The Affair Recap: Wicked Ben Cruz Comes Clean – But Why? (S5 E7)

In the first half of Episode 7, Season 5 of “The Affair”, Whitney and Noah went to Montauk to plan an expensive wedding to Colin, the Irish bloke she’s been living with who will be deported unless Whitney says “I do.” We already know Noah thinks Whitney is marrying for the wrong reasons. So what does he do when he finds out that Whitney’s grandparents are broke? He jumps right in and wants to blow his recent book advance on a $20,000 tent and help Whitney cobble the remaining wedding necessities together. In the midst of that, Whitney confesses that she cheated on Colin, without saying it was with an ex-beau Noah hated– the inimitable Furkat. Somehow, that painful confession immediately morphed into an inquiry of why Noah left his happy family for Alison Bailey.

Julia Goldani Telles as Whitney and Dominic West as Noah

Perhaps we can assume that this is all meant to show that Whitney doesn’t trust men because of Daddy and she doesn’t trust herself because of Mommy. Will Whitney beat the odds that E.J. told Joanie are handed down? Who really cares? The real reason Whitney shouldn’t marry Colin is because he’s a deadbeat. What’s more– Noah isn’t going to have any money to pay for that tent or anything else, after he gets #me-too’ed.

The theory EJ said he is testing is how most children who have experienced early trauma become super sensitive, but, in some families, a black sheep “turns out to be extra resilient. So, like, instead of inheriting the anxiety of a trauma victim, they seem to inherit the resilience of a survivor.” Whitney certainly doesn’t seem to fit the survivor description at this point. In the second half of this episode, neither does Joanie.

Joanie paid a visit to Ben Cruz, the man who murdered her mother and got away with it. Ben is now running a haven for PTSD sufferers so Joanie pretended to be a PTSD victim named “Gabrielle.” She showed up and told Ben she needed his help. What followed was incredibly unbelievable, in the literal sense of the word. Ben went along with her charade, knowing who she was the whole time.

Tony Plana as Ben Cruz and Anna Paquin as Joanie Lockhart

She agreed to an “EMDR” session, signed a release and allowed Ben to tape record it. The traumatic episode she related was her version of the night Alison died. Ben put a stop to it and just straight up admitted to accidentally killing Alison. In the heat of their argument, he claimed, a heavy statue fell on Alison’s head and did her in. He chose to spend the rest of his life helping PTSD victims to make up for his sins but was now willing to put his fate in Joanie’s hands. “if you want to call the police right now,” Ben said, “I’ll give you my phone. If you want to kill me I’ll give you my gun.” Joanie graphically described how she would prefer to kill him by chopping off a certain part of his anatomy and letting him bleed to death.

Then she went off and discussed the situation with E.J. who pointed out that Ben is a psychopath who used Alison’s history of mental illness against her to get her death declared a suicide. Joanie showed up at Ben’s with two detectives but he was ready for that. He claimed she was a runaway patient, played the threat on the tape and showed them the signed release form. And we’re like “wasn’t she still Gabrielle Whoever when she signed that?” Ben told her to read it over and there was no way he could have known she would sign her real name, if that’s what she did.

It just got nuttier after that. The detectives left and Joanie raged about being set up — “the one person left alive who knows what you did.” Honestly, she didn’t know jack till he told her. She attacked him. He overpowered her and she wanted him to choke her but Ben declined to put her out of her pain. That’s all we can tell ya. We have no idea where they’re going with this storyline now!