Diksha Sundriyal
HBO Max’s ‘Love and Death’ is a crime drama that starts with an affair. Candy Montgomery is bored in her marriage, and Allan Gore feels things between him and his wife, Betty, have gone cold. When Candy proposes the idea of an affair, Allan thinks long and hard about it and eventually accepts. For almost a year, Candy and Allan meet in a motel room every other week and grow to enjoy each other’s company. They are so careful that no one finds out about them. Their spouses have no idea what they have been up to all this while. But then, one day, they decide to end things.
Candy Struggled with Emotional Attachment
Before Candy and Allan officially started their affair, they laid down some ground rules. Both agreed that hurting their spouse was the last thing they wanted. Allan was in love with his wife, and Candy had no intention of leaving Allan. Even though Betty had once cheated on him, Allan knew that his affair would completely break her. She already had a nervous disposition that made it difficult for him to travel for work.
Candy wanted the affair to spice things up in her life that had grown too humdrum. She didn’t want any emotional attachments. The bottom line was to have fun for a while and then part ways. After giving a lot of thought to the pros and cons, she and Allan agreed on the conditions that would mean an end to their affair. Of the many dos and don’ts they came up with, two were considered the topmost priority. If one of them were to get too attached, the affair would end. If one of them wanted to call things off, the affair would end, no questions asked. When the time came, these two rules proved to be very useful.
The doubts about the affair first came to Candy. She started to feel she was getting too involved with Allan. Things were getting emotional for her, which she didn’t want to begin with. She thought if they didn’t stop, she would fall in love with Allan, which would complicate things. She mentioned this to Allan at one point, but he reassured her that they could see where things go, and if she still felt the same, they could end it. It was all supposed to be temporary anyway.
Reportedly, another thing that convinced Candy the affair was running its course was the sex. A while into the affair, she realized it wasn’t going to get any better. On top of that, the hassle was too much. They met every other week, on a weekday, meaning that Candy had to drop her children off at school, prepare lunch (which was part of their agreement) and then drive out of town. However, she and Allan continued meeting until Allan broached the subject months later.
The affair started around the time Betty was pregnant with their second child. As the delivery date inched closer, Allan became conscious about how he would need to be available at a moment’s notice when Betty’s water broke. He told Candy they’d have to stop meeting for a while, and she agreed. The arrival of their daughter changed things for Allan. The time and energy he spent with Candy made him feel guilty. He knew he needed to be more present with his family. One night, when Betty, surprisingly, tried to initiate sex, Allan couldn’t reciprocate. It made him feel all the guiltier. Soon after, he met with Candy and brought up the subject of ending the affair.
Candy, however, found it a little difficult to let go. She’d grown to like Allan a little too much, and the thought of not getting to meet and talk with him weighed on her. Allan agreed not to call quits on it immediately but to give it more thought. When he and Betty went away for the weekend to Marriage Encounter, he knew where his priorities lay. When he returned, it was clear he had lost all interest in pursuing Candy as a romantic interest. Eventually, she accepted that Allan’s heart was not in it anymore. She was also getting too invested than it was worth, so she agreed that the affair had died down, and they ended things.
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