HOUSTON – And here we are, in the final moments of this, the first and only season of Awake. We've been through a lot this season, haven't we? Traumatic deaths, strange penguin hallucinations, betrayal, paralyzing fear of color blindness… red or green…? RED OR GREEN?! I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
We start off in the green reality, where Creepy Chief Lady (also known as Trish Harper) is calling Ominous Suit Man (AKA Captain Carl Cessel), and I don't think it's for official police business. Although handcuffs were involved… There's a little sexy talk, and she convinces him to meet her at a shady motel. Meanwhile, Detective Bird goes to the storage locker to look for the evidence that will prove Michael's not crazy/condemn Cessel/Hawkins. And lo and behold, we find heroin! Huzzah! Back at the motel, Ominous Suit Captain has been handcuffed to the bed whilst Creepy Chief Hobag puts on her Murder 4 Dummies ensemble. She tells him that he and Hawkins have been discovered, and he gets the inkling he might not be getting lucky after all. She comes out, shoots him in the head, leaves juuust enough evidence to screw her over, and walks out. A little while later, everyone reconvenes at the motel to find Cessel dead, and they call it suicide without much more of a thought. You know, why not? Michael has a little heart to heart with Creepy Chief Lady and thanks her for believing in him. What a sap.
Things are slightly less sunny in the red reality. Michael's all kinds of shot up, Hawkins finds him and puts him in the back of his car, has a convo with Ominous Suit Man, offers to end it right then and there and then tells Michael he can see his boy soon. Well nobody talks about Michael's dead son and walks away from it. In a demonstration of superhuman ninja strength, Michael kicks Hawkins in the head, crashes the car, takes the keys and walks away. Now where would you go in this kind of crisis? Obviously you'd go see Dr. Lee. After the doc patches him up, Michael does the only sensible thing and abducts Dr. Lee, taking him to the storage facility where they found the heroin in the green reality so he can prove he's not crazy. Unfortunately for our hero, the drugs ain't there. Michael sees Dr. Lee trying to call 911 so he smashes the phone, locks Dr. Lee in the storage unit and runs off. All to prove he's not crazy. As he's on the run, Michael calls Vega and tells him to start gathering evidence, but Vega's not playing ball unless he can come see Michael himself. Michael tells Vega to get the Creepy Chief Lady to help them because "she's the only one we can trust now." BAD CALL, MICHAEL. So, of course, Vega goes to CCL, tells her what he needs, she says Michael's a nut job, Vega doesn't believe her, so she brings in the big guns. No one argues with a shrink. Dr. Lee, who has clearly been rescued from the storage facility, tells Vega that Michael is officially, no doubt in his mind CRAY CRAY, and Vega tells everyone where Michael is hiding. They arrest Michael, get him some medical attention, and then send him to the clink. CCL goes to visit Michael in jail and, during their conversation, gets a call from Ed Munt. Wait… where have we seen that name before? Oh yes, it's Cessel's sexy time pseudonym. Cessel… plus Creepy Chief Lady… EQUALS MURDEROUS BETRAYAL. Then Michael actually does go crazy and starts choking Creepy Chief Lady to death, but the guards walk in just in the nick of time to save her. Shame. Cue montage of Michael acting like a psycho.
But then Michael has a visitor. Who could this be? Why it's none other than HIMSELF. They chit chat, and decide they have to unite in order to take down CCL. It would appear we're in a dream state, because all the doors magically open and Michael can just walk out of jail while his therapists argue about who's the better shrink behind him. Dr. Evans calls this a breakthrough, Dr. Lee calls it a breakdown, blah blah psycho babble. Michael walks out of jail and into the scene in the motel room where CCL kills Cessel, while Vega dressed in a penguin suit narrates. I swear. I couldn't make this up. Penguin Vega points out CCL's broken heel tip so Michael can pin her in the green reality. Hannah appears, sitting at a restaurant table, and she and Michael have a moment. They kiss, and she tells Michael to "go and get her." Then, Michael walks through yet another door to his bedroom in the green reality where he sees himself sleeping and THE MICHAELS MERGE! So then the green reality was the real one all along!? Whoda thunk it.
Michael goes into work and has a chat with CCL in her office. Would you believe the lady is still wearing the same heels? Michael confronts her, gets emotional, pulls his gun and just when we think he's about to kill her, he hands her over to Internal Affairs instead. Oh well.
So we're back in Dr. Evans' office to wrap things up, when she freezes. As in she pauses. Like you would pause your TV. Then a door opens and Michael walks into his bedroom again… WHAT?! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?! Michael doesn't have a wristband… IS EVERYONE DEAD?! Nope. Turns out, EVERYONE'S ALIVE! Wait. What? Really? What kind of ending is that?! I guess that's what happens when your show doesn't get renewed for a second season.
And thus concludes our coverage of NBC's Awake.
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