The psychology of infidelity states that though there can be a number of reasons why a person decides to cheat, the most common one is being dissatisfied with the current state of things, and that is what happened with Candy Montgomery and Allan Gore in the HBO original “Love & Death.” Candy and Allan had known each other for a very long time, but they never felt or did anything that would breach the sanctity of their respective marriages. But one fine day, they felt a spark, and from then on, everything changed forever. They were normal churchgoers, but behind that cooperative behavior lay deep-rooted feelings of discontentment, and eventually, we realize their perfect lives are a mere illusion. So, let’s find out how it all started and what led Candy to make a decision so contrary to her inherent nature.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Was Candy Attracted To Allan?
“Love & Death” at the beginning of the first episode takes us inside a house in Wylie, Texas, where we see strains of blood on the walls and the floor. We realize that something bad happened there, though we are never told exactly what transpired. We are taken two years back in time and made privy to the members of a traditional Methodist community who had to come to the church with their families. We are introduced to the members who pretended to be these morally upright religious people but, deep down, had their own dark secrets and were capable of doing things that even they didn’t think they had the potential for. Something that we often notice in these religious communities is that they try to suppress their own feelings and go against their intrinsic nature, only to fail in the end and realize that religion was never meant to make an individual feel claustrophobic and trapped. Religion was meant to guide a person and show them the light at the end of the tunnel. But somehow, through our own twisted interpretation, we changed its entire essence and narrowed down its scope so much that it started looking like progress and religion could never go hand in hand.
Candy was very good friends with Pastor Jackie, and both of them always shared everything with each other. Jackie told Candy that after 23 years of marriage, she was getting a divorce, and she was worried about the kind of opinion the people of the community would have about her when they heard the news. The mere thought that a person could get out of a marriage if they didn’t feel like carrying on with it did something to Candy. Her relationship with her husband, Pat Montgomery, had become very platonic over time. There was nothing that they both looked forward to, and they couldn’t even spend an hour with each other without getting bored and dozing off to sleep. Pat had stopped seeing Candy the way he used to, and both of them had started taking each other for granted. They didn’t crave each other’s company, and they were oblivious to what went on inside the other person’s mind.
During a community volleyball match in “Love and Death” Episode 1, something happened that changed the lives of Candy and Allan. Allan accidentally nudged Candy while playing the match, and Candy fell to the ground. In that minuscule amount of time, there was unease, a kind of restlessness, in the air, and it changed Candy’s outlook toward Allan forever. From that day on, she could never see him platonically, and something stirred inside her as soon as he came in front of her. Allan Gore was totally ignorant of what Candy was feeling at that point, and he never expected that a beautiful married woman like her could feel infatuated with him. Candy was someone who didn’t like beating around the bush. She never shied away from her own feelings, and she was the kind of person who liked dealing with them and finding a remedy in case they became problematic. Candy was tired of contemplating the possibilities of what could happen between her and Allan, and she decided to do something about it. So, after talking her heart out to Sherry and Jackie, Candy decided that she would tell Allan about what she was feeling and get rid of the burden. One day, she directly approached Allan and told him that she liked him and wouldn’t mind if they had an extramarital affair.
Do Candy And Allan Have An Extramarital Affair?
After that confession, a seed of infidelity was sown inside Allan’s mind as well. He and his wife, Betty, had been trying for another child for quite some time, and Betty had gotten pregnant recently. Betty had once had an extramarital affair, and Allan knew how much it hurt him to know that his wife had not been loyal to him. He said that he didn’t want to subject his wife to the same trauma, but deep inside, he wanted to cross the boundaries and indulge in the same manner as Candy wanted. Allan didn’t have the courage to take the lead, and Candy knew about it. He was pretending to be morally upright, but it was all a scam, and he was itching to be with Candy and be as depraved and corrupt as he could be. Candy’s bluntness had opened a dam of desire inside Allan, and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop now, even if he wanted to. Candy and Allan met for lunch, and they talked about setting certain rules that they would have to follow at all costs if they wanted to have an extramarital affair. They knew the risks involved in what they were trying to do, which is why they took all the precautions they could.
If anybody had asked Candy to do a similar thing a few years ago, she would probably have given that person her piece of mind. But Candy had reached her threshold, and she was so dissatisfied with her current life that it didn’t seem wrong. The thought that there was nothing more to look forward to and that life would remain the same until the day she died made her feel anxious. She had been a model wife, the way society and her religion wanted her to be, but the gratification she got fell short by a mile. Towards the end of “Love & Death” Episode 1, we saw that Allan and Candy met in a motel outside the town, broke the shackles that were holding them back, and kicked off an affair that would probably define their fate in the future.
