RELATED STORIES The Affair Season 5 Premiere Recap: [Spoiler] Dies — Plus: We (Maybe?) Learn What Happened to Cole

The Affair Season 5 Premiere Recap: [Spoiler] Dies — Plus: We (Maybe?) Learn What Happened to Cole Affair Star on Ruth Wilson's Exit Ahead of Final Season: 'People Have Different Tolerances for Different Things'

The Affair is taking a quantum leap in its final season, with a key assist from new series regular Anna Paquin. As teased in our recent time warp-themed Blind Item, a portion of the Showtime drama’s fifth season will jump ahead roughly two or three decades in order to tell a story centered on Alison and Cole’s now-adult daughter Joanie Lockhart, played by True Blood vet Paquin. (FYI: When last seen, Joanie was 5-years-old; Paquin is 36.)

According to sources, Paquin’s Joanie returns to a climate-change ravaged Montauk to piece together the truth about what happened to her late mother (played by former cast member Ruth Wilson), bringing The Affair‘s five-season narrative full circle. Wilson’s Alison was killed off near the end of The Affair‘s fourth season, seemingly via suicide. However, in the penultimate Season 4 episode, it was revealed that she had died at the hands of love interest Ben (played by Ramón Rodríguez).

News of the The Affair‘s partial time jump comes amid a dramatic Season 5 cast shake-up. As previously reported, Joshua Jackson (Cole), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Luisa), Omar Metwally (Vik) and the aforementioned Wilson will not be back as series regulars. Cast members confirmed to return (for a present-day storyline) include Dominic West (Noah), Maura Tierney (Helen), Julia Goldani Telles (Whitney), Jadon Sand (Trevor) and Sanaa Lathan (Janelle).

Per The Affair‘s official Season 5 logline, the 10-episode farewell “will chronicle the aftermath of the [Season 4] finale’s horrific events and find the characters coming to terms with the consequences of their choices — as they make the realization that if they really want to change their futures they must first face the past. This final season is about how everything does really fall apart in the end, but somewhere in that wreckage, the seeds of change finally sprout.”

The Affair‘s fifth and final season will premiere on Showtime in 2019.