Today's addition to the Sobel Wiki is "Victoria's Secret (Part 5)" by Jonathan Edelstein, the continuing story of the sedition trial of Victoria Madoka in the former British colony of Victoria. In today's vignette, the outlawed Victorian National Congress holds a demonstration for Madoka on 4 April 1973.
This vignette was originally posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 23 April 2002.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
FAN #51D: "Victoria's Secret (Part 4)" by Jonathan Edelstein
Part 4 of Jonathan Edelstein's "Victoria's Secret" is now up at the For All Nails page of the Sobel Wiki. In today's vignette, Victorian Prime Minister Richard Patten gets a lesson in the realities of coalition politics.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 20 March 2002.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 20 March 2002.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
FAN #51C: "Victoria's Secret (Part 3) by Jonathan Edelstein
Part 3 of Jonathan Edelstein's "Victoria's Secret" is now up at the For All Nails page of the Sobel Wiki. With the start of Victoria Madoka's trial for sedition less than two months away, reactions continue to spread in the former British colony of Victoria.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 18 March 2002.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 18 March 2002.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
FAN #51B: "Victoria's Secret (Part 2)" by Jonathan Edelstein
Part 2 of "Victoria's Secret" by Jonathan Edelstein has been posted to the For All Nails page of the Sobel Wiki. "Victoria's Secret Part 2" follows some of the reactions to Victoria Madoka's indictment for sedition, and takes a look at the unstable political situation in the former British colony of Victoria.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 2 February 2002. (Was is just a coincidence that part 2 of "Victoria's Secret" was first posted on 02/02/02? You'll have to ask Jonathan.)
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 2 February 2002. (Was is just a coincidence that part 2 of "Victoria's Secret" was first posted on 02/02/02? You'll have to ask Jonathan.)
Monday, May 7, 2012
FAN #51A: "Victoria's Secret (Part 1) by Jonathan Edelstein
The Johnny Pez blog now presents Part 1 of Jonathan Edelstein's sprawling epic For All Nails vignette, "Victoria's Secret", which was posted this morning at the Sobel Wiki.
Some background: in For Want of a Nail, Sobel mentions a British colony called Victoria, but he doesn't say where it is. Jonathan decided that Victoria should be our own worlds's Kenya, even though Sobel refers to Kenya as Kenya on page 189. At any rate, Jonathan's Victoria has much in common with our world's Rhodesia, and "Victoria's Secret Part 1" finds a black Victorian lawyer named Victoria Madoka in court, being charged with sedition in February 1973.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 29 January 2002.
Some background: in For Want of a Nail, Sobel mentions a British colony called Victoria, but he doesn't say where it is. Jonathan decided that Victoria should be our own worlds's Kenya, even though Sobel refers to Kenya as Kenya on page 189. At any rate, Jonathan's Victoria has much in common with our world's Rhodesia, and "Victoria's Secret Part 1" finds a black Victorian lawyer named Victoria Madoka in court, being charged with sedition in February 1973.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 29 January 2002.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
FAN #46: "NUBS Presents 'Insight' " by Dan McDonald
Today's addition to the Sobel Wiki is another vignette from the For All Nails project, FAN #46: "NUBS Presents 'Insight' " by Dan McDonald. The vignette consists of the transcript of a 60 Minutes - like newsmagazine show broadcast on September 17, 1972. The show looks at Kramer Associates, the world's largest corporation, ten years after K.A. scientists detonated the world's first atomic bomb.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 3 January 2002.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 3 January 2002.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
FAN #44D: "Ireland's End" by Randy McDonald
Today, the Johnny Pez blog is honored to highlight the latest addition to the Sobel Wiki: For All Nails vignette #44D, "Ireland's End" by Randy McDonald. The vignette consists of a story filed by a Montreal journalist, André-Philippe Maeterlinck, about his visit to Ireland in October 1972.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 11 June 2003.
This vignette was first posted to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup on 11 June 2003.
Friday, May 4, 2012
FAN #44C: "On Brittany's Shores" by Randy McDonald
As noted before, I have resumed work on the Sobel Wiki, an online encyclopedia of the alternate timeline of Robert Sobel's counterfactual history For Want of a Nail. Every day, for as long as I can manage, I'll be posting at least one new article. Currently, I am concentrating on vignettes from the For All Nails project, and today's vignette is FAN #44C: "On Brittany's Shores" by Randy McDonald. The vignette consists of a story filed by a Montreal journalist, André-Philippe Maeterlinck, about his visit to Brittany in September 1972.
When Randy first sent a rough draft of this vignette to myself and the rest of the FAN Cabal ten years ago, I suggested that he give it the title "Brittany's Spears". Sadly, Randy eventually decided not to go there, but the reader can see in the fifth paragraph just how close he came.
When Randy first sent a rough draft of this vignette to myself and the rest of the FAN Cabal ten years ago, I suggested that he give it the title "Brittany's Spears". Sadly, Randy eventually decided not to go there, but the reader can see in the fifth paragraph just how close he came.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
FAN #44B: "A Québécois on the Scheldt" by Randy McDonald
As promised, we here at the Johnny Pez blog present another link to our other monumental project, the Sobel Wiki. Today's newly-posted article is another vignette from the For All Nails project, "A Québécois on the Scheldt" by Randy McDonald. The vignette consists of a story by a Montreal journalist, André-Philippe Maeterlinck, about his visit to Austrasia (the FAN version of Belgium) in September 1972.
Since the foundation of Belgium in 1830 post-dated Sobel's point-of-departure by 53 years, and there appeared to be no mention of Belgium in For Want of a Nail, Randy decided to give the FAN version a different name. Alas, Randy had failed to note that Sobel did in fact mention Belgium by name exactly once, on page 235. By the time someone in the FAN Cabal noticed this and pointed it out, it was too late -- Austrasia was an established part of FAN canon.
Since the foundation of Belgium in 1830 post-dated Sobel's point-of-departure by 53 years, and there appeared to be no mention of Belgium in For Want of a Nail, Randy decided to give the FAN version a different name. Alas, Randy had failed to note that Sobel did in fact mention Belgium by name exactly once, on page 235. By the time someone in the FAN Cabal noticed this and pointed it out, it was too late -- Austrasia was an established part of FAN canon.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
FAN #44A: "Un Quebecois Errant" by Randy McDonald
The Sobel Wiki is a project I started 21 months ago. As explained in greater detail here, the Sobel Wiki is an encyclopedia of Robert Sobel's 1973 counterfactual history For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga. After about six months work, I grew frustrated by the Wikia platform's unreliable software, and I let the project drop. However, recently Wikia has done an overhaul of their software, and I'm ready to resume work on the Sobel Wiki.
To start things off, I've decided to start posting vignettes from the For All Nails project at the rate of one per day. Today's vignette is #44A, "Un Québécois Errant" by Randy McDonald. The vignette consists of a story by a Montreal journalist, André-Philippe Maeterlinck, about his visit to Lithuania in August 1972.
Next up is #44B, "A Québécois on the Scheldt". Stay tuned!
To start things off, I've decided to start posting vignettes from the For All Nails project at the rate of one per day. Today's vignette is #44A, "Un Québécois Errant" by Randy McDonald. The vignette consists of a story by a Montreal journalist, André-Philippe Maeterlinck, about his visit to Lithuania in August 1972.
Next up is #44B, "A Québécois on the Scheldt". Stay tuned!
Monday, April 9, 2012
Green World: "Oregon"
This is a spoiler review of "Oregon", episode five of Awake, a TV series about a police detective, Michael Britten, who loses a family member in a car crash. Britten responds by creating a dream world in which a different family member died in the crash, a dream world so real that he can't tell it from the real world, and is in fact determined to act as though both worlds are real. As I've noted before, while in reality (the Green World) Detective Britten's wife Hannah died in the crash, Britten has created a dream world (the Red World) where Hannah survived and it was his son Rex who died in the crash.
We open in Britten's dream world, seeing Britten's love-hate relationship with Los Angeles, represented by smoggy skies, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and a homeless guy living under a bridge. While jogging, Britten encounters a woman walking a yappy little dog, who lunges at him. The dog's owner chews Britten out for "scaring" the little monster. A homeless man offers to sell Britten a box of junk for ten dollars; when Britten declines, the man asks for a dollar on general principles. Britten then intervenes in an increasingly violent argument by two drivers whose cars have collided, while muttering, "Stupid city." But in the dream, Britten is alone; Hannah is in Portland, Oregon, and when he's on the phone with her she can't say enough nice things about it.
Los Angeles is just as much trouble in the real world, where Britten finds himself stuck in a traffic jam with Rex. At the station, Freeman drops a set of files on Britten's desk and says the captain wants to know why they don't have any suspects for any of them. When Freeman suggests lunch, Britten opts to jog in Griffith Park instead, remembering his dream-world run. Just like in his dream, Britten encounters a dog. However, this dog is not a subconscious manifestation of Britten's ambivalence about his native city. This is a real dog, and instead of lunging at him, the dog leads Britten to a corpse. "Stupid city," Britten mutters in an echo of his dream.
Britten has stumbled upon the latest victim of the Gemini Killer, a serial killer who drains his victims of their blood, then carves a Roman numeral II in their chest, and always kills two paired victims. For the last twelve years, the Gemini killer has killed two victims every year in a different city. The dead man Britten found is his first in Los Angeles. The problem: the Gemini Killer is dead. So either the Gemini Killer has risen from the dead, or there's a copycat Gemini Killer out there. Either way, within 48 hours another victim will be killed in another park.
After Britten and Freeman explain this to Captain Harper, she tells them that an FBI agent who has been on the Gemini Killer case since its beginning will be flying in to join the investigation. We then meet the FBI agent, Elizabeth Santoro, on the phone with her ex-husband arguing about custody of their daughter. She tells Britten that she has been in Portland writing a book on the case, and that one detail of the murders they didn't make public was that the killer always left a two dollar bill in the victims hand. Since Britten's victim didn't have one, they definitely have a copycat killer. Remembering his dream, Britten asks her what Portland is like, and Santoro tells him it always rains, like London with hippies.
