The Affair final season trailer thinks 'it's not too late' for Noah and Helen
After four seasons of back-and-forth between spiteful exes Noah (Dominic West) and Helen (Maura Tierney), you’d think the message would be clear by now: their relationship was over. O-V-E-R. But it looks like the final season of The Affair is going to be all about Noah not taking no for an answer. Yikes.
The trailer for the final season of the Showtime drama, released this week, is going to inspire some pretty passionate responses from both fans and haters of the polarizing protagonist Noah. The video opens on him espousing the philosophy of how “forgiveness is hard,” and people “yearn for someone who really knows” them once they understand that. Of course, who else could he be talking about than his ex-wife Helen? The trailer leaves nothing to the imagination as it jump cuts to a shot of Helen sliding down the door, looking exasperated as she collapses on the floor as his voiceover claims: “It’s not too late.”
It sure seems like it’s too late for Noah to reconcile with Helen, since her next words to him are, “I feel sorry for you.” Savage. Tell him, girl!
While the onscreen drama of The Affair is coming to a close with season 5, the behind-the-scenes drama might forever be ongoing … until former star Ruth Wilson is finally “allowed” to disclose why she left the series back in season 4. After her character Allison was killed off last season, she appeared on CBS This Morning and shocked viewers with her statements about exiting the series.
“I did want to leave, but I’m not allowed to talk about why,” Wilson said. While some assumed it was an issue of the wage gap between her and West, she then added that she’d “never complained to Showtime about pay parity.”
In an earlier interview with the Radio Times, Wilson previously said she believed she was paid less than her male costar West. “Certainly when I signed up to that project, I would have got paid less,” she said. “Then [the producers] might argue, ‘Well, he’s already done a major American TV show [The Wire], so he’s already got a level.’ But even after a Golden Globe, I’m not going to be on parity. So he definitely gets more than me. I mean, I don’t know what the figure is, but I’m sure he does.”
Showtime then responded to Wilson’s comments in a statement, “We can’t speak for Ruth, but heading into season 4 everyone agreed the character’s story had run its course. Ultimately, it felt like the most powerful creative decision would be to end Alison’s arc at the moment when she had finally achieved self-empowerment. The impact of her loss will be felt as the series concludes next season. We thank the many fans who embraced the character of Alison and especially thank Ruth for her indelible work over the past four seasons.”
For his part, West claims not to have known about any wage gap between him and Wilson. West told Radio Times that he “never [asks] what the money is on a show. It was more a question of if I wanted to do it.” He then added that Wilson’s comments about a pay disparity “woke me up to the issue. I never realized the disparity and the injustice.”
Until Wilson chooses to open up more about why she left The Affair (maybe with a tell-all memoir? We can dream!), we’ll have to make do with the drama of the final season. Check out the full trailer below:
The Affair‘s fifth and final season premieres August 25 at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.
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