There’s Bruce’s anecdote about using tennis (or swimming) as a procrastination tool, keeping him from writing, and when Bruce was forced to confront what he was doing, he didn’t play tennis again for a year. Noah is also using swimming as a procrastination tool, but not towards writing, but towards his life; towards reality as he doesn’t want to face Helen, his actual family, and the creeping thoughts of Ruth that get into him. He does it the first thing in the morning, before his day already begins, before reality has already invaded him with its undertow. This is when he needs to do it.

Bruce’s presence is finally settling in and feeling comfortable by now, and he’s a nice, welcome force in the house, bantering about with Noah, taking pride for phone calls that had nothing to do with him, but still wanting the accolades, and briefly tricking you into thinking you were watching The Wire again for a split second. He may not be a fundamental aspect of the show, at least not yet, but he’s at least integrating in better at this point and feeling like more of a mainstay.

Noah has a meeting set up with a publisher, and Noah’s description of his book to Harry, talking about the commercialization and exploitation of small American towns until the point of becoming self-parodies and overly commodified, might as well be this show’s treaty on marriage itself. It’s constantly talking about what marriage is as it continues to warp and skew the idea until what on face value is the happiest, most American marriage, is the biggest sham and parody of them all. It’s like entering one of these sell-out towns and commenting on how authentic the over-manufactured architecture is, just like how Harry tells Noah that he has an honest, trusting face. It’s all constructed.

It’s even more depressing when a plan-less Noah basically describes the affair that he hopes to have as his great American novel, almost as a means to retroactively justify it and walk away with something from the experience if all of this is left in shambles. “I’ve read it before,” says Harry, showing that Noah’s feelings are far from original. That this great American novel and great American marriage’s bankruptcy are just par for the course.

It’s enjoyable enough at this point to see how Noah maybe sets himself on a pedestal with all of this. He even goes to the public library and ogles his picture on the book jacket of his former work (until he’s thrown by the inspirational quote to Helen in it). Helen’s mother says that idealism is for young men, but it’s clearly still rampant in Noah, as he balances having his cake and eating it too, viewing himself as invincible so to speak. Cole makes a point of bringing up greed at the town council meeting, and that’s exactly what’s going on here with Noah, independently of what’s trying to take over Montauk. Last episode (and this one) Noah’s going on about how he’d never actually do anything physical with Alison, that he was above that, and yet it eventually occurs. The reckoning that happens when Helen finds out about Noah’s infidelity will be huge, but the one that takes place when Noah accepts that he’s as ordinary as they come and is far from special, may be even bigger.