The Affair Review: 408 (Season 4 Episode 8)

Alison Bailey is dead, and I am shook.

The Affair Season 4 Episode 8, “408,” is the best episode of the season by far. They’ve tried to warn us from the beginning of the season…an earthquake is coming. Alison is missing. The clues weren’t subtle.

First there’s the fact that in her first episode, everything in Alison’s life is perfectly fine. She’s the only one of the four main characters that doesn’t seem to be on the verge of breaking.

Then there is Ben. Something about him is too perfect. Something about him feels fake from the moment viewers meet him, but it’s hard to put a finger on what’s wrong until we learn he’s married.

Drowning has been a theme prominent theme this season.

Alison relives the memory of Gabriel’s death with Ben while doing EMDR therapy on The Affair Season 4 Episode 4. Their conversation makes the scene a few minutes later when she jumps into the water feel ominous, to say the least. The camera focuses on her in slow motion under water for a few seconds too long.

It’s not exactly a surprise that something worse than an earthquake was coming for Alison. Scene one of The Affair Season 4 Episode 1 was Noah telling Cole that Alison has been declared a missing person. All episodes of The Affair this season have been leading up to this.

This road trip, this episode, this ending — but, I’m still shook.

On The Affair Season 4 Episode 6, Alison has a very bad day. Helen tells her to take her life into her own hands and change the way men see her. But, drown herself…no. It doesn’t add up.

She has always been an unstable person. Since Season 1 , she’s been clinging to anyone and anything to cope with Gabriel’s death.

So, it feels like a lie to say that suicide would be out of character. But this is still shocking. Something still feels wrong.

If Cole had found Alison beaten or raped in an alley, in a hospital bed recovering from a suicide attempt, or even at home playing with Joanie pretending like she never went missing and having a psychotic episode, that would make more sense.

But having dead her body be identified? Her actual, physical body? (On TV, that’s as dead as it gets.) That we never saw coming.

She has Joanie. She loves her job. She seems to be actually moving forward from Gabriel’s death, no matter what Cole says about her job. She’s happy.

Speaking of Cole, from an objective standpoint, Alison’s death makes no sense in large part because Joshua Jackson and Ruth Wilson have amazing chemistry. Definitely enough to have been rooting for their marriage to work since the beginning of The Affair.

Or, maybe that’s just what makes it hurt so much. Their love story was so tragic and human. The back and forth of the story doesn’t feel as forced as some of the other plots. They don’t have to move to Paris or L.A. to find drama, they create enough for themselves in Montauk.

They have earned a reconciliation, and it would’ve been plenty dramatic to watch them explain everything to Luisa, Joanie, and even Noah. Abandoning that is such a waste.

Jackson does his best work when Alison is Cole’s motivation. This episode has plenty of moments that prove it. His desperation is so evident, especially after they get the news that she’s dead.

From the moment he quietly asks to see her body, to the almost childlike, but stern tone in his voice when he’s outside the morgue and keeps telling Noah, “We need to know that it’s the real her,” his love for her is obvious.

He can’t bear Alison’s death being ruled a suicide. Throughout the hour, Cole instantly and aggressively questions and defends anyone who tries to paint Alison in a bad light — from her father, to the detective at her death scene, to Ben.

The scene at the VA hospital is perhaps the most tragic. At the end of the confrontation with Ben, Cole asks “What did you say to her that made her want to kill herself?” If he has to accept that the love of his life killed herself, he’s going to put blame somewhere.

His desperation is palpable. If you’ve ever grieved someone, you know how real this is. It feels so easy to turn back time, so easy to remember the last time you saw your loved one, you want to grab anyone and scream “Why? Why Won’t you just come back?”

Watching Jackson’s performance is hard to put into words because there’s almost no need to. He’s just feeling. He’s Cole Lockhart, not Joshua Jackson. And there’s no need to describe his feelings. Because just watching, you know. That’s acting at its best.

The brawl between Noah and Cole in the VA parking lot is strange but inevitable. Cole’s pain comes to a head, and Noah gets the brunt of it.

He’s hurt, lost, guilty and looking for anyone to transfer all of those feelings to.

Cole: You had her in your hands and you let her go….why?

Noah and Cole have had some intense confrontations — the Season 1 finale involved a loaded gun being pointed at people — but none of them have been as heartbreaking as this fight.

Because you can see how lost Cole is in his eyes. Jackson portrays the complexity of it all with ease.

It’s easy for viewers to sympathize with Cole because…what now? As complicated as Alison’s relationships with Noah and Cole are, she is the glue that holds all four narratives together.

Like most big episodes on any series, “408” is a bit of a homage to the history. It connects the character’s stories in ways that actually make sense for once this season.

Anton’s purpose is clearer than it ever has been. He works perfectly as a buffer between Cole and Noah all episode, and they’re able to reference history (like the fact that Noah had an affair with Cole’s wife) naturally because Anton needs to be brought up to speed.

There’s also blatant humor in the premise of the whole episode — Cole and Noah on a road trip with a 19-year-old — even if the reason for it is serious. Humor is rare on The Affair, but on “408,” it works well.

The idea of Cole and Noah being married to each other is absolutely ridiculous, but the fact that they both end up going along with it makes it all even funnier.

White privilege is addressed in subtle, humorous ways. Like when Anton assures Alison’s estranged “stepmother” that she doesn’t have to have the cook make him grilled cheese, he’s perfectly fine eating grilled octopus.

The last scene of the episode is a homage to the very beginning of the show. Noah trades small talk with a waitress, and from the look on his face, it’s obvious he’s reminded of Alison.

It could be an ending. Or a new beginning. But honestly? This story may not be over yet, even though Noah identifies Alison’s body. It’s just a feeling.

Like Cole says to Noah after they visit the place where the body was found — something stinks.

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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