about how welcoming the idea of sleeping with married men and other women was to her. The discussion in the midst of a wine-induced buzz ends in an awkward lovemaking scene between the two, something that sends Helen straight into the arms of Vik and the two confess how scared they are of his imminent death.
The next time we see the topic come up, it is following Alison's (Ruth Wilson) funeral, when Helen finds out that Sierra is, in fact, pregnant with the baby Vik wanted Helen to have. Considering his days are numbered, Helen tells Sierra to tell him about the pregnancy, and the next time we see the two of them is in the trailer for season five. Looks like Sierra has taken some time off because when she returns to Montauk, she has a baby in tow.
Sierra asks Helen to watch the baby for her because she doesn't know what to do, and here comes the exciting part: as we had predicted before, Helen Solloway is not taking anybody's shit anymore. About time, right? Helen, very curtly, and as-a-matter-of-factly, tells Sierra, "You brought a child into this world; figure it out." This is a clear indication of a breach between the two ladies who had slept with the same man and also slept with each other.
The fact that Sierra had been able to drag Helen to the retreat speaks volumes about their bond, but all of that seems to have dissipated. And while we agree the clueless Sierra could do with some help, Helen truly doesn't need to give a damn about her. Sierra has already made her bed, about time she lay in it.
'The Affair' season five premiers on August 25 at 9 pm only on Showtime.
