Emmy contenders: Maura Tierney dishes on ‘The Affair’

Showtime’s marital drama “The Affair” ended its first season five months ago and we haven’t stopped stewing over many of the questions its finale left unanswered. Did Noah murder Scotty Lockhart? How on Earth does Noah leave his family, moments after they’ve been held at gunpoint, for his lover, Alison? And really ... that’s the final straw for Noah’s long-suffering wife, Helen, right?

Fortunately, Maura Tierney dropped by The Times’ studio recently to help us sort through these questions and discuss what’s going on with her character, Helen, as the show gets back to the future in the upcoming second season.

The good news: Season 2 will give us events from Helen’s perspective, though perhaps not in the way Tierney imagines.

“I made a joke that when we go to Helen’s POV, everyone’s giant, weird puppets like Mummenschanz, like Helen’s insane,” Tierney said. “But they’re not going to do that, no.”

Tierney talked about why couples seem incapable of watching “The Affair” together, the ways that Helen might change (expect “radical departures,” per show creator Sarah Treem) now that her world has come crashing down, and what it was like to catch up with former “ER” costar Julianna Margulies when Tierney guested on “The Good Wife.”

Twitter: @glennwhipp