Britten returns to Griffith Park with Freeman, and they find the dog who found the victim. When the dog is examined, half of a two dollar bill is found in its stomach. Santoro denies that this means it's the real Gemini Killer; she says it just means the copycat had access to classified information, and is therefore probably a disgruntled cop or ex-cop. Freeman thinks Santoro is too quick to dismiss the possibility that this is the original Gemini Killer. Santoro says that she shot the GK herself. No, says Freeman, you shot a man named Arthur Mintern who fit your profile. If Santoro is wrong, they'll be going up a series of blind alleys while the real killer finds and kills another victim. Captain Harper decides to let Santoro have her files of disgruntled cops. Britten tries to convince Santoro that she might be wrong, but fails. We cut to the Gemini Killer as he carries out his well-worn ritual in preparation for his next murder: scalpel, hypo, two dollar bill.
That night, Britten dreams of calling Hannah for help finding his cell phone charger. She doesn't pick up, so he leaves a message. He finds the charger, and also finds an estimate from a moving company: Mountain Top Moving & Storage. Britten is disturbed -- he didn't realize Hannah was this serious about moving to Portland. Even more disturbing is the fact that Hannah didn't tell him about this.
In therapy, Dr. Lee asks why Britten didn't think Hannah was serious about moving. Britten says that moving to Oregon isn't a realistic option, but Dr. Lee says Britten has let confirmation bias cloud his judgment: Hannah has been telling him how serious she is, but Britten hasn't been listening. This, Dr. Lee reminds Britten, is how most marriages end: not with screaming fights, but with two people who gradually drift apart from each other. Britten has always drawn strength from his dream-life with his deceased wife. Now, though, Santoro's real-life divorce is bleeding over into Britten's dream. The wife that his subconscious has re-created for him may be slipping away, just as the real one did.
At the station, Vega tells Britten he has a lead on a case. However, when they go to meet Vega's lead, the supposed pawn shop is a vacant storefront. When Vega admits the lead offered to help him for $100, Britten tells him he's been scammed. "If you have to buy it, it may be information. If they try and sell it to you, it's always BS." Britten adds, "Think of it as a rookie tax." But Britten notices an odd bit of graffiti on the vacant storefront: a red exclamation mark over an asterisk.
Back home, Britten gazes at the movers' estimate and calls Hannah again. Again, she doesn't pick up. This time, he doesn't bother leaving a message.
Back in the reality of the Gemini Killer, Britten agrees with Freeman that Santoro shot the wrong man, and they're dealing with the original. They start asking around at cheap motels, near Griffith Park, in hopes of finding him. As he emerges from one, Britten sees an abandoned building with the sign MOUNTAIN TOP MOVING & STORAGE. Remembering the dream of Hannah's estimate, he enters the building, and . . . almost catches the Gemini Killer.
Santoro is very suspicious, though, because Britten can't explain why he picked this particular building to investigate. When the Gemini Killer sneaks back into the abandoned building, he overhears her discussing Britten with Captain Harper.
Driving back from the warehouse to the police station, Britten stops at the vacant storefront he visited with Vega in his dream. It looks much the same -- except that the red exclamation point graffiti is missing. When he reaches the station, he learns that Santoro received a phone call from a man claiming to be the Gemini Killer -- a call that came from Britten's home phone. Britten can't explain that he was checking out a building he had dreamed of the night before, and Santoro decides that Britten is the copycat. Captain Harper asks him to hand in his weapon.
An hour later, Freeman confronts Britten. He doesn't believe Britten is a copycat, but he does point out how wierd Britten has been acting since returning to work. He hands Britten a set of crime scene photos, and says that if Britten is going to pull another rabbit out of his hat, now is the time. Britten does: a napkin at the abandoned warehouse has a green exclamation point logo just like the one from Britten's dream. This was what Britten's subconscious had been warning him about.
It turns out that the green logo is from the Bay Street Coffee Shop chain, which has six locations in Los Angeles, each in proximity to a park. How to pick which one? Britten looks back at the crime scene photos from the Griffith Park murder. Santoro is in the background of one, holding a coffee cup with the Bay Street Coffee logo. She had the cup when Britten met her in Brentwood. The coffee shop in Brentwood is in the lobby of the Meridian Hotel -- where Santoro is staying, and where the killer has been stalking her. Britten realizes that the Gemini Killer has targeted Santoro for his next victim.
When Santoro doesn't answer her cell phone, Britten is convinced that the killer has abducted her, and he's right. Freeman has the park nearest the Meridian, Aliso Canyon Park, sealed off, but the killer, using Santoro's FBI ID, is able to get past the police. Freeman and Britten head for Aliso Canyon Park. The killer is draining Santoro's blood and preparing to carve the Roman numeral into her abdomen, when he is interrupted by Britten. After a gunfight, the killer flees, and Britten saves Santoro. The killer gets away from Freeman.
In the hospital, Britten watches as Santoro's ex-husband and daughter come to visit her.
In Britten's dream that night, Hannah is back from Portland, and he talks to her about the estimate -- and about his fear that she wants to leave him. She says she didn't tell him about it because she was ashamed that she couldn't cope with Rex's death the way he was able to. She doesn't want to forget Rex, though, and being with Britten helps her to remember him.
Britten tells his therapists, both the real Dr. Evans and the imaginary Dr. Lee, that he is willing to move with Hannah to Portland. However, in real life, he'll be remaining in Los Angeles with Rex. Both therapists think that moving to Portland will weaken Britten's ability to maintain the reality of his dream, and that Britten will finally recognize it for the dream it is -- which means acknowledging that one member of his family really is dead. Dr. Evans predicts that Britten will fight against the loss of his dream Hannah, but will eventually give in. Britten assures her that he will not. "This thing works because I make it work."
While sitting in traffic the next day, Britten receives a call from the Gemini Killer. The killer broke into Dr. Evans' office, and now he knows about Britten's double lives. Unlike Dr. Evans, the killer accepts the reality of both worlds -- he sees Britten and himself as two of a kind, experiencing realities that other people can't understand. "Sweet dreams, Detective Britten. And speaking just for myself, I'd be very disappointed if you woke up."
Britten is able to maintain an entire internally consistent imaginary alternate world because there are so many common elements between it and his real life. The fact that it's his imaginary therapist, Dr. Lee, who points this out to him, shows that at least subconsciously, he is well aware of it. However much he might deny it consciously, his subconscious knows that the Red World is just a dream. If he wants to maintain his sanity, Britten will eventually have to give it up. His marital troubles with the dream Hannah, and the upcoming departure of his dream world from the familiar environs of Los Angeles, are a way for his subconscious to prepare Britten for the day when he has to acknowledge that his wife really is dead.
At the same time, there is more at stake for Britten than just the loss of his wife. Dr. Evans has always believed that the Red World was more than just a coping mechanism for Britten's grief. It was also a direct link to Britten's subconscious, allowing him to communicate with a part of his mind that is inaccessible to most other people. The two obvious examples in "Oregon" are the moving company and the red graffiti mark, both of which are methods that Britten's subconscious uses to help guide his hunt for the Gemini Killer. Losing the Red World will mean losing that direct connection to his subconscious.
Finally, there is the chilling call from the Gemini Killer. The killer regards himself as a unique individual with a unique perspective, placing him on a higher level than the rest of the human race, whom he regards as playthings. However, now that he knows of Britten's double life, he no longer sees Britten as a plaything. He thinks of Britten as someone who, like himself, sees the world sideways.
Britten has not seen the last of the Gemini Killer.
On the other hand . . .
We open in Britten's dream world, seeing Britten's love-hate relationship with Los Angeles, represented by smoggy skies, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and a homeless guy living under a bridge. While jogging, Britten encounters a woman walking a yappy little dog, who lunges at him. The dog's owner chews Britten out for "scaring" the little monster. A homeless man offers to sell Britten a box of junk for ten dollars; when Britten declines, the man asks for a dollar on general principles. Britten then intervenes in an increasingly violent argument by two drivers whose cars have collided, while muttering, "Stupid city." But in the dream, Britten is alone; Hannah is in Portland, Oregon, and when he's on the phone with her she can't say enough nice things about it.
Los Angeles is just as much trouble in the real world, where Britten finds himself stuck in a traffic jam with Rex. At the station, Freeman drops a set of files on Britten's desk and says the captain wants to know why they don't have any suspects for any of them. When Freeman suggests lunch, Britten opts to jog in Griffith Park instead, remembering his dream-world run. Just like in his dream, Britten encounters a dog. However, this dog is not a subconscious manifestation of Britten's ambivalence about his native city. This is a real dog, and instead of lunging at him, the dog leads Britten to a corpse. "Stupid city," Britten mutters in an echo of his dream.
Britten has stumbled upon the latest victim of the Gemini Killer, a serial killer who drains his victims of their blood, then carves a Roman numeral II in their chest, and always kills two paired victims. For the last twelve years, the Gemini killer has killed two victims every year in a different city. The dead man Britten found is his first in Los Angeles. The problem: the Gemini Killer is dead. So either the Gemini Killer has risen from the dead, or there's a copycat Gemini Killer out there. Either way, within 48 hours another victim will be killed in another park.
After Britten and Freeman explain this to Captain Harper, she tells them that an FBI agent who has been on the Gemini Killer case since its beginning will be flying in to join the investigation. We then meet the FBI agent, Elizabeth Santoro, on the phone with her ex-husband arguing about custody of their daughter. She tells Britten that she has been in Portland writing a book on the case, and that one detail of the murders they didn't make public was that the killer always left a two dollar bill in the victims hand. Since Britten's victim didn't have one, they definitely have a copycat killer. Remembering his dream, Britten asks her what Portland is like, and Santoro tells him it always rains, like London with hippies.
