The Affair Recap (S5 E5) Helen Sees Sasha’s Bad Side

I really hate to write a bad review about a show. The question running through the back of my mind is always “What are you watching it for if it’s so bad?” Then I usually stop watching it. In this case, I simply want to find out if what’s-his-name really murdered Allison. But Season 5 of “The Affair” is so bad, I sometimes forget Ben’s name. Small wonder. It’s hard to keep track when they just have so many people wandering in and out of the show. In the 5th episode, they couldn’t even devote the usual 5 minutes to Joanie’s story.

Instead, they did a whole segment on Sierra, the mother of Helen’s deceased lover’s baby, Eddie. What a mess it was. Eddie is a fussy baby who cries almost all the time, except when someone other than Sierra is taking care of him. The crying is driving Sierra over the edge but rather than take Helen’s advice and hire help, she tries to hold Helen to a promise to help her take care of Eddie that Helen made to dying Vik. Sierra endangered little Eddie’s well-being several times in the episode. She left him alone in her car while auditioning for a role. She left him in the care of Stacey, Helen’s 12-year-old daughter, and went to work and an after-party. She didn’t return until 2 a.m. because she was dancing, snorting coke and getting it on with the up-and-coming director. Then she crashed her car into a dumpster with the baby in the backseat. She was the only one hurt but it certainly looked like she was hoping otherwise.

Sierra wasn’t the only one making demands on Helen. Vik’s mother, Priya, made Helen a white sari (the color of mourning) and wanted her to wear it for a year. Priya was shocked to learn that Helen already had another boyfriend. But that didn’t stop her from asking Helen to pretend to be Eddie’s mother when her estranged brother came to visit. Seriously! Where do these people get the nerve? Sasha encouraged her to set a boundary with Priya and Helen did.

In any event, everything is supposed to be ripple effects from the affair that Helen’s ex-husband Noah had with Alison. But the baby that Sierra had with Vik is not a ripple by any stretch. The baby is not related to Helen. Give the baby to Priya and stop it already!

Noah, of course, made his umpteenth unwanted appearance when he tracked Helen down to her client Carolina’s house to announce that he now realizes he loves her. He has always loved her and thinks they should get back together. Helen told him to fuggedaboutit. She doesn’t love him anymore and, what’s more, Sasha is a big improvement.

But is he? Helen got to see some of Sasha’s baggage when Christianna, the daughter of his deceased fiancée, showed up and appeared to want to mend her broken relationship with him. Helen was shocked by his harsh and dismissive treatment of the girl, at least until it turned out that Christianna really wanted $25 grand, which Sasha handed over on the spot. Sasha explained that Christianna was a user, like many who pretend to care about him but have ulterior motives. Only Helen is the real deal. “I love you,” he declared.

Helen soon got another negative Sasha vibe. Sasha was instrumental in revitalizing the career of Carolina’s husband, Barry. When Sasha’s name was attached to Barry’s script, it got the green light right away. But when Sasha and Helen went to Barry’s 60th birthday party, a better deal came up. He dropped Barry’s project and could not be persuaded to consider rescheduling. Carolina was devastated by this turn of events, so casually dropped. Helen felt it would wreck her new friendship with Carolina, but Sasha blew it off: “He’ll get someone else and he’ll probably win an Oscar.” He also told Helen that Carolina is not her friend and only hired her as a favor to Sasha. Helen went home to try to process all that only to find Stacey sleeping on the couch with little Eddie in a basket. Her bad day still wasn’t over. Priya showed up to dish out a nasty guilt trip.

Helen may not yet be ready to be as ruthless as Sasha in cutting people off when it is against his own self-interest, but she really needs to get Sierra and Priya out of her life. Helen knows her father is dying, for one thing. She doesn’t know it yet but her real daughter, Whitney, is probably going to need her very soon, too.