The Affair Review: 401 (Season 4 Episode 1)

Though The Affair Season 4 Episode 1, “401,” begins with Helen and Noah on a new coast, the show seems to be returning to the one we fell in love with. On the surface, we’re watching day-to-day life in LA. But underneath it all, there’s a tension that doesn’t let up from the moment we learn Allison is missing to the moment we see Vic on the floor.

It’s exciting to worry about characters we’ve known from the start, rather than feel forced into worrying about prison guards and French professors.

Where is Allison? What happened to Vic? If Vic passing out is just the beginning, what is the bigger earthquake coming in Helen’s life? In Noah’s?

These are just a few of the questions we have after watching the premiere, and they are the ones we should be asking. Since Season 2, The Affair has faced the challenge of connecting four people who would probably barely speak to one another at this point in real life.

The format of telling the same story from different perspectives, while interesting, doesn’t lend well to connection. The key to keeping viewers engaged in the individual stories with this format is the new characters they meet along the way.

But for us to care about them, we need to believe their story. This season, we do.

Anton Gatewood is the most interesting character to join the show in years. Sure, he’s a bit of a cliche — the black kid from Compton who all of the white teachers underestimate. He could be a transplant from an early 2000s rom-com.

But there’s a mystery to him that Noah senses, and we can’t help but feel it too. It’s early to guess the role he’ll play in any plot, but we want to know more. That’s a good start.

We also want to know more about Vic and Helen’s neighbor, Sierra. She’s most definitely a cliche. She exhibits all the traits of a California yogi to an extreme.

But there is something mysterious about her. Something foreboding. There’s a sense that she’ll play a bigger role in the season. Perhaps Helen will take her up on that offer of friendship.

Sierra makes us anxious, but so does the entire episode, honestly. The theme of earthquakes comes up in Helen’s perspective, but it’s present throughout the whole hour.

Both Helen and Noah’s problems seem mundane at first. They are mundane. But they build and build and never let up. It’s a giant foreshock, and if this is the start, we’re scared to watch the earthquake. But it’s coming.

It’s similar to the first season. A chance meeting led to an affair, which led to a murder. It was all very scandalous and sexy, but kept us on the edge of our couches like no other season since.

Anxiety was an undercurrent of the episodes then, as it is now. It may not all end with a central event like a murder, but something bad is happening to all four main characters at some point in Season 4. Of that we’re sure.

As happy as we are to feel invested again, Noah and Helen are frustrating to watch. They have always been very wrapped up in themselves. But Trevor’s coming out storyline could bring The Affair the levity it’s needed for years.

It would be a shame if it were just a plot point for them to argue about. We don’t know much about the Solloway kids besides Whitney, and she is just as self-involved as her parents most of the time.

It’s a joy to see Trevor seemingly so comfortable with who he is. There is the potential here to tell a unique coming out story, and hopefully the writers deliver.

Helen and Noah didn’t transform into different people between seasons. They are still as self-involved as ever. They’ve been metaphorically and literally shouting over their children’s cries for help for years and will probably continue to do so.

But we don’t watch The Affair to see shiny people live happily ever after. We watch to see if the broken people survive. Right now, two characters’ fates are literally up in the air. But more drama seems to be right behind these cliffhangers, and that’s how we like it.

What did you think of this episode of The Affair? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Affair airs Sundays at 9/8c on Showtime.

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