Britten returns to Griffith Park with Freeman, and they find the dog who found the victim. When the dog is examined, half of a two dollar bill is found in its stomach. Santoro denies that this means it's the real Gemini Killer; she says it just means the copycat had access to classified information, and is therefore probably a disgruntled cop or ex-cop. Freeman thinks Santoro is too quick to dismiss the possibility that this is the original Gemini Killer. Santoro says that she shot the GK herself. No, says Freeman, you shot a man named Arthur Mintern who fit your profile. If Santoro is wrong, they'll be going up a series of blind alleys while the real killer finds and kills another victim. Captain Harper decides to let Santoro have her files of disgruntled cops. Britten tries to convince Santoro that she might be wrong, but fails. We cut to the Gemini Killer as he carries out his well-worn ritual in preparation for his next murder: scalpel, hypo, two dollar bill.
That night, Britten dreams of calling Hannah for help finding his cell phone charger. She doesn't pick up, so he leaves a message. He finds the charger, and also finds an estimate from a moving company: Mountain Top Moving & Storage. Britten is disturbed -- he didn't realize Hannah was this serious about moving to Portland. Even more disturbing is the fact that Hannah didn't tell him about this.
In therapy, Dr. Lee asks why Britten didn't think Hannah was serious about moving. Britten says that moving to Oregon isn't a realistic option, but Dr. Lee says Britten has let confirmation bias cloud his judgment: Hannah has been telling him how serious she is, but Britten hasn't been listening. This, Dr. Lee reminds Britten, is how most marriages end: not with screaming fights, but with two people who gradually drift apart from each other. Britten has always drawn strength from his dream-life with his deceased wife. Now, though, Santoro's real-life divorce is bleeding over into Britten's dream. The wife that his subconscious has re-created for him may be slipping away, just as the real one did.
At the station, Vega tells Britten he has a lead on a case. However, when they go to meet Vega's lead, the supposed pawn shop is a vacant storefront. When Vega admits the lead offered to help him for $100, Britten tells him he's been scammed. "If you have to buy it, it may be information. If they try and sell it to you, it's always BS." Britten adds, "Think of it as a rookie tax." But Britten notices an odd bit of graffiti on the vacant storefront: a red exclamation mark over an asterisk.
Back home, Britten gazes at the movers' estimate and calls Hannah again. Again, she doesn't pick up. This time, he doesn't bother leaving a message.
Back in the reality of the Gemini Killer, Britten agrees with Freeman that Santoro shot the wrong man, and they're dealing with the original. They start asking around at cheap motels, near Griffith Park, in hopes of finding him. As he emerges from one, Britten sees an abandoned building with the sign MOUNTAIN TOP MOVING & STORAGE. Remembering the dream of Hannah's estimate, he enters the building, and . . . almost catches the Gemini Killer.
Santoro is very suspicious, though, because Britten can't explain why he picked this particular building to investigate. When the Gemini Killer sneaks back into the abandoned building, he overhears her discussing Britten with Captain Harper.
Driving back from the warehouse to the police station, Britten stops at the vacant storefront he visited with Vega in his dream. It looks much the same -- except that the red exclamation point graffiti is missing. When he reaches the station, he learns that Santoro received a phone call from a man claiming to be the Gemini Killer -- a call that came from Britten's home phone. Britten can't explain that he was checking out a building he had dreamed of the night before, and Santoro decides that Britten is the copycat. Captain Harper asks him to hand in his weapon.
An hour later, Freeman confronts Britten. He doesn't believe Britten is a copycat, but he does point out how wierd Britten has been acting since returning to work. He hands Britten a set of crime scene photos, and says that if Britten is going to pull another rabbit out of his hat, now is the time. Britten does: a napkin at the abandoned warehouse has a green exclamation point logo just like the one from Britten's dream. This was what Britten's subconscious had been warning him about.
It turns out that the green logo is from the Bay Street Coffee Shop chain, which has six locations in Los Angeles, each in proximity to a park. How to pick which one? Britten looks back at the crime scene photos from the Griffith Park murder. Santoro is in the background of one, holding a coffee cup with the Bay Street Coffee logo. She had the cup when Britten met her in Brentwood. The coffee shop in Brentwood is in the lobby of the Meridian Hotel -- where Santoro is staying, and where the killer has been stalking her. Britten realizes that the Gemini Killer has targeted Santoro for his next victim.
When Santoro doesn't answer her cell phone, Britten is convinced that the killer has abducted her, and he's right. Freeman has the park nearest the Meridian, Aliso Canyon Park, sealed off, but the killer, using Santoro's FBI ID, is able to get past the police. Freeman and Britten head for Aliso Canyon Park. The killer is draining Santoro's blood and preparing to carve the Roman numeral into her abdomen, when he is interrupted by Britten. After a gunfight, the killer flees, and Britten saves Santoro. The killer gets away from Freeman.
In the hospital, Britten watches as Santoro's ex-husband and daughter come to visit her.
In Britten's dream that night, Hannah is back from Portland, and he talks to her about the estimate -- and about his fear that she wants to leave him. She says she didn't tell him about it because she was ashamed that she couldn't cope with Rex's death the way he was able to. She doesn't want to forget Rex, though, and being with Britten helps her to remember him.
Britten tells his therapists, both the real Dr. Evans and the imaginary Dr. Lee, that he is willing to move with Hannah to Portland. However, in real life, he'll be remaining in Los Angeles with Rex. Both therapists think that moving to Portland will weaken Britten's ability to maintain the reality of his dream, and that Britten will finally recognize it for the dream it is -- which means acknowledging that one member of his family really is dead. Dr. Evans predicts that Britten will fight against the loss of his dream Hannah, but will eventually give in. Britten assures her that he will not. "This thing works because I make it work."
While sitting in traffic the next day, Britten receives a call from the Gemini Killer. The killer broke into Dr. Evans' office, and now he knows about Britten's double lives. Unlike Dr. Evans, the killer accepts the reality of both worlds -- he sees Britten and himself as two of a kind, experiencing realities that other people can't understand. "Sweet dreams, Detective Britten. And speaking just for myself, I'd be very disappointed if you woke up."
Britten is able to maintain an entire internally consistent imaginary alternate world because there are so many common elements between it and his real life. The fact that it's his imaginary therapist, Dr. Lee, who points this out to him, shows that at least subconsciously, he is well aware of it. However much he might deny it consciously, his subconscious knows that the Red World is just a dream. If he wants to maintain his sanity, Britten will eventually have to give it up. His marital troubles with the dream Hannah, and the upcoming departure of his dream world from the familiar environs of Los Angeles, are a way for his subconscious to prepare Britten for the day when he has to acknowledge that his wife really is dead.
At the same time, there is more at stake for Britten than just the loss of his wife. Dr. Evans has always believed that the Red World was more than just a coping mechanism for Britten's grief. It was also a direct link to Britten's subconscious, allowing him to communicate with a part of his mind that is inaccessible to most other people. The two obvious examples in "Oregon" are the moving company and the red graffiti mark, both of which are methods that Britten's subconscious uses to help guide his hunt for the Gemini Killer. Losing the Red World will mean losing that direct connection to his subconscious.
Finally, there is the chilling call from the Gemini Killer. The killer regards himself as a unique individual with a unique perspective, placing him on a higher level than the rest of the human race, whom he regards as playthings. However, now that he knows of Britten's double life, he no longer sees Britten as a plaything. He thinks of Britten as someone who, like himself, sees the world sideways.
Britten has not seen the last of the Gemini Killer.
On the other hand . . .
Red World: "Oregon"
This is a spoiler review of "Oregon", episode five of Awake, a TV series about a police detective, Michael Britten, who loses a family member in a car crash. Britten responds by creating a dream world in which a different family member died in the crash, a dream world so real that he can't tell it from the real world, and is in fact determined to act as though both worlds are real. As I've noted before, while in reality (the Red World) Detective Britten's son Rex died in the crash, Britten has created a dream world (the Green World) where Rex survived and it was his wife Hannah who died in the crash.
We open by seeing Britten's love-hate relationship with Los Angeles, which we see represented by smoggy skies, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and a homeless guy living under a bridge. While jogging, Britten encounters a woman walking a yappy little dog, who lunges at him. The dog's owner chews Britten out for "scaring" the little monster. A homeless man offers to sell Britten a box of junk for ten dollars; when Britten declines, the man asks for a dollar on general principles. Britten then intervenes in an increasingly violent argument by two drivers whose cars have collided, while muttering, "Stupid city." We then see Britten on the phone with Hannah, who is walking through a college campus in Portland, Oregon, and can't say enough nice things about it.
Britten's troubles follow him to his dream world, where he finds himself stuck in a traffic jam with Rex. At the station, Freeman drops a set of files on Britten's desk and says the captain wants to know why they don't have any suspects for any of them. When Freeman suggests lunch, Britten opts to jog in Griffith Park instead, no doubt influenced by his real-world run. His real-world experiences intrude themselves into his dream even more obviously when he encounters a dog. Instead of lunging at him, though, this dog leads Britten to a corpse. "Stupid city," Britten mutters.
Britten has stumbled upon the latest victim of the Gemini Killer, a serial killer who drains his victims of their blood, then carves a Roman numeral II in their chest, and always kills two paired victims. For the last twelve years, the Gemini killer has killed two victims every year in a different city. The dead man Britten found is his first in Los Angeles. The problem: the Gemini Killer is dead. So either the Gemini Killer has risen from the dead, or there's a copycat Gemini Killer out there. Either way, within 48 hours another victim will be killed in another park.
After Britten and Freeman explain this to Captain Harper, she tells them that an FBI agent who has been on the Gemini Killer case since its beginning will be flying in to join the investigation. We then meet the FBI agent, Elizabeth Santoro, on the phone with her ex-husband arguing about custody of their daughter. She tells Britten that she has been in Portland writing a book on the case, and that one detail of the murders they didn't make public was that the killer always left a two dollar bill in the victims hand. Since Britten's victim didn't have one, they definitely have a copycat killer. Britten asks her what Portland is like, and Santoro tells him it always rains, like London with hippies.
