This past August, The Affair’s executive producers revealed that the steamy Showtime drama will get a makeover for its third season, which premieres this November. The most significant change, they said, is that the third season will be told from five perspectives, in lieu of the previous season’s four: those of Noah (Dominic West), Alison (Ruth Wilson), Helen (Maura Tierney), and Cole (Joshua Jackson). The fifth perspective will be one of an entirely new character played by French actress Irène Jacob, who will portray a new love interest for Noah. (As if he needed more romantic complications.) And the first trailer for The Affair’s new season, which debuted on Friday, gives audiences their first glimpse of this new character.
Judging from the first sneak peek, though, Jacob is just one of many major change-ups in the show’s third season. It looks as though audiences will be re-united with *The Affair’*s characters as Noah finishes serving his three-year prison sentence for a crime that he did not commit. (As viewers remember, Season 2 ended by revealing that it was Helen who killed Scott by driving drunk with Noah in the passenger seat. Alison, who was on the side of the road at the time, pushed Scott into oncoming traffic during the argument.) Baby Joanie is walking and talking. And Noah’s family—aside from Helen—has seemingly given up on their lying, cheating, believed-to-be-a-criminal father. Noah seems to get his groove back quickly post-prison, and the trailer ends with a flurry of dramatic plot twists: A medical emergency! A death threat! More stolen glances in Montauk!
This past summer, Tierney teased that the new season will be about “all of the [characters] kind of dealing with the consequences once again of their actions in the previous season. Everybody [killed Scotty], not just Helen. Because Alison pushed him and Cole wouldn’t let them be apart. Everybody played a role. Noah wouldn’t drive—so we all did it. It’s not only Helen’s fault.”
Series co-creator Sarah Treem also promised that the new season would explore ”the dark sides” of each of the drama’s characters.
Take a look above and mark your calendars for November 20, when the new season premieres on Showtime.
