The Affair Recap: Noah’s Foolish Reactions to #MeToo Accuser; Helen’s Birthday (S5 E8)

This week, we’re back in Los Angeles, where Helen has a hectic birthday. Noah winds up his visit in New York City and learns that a former student has put him in a book, and not in a good way. Back in L.A., he tries to deal with Eden Ellery’s #metoo accusation. Predictably, he makes it into a bigger mess than it already was.

In Noah’s segment, they brought back Ariel, his old college friend we last saw teaching at Princeton at the end of Season 4. Over coffee, Noah brings up Eden and her claim that Noah pressured her into having sex with him. Like a naive baby, Noah whines that Eden can’t just make stuff up about him, can she? Ariel says, “You know you don’t have the best reputation around this stuff, right?” She informs him that Eden is not the only one speaking ill of him. Audrey Nelson, one of Noah’s former creative writing students, has written a book that includes an account of her relationship with an abusive college professor. Audrey is telling everyone it’s based on Noah.

What is that old stuff all about? Well, we must remember that whatever there is to know, it was shown from someone’s perspective. From Noah’s perspective in Season 2, he did not sleep with Eden. Audrey was in two episodes of Season 3 (1 and 3). In the first one, Noah harshly dissed her writing in front of the whole class and made her cry but apologized later. In the third episode, it came to light that Audrey wanted to sleep with Noah, but that was from Juliette’s perspective and it just gets a passing mention in EW’s recap Noah didn’t end up in bed with Audrey in that episode. He ended up in the hospital from a stab wound in his neck.

So we don’t know if Audrey is claiming any sexual harassment but Eden sure is. Noah seeks advice from his publishers and his lawyer and is wisely advised to issue a cautious statement and stay far away from both Petra at Vanity Fair and Eden. But does he listen? Of course not. He goes to Petra’s office and tries to “clarify” what happened. The more he talks, the worse it sounds! In L.A., he confronts Eden publicly, adding fuel to the fire.

In Helen’s segment, it was her birthday. She landed a job at an interior decorating firm because Carolina Wineman told the firm bigwig that Helen is a genius. She acquired her 5th follower on Instagram — Christianna, the daughter of Sasha’s deceased lover, who wants to talk to her. When she went home, a Child Protective Services investigator named Mariel Rodriguez approached her with questions about Sierra. Helen told Mariel that she had not seen Sierra in any other condition than “tired,” as any new mom would be. Helen went over to speak to Sierra, who was sacked out on the sofa. The house was a mess and baby Eddie was crying. Helen rebuked her harshly and told her to get off her butt and take care of her child, and went off to meet up with Christianna.

Christianna wanted Helen’s help in getting Sasha to terminate the trust her mother left her and gave Sasha control of. Naturally, she had less than flattering things to say about Sasha but the main point was that he is a controlling man. With that seed planted, Helen will be watching Sasha for proof, and so will we. We didn’t have to wait long either. Helen went home and checked back in on Sierra. She realized that Sierra was suffering from postpartum depression and not just being irresponsible and took Sierra and Eddie home with her. On their way in, Sasha appeared and told Helen to pack up and go away with him. Helen refused and Sasha got hinky because he went to a lot of trouble to charter a plane. But she did not budge because her kids were cooking her a birthday dinner so Sasha decided to stay.

He provided more evidence of his controlling nature by telling Stacey how to cook and butting in on her dinnertime story. He also provided a psychoanalysis of Helen’s motives for helping Sierra. Sasha wasn’t the only one Helen had to contend with. Sierra’s mother, Adeline, showed up, intending to ship Sierra off to rehab and turn Eddie over to a nanny. Sasha told Helen that maybe they ought to stay out of it but Helen wasn’t having it. She gave Sierra the option of staying with her and when Adeline tried to go after Helen, Sierra lit into her for all her abuses. Sierra told her that Helen loves her children unconditionally, something she didn’t even know was possible after the way Adeline treated her. By this time, Sasha had already left and Adeline decided to do the same.

Helen’s part leaves us wondering how Helen is going to handle her new job on top of helping Sierra and Eddie. Remember Helen said she needed the money for her kids’ tuition. We’re just guessing that Sierra lost that Lady Chatterley role after she totaled her car but she also said she really needed that job. So the next question is who is paying her bills? But we’ll just have to let that go because next week, it will probably be back to the future. Seriously, there are just too many storylines going on in Season 5 of “The Affair.”