Britten returns to Griffith Park with Freeman, and they find the dog who found the victim. When the dog is examined, half of a two dollar bill is found in its stomach. Santoro denies that this means it's the real Gemini Killer; she says it just means the copycat had access to classified information, and is therefore probably a disgruntled cop or ex-cop. Freeman thinks Santoro is too quick to dismiss the possibility that this is the original Gemini Killer. Santoro says that she shot the GK herself. No, says Freeman, you shot a man named Arthur Mintern who fit your profile. If Santoro is wrong, they'll be going up a series of blind alleys while the real killer finds and kills another victim. Captain Harper decides to let Santoro have her files of disgruntled cops. Britten tries to convince Santoro that she might be wrong, but fails. We cut to the Gemini Killer as he carries out his well-worn ritual in preparation for his next murder: scalpel, hypo, two dollar bill.
Back in the real world, Britten calls Hannah for help finding his cell phone charger. She doesn't pick up, so he leaves a message. He finds the charger, and also finds an estimate from a moving company: Mountain Top Moving & Storage. Britten is disturbed -- he didn't realize Hannah was this serious about moving to Portland. Even more disturbing is the fact that Hannah didn't tell him about this.
In therapy, Dr. Lee asks why Britten didn't think Hannah was serious about moving. Britten says that moving to Oregon isn't a realistic option, but Dr. Lee thinks Britten has let confirmation bias cloud his judgment: Hannah has been telling him how serious she is, but Britten hasn't been listening. This, Dr. Lee reminds Britten, is how most marriages end: not with screaming fights, but with two people who gradually drift apart from each other.
At the station, Vega tells Britten he has a lead on a case. However, when they go to meet Vega's lead, the supposed pawn shop is a vacant storefront. When Vega admits the lead offered to help him for $100, Britten tells him he's been scammed. "If you have to buy it, it may be information. If they try and sell it to you, it's always BS." Britten adds, "Think of it as a rookie tax."
Back home, Britten gazes at the movers' estimate and calls Hannah again. Again, she doesn't pick up. This time, he doesn't bother leaving a message.
In his dream of the Gemini Killer, Britten agrees with Freeman that Santoro shot the wrong man, and they're dealing with the original. They start asking around at cheap motels, near Griffith Park, in hopes of finding him. As he emerges from one, Britten sees an abandoned building with the sign MOUNTAIN TOP MOVING & STORAGE. With a vision of Hannah's estimate in his mind, he enters the building, and . . . almost catches the Gemini Killer.
Santoro is very suspicious, though, because Britten can't explain why he picked this particular building to investigate. Later, her suspicions deepen when she receives a phone call from a man claiming to be the Gemini Killer -- a call that came from Britten's home phone. Santoro decides that Britten is the copycat, and Captain Harper asks him to hand in his weapon.
An hour later, Freeman confronts Britten. He doesn't believe Britten is a copycat, but he does point out how wierd Britten has been acting since returning to work. He hands Britten a set of crime scene photos, and says that if Britten is going to pull another rabbit out of his hat, now is the time. Britten does: a napkin at the warehouse has a green exclamation point logo that Britten remembers seeing spraypainted, in red, on the vacant storefront he checked out with Vega in the real world. While the killer was making his phone call to Santoro, Britten had been to the vacant storefront in his dream. It was the same, except there was no spraypainted red mark.
It turns out that the green logo is from the Bay Street Coffee Shop chain, which has six locations in Los Angeles, all in proximity to a park. How to pick which one? Britten looks back at the crime scene photos from the Griffith Park murder. Santoro is in the background of one, holding a coffee cup with the Bay Street Coffee logo. She had the cup when Britten met her in Brentwood. The coffee shop in Brentwood is in the lobby of the Meridian Hotel -- where Santoro is staying, and where the killer has been stalking her. The Gemini Killer has targeted Santoro for his next victim.
When Santoro doesn't answer her cell phone, Britten is convinced that the killer has abducted her, and he's right. Freeman has the park nearest the Meridian, Aliso Canyon Park, sealed off, but the killer, using Santoro's FBI ID, is able to get past the police. Freeman and Britten head for Aliso Canyon Park. The killer is draining Santoro's blood and preparing to carve the Roman numeral into her abdomen, when he is interrupted by Britten. After a gunfight, the killer flees, and Britten saves Santoro. The killer gets away from Freeman.
In the hospital, Britten watches as Santoro's ex-husband and daughter come to visit her.
In the real world, Hannah is back from Portland, and Britten talks to her about the estimate -- and about his fear that she wants to leave him. She says she didn't tell him about it because she was ashamed that she couldn't cope with Rex's death the way he was able to. She doesn't want to forget Rex, though, and being with Britten helps her to remember him.
Britten tells his therapists, both the real Dr. Lee and the imaginary Dr. Evans, that he is willing to move with Hannah to Portland. However, in his dream, he'll be remaining in Los Angeles with Rex. Dr. Lee thinks that moving to Portland will weaken Britten's ability to maintain the reality of his dream, and that Britten will finally recognize it for the dream it is -- which means acknowledging that Rex really is dead. Dr. Evans predicts that Britten will fight against the loss of his "dream" of Hannah, but will eventually give in. Britten assures her that he will not. "This thing works because I make it work."
In his dream, Britten receives a call from the Gemini Killer. The killer broke into Dr. Evans' office, and now he knows about Britten's double lives. Unlike Dr. Evans, the killer accepts the reality of both worlds -- he sees Britten and himself as two of a kind, experiencing realities that other people can't understand. "Sweet dreams, Detective Britten. And speaking just for myself, I'd be very disappointed if you woke up."
As Dr. Lee points out, Britten's ability to maintain an entire internally consistent alternate dream world is based on his ability to constantly reinforce it by importing details from the real world. The two most obvious examples from "Oregon" are the Mountain Top moving company and the exclamation mark icon, both of which he imports into his dream to help him deal with the Gemini Killer case. However, this naturally raises the question of just how much reality there is to the Gemini Killer. Did Britten create him out of whole cloth?
I tend to think that there is a real Gemini Killer, and that Britten has been subliminally aware of him for the past twelve years. In his dream, Britten's subconscious brought the Gemini Killer to Los Angeles, and also brought Elizabeth Santoro, the FBI agent who, in the real world, tracked him down and shot him the year before. The Green World has always been a wish-fulfillment fantasy of Britten's and "Oregon" makes that particularly clear. While in the real world Britten is helplessly watching his marriage to Hannah slowly dissolve, in his dream Britten not only tracks the Gemini Killer to his lair, and almost captures him, he saves the life of the FBI agent who mistakenly thought she had killed him. And also, incidentally, Britten uses his dream Santoro to counteract Hannah's adoring descriptions of Portland; Santoro dismisses the city as a dreary place full of rain and hippies.
It is significant that Britten's conversations with his dream therapist, Dr. Evans, do not involve the Gemini Killer case, or indeed anything in the Green World. Instead, they talk about events in the real world: Hannah's desire to move to Portland, and Britten's willingness to accommodate her. Britten's subconscious knows that the events in the Green World aren't real, and don't ultimately matter (except to the extent that they allow Britten to deny the reality of his son's death). What matters is his marriage to Hannah in the real world.
Britten refuses to accept that one of his worlds isn't real, but his subconscious knows better. What's more, he subconsciously knows that his dream world is driving him slowly but surely insane. That's why Britten dreams of a phone call from his imaginary serial killer. "You're just like me," the psychopath tells him, and there can be no more chilling reminder of the danger Britten faces by refusing to accept reality. In the end, if he doesn't wake up and face the truth, he will become just like the Gemini Killer.
On the other hand . . .
We open by seeing Britten's love-hate relationship with Los Angeles, which we see represented by smoggy skies, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and a homeless guy living under a bridge. While jogging, Britten encounters a woman walking a yappy little dog, who lunges at him. The dog's owner chews Britten out for "scaring" the little monster. A homeless man offers to sell Britten a box of junk for ten dollars; when Britten declines, the man asks for a dollar on general principles. Britten then intervenes in an increasingly violent argument by two drivers whose cars have collided, while muttering, "Stupid city." We then see Britten on the phone with Hannah, who is walking through a college campus in Portland, Oregon, and can't say enough nice things about it.
Britten's troubles follow him to his dream world, where he finds himself stuck in a traffic jam with Rex. At the station, Freeman drops a set of files on Britten's desk and says the captain wants to know why they don't have any suspects for any of them. When Freeman suggests lunch, Britten opts to jog in Griffith Park instead, no doubt influenced by his real-world run. His real-world experiences intrude themselves into his dream even more obviously when he encounters a dog. Instead of lunging at him, though, this dog leads Britten to a corpse. "Stupid city," Britten mutters.
Britten has stumbled upon the latest victim of the Gemini Killer, a serial killer who drains his victims of their blood, then carves a Roman numeral II in their chest, and always kills two paired victims. For the last twelve years, the Gemini killer has killed two victims every year in a different city. The dead man Britten found is his first in Los Angeles. The problem: the Gemini Killer is dead. So either the Gemini Killer has risen from the dead, or there's a copycat Gemini Killer out there. Either way, within 48 hours another victim will be killed in another park.
After Britten and Freeman explain this to Captain Harper, she tells them that an FBI agent who has been on the Gemini Killer case since its beginning will be flying in to join the investigation. We then meet the FBI agent, Elizabeth Santoro, on the phone with her ex-husband arguing about custody of their daughter. She tells Britten that she has been in Portland writing a book on the case, and that one detail of the murders they didn't make public was that the killer always left a two dollar bill in the victims hand. Since Britten's victim didn't have one, they definitely have a copycat killer. Britten asks her what Portland is like, and Santoro tells him it always rains, like London with hippies.
Britten returns to Griffith Park with Freeman, and they find the dog who found the victim. When the dog is examined, half of a two dollar bill is found in its stomach. Santoro denies that this means it's the real Gemini Killer; she says it just means the copycat had access to classified information, and is therefore probably a disgruntled cop or ex-cop. Freeman thinks Santoro is too quick to dismiss the possibility that this is the original Gemini Killer. Santoro says that she shot the GK herself. No, says Freeman, you shot a man named Arthur Mintern who fit your profile. If Santoro is wrong, they'll be going up a series of blind alleys while the real killer finds and kills another victim. Captain Harper decides to let Santoro have her files of disgruntled cops. Britten tries to convince Santoro that she might be wrong, but fails. We cut to the Gemini Killer as he carries out his well-worn ritual in preparation for his next murder: scalpel, hypo, two dollar bill.
