Whew, quite an episode 5.9 of The Affair tonight - the headline of which would be: Helen realizes that Sasha is responsible for Noah's lynching in the press, but Whitney is still furious with Noah for what he did to her and their family.

Unpacking this ... Helen realizes that Sasha wanted Noah's name and influence exorcised from his (Sasha's) movie, so Sasha seized an opportunity to make connections to make that happen.  Since Sasha's a master at publicity, it pretty much worked, and also had the benefit of pulling Helen further away from Noah.

Whitney's story is more complex.   She at first comes to her father's defense when she confronts one his accusers, on a plane to LA (ok, my late and brilliant editor David Hartwell always said that readers would allow one very unlikely coincidence in a story, and I think this applies to movies and TV series as well).  Noah's accuser, Audrey, was his student right after he was released from prison.  He put down her writing with a declaration that she had "no inner life".  It devastated her, and now she's joined the women who say Noah demeaned women.

As Whitney tells Audrey, ok, so my father was a "shitty" teacher, but that doesn't he deserves this kind of public destruction - losing his name on his movie, losing his new book deal, etc., so you can some big publicity for your book.  Audrey's not convinced.   But later, back in LA, when Helen tries to explain that all of this was her fault - because she inadvertently gave Sasha a rope to hang Noah - it turns out that Whitney's not convinced, either.  She recalls a scene from several seasons back when Noah joined her in a steamy hot tub, not realizing she was Audrey.  And she saw the way Noah looked at her and friend - like "prey" was the word Whitney used.   And this visceral recollection touched all the pain she carried inside her about Noah breaking up their family.

My take at this point:  I would say, in general, looks and thoughts don't and shouldn't count.  Words count, and actions even more.  And for the kind of blowing up of his life Noah is enduring now, he should have been guilty of actions - as he apparently was not with Eden.

More after the next episode, next week.