Here's Where Season 4 of The Affair Left Off With Each Character

Noah tries to move forward with his life in season four. While teaching, he takes on a young protege, Anton — whose mother, Jenelle, also happens to be the principal and becomes Noah's latest romantic entanglement. Noah spends a good chunk of the season trying to be an inspiring mentor for Anton, but it all goes terribly wrong by the finale, where Anton embarrasses Noah in class by reading a piece of writing aloud that calls out Noah's narcissism and the affair with his mother, among other things. He does manage to end the season on a note of decency, though, when he reassures ex-wife Helen when she's doubting her feelings for her dying love Vik.

Alison's death loomed large over the fourth season, as flash-forwards revealed that the grief counselor would meet her demise sooner rather than later. Before we get to that point, however, the season puts her through the wringer, with her falling for Ben, a man with some serious, possibly violent trauma from going to war and from alcoholism; she also discovers that she is the product of rape.

The subject of her death is a complicated one, since we're shown two different narratives and not told which one is "true." In one, it's implied she took her own life; in the other, Ben is a much darker and violent character and murders her. By the time the season ends, we still aren't quite sure which version of events — if either — is the truth behind her death.

Helen is confronted early on with the news that her boyfriend, Vik, has been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. She repeatedly begs him to seek chemo and other treatment, but he refuses, although he does express a wish that they could have a child together before he dies. Instead, Helen is left to help pick up the pieces after Alison, her ex-husband's original lover/the ex-wife of her ex-lover, dies.

And that's not the only emotional web she's sucked into dealing with. Just after a heartfelt conversation with ex-husband Noah helps her realise just how much she really does love Vik, she learns that their neighbour Sierra (with whom she had a brief hookup) also hooked up with Vik and is consequently pregnant with his baby, even as he teeters on death from complications from his cancer.

Cole tries to move on with his life in this season, falling in love with Luisa, the woman who cared for his and Alison's daughter while he was out on soul-searching journeys. The shadow of his past marriage, as well as his and Alison's son who died accidentally, is too much for them in the end. That's only confirmed after Alison's death, which sends Cole into a spiral, to the point where he steals the urn of her ashes. Although his relationship with Luisa is technically over, he tells her he wants her to stay in their lives as a mother figure to his daughter, and that they'll get her citizenship. He then heads out on a trip with his family to parts unknown, marking his departure from the show in a less violent way than his ex-wife.

Vik spends most of the season trying to come to terms with his terminal cancer diagnosis and whether to fight or just give up. For the most part, he refuses treatment, but by the final episode, he's taken a turn for the worse when his tumor begins causing enormous pain by pressing on his other organs. Vik begins to regret his choices, especially upon seeing how much pain his refusal to fight has caused Helen. After a near-death experience, Helen brings their neighbour Sierra into Vik's room so she can tell him the truth: Sierra is pregnant, from a brief fling with Vik, and he'll have a child left behind as well.