Back in the real world, Britten calls Hannah for help finding his cell phone charger. She doesn't pick up, so he leaves a message. He finds the charger, and also finds an estimate from a moving company: Mountain Top Moving & Storage. Britten is disturbed -- he didn't realize Hannah was this serious about moving to Portland. Even more disturbing is the fact that Hannah didn't tell him about this.
In therapy, Dr. Lee asks why Britten didn't think Hannah was serious about moving. Britten says that moving to Oregon isn't a realistic option, but Dr. Lee thinks Britten has let confirmation bias cloud his judgment: Hannah has been telling him how serious she is, but Britten hasn't been listening. This, Dr. Lee reminds Britten, is how most marriages end: not with screaming fights, but with two people who gradually drift apart from each other.
At the station, Vega tells Britten he has a lead on a case. However, when they go to meet Vega's lead, the supposed pawn shop is a vacant storefront. When Vega admits the lead offered to help him for $100, Britten tells him he's been scammed. "If you have to buy it, it may be information. If they try and sell it to you, it's always BS." Britten adds, "Think of it as a rookie tax."
Back home, Britten gazes at the movers' estimate and calls Hannah again. Again, she doesn't pick up. This time, he doesn't bother leaving a message.
In his dream of the Gemini Killer, Britten agrees with Freeman that Santoro shot the wrong man, and they're dealing with the original. They start asking around at cheap motels, near Griffith Park, in hopes of finding him. As he emerges from one, Britten sees an abandoned building with the sign MOUNTAIN TOP MOVING & STORAGE. With a vision of Hannah's estimate in his mind, he enters the building, and . . . almost catches the Gemini Killer.
Santoro is very suspicious, though, because Britten can't explain why he picked this particular building to investigate. Later, her suspicions deepen when she receives a phone call from a man claiming to be the Gemini Killer -- a call that came from Britten's home phone. Santoro decides that Britten is the copycat, and Captain Harper asks him to hand in his weapon.
An hour later, Freeman confronts Britten. He doesn't believe Britten is a copycat, but he does point out how wierd Britten has been acting since returning to work. He hands Britten a set of crime scene photos, and says that if Britten is going to pull another rabbit out of his hat, now is the time. Britten does: a napkin at the warehouse has a green exclamation point logo that Britten remembers seeing spraypainted, in red, on the vacant storefront he checked out with Vega in the real world. While the killer was making his phone call to Santoro, Britten had been to the vacant storefront in his dream. It was the same, except there was no spraypainted red mark.
It turns out that the green logo is from the Bay Street Coffee Shop chain, which has six locations in Los Angeles, all in proximity to a park. How to pick which one? Britten looks back at the crime scene photos from the Griffith Park murder. Santoro is in the background of one, holding a coffee cup with the Bay Street Coffee logo. She had the cup when Britten met her in Brentwood. The coffee shop in Brentwood is in the lobby of the Meridian Hotel -- where Santoro is staying, and where the killer has been stalking her. The Gemini Killer has targeted Santoro for his next victim.
When Santoro doesn't answer her cell phone, Britten is convinced that the killer has abducted her, and he's right. Freeman has the park nearest the Meridian, Aliso Canyon Park, sealed off, but the killer, using Santoro's FBI ID, is able to get past the police. Freeman and Britten head for Aliso Canyon Park. The killer is draining Santoro's blood and preparing to carve the Roman numeral into her abdomen, when he is interrupted by Britten. After a gunfight, the killer flees, and Britten saves Santoro. The killer gets away from Freeman.
In the hospital, Britten watches as Santoro's ex-husband and daughter come to visit her.
In the real world, Hannah is back from Portland, and Britten talks to her about the estimate -- and about his fear that she wants to leave him. She says she didn't tell him about it because she was ashamed that she couldn't cope with Rex's death the way he was able to. She doesn't want to forget Rex, though, and being with Britten helps her to remember him.
Britten tells his therapists, both the real Dr. Lee and the imaginary Dr. Evans, that he is willing to move with Hannah to Portland. However, in his dream, he'll be remaining in Los Angeles with Rex. Dr. Lee thinks that moving to Portland will weaken Britten's ability to maintain the reality of his dream, and that Britten will finally recognize it for the dream it is -- which means acknowledging that Rex really is dead. Dr. Evans predicts that Britten will fight against the loss of his "dream" of Hannah, but will eventually give in. Britten assures her that he will not. "This thing works because I make it work."
In his dream, Britten receives a call from the Gemini Killer. The killer broke into Dr. Evans' office, and now he knows about Britten's double lives. Unlike Dr. Evans, the killer accepts the reality of both worlds -- he sees Britten and himself as two of a kind, experiencing realities that other people can't understand. "Sweet dreams, Detective Britten. And speaking just for myself, I'd be very disappointed if you woke up."
As Dr. Lee points out, Britten's ability to maintain an entire internally consistent alternate dream world is based on his ability to constantly reinforce it by importing details from the real world. The two most obvious examples from "Oregon" are the Mountain Top moving company and the exclamation mark icon, both of which he imports into his dream to help him deal with the Gemini Killer case. However, this naturally raises the question of just how much reality there is to the Gemini Killer. Did Britten create him out of whole cloth?
I tend to think that there is a real Gemini Killer, and that Britten has been subliminally aware of him for the past twelve years. In his dream, Britten's subconscious brought the Gemini Killer to Los Angeles, and also brought Elizabeth Santoro, the FBI agent who, in the real world, tracked him down and shot him the year before. The Green World has always been a wish-fulfillment fantasy of Britten's and "Oregon" makes that particularly clear. While in the real world Britten is helplessly watching his marriage to Hannah slowly dissolve, in his dream Britten not only tracks the Gemini Killer to his lair, and almost captures him, he saves the life of the FBI agent who mistakenly thought she had killed him. And also, incidentally, Britten uses his dream Santoro to counteract Hannah's adoring descriptions of Portland; Santoro dismisses the city as a dreary place full of rain and hippies.
It is significant that Britten's conversations with his dream therapist, Dr. Evans, do not involve the Gemini Killer case, or indeed anything in the Green World. Instead, they talk about events in the real world: Hannah's desire to move to Portland, and Britten's willingness to accommodate her. Britten's subconscious knows that the events in the Green World aren't real, and don't ultimately matter (except to the extent that they allow Britten to deny the reality of his son's death). What matters is his marriage to Hannah in the real world.
Britten refuses to accept that one of his worlds isn't real, but his subconscious knows better. What's more, he subconsciously knows that his dream world is driving him slowly but surely insane. That's why Britten dreams of a phone call from his imaginary serial killer. "You're just like me," the psychopath tells him, and there can be no more chilling reminder of the danger Britten faces by refusing to accept reality. In the end, if he doesn't wake up and face the truth, he will become just like the Gemini Killer.
On the other hand . . .
Monday, March 26, 2012
Red World: "Kate Is Enough"
This is a spoiler review of "Kate Is Enough", episode four of Awake, a TV series about a police detective, Michael Britten, who loses a family member in a car crash. Britten responds by creating a dream world in which a different family member died in the crash, a dream world so real that he can't tell it from the real world, and is in fact determined to act as though both worlds are real. As I've noted before, while in reality (the Red World) Detective Britten's son Rex died in the crash, Britten has created a dream world (the Green World) where Rex survived and it was his wife Hannah who died in the crash.
We open in Britten's dream world, where Rex gets into a fight with his best friend Cole while they're playing tennis. While Tara is breaking the fight up, Rex accidentally smacks her in the face. She asks him what's going on, and Rex explains that Cole was using his racquet without his permission and broke it, so Rex started beating the crap out of him. Cole points out that Rex uses his racquets all the time, and that he offered to pay for it. Rex walks away. Tara asks where he's going, and he says he's going to the principal's office.
Later, Britten asks Rex what the hell happened, and Rex stonewalls him, then tells Tara not to bother suspending him, because he's quitting the tennis program. When Britten discusses the matter with Dr. Evans, she points out that anger is a typical reaction to the sort of loss Rex has suffered. Britten's attempts to help Rex have come to nothing, and he feels helpless. Dr. Evans suggests that the reason Britten can't get through to Rex is because Britten doesn't really believe Rex's mother is dead.
In the real world, Britten and his partner Vega investigate the death of a woman, Annie Ng, during a party on a yacht. The yacht is owned by two men who own a tech firm, and Ng was the personal assistant of one of the men, Cameron Fuller. Ng fell, or was pushed, overboard, but nobody saw it happen, so nobody can say which it was. Britten interviews Fuller and his partner, Darren Knox. Fuller admits that he had been having an affair with Ng, despite being engaged to a famous lingerie model, and that he had broken off the affair that morning. He was with a group of people when Ng went over the side.
After the inteview, Britten runs into Kate Porter, Rex's old babysitter. Porter is now with an investment bank in New York, and the tech firm is one of her clients. There's a stain on her dress, and she explains that Knox ran into her shortly after Ng's fall and spilled a drink on her.
In the dream world, Britten and his partner Freeman are investigating the execution-style murder of Charlie Simmons, a local wastrel living off an inheritance from his recently-deceased father. Simmons had a hidden safe under the bathroom sink, which has been opened and emptied. Back in the station, Freeman says that Simmons' house was alarmed, but his killer used a guest code to deactivate it. They start interviewing people who knew the guest code, starting with the cleaning lady.
The cleaning lady was playing bingo with her niece when Simmons was murdered, but she tells Britten and Freeman that two other people who knew the guest code were Simmons' step-brother Mark Hudson and his girlfriend Amber Blue. Britten and Freeman find Amber, and it turns out that Amber is actually Kate Porter. Simmons had dumped Porter a month earlier, and when Freeman asks her where she was the night of the murder, she says she was in the emergency room sleeping off a drug high. She gives Britten her discharge paper after fumbling around looking for it. Britten offers to help Porter enter a rehab program, but she brushes him off.
