A review of tonight’s “Awake” coming up just as soon as I learn a hundred dollar lesson…
“Oregon” was the fourth episode produced, but got bumped by everyone’s desire to have “Kate Is Enough” air early in the order. It’s probably for the best, in that doing back-to-back episodes where Britten’s son was kidnapped in the first and Britten attracted the personal interest of a serial killer in the second would have felt like too much. Even spaced out a bit, it did feel like a bit much, and the first half of “Oregon” seemed too much like a conventional cop show. (And also an episode that, like both “The Little Guy” and “Guilty,” is much more interested in the green world’s case than the red’s.)
Things got a good bit more interesting in the second half, as Britten finally had to deal with the consequences of making so many investigative leaps in one timeline thanks to clues he got in the other. That’s something the show was going to have to deal with sooner or later, and putting Britten in a situation where it briefly turned him into the chief suspect generated some good tension.
And the final scenes raised some big questions going forward. I don’t expect Britten to actually go to Oregon – or, if he does, to stay long – if only because B.D. Wong and Wilmer Valderrama are regular castmembers and not guest stars, but the question of what happens if Britten’s living two very different lives, in different locales is among many interesting ones raised by this premise, and I’d like to see it explored a little.
And Gemini’s phone conversation with Britten opens a potential Pandora’s Box. When he says they both see the world sideways, does he mean that he’s also living two lives like Britten? (His whole gimmick, after all, is about duality.) Or just that both of them experience things that therapists and other people would view as complete fantasy? His line about hoping Britten doesn’t wake up suggests the latter (that he only exists in green world and doesn’t want to turn out to be a figment), but you never know, and that he’s going to Oregon – which is where Santoro was writing her book in green world, and where Hannah wants to move in red world – certainly says we’re not done with him yet.
I don’t know that Britten needs an arch-nemesis, but it’s early yet, and “Awake” is still figuring out exactly what kind of show it is, so we’ll see.
What did everybody else think?