He is the antithesis of her husband. Where her husband is cold and calculated, the lover is volatile, passionate, and dangerous. The affair scenes are electric, filmed (or written) with a sweaty, desperate energy. It feels like Cora is trying to feel something , anything, to prove she is alive.
Cora, seemingly, is neither. She is "normal." She is "human." And she is bored. cora the unfaithful housewife episode
Cora’s affair with the landscaper, Leo (a smoldering Harris Dickinson), begins not with a kiss, but with a question. “When did you stop wanting to be touched?” he asks her, mid-June, while pruning the hydrangeas. She doesn’t answer. She just hands him a glass of iced tea, her fingers brushing his. He is the antithesis of her husband
The episode opens with Cora (typically played by an actress with a sharp jawline and tired eyes, like a softer Annette Haven or a brunette Veronica Hart). She is ironing a shirt or vacuuming a rug. Her husband, "Roger" (always in a tie and glasses), comes home, kisses her forehead patronizingly, and ignores her attempts at conversation. He is more interested in his stock portfolio or his stamp collection. The mise-en-scène is sterile: pastel wallpaper, a cuckoo clock, and a sleeping cat. Cora looks out the window at a gardener or a pool boy. The audience understands: she is lonely, not just horny. It feels like Cora is trying to feel