In the real world, Dr. Lee says that Britten has created different versions of everything to avoid admitting that his other world is a dream. He points out if his world is a dream, then that means that Britten dreamed of Porter, whom he hadn't seen in ten years, before meeting her for real. It would be far more reasonable, Dr. Lee suggests, to think that Britten met Porter in the real world, then added her to his dream world.
In the dream world, Dr. Evans suggests that Britten subconsciously saw a picture of Porter in Simmons', and that prompted him to add her to his dream world before meeting her in reality. After hearing this, Britten suddenly does remember seeing Porter's picture in Simmons' house.
In the real world, Dr. Lee says that Britten added the picture of Porter after the fact, so he could keep believing that the dream world might, in fact, be real.
In the dream world, Dr. Evans says the more important question is not which Porter is real, but why Britten imagines the dream version of her as so different from the real one (whichever the real one is). She thinks the duplicate Porters are not important to the cases, but to Britten's relationship with Rex.
In the real world, Britten tells Hannah about meeting Porter, and Hannah tells him that she saved one of Porter's paper airplanes in a scrapbook. Hannah also tells Britten that Porter went through a rough patch after her sister died, and she's glad to hear that she pulled herself together and has a successful career. When Britten checks the scrapbook in the dream world, it is, of course, there.
In the dream world, Britten tries to use the paper airplane to get through to Rex, but Rex insists he barely remembers Porter. When Britten reminds Rex that he hasn't apologized to Cole, Rex becomes huffy and leaves.
Britten and Freeman see Hudson, who tells them that Charlie Simmons' father Ben Simmons had been bankrolling his boxing training. However, when Simmons pere died, Charlie cut Hudson off. Hudson tried to sue Charlie for a share of Ben Simmons' inheritance, but couldn't keep it up. Hudson has no alibi for the night of Charlie's murder -- he was training alone. Back at the station, they look up the terms of Ben Simmons' will, and it turns out that with Charlie dead, Hudson stands to inherit the Simmons fortune. They now have motive and opportunity. If Hudson did kill Simmons, though, then the robbery of the safe must be a red herring, as the money in it would be Hudson's anyway with Simmons dead.
Britten and Freeman go out to interview Simmons' neighbors to see if any of them can identify Hudson's pickup truck. It turns out that one neighbor has a surveillence camera pointed more-or-less in the direction of Simmons' house. They now have a video record of who was at Simmons' house when he was murdered.
In the real world, Vega calls Britten to tell him they've recovered Ng's cell phone. However, Britten is made uneasy when he can find no evidence on it that Ng and Fuller were having an affair. Why would Fuller make up an affair? Vega asks. Because, Britten says, an affair would make everyone think that Ng jumped rather than was pushed.
Britten and Vega investigate Ng's house. They can still find no evidence of Ng's affair with Fuller. Britten's subconscious prompts him with a memory of the safe in Simmons' bathroom in the dream world, and Britten searches Ng's bathroom. He finds a can of the same shaving cream he saw in his dream, picks it up, and hears it rattle. He unscrews a false bottom, and inside is the key to a safety deposit box.
Looking in the box, Britten and Vega find a research report. It turns out that the report showed that the company's research into silicon chip manufacturing had gone down a blind alley. Fuller and Knox were keeping the information from the company's investors, and Ng was threatening to go public. Fuller had an alibi for the time fo Ng's death, but Knox did not. Britten has the stain on Kate Porter's dress tested, and it held the same mix of wine and Ng's prescription drug that was found in Ng's body after her death. It was Knox who drugged Ng and pushed her overboard, while Fuller made up the story that they were having an affair to create a motive for Ng's supposed suicide.
In the dream world, Britten and Freeman play back the video for the night of Simmons' murder. They do not find Hudson's truck on the scene; instead, they find Porter's car. Britten and Freeman interrogate Porter, and she admits that she was broke and jonesing for a hit, and gave her dealer, Leon, the code for Simmons' house. She says that Leon told her he would just scare Simmons into opening the safe for him. Leon, of course, killed Simmons, making Porter an accessory to murder.
Back in reality, Dr. Lee points out that Britten has created two lives for Porter after her sister's death, one where she successfully dealt with the loss, and one where she didn't. Britten says the two lives are different, but equally plausible.
In the dream world, Dr. Evans asks Britten what he thinks caused Porter's life to go in one direction or the other. Talking to Porter in reality, Britten learns that she blames herself for her sister's death, and was determined to punish herself. Her mother refused to give up on her, and eventually was able to help her out of her depression. Talking to dream Porter in prison, Britten is told that Porter's mother did finally give up on her, and her downward spiral continued.
In the dream world, Britten finds Rex staring at the broken tennis racquet. He refuses to accept Rex's silence, and eventually Rex admits that he got angry because it was Hannah's racquet that Cole broke. He never used it, he just kept it in his bag as a way of keeping his mother's memory alive. Whenever he thinks about Cole breaking the racquet, he gets angry again. Britten tells it's all right, he still gets angry himself. The next day, Rex apologizes to Cole, and they make up.
Kyle Killen, the creator of Awake, has stated that one of the worlds is in fact a dream, and one is real. Britten, though, insists on thinking of both worlds as real, and since the audience identifies with Britten, they also tend to think of both worlds as real. In "Kate Is Enough", though, we see proof that one of the worlds is actually a dream. If both worlds were real, diverging from each other after Britten's accident, then the only changes between them would be those resulting from the different outcomes of the accident four months earlier. The alternate Kate Porters, though, have been growing apart for years, enough time for the real Porter to become an investment banker and move to New York, while the dream Porter becomes a drug addict. After tonight's episode, Detective Britten can no longer maintain the pretense that both worlds might be real. One of his therapists is right -- one of the worlds is an elaborate construct he has created to avoid dealing with the death of a family member. Whether he comes to see that Dr. Lee is right, and the world where Hannah survived is the real one, remains to be seen.
On the other hand . . .
We open in Britten's dream world, where Rex gets into a fight with his best friend Cole while they're playing tennis. While Tara is breaking the fight up, Rex accidentally smacks her in the face. She asks him what's going on, and Rex explains that Cole was using his racquet without his permission and broke it, so Rex started beating the crap out of him. Cole points out that Rex uses his racquets all the time, and that he offered to pay for it. Rex walks away. Tara asks where he's going, and he says he's going to the principal's office.
Later, Britten asks Rex what the hell happened, and Rex stonewalls him, then tells Tara not to bother suspending him, because he's quitting the tennis program. When Britten discusses the matter with Dr. Evans, she points out that anger is a typical reaction to the sort of loss Rex has suffered. Britten's attempts to help Rex have come to nothing, and he feels helpless. Dr. Evans suggests that the reason Britten can't get through to Rex is because Britten doesn't really believe Rex's mother is dead.
In the real world, Britten and his partner Vega investigate the death of a woman, Annie Ng, during a party on a yacht. The yacht is owned by two men who own a tech firm, and Ng was the personal assistant of one of the men, Cameron Fuller. Ng fell, or was pushed, overboard, but nobody saw it happen, so nobody can say which it was. Britten interviews Fuller and his partner, Darren Knox. Fuller admits that he had been having an affair with Ng, despite being engaged to a famous lingerie model, and that he had broken off the affair that morning. He was with a group of people when Ng went over the side.
After the inteview, Britten runs into Kate Porter, Rex's old babysitter. Porter is now with an investment bank in New York, and the tech firm is one of her clients. There's a stain on her dress, and she explains that Knox ran into her shortly after Ng's fall and spilled a drink on her.
In the dream world, Britten and his partner Freeman are investigating the execution-style murder of Charlie Simmons, a local wastrel living off an inheritance from his recently-deceased father. Simmons had a hidden safe under the bathroom sink, which has been opened and emptied. Back in the station, Freeman says that Simmons' house was alarmed, but his killer used a guest code to deactivate it. They start interviewing people who knew the guest code, starting with the cleaning lady.
The cleaning lady was playing bingo with her niece when Simmons was murdered, but she tells Britten and Freeman that two other people who knew the guest code were Simmons' step-brother Mark Hudson and his girlfriend Amber Blue. Britten and Freeman find Amber, and it turns out that Amber is actually Kate Porter. Simmons had dumped Porter a month earlier, and when Freeman asks her where she was the night of the murder, she says she was in the emergency room sleeping off a drug high. She gives Britten her discharge paper after fumbling around looking for it. Britten offers to help Porter enter a rehab program, but she brushes him off.
In the real world, Dr. Lee says that Britten has created different versions of everything to avoid admitting that his other world is a dream. He points out if his world is a dream, then that means that Britten dreamed of Porter, whom he hadn't seen in ten years, before meeting her for real. It would be far more reasonable, Dr. Lee suggests, to think that Britten met Porter in the real world, then added her to his dream world.
In the dream world, Dr. Evans suggests that Britten subconsciously saw a picture of Porter in Simmons', and that prompted him to add her to his dream world before meeting her in reality. After hearing this, Britten suddenly does remember seeing Porter's picture in Simmons' house.
In the real world, Dr. Lee says that Britten added the picture of Porter after the fact, so he could keep believing that the dream world might, in fact, be real.
In the dream world, Dr. Evans says the more important question is not which Porter is real, but why Britten imagines the dream version of her as so different from the real one (whichever the real one is). She thinks the duplicate Porters are not important to the cases, but to Britten's relationship with Rex.
In the real world, Britten tells Hannah about meeting Porter, and Hannah tells him that she saved one of Porter's paper airplanes in a scrapbook. Hannah also tells Britten that Porter went through a rough patch after her sister died, and she's glad to hear that she pulled herself together and has a successful career. When Britten checks the scrapbook in the dream world, it is, of course, there.
In the dream world, Britten tries to use the paper airplane to get through to Rex, but Rex insists he barely remembers Porter. When Britten reminds Rex that he hasn't apologized to Cole, Rex becomes huffy and leaves.
