Alison is arguably the most pained character on The Affair and this episode really sees her dust off the many skeletons that are in her closet. Alison both begins and ends “404” in a very healthy place. It’s surprising how pleasant it is to see Alison and Noah act respectfully towards each other and exhibit a normal “healthy” relationship considering some of the massive violations of trust that she’s put him through in the past. This speaks to the idea that every failure doesn’t have to be a flaming disaster and that friendly relationships and growth can still come from mistakes.

The Affair usually spends so much time rubbing these characters’ broken pasts in their faces like they’re misbehaving animals, so it’s nice to actually see productivity come from that place. Noah and Alison’s relationship burned hot and hard until there was nothing left and although he may not be entirely over her, what their relationship has grown into is a lot more palatable than how he and Helen interact.

One of the many leaps that Alison decides to take in this episode is that she attends a PTSD conference. Alison learns about the depths of psychological healing and that festering and damage can happen that prevent this healing from taking place if there are certain mental obstacles set up. The premiere’s look at Alison made her appear to be a healthier and competent individual, but she seems to believe that she’s suffering from this psychological blockage on some level. Accordingly, she opens herself up to a form of hypnosis and other strategies that the conference pushes.

It’s a pretty huge coincidence that both Alison and Ben would be at this conference and run into each other (although not impossible with Ben’s veteran status), but the episode wants to breeze right past this convenience.

This season of The Affair seems to continually want to portray Alison and Ben’s romance like some sort of fairytale adventure. His debut in “402” played into this formula and Alison gets giddy and acts like his attendance at the conference is destiny. The two even have a discussion about premonition and supernatural forces. Admittedly, this is Alison’s pattern and she falls into this behavior a lot, but this will likely become more complex when Ben’s true intentions are revealed.