**Spoilers ahead**
Concluding seasons of The Affair have always been personally fulfilling. The Showtime series is built around covering every perspective of a story by showing us at least two sides of it. Every episode is divided into two chapters, each devoted to one of the show’s characters. The chapters often overlap, but rarely tell the same tale. If Noah (Dominic West) shows up late for dinner with his family, you better believe his story won’t be the same as Helen’s (Maura Tierney), who’s waiting for him.
The writing is often the star of The Affair. Created by Sarah Treem and Hagai Levi, the show doesn’t have big explosions or guest celebrities. It’s high melodrama, soap opera-style narratives elevated by smart dialogue and great acting. West, Tierney, Ruth Wilson, Joshua Jackson, and the rest of the cast do exceptional work.
We’ve come to expect more from The Affair which is why the recent events that end Season 4 are so disappointing. They kill Alison for no reason.
“The Affair,” referred to in the show’s title, is between Noah, a writer, and Alison (Wilson), a waitress. They destroy their marriages and eventually marry one another before getting divorced themselves. Season 4 begins, years later, with all the main characters leading separate lives.
Before the events of the series, Alison, the most damaged character on The Affair, lost her son to a freak condition suffered after he nearly drowned. She’s desperately sad for most of the series, seeking joy where she can find it and finding some, briefly with Noah, and more permanently with Joanie, her daughter.
Season 4 sees Alison working as a grief counselor where she finally seems to be gaining some self-confidence. Since anything that can go wrong does on The Affair, she’s attacked while trying to help someone and saved by an army veteran named Ben (Ramon Rodriguez). They begin a tentative courtship that ends tragically. While visiting Alison at her home, Ben gets drunk, attacks her, knocks her out, and carries her to the jetty outside before dumping her in the ocean. She’s found days later, dead, drowned in the same ocean that took her son. The police call it suicide.
Ironically, The Affair’s perspective storytelling dulls the news of Alison’s death. We learn about it secondhand along with Noah and Cole (Jackson), her first ex-husband. The next episode shows us what really happened. In a break from its usual separate chapters, The Affair gives the penultimate episode of Season 4 entirely to Alison. The first chapter is a dream, as Alison imagines Ben coming over, romancing her, and everything turning out alright. The second chapter, however, shows us the truth of Ben’s visit. Not only is Alison’s death unwarranted and wholly depressing (she never gets over being the show’s punching bag), it’s written in a gimmicky way that silences the event, failing to punctuate it.
As a fan of the show from the beginning, I can tell you Alison’s death seems force-fed. The Affair is nothing if not deliberate, but this is the first time the series has felt unplanned. For such a huge event — the death of the show’s female lead — the presentation is sorely lacking (not to mention she dies in the most horrible way possible for her character: drowned). Alison was finally finding herself. She did not deserve this.
Interestingly, a few days before the season finale aired this past Sunday, Wilson told This Morning host Gayle King, “I did want to leave, but I’m not allowed to talk about why.”
Characters are killed off shows all the time, and Showtime knew Wilson would be leaving before Season 4 so why does her death feel so rushed? Per Variety, Showtime said, “The most powerful creative decision would be to end Alison’s arc at the moment when she had finally achieved self-empowerment.” What?
Showtime essentially admits the character is killed when she least deserves it. Are we supposed to be thankful for that objective, heartless decision? The statement seems to revel in it. Way harsh, Showtime. Who says Alison had to die?
All of this adds up to one thing: Alison’s exit was mismanaged by Showtime. I’m guessing Wilson told producers she wanted out before Season 4 (she’s gearing up for a BBC/PBS miniseries about her family history), and Showtime wasn’t happy. The Affair has one final season on the calendar for next year, and I doubt the cable channel wanted to lose one of its main stars before they could end things as planned. I’m guessing the end of Season 4 had to be rewritten to get rid of Alison, and the results are what we’ve seen, fair or not. Whatever the truth is behind Wilson’s departure, Alison deserved better than to be written off and dumped in the ocean like she was nothing. The fans don’t care about the behind-the-curtain bullshit reasons why. And the show’s legacy suffers most in the end.
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