Britten and Freeman see Hudson, who tells them that Charlie Simmons' father Ben Simmons had been bankrolling his boxing training. However, when Simmons pere died, Charlie cut Hudson off. Hudson tried to sue Charlie for a share of Ben Simmons' inheritance, but couldn't keep it up. Hudson has no alibi for the night of Charlie's murder -- he was training alone. Back at the station, they look up the terms of Ben Simmons' will, and it turns out that with Charlie dead, Hudson stands to inherit the Simmons fortune. They now have motive and opportunity. If Hudson did kill Simmons, though, then the robbery of the safe must be a red herring, as the money in it would be Hudson's anyway with Simmons dead.
Britten and Freeman go out to interview Simmons' neighbors to see if any of them can identify Hudson's pickup truck. It turns out that one neighbor has a surveillence camera pointed more-or-less in the direction of Simmons' house. They now have a video record of who was at Simmons' house when he was murdered.
In the real world, Vega calls Britten to tell him they've recovered Ng's cell phone. However, Britten is made uneasy when he can find no evidence on it that Ng and Fuller were having an affair. Why would Fuller make up an affair? Vega asks. Because, Britten says, an affair would make everyone think that Ng jumped rather than was pushed.
Britten and Vega investigate Ng's house. They can still find no evidence of Ng's affair with Fuller. Britten's subconscious prompts him with a memory of the safe in Simmons' bathroom in the dream world, and Britten searches Ng's bathroom. He finds a can of the same shaving cream he saw in his dream, picks it up, and hears it rattle. He unscrews a false bottom, and inside is the key to a safety deposit box.
Looking in the box, Britten and Vega find a research report. It turns out that the report showed that the company's research into silicon chip manufacturing had gone down a blind alley. Fuller and Knox were keeping the information from the company's investors, and Ng was threatening to go public. Fuller had an alibi for the time fo Ng's death, but Knox did not. Britten has the stain on Kate Porter's dress tested, and it held the same mix of wine and Ng's prescription drug that was found in Ng's body after her death. It was Knox who drugged Ng and pushed her overboard, while Fuller made up the story that they were having an affair to create a motive for Ng's supposed suicide.
In the dream world, Britten and Freeman play back the video for the night of Simmons' murder. They do not find Hudson's truck on the scene; instead, they find Porter's car. Britten and Freeman interrogate Porter, and she admits that she was broke and jonesing for a hit, and gave her dealer, Leon, the code for Simmons' house. She says that Leon told her he would just scare Simmons into opening the safe for him. Leon, of course, killed Simmons, making Porter an accessory to murder.
Back in reality, Dr. Lee points out that Britten has created two lives for Porter after her sister's death, one where she successfully dealt with the loss, and one where she didn't. Britten says the two lives are different, but equally plausible.
In the dream world, Dr. Evans asks Britten what he thinks caused Porter's life to go in one direction or the other. Talking to Porter in reality, Britten learns that she blames herself for her sister's death, and was determined to punish herself. Her mother refused to give up on her, and eventually was able to help her out of her depression. Talking to dream Porter in prison, Britten is told that Porter's mother did finally give up on her, and her downward spiral continued.
In the dream world, Britten finds Rex staring at the broken tennis racquet. He refuses to accept Rex's silence, and eventually Rex admits that he got angry because it was Hannah's racquet that Cole broke. He never used it, he just kept it in his bag as a way of keeping his mother's memory alive. Whenever he thinks about Cole breaking the racquet, he gets angry again. Britten tells it's all right, he still gets angry himself. The next day, Rex apologizes to Cole, and they make up.
Kyle Killen, the creator of Awake, has stated that one of the worlds is in fact a dream, and one is real. Britten, though, insists on thinking of both worlds as real, and since the audience identifies with Britten, they also tend to think of both worlds as real. In "Kate Is Enough", though, we see proof that one of the worlds is actually a dream. If both worlds were real, diverging from each other after Britten's accident, then the only changes between them would be those resulting from the different outcomes of the accident four months earlier. The alternate Kate Porters, though, have been growing apart for years, enough time for the real Porter to become an investment banker and move to New York, while the dream Porter becomes a drug addict. After tonight's episode, Detective Britten can no longer maintain the pretense that both worlds might be real. One of his therapists is right -- one of the worlds is an elaborate construct he has created to avoid dealing with the death of a family member. Whether he comes to see that Dr. Lee is right, and the world where Hannah survived is the real one, remains to be seen.
On the other hand . . .
Green World: "Kate Is Enough"
This is a spoiler review of "Kate Is Enough", episode four of Awake, a TV series about a police detective, Michael Britten, who loses a family member in a car crash. Britten responds by creating a dream world in which a different family member died in the crash, a dream world so real that he can't tell it from the real world, and is in fact determined to act as though both worlds are real. As I've noted before, while in reality (the Green World) Detective Britten's wife Hannah died in the crash, Britten has created a dream world (the Red World) where Hannah survived and it was his son Rex who died in the crash.
In the real world, Rex gets into a fight with his best friend Cole while they're playing tennis. While Tara is breaking the fight up, Rex accidentally smacks her in the face. She asks him what's going on, and Rex explains that Cole was using his racquet without his permission and broke it, so Rex started beating the crap out of him. Cole points out that Rex uses his racquets all the time, and that he offered to pay for it. Rex walks away. Tara asks where he's going, and he says he's going to the principal's office.
Later, Britten asks Rex what the hell happened, and Rex stonewalls him, then tells Tara not to bother suspending him, because he's quitting the tennis program. When Britten discusses the matter with Dr. Evans, she points out that anger is a typical reaction to the sort of loss Rex has suffered. Britten's attempts to help Rex have come to nothing, and he feels helpless. Dr. Evans suggests that the reason Britten can't get through to Rex is because Britten doesn't really believe Rex's mother is dead.
In the dream world, Britten and his partner Vega investigate the death of a woman, Annie Ng, during a party on a yacht. The yacht is owned by two men who own a tech firm, and Ng was the personal assistant of one of the men, Cameron Fuller. Ng fell, or was pushed, overboard, but nobody saw it happen, so nobody can say which it was. Britten interviews Fuller and his partner, Darren Knox. Fuller admits that he had been having an affair with Ng, despite being engaged to a famous lingerie model, and that he had broken off the affair that morning. He was with a group of people when Ng went over the side.
After the inteview, Britten runs into Kate Porter, Rex's old babysitter. Porter is now with an investment bank in New York, and the tech firm is one of her clients. There's a stain on her dress, and she explains that Knox ran into her shortly after Ng's fall, and spilled a drink on her.
In the real world, Britten and his partner Freeman are investigating the execution-style murder of Charlie Simmons, a local wastrel living off the inheritance of his recently-deceased father. Simmons had a hidden safe under the bathroom sink, which has been opened and emptied. Back in the station, Freeman says that Simmons' house was alarmed, but his killer used a guest code to deactivate it. They start interviewing people who knew the guest code, starting with the cleaning lady.
The cleaning lady was playing bingo with her niece when Simmons was murdered, but she tells Britten and Freeman that two other people who knew the guest code were Simmons' step-brother Mark Hudson and his girlfriend Amber Blue. Britten and Freeman find Amber, and it turns out that Amber is actually Kate Porter. Simmons had dumped Porter a month earlier, and when Freeman asks her where she was the night of the murder, she says she was in the emergency room sleeping off a drug high. She gives Britten her discharge paper after fumbling around looking for it. Britten offers to help Porter enter a rehab program, but she brushes him off.
In the dream world, Dr. Lee says that Britten has created different versions of everything to avoid admitting that Dr. Lee's "reality" is real. He points out if his world is a dream, then that means that Britten dreamed of Porter, whom he hadn't seen in ten years, before meeting her for real. It would be far more reasonable, Dr. Lee suggests, to think that Britten met Porter in the real world, then added her to his dream world.
In the real world, Dr. Evans suggests that Britten subconsciously saw a picture of Porter in Simmons', and that prompted him to add her to his dream world before meeting her in reality.
In the dream world, Dr. Lee says that Britten added the picture of Porter after the fact, so he could keep believing that the real world was, in fact, real.
In the real world, Dr. Evans says the more important question is not which Porter is real, but why Britten imagines the dream version of her as so different from the real one (whichever the real one is). She thinks the duplicate Porters are not important to the cases, but to Britten's relationship with Rex.
In the dream world, Britten tells Hannah about meeting Porter, and Hannah tells him that she saved one of Porter's paper airplanes in a scrapbook. Hannah also tells Britten that Porter went through a rough patch after her sister died, and she's glad to hear that she pulled herself together and has a successful career. This is actually Britten's subconscious reminding him of the paper airplane, and of the death of Porter's sister (which Hannah told him about at the time, though consciously Britten had forgotten). When he checks the scrapbook in reality, there it is.
Britten tries to use the paper airplane to get through to Rex, but Rex insists he barely remembers Porter. When Britten reminds Rex that he hasn't apologized to Cole, Rex becomes huffy and leaves.
Britten and Freeman see Hudson, who tells them that Charlie Simmons' father Ben Simmons had been bankrolling his boxing training. However, when Simmons pere died, Charlie cut Hudson off. Hudson tried to sue Charlie for a share of Ben Simmons' inheritance, but couldn't keep it up. Hudson has no alibi for the night of Charlie's murder -- he was training alone. Back at the station, they look up the terms of Ben Simmons' will, and it turns out that with Charlie dead, Hudson stands to inherit the Simmons fortune. They now have motive and opportunity. If Hudson did kill Simmons, though, then the robbery of the safe must be a red herring.
Britten and Freeman go out to interview Simmons' neighbors to see if any of them can identify Hudson's pickup truck. It turns out that one neighbor has a surveillence camera pointed more-or-less in the direction of Simmons' house. They now have a video record of who was at Simmons' house when he was murdered.
In the dream world, Vega calls Britten to tell him they've recovered Ng's cell phone. However, Britten is made uneasy when he can find no evidence on it that Ng and Fuller were having an affair. Why would Fuller make up an affair? Vega asks. Because, Britten says, an affair would make everyone think that Ng jumped rather than was pushed.
Britten and Vega investigate Ng's house. Remembering the safe in Simmons' bathroom in the real world, Britten searches Ng's bathroom. He finds a can of the same shaving cream he saw in Simmons' bathroom, picks it up, and hears it rattle. He unscrews a false bottom, and inside is the key to a safety deposit box.
