What I Saw: Awake the Last Episode
I had speculated earlier what might happen in the last episode of Awake. And I was wrong.
Awake was a show about a police detective who had been in a car crash that had killed a member of his family. The police detective never slept because when he fell asleep he was in one reality where his wife had died in the car crash, and then when he fell asleep, he was in the other reality where his son had died in the car crash. He alternated between realities and lived in each one---working police cases and facing family problems that were reflected in the mirrors of each reality.
In each reality, there was a police conspiracy that stole drugs from the criminal world and resold them. I assumed that in one of the worlds, because of an expensive wrist watch that the police detective had, that he had been involved in the conspiracy in one of the worlds and therefore was the cause of the death of one of his family members. In the mirror world, he had been investigating, the police conspiracy and the car crash had been caused by the conspirators to throw him off their trail.
The later scenario proved to be the correct one for both worlds. The police detective solved the case in both worlds which had the same conspirators and the same scope. But the ending for each world is different. In one world, the police detective is framed by the police conspirators because he finally figures the conspiracy out and ends in jail for the murder of his former partner. In the other world, the police detective takes down the police conspiracy and wins a commendation for his work. But, in both worlds, the police detective still has lost either his wife or his son in the car crash.
In one world, the worst possible thing happens, the detective solves the case but loses his what is left of his family and his reputation and his freedom to act. In the other world, the detective again solves the case and avenges the death of his wife and becomes the hero. The best possible outcome for the situation occurs.
In the last episode, after the case is solved in both worlds, the police detective goes to sleep and wakes up again. But he is in a New World where both his wife and his son are alive. In one of the worlds, the detective discusses with his therapist as he attempts to discover which world is real and which one is a dream, that perhaps both worlds are dreams that the police detective is dreaming within a dream. This is rather like a P. K. Dick novel. Both worlds are altered states of consciousness, and reality is a difficult and slippery concept to grasp for both the protagonist and the viewer.
The police detective has slipped into another world that he is dreaming.
The police detective was never Awake. He was always Asleep and Dreaming. The show should have been called Dream State.
Why does the police detective live in his dreams? Is he Really a police detective?
In a way, I could see why this show was about a police detective---his greatest case to solve was: What is Reality?
But also, it is TV and cop shows get the ratings. But I thought that it was appropriate that this was a cop show because it did cop out in the end. We never got anywhere near reality or the solution.
ETA: I watched this last episode with two viewing companions who had never watched the show before and their attention was riveted to the screen. One of them even stopped texting to watch.