When Payton decided he needed her back (only when he learned she was marrying someone else), Alice tried to be strong. She told Payton that their relationship had been toxic for her, and that he could never love her the way her fiancé Thad could. "I’ve sort of come to believe that the way I love you really isn't healthy," she said. "It's more of an illness that you spend your whole life learning how to live with." When Alice stood up to leave, Payton called out to her. She stopped and added in a monotone, resigned voice, "Maybe we can have an affair or something." That tone is the one she uses through many of the first few episodes. But her tone was lighter in her brief scene with Thad. She smiled, she laughed. She looked different because, frankly, she seemed happy.