8.6

Awake: “Kate Is Enough” (Episode 1.04)

TV Reviews
Awake: “Kate Is Enough” (Episode 1.04)

Awake is such a strange breed of show. Personally, I can’t stand procedural shows. I have rarely ever watched CSI, NCIS, Law & Order or any other acronym shows, unless I was forced to. Procedurals bore me with their fill-in-the-blanks nature from episode to episode, which makes them perfect for syndication. It’s not so much the idea of the procedural that bothers me, it’s the fact that next week whatever crime has just been solved will not matter. Yet when Awake does it, I get excited about it. I enjoy the show’s constant flipping between realities and searching for clues in various forms. With “Kate Is Enough,” Awake is almost completely about the cases at hand, yet because the show is different enough to be refreshing, it pulls off its procedural aspects wonderfully.

While “Kate Is Enough” is for the most part procedural, the episode works as an overall metaphor for the struggle Britten has raging inside of him. In the red-tinted world, where his wife is alive, he runs into Kate, an old babysitter for his son Rex. She was onboard a boat in which a lingerie model died, and she is now a successful, powerful woman. In the blue-tinted world where his son is alive, he also runs into Kate, but here she is a failed actress who dated Charlie, a man known for his partying, who is now dead. In the red world, Kate is just a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time. The show even hints that there may be more than meets the eye to her in this reality, which never comes to fruition. In the blue world, she becomes a main suspect in the death of Charlie and turns out she orchestrated a botched robbery that ended with a dead ex.

What changed Kate? What made her such polar opposites in each reality? That is where Awake shines, by discovering the differences in these worlds and the choices we make. In both worlds, Kate’s sister died in a freak surfing accident. Successful Kate’s mother had faith in her to grow from this experience, and Kate grew stronger with the tragedy. Failed actress Kate gave up, turned to drugs and withdrew from those who wanted to help. In one reality, Kate pushed forward. In the other, Kate gave up.

Awake is such a beautifully handled show that a seemingly unimportant crime with someone that Britten hardly knows becomes a powerful message about how his actions in both worlds can change those around him. He still needs to be there for his son and his wife, even if his loved ones are both stranded in separate realities. While Kate made a strong choice in each reality, Britten has made a choice to not make a choice, which is just as powerful.

Awake shows us from episode to episode that Britten cannot have his cake and eat it too. Both his wife and son are dealing with losses that he can’t comprehend or deal with since he technically hasn’t lost anyone. All he has to do is take a sleeping pill and BOOM—he’s back with the one he is missing. This is something that both his therapists try to address, yet Britten is clear in his decision. The therapists are becoming a source of unintentional fun, as one will clearly explain what Britten and the audience need to know and then be followed up by the other therapist completely and successfully contradicting everything the other has said. Awake isn’t making it easy for its fans, and that is a good thing.

Awake is clearly not a procedural, and it doesn’t feel like it wants to be one either. The show can have detective elements and make them so that they work in the context of the overall story, making it so the case is actually important to the show. “Kate Is Enough” deals with very little outside the two cases, yet the case speaks volumes about the show and its ideals in general. Even if Awake did end up taking the procedural route, it would probably be the first I would keep up with since it handles it just so damn well.

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