As well-handled a show as Awake has proven itself to be so far, there are some glaring problems that have already started to poke up. Michael Britten is able to use clues that he shouldn’t have any knowledge of to solve crimes, yet no one does much to call him out on this. Also, as Michael can attest to, people change, especially after major trauma, like say a car crash that kills a loved one. No matter how hard he tries, his son Rex and wife Hannah are going to change because essentially, that is life. “Oregon” deals with both of these issues in an episode of Awake that seems to set up some important issues in future episodes.
In the world with his wife, Michael discovers that his wife wants desperately to move to Portland to try a new beginning. He doesn’t realize how serious she is until he finds an estimate on how much it would cost from a moving company. When he brings it up with his therapist, he states that this is how most marriages break up, especially since his has been on the rocks even prior to the car accident. People grow, people change, and Michael will have to deal with that. However once he brings up his worries with Hannah, she reassures him that she would never make the move without him since he reminds her so much of Rex. Michael agrees that he will move to Portland if it will help Hannah.
In the son world, Michael finds a corpse when he goes on a run, which has all the signs of being the work of a serial killer named the Gemini, who was thought to have been killed years ago. They bring in Agent Santoro, whose only case was the Gemini case and who shot and killed the man she believed to be the Gemini and is now writing a book on the case. She believes this new murderer is a copycat, but Michael believes that the original Gemini was never caught. While searching for the Gemini, he uses clues he received in his other reality to solve the case. Of course this is unusual, and the rest of the police think this is quite suspicious, even to the point where they believe he may be the Gemini. When the real Gemini kidnaps Santoro, Michael and his partner Freeman find her yet lose the Gemini. The Gemini has broken into Michael’s house and into his therapist’s office, so now he knows all about Michael’s secrets and problems. When we last see the Gemini, he is boarding a plane, on the way to Portland.
“Oregon” is great at addressing many of the problems brought up thus far in the show. It also handles how things will change if Michael continues this dual life. How will Michael be able to handle living in two different cities? Or what if Rex goes away to college? These are some quite interesting changes that will completely alter Michael’s realities even more.
This also blends perfectly into where the show could go next. Living in two different cities will certainly change Michael’s perspective, right? And what of the Gemini moving into a city in one reality where Michael should be moving in the other? What does all that mean? In a show that already weekly asks interesting questions, “Oregon” poses even more, but never in a way that feels overwhelming or like the show is stretching its material too thin.