Everything to Remember Before ‘The Affair’ Season 5

One of the steamiest and most dramatic shows on television is coming to an end. This August marks the fifth and final season of The Affair, Showtime’s drama about infidelity, hot rich people, and low-key furious parents. Any weekend you spend binge-watching The Affair is a weekend well spent, but we know you’re a busy person. You don’t have time to re-watch 10 whole hours of beach-framed angst ahead of Season 5. That’s where we come in.

Created by Sarah Treem and Hagai Levi, The Affair started as a story about Noah (Dominic West) and Allison (Ruth Wilson), two monogamous, coupled people who start having, you guessed it, an affair. Naturally their sexy times ruin both of their relationships, creating a spiral of mayhem and drama from which this series has never been able to recover. Adding to the madness, each episode of The Affair is divided into two different POVs. It’s not unusual to see the same scene play out in a drastically different way depending on who’s telling the story.

Many deaths, countless hookups, and an infinite amount of lies later, The Affair has expanded far past its cheating premise. But what exactly do you need to know before heading into Season 5? Here’s your guide.

How did Allison die in The Affair?

Season 4 was rough for everyone, but no one had it harder than Allison (Ruth Wilson). At first it seemed as though Allison was finally on the path to recovery after the tragic death of her son. She was in charge of a support group, she was set to sell the restaurant she owned with her ex-husband Cole (Joshua Jackson), and she even had a new love interest, the hot former Marine Ben (Ramon Rodriguez). Life was good.

Or at least that was the case until Allison met her biological father. After feeding her a story about falling in love with her mother and asking Allison for a kidney transplant, Allison learned the truth. Her mother was raped. Adding insult to injury, Allison is then dealt another blow. It turns out Ben the hot Marine was never actually single but is still very much married.

Not wanting to make the same mistake again, Allison disappeared for a few days to the panic of her friends. When she finally reappeared it was bad news for everyone. Allison’s death by drowning was ruled as a suicide.

But that’s far from the truth. Episode 409 showed us two different versions of Allison’s last day, both told from her perspective. In the first version Allison told Ben that she knew about his wife, and though they fight for a while they eventually reconnect. That idyllic ending was all a dream. In reality, Allison confronted Ben about his wife and Ben lost his cool, throwing her headfirst into a cabinet and throwing her body into the ocean. At the end of the season it was revealed that Cole’s gut instinct was right. Allison didn’t die by suicide. She was murdered.

Where did we leave Noah?

The last time we saw Noah Solloway (Dominic West) he was going full Freedom Writers. After being released from prison, Noah took a job at a local inner-city school as an English teacher. Once there he took a special interest in a bright student by the name of Anton (Christopher Meyer). Oh, and he also started to sleep with Anton’s mother, aka his school’s principal, aka his boss Janelle (Sanaa Lathan).

Other than that, Noah had a pretty calm season. He fought with his ex-wife Helen (Maura Tierney) about their children, especially about his potentially gay son Trevor (Jadon Sand). He also tried to comfort his former fling Allison and argued with Cole quite a bit. Those argument ramped up after Allison’s death was revealed. But in the scope of this show Noah pissing off random men and flirting with bad ideas is par for the course. What can we say? Noah’s gonna Noah.

What’s going on with Helen?

If anyone needs a stiff drink right about now it’s Helen freaking Solloway (Maura Tierney). At the beginning of the season, life was normal for Helen. She was fine fighting with her ever-intense ex-husband Noah, flirting with her new boyfriend Vik (Omar Metwally), and silently hating Vik’s controlling parents. That all changed when Vik learned he had Stage 4 cancer.

From the beginning Vik made two things clear. He was not going to get treatment for his cancer, and he wanted to have a kid with Helen. After a lot of arguing and tears, Helen agreed to the kid request but her heart was never in it. Even though the couple paid tooth and nail for fertility treatments, Helen refused to take her shots. The woman just didn’t want another kid, especially not one she would have to raise alone.

Fortunately — or unfortunately depending on how you look at it — Vik’s heart wasn’t really in this relationship either. He started to have an affair with his hot, young neighbor Sierra (Emily Browning). Also, they didn’t use protection. You know what that means: surprise baby.

But Helen was weirdly cool about the whole messy ordeal. While on a retreat as Joshua’s Tree, Helen also hooked up with Sierra. Later when Vik was on his deathbed, Helen encouraged Sierra to go to him and tell him that she’s pregnant with his child. She then excused herself to think about if she ever loved Vik in the first place. As always things get heavy with Helen.

Where did we leave Cole?

Somehow The Affair’s resident surfer found a way to become more insufferable in Season 4. While his lovely wife Luisa (Catalina Sandino Moreno) panicked about possibly being deported, Cole’s biggest source of stress was whether or not he wanted to sell his restaurant The Lobster Roll and make a ton of money. In the middle of this identity crisis Cole went to his mom who suggested he go on a walkabout to discover what he really wants out of life.

What he discovered is that his father’s suicide was a lot more complicated than he assumed. It turned out that during his father’s own walkabout he had an affair with an artist, but his pregnant wife threatened to kill herself if he didn’t return. Cole’s father ultimately went back home but his grief over that ultimatum is what drove him to take his life. Cole decided to not make the same mistake as his father and vowed to end things with Luisa so he can be with his one true love, Allison.

But we already know that’s bad news bears. Shortly after Cole returned home Allison went missing only to show up dead. Cole was the only one who suspected that her death was a murder. Cole ended Season 4 still legally married to Luisa to help her become a legal citizen but for all intents and purposes single.

Who is Anna Paquin playing in Season 5?

The cat’s out of the bag. The fifth and final season of the series will feature Anna Paquin playing the now-adult Joanie Lockhart, Helen and Noah’s daughter. Season 5 will take place over two different timelines. The first will feature Noah, Helen, and their children in present day as they deal with Allison and Vik’s deaths. The second timeline takes place decades in the future and follows Joanie returning to Monatauk as she searches for the truth behind her mother’s unexpected death. We’re rooting for her.

Where to watch The Affair