‘The Affair’ Season 3 Spoilers: Episode 4 Ends With Surprising Hookup; Cole Becomes Suspect In Noah’s Stabbing [RECAP]

Was I the only one screaming at Cole by the end of Sunday’s night episode of “The Affair?” Things seemed to be finally falling into place for Cole and his new wife Luisa, but he pretty much screwed everything up by the end of Season 3, episode 4. Not only did he cheat on Luisa, but he lied to the police. What’s Cole hiding?

As with past episodes of the Showtime series, Sunday’s show was broken down into two narratives and this time it focused on Cole and Alison. Although their narratives centered around the same events, their points of view were drastically different.

Cole:

Cole’s (Joshua Jackson) point of view starts with him hooking up with someone. We assume it’s his wife, but we’re wrong. It’s Alison (Ruth Wilson). Thankfully, Cole was just dreaming and he awakes to Luisa (Catalina Sandino Moreno) sleeping soundly next to him. Cole’s daughter Joanie comes into the room and jumps on the bed. As Luisa is playing with Joanie, Cole is staring off into the distance.

At breakfast, Cole and Luisa are going over last minute preparations for Joanie’s fifth birthday party. Alison is coming to the party, but Luisa isn’t happy about it. She tells Cole that she’s going to pick Joanie up later and drop her off for her play date with Alison and also pick up the birthday cake from the store but Joanie tells her step-mom that Alison said she was going to bake a cake. Luisa asks Cole if he knew Alison was bringing a cake and he says no.

Later, Luisa calls Cole and tells him that she’s stuck at work so he’s going to have to pick Joanie up and take her to see Alison. He agrees and takes Joanie to meet up with her mom. When Alison says she wants to take Joanie to the park, Cole asks if he can come. At the park, everything is going fine until Joanie tries to climb on top of the monkey bars. Alison starts freaking out and wants Joanie to come down immediately. A social worker is also at the park supervising Alison’s visit and takes notes of the situation.

The next day, Alison shows up to Joanie’s birthday party with her homemade cake in hand and is immediately greeted by her daughter and Cole. Alison and Cole chit chat and when Alison spots Luisa bringing out a birthday cake for Joanie, Cole apologizes. Later at the party, Cole lets Joanie ride one of the ponies but the little girl falls off. Both Luisa and Alison go to rush towards Joanie to help her, and Cole holds Luisa back, telling her to let Alison handle it. Luisa storms off and Cole goes to make sure Joanie is OK. He later goes and finds Luisa in the house. She’s mad he stopped her and grabs the cake Alison made and takes it outside.

After the party, Luisa and Cole get into an argument over Alison. Luisa doesn’t trust her and thinks Alison returned to take Joanie and Cole away. Cole assures her that Alison isn’t going to take him away from her. As they’re talking, there’s a knock on the front door. Cole answers it and its detectives asking Cole if he’s heard about what happened to Noah (Dominic West). They tell him that Noah was stabbed and ask where Cole was the night of the incident. Luisa comes to the door and says Cole was home with her that night. Before the detectives leave, Cole asks if Noah is alive and they tell him that Noah will recover. “Too bad” Cole utters as he shuts the door. When Cole returns to the kitchen, Luisa asks him where he was the night Noah was stabbed. When he doesn’t say anything, she walks away.

Cole later goes to Alison’s house and asks her why she never told him that Noah was out of prison. He tells that about the detectives and she says that they came by her house but she didn’t think they would question him too. Noah tells Alison that she better warn Noah that if he steps foot in their town he’ll kill him in broad daylight and invite the police to watch. It’s clear Cole still isn’t a fan of Noah’s. Alison insists she doesn’t talk to Noah anymore. Cole tells his ex that his life was going great until she and her drama showed up. Alison says she’s trying to make things right now and will leave him alone. Although Cole seems to despise Alison, he kisses her.

Alison:

Alison’s point of view picks up with her at the park with Joanie. It’s interesting that in her narrative she didn’t freak out over Joanie climbing to the top of the monkey bars. In fact, not only did she let Joanie climb to the top but she also nervously watched as her daughter walked across the bars to the other side. In her narrative, Cole and the social work lady are also sitting on the same bench deep in conversation. In Cole’s, the lady was sitting on a separate bench.

After the park, Alison asks Cole if he and the social work lady were talking about her and he tells that would be unethical. He says they were talking about the lady’s children. Alison also asks Cole if she can bake a cake for Joanie’s party and wants to know if Joanie could spend the night at her house — unsupervised — the night of her birthday. Cole says he’s going to have to talk to Luisa about Joanie spending time along with Alison and agrees to let her make the cake but tells her to stay away from nuts because Luisa is allergic.

Back at Alison’s home, she starts baking her cake for Joanie and is seen searching through her cabinets for ingredients for the frosting. She grabs sugar and then spots a jar of peanut butter. She grabs that too. As she’s about to open the peanut butter, she gets a knock on the door. The detectives want to know if she’s been in contact with Noah and she tells them they haven’t spoken in almost a year. The detectives then tell her that Noah’s been stabbed. Alison appears shocked — but not really — and asks the detectives if they know who stabbed her estranged husband. They say they have a few leads and asks her if Cole was with her the night of the stabbing. She says no. Before the detectives leave, Alison tells them that she doesn’t want to be involved in Noah’s incident because of her custody drama.

She heads back into the kitchen and grabs her phone. She scrolls through it and listens to a voicemail Noah left her the night he was stabbed.

The next day, Alison goes to Cole and Luisa’s home for the party but in her version of things Cole and her daughter don’t immediately approach her. Cole doesn’t even notice she’s there and Luisa seems mad Alison decided to show her face at the party. Oscar (Darren Goldstein) comes up to Alison and she asks him if Cole was at the last town council meeting. Oscar thinks about it and tells her no.

The other thing that is drastically different in Alison’s narrative is the scene with the pony. When Joanie gets on the pony to ride it around, Alison has a panic attack. When Joanie falls off she’s seen lying on the ground with blood on her mouth as someone yells to dial 911. Alison is having a full-blown panic attack, but Cole comes up to her to calm her down. It’s also revealed that Joanie wasn’t that hurt, it was all in Alison’s mind. Before Alison leaves the party, Luisa tries to give the cake back to Alison. She tells Alison that it was sweet of her to bake the cake but they won’t be eating it. Luisa also tells Alison that she makes Joanie nervous and the little girl is terrified that Alison will leave her again. Alison apologizes for what she did but says she doesn’t deserve to have Joanie taken away from her and she wants to be in Joanie’s life.

Later, Cole does come by Alison’s house but he’s angry that Alison sent the police to his home because she thinks he tried to kill Noah. Alison denies it, and Cole tells her to stop lying for once. Alison apologizes. Cole spots a dollhouse on Alison’s table and asks her if she made that for Joanie. Alison says she wanted to surprise their daughter with it when she spent the night and she starts apologizing for everything she’s done in the past. Alison’s narrative ends with Cole grabbing her hand and kissing her. Cole then takes Alison to her bedroom. The next morning, as Alison is getting ready to leave Luisa stops by and tells her that Joanie can spend the night at her house. Alison heads to the beach and as she’s riding her bike back home she sees Noah riding by in a car.