At the end of season 4 of The Affair, all the major characters wrapped up their storylines. The only one with something left to investigate seemed to be Helen (Maura Tierney), who had just learned that her terminally ill husband Dr. Vik (Omar Metwally) impregnated the next door neighbor. While there's some obvious messy drama there, she repaired things with her ex-husband Noah (Dominic West) and seemed fairly buttoned up herself. With Ruth Wilson mysteriously leaving the show (and the death of her character, Alison) and Joshua Jackson not expected to return as a series regular, half the cast departed at the end of season 4. But...it's not over. It's still not over.
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Anna Paquin will join The Affair in season 5, Deadline reports, and take on the role of Joanie, daughter of Alison (Wilson) and Cole (Jackson). As fans of the show will recall, Joanie was around pre-kindergarten age when we last saw her so, you guessed it, this means a big jump forward in time. But: twist! Tierney and West, along with some supporting cast, will be returning during season 5 so buckle up. The timelines in this twisty show are about to get even more confusing.
A grown-up Joanie is going to be making her return to Montauk, NY that will be appropriately climate-change ravaged in search of the real story of what happened to her mother. It's a brilliant story plan because we, the viewers, were left in season 4 with two possible ways that Alison died. Was she brutally murdered by her boyfriend Ben (Ramon Rodriguez), or not?
The mystery that kept us all talking back in August will rage on, hopefully with a firm answer, when the series returns. Now for the bad news: no return date has been set for the show at press time.
A bit of additional season 5 news: Helen will get a new love interest (you didn't think she'd stay with Dr. Vic after that, did you?) to be played by Claes Bang and he's described as "a charismatic movie star." Oh boy, Helen truly can't stop picking overachieving douche bag dudes, can she? Also returning will be Sierra (Emily Browning), the now-pregnant-by-her-ex neighbor with whom Helen had a brief affair. Please let them still be neighbors.