Looking in the box, Britten and Vega find a research report. It turns out that the report showed that the company's research into silicon chip manufacturing had gone down a blind alley. Fuller and Knox were keeping the information from the company's investors, and Ng was threatening to go public. Fuller had an alibi for the time fo Ng's death, but Knox did not. Britten has the stain on Kate Porter's dress analyzed, and it held the same mix of wine and Ng's prescription drug that was found in Ng's body. It was Knox who drugged Ng and pushed her overboard, while Fuller made up the story that they were having an affair to create a motive for Ng's supposed suicide.
In the real world, Britten and Freeman play back the video for the night of Simmons' murder. They do not find Hudson's truck on the scene; instead, they find Porter's car. Britten and Freeman interrogate Porter, and she admits that she was broke and jonesing for a hit, and gave her dealer, Leon, the code for Simmons' house. She says that Leon told her he would just scare Simmons into opening the safe for him.
In the dream world, Dr. Lee points out that Britten has created two lives for Porter after her sister's death, one where she successfully dealt with the loss, and one where she didn't. Britten says the two lives are different, but equally plausible.
In the real world, Dr. Evans asks Britten what he thinks caused Porter's life to go in one direction or the other. Talking to Porter, Britten learns that she blames herself for her sister's death, and was determined to punish herself. Her mother tried to talk her out of it, but finally gave up. In the dream world, Porter says that her mother didn't give up, and eventually was able to help her out of her depression.
In the real world, Britten finds Rex staring at the broken tennis racquet. He refuses to accept Rex's silence, and eventually Rex admits that he got angry because it was Hannah's racquet that Cole broke. He never used it, he just kept it in his bag as a way of keeping his mother's memory alive. Whenever he thinks about Cole breaking the racquet, he gets angry again. Britten tells it's all right, he still gets angry himself. The next day, Rex apologizes to Cole, and they make up.
In Awake, the Red World has always served as a cautionary tale for Detective Britten. In the most obvious sense, the Red World shows Britten how much worse his life could be: he could have an unsympathetic therapist, an untrustworthy partner, cases that he can't solve. With the alternate Kate Porter, as Dr. Evans pointed out, the Red World was showing Britten how high the stakes were with his son's depression. The dream Kate Porter was Britten's subconscious telling him that he couldn't afford to give up on Rex, with, ironically, the real Kate Porter as the worst-case scenario for what might happen if he did. Britten heeds the warning from his subconscious, and is able to help Rex out of his downward spiral.
On the other hand . . .
In the real world, Rex gets into a fight with his best friend Cole while they're playing tennis. While Tara is breaking the fight up, Rex accidentally smacks her in the face. She asks him what's going on, and Rex explains that Cole was using his racquet without his permission and broke it, so Rex started beating the crap out of him. Cole points out that Rex uses his racquets all the time, and that he offered to pay for it. Rex walks away. Tara asks where he's going, and he says he's going to the principal's office.
Later, Britten asks Rex what the hell happened, and Rex stonewalls him, then tells Tara not to bother suspending him, because he's quitting the tennis program. When Britten discusses the matter with Dr. Evans, she points out that anger is a typical reaction to the sort of loss Rex has suffered. Britten's attempts to help Rex have come to nothing, and he feels helpless. Dr. Evans suggests that the reason Britten can't get through to Rex is because Britten doesn't really believe Rex's mother is dead.
In the dream world, Britten and his partner Vega investigate the death of a woman, Annie Ng, during a party on a yacht. The yacht is owned by two men who own a tech firm, and Ng was the personal assistant of one of the men, Cameron Fuller. Ng fell, or was pushed, overboard, but nobody saw it happen, so nobody can say which it was. Britten interviews Fuller and his partner, Darren Knox. Fuller admits that he had been having an affair with Ng, despite being engaged to a famous lingerie model, and that he had broken off the affair that morning. He was with a group of people when Ng went over the side.
After the inteview, Britten runs into Kate Porter, Rex's old babysitter. Porter is now with an investment bank in New York, and the tech firm is one of her clients. There's a stain on her dress, and she explains that Knox ran into her shortly after Ng's fall, and spilled a drink on her.
In the real world, Britten and his partner Freeman are investigating the execution-style murder of Charlie Simmons, a local wastrel living off the inheritance of his recently-deceased father. Simmons had a hidden safe under the bathroom sink, which has been opened and emptied. Back in the station, Freeman says that Simmons' house was alarmed, but his killer used a guest code to deactivate it. They start interviewing people who knew the guest code, starting with the cleaning lady.
The cleaning lady was playing bingo with her niece when Simmons was murdered, but she tells Britten and Freeman that two other people who knew the guest code were Simmons' step-brother Mark Hudson and his girlfriend Amber Blue. Britten and Freeman find Amber, and it turns out that Amber is actually Kate Porter. Simmons had dumped Porter a month earlier, and when Freeman asks her where she was the night of the murder, she says she was in the emergency room sleeping off a drug high. She gives Britten her discharge paper after fumbling around looking for it. Britten offers to help Porter enter a rehab program, but she brushes him off.
In the dream world, Dr. Lee says that Britten has created different versions of everything to avoid admitting that Dr. Lee's "reality" is real. He points out if his world is a dream, then that means that Britten dreamed of Porter, whom he hadn't seen in ten years, before meeting her for real. It would be far more reasonable, Dr. Lee suggests, to think that Britten met Porter in the real world, then added her to his dream world.
In the real world, Dr. Evans suggests that Britten subconsciously saw a picture of Porter in Simmons', and that prompted him to add her to his dream world before meeting her in reality.
In the dream world, Dr. Lee says that Britten added the picture of Porter after the fact, so he could keep believing that the real world was, in fact, real.
In the real world, Dr. Evans says the more important question is not which Porter is real, but why Britten imagines the dream version of her as so different from the real one (whichever the real one is). She thinks the duplicate Porters are not important to the cases, but to Britten's relationship with Rex.
In the dream world, Britten tells Hannah about meeting Porter, and Hannah tells him that she saved one of Porter's paper airplanes in a scrapbook. Hannah also tells Britten that Porter went through a rough patch after her sister died, and she's glad to hear that she pulled herself together and has a successful career. This is actually Britten's subconscious reminding him of the paper airplane, and of the death of Porter's sister (which Hannah told him about at the time, though consciously Britten had forgotten). When he checks the scrapbook in reality, there it is.
Britten tries to use the paper airplane to get through to Rex, but Rex insists he barely remembers Porter. When Britten reminds Rex that he hasn't apologized to Cole, Rex becomes huffy and leaves.
Britten and Freeman see Hudson, who tells them that Charlie Simmons' father Ben Simmons had been bankrolling his boxing training. However, when Simmons pere died, Charlie cut Hudson off. Hudson tried to sue Charlie for a share of Ben Simmons' inheritance, but couldn't keep it up. Hudson has no alibi for the night of Charlie's murder -- he was training alone. Back at the station, they look up the terms of Ben Simmons' will, and it turns out that with Charlie dead, Hudson stands to inherit the Simmons fortune. They now have motive and opportunity. If Hudson did kill Simmons, though, then the robbery of the safe must be a red herring.
Britten and Freeman go out to interview Simmons' neighbors to see if any of them can identify Hudson's pickup truck. It turns out that one neighbor has a surveillence camera pointed more-or-less in the direction of Simmons' house. They now have a video record of who was at Simmons' house when he was murdered.
In the dream world, Vega calls Britten to tell him they've recovered Ng's cell phone. However, Britten is made uneasy when he can find no evidence on it that Ng and Fuller were having an affair. Why would Fuller make up an affair? Vega asks. Because, Britten says, an affair would make everyone think that Ng jumped rather than was pushed.
Britten and Vega investigate Ng's house. Remembering the safe in Simmons' bathroom in the real world, Britten searches Ng's bathroom. He finds a can of the same shaving cream he saw in Simmons' bathroom, picks it up, and hears it rattle. He unscrews a false bottom, and inside is the key to a safety deposit box.
Looking in the box, Britten and Vega find a research report. It turns out that the report showed that the company's research into silicon chip manufacturing had gone down a blind alley. Fuller and Knox were keeping the information from the company's investors, and Ng was threatening to go public. Fuller had an alibi for the time fo Ng's death, but Knox did not. Britten has the stain on Kate Porter's dress analyzed, and it held the same mix of wine and Ng's prescription drug that was found in Ng's body. It was Knox who drugged Ng and pushed her overboard, while Fuller made up the story that they were having an affair to create a motive for Ng's supposed suicide.
In the real world, Britten and Freeman play back the video for the night of Simmons' murder. They do not find Hudson's truck on the scene; instead, they find Porter's car. Britten and Freeman interrogate Porter, and she admits that she was broke and jonesing for a hit, and gave her dealer, Leon, the code for Simmons' house. She says that Leon told her he would just scare Simmons into opening the safe for him.
In the dream world, Dr. Lee points out that Britten has created two lives for Porter after her sister's death, one where she successfully dealt with the loss, and one where she didn't. Britten says the two lives are different, but equally plausible.
In the real world, Dr. Evans asks Britten what he thinks caused Porter's life to go in one direction or the other. Talking to Porter, Britten learns that she blames herself for her sister's death, and was determined to punish herself. Her mother tried to talk her out of it, but finally gave up. In the dream world, Porter says that her mother didn't give up, and eventually was able to help her out of her depression.
In the real world, Britten finds Rex staring at the broken tennis racquet. He refuses to accept Rex's silence, and eventually Rex admits that he got angry because it was Hannah's racquet that Cole broke. He never used it, he just kept it in his bag as a way of keeping his mother's memory alive. Whenever he thinks about Cole breaking the racquet, he gets angry again. Britten tells it's all right, he still gets angry himself. The next day, Rex apologizes to Cole, and they make up.
In Awake, the Red World has always served as a cautionary tale for Detective Britten. In the most obvious sense, the Red World shows Britten how much worse his life could be: he could have an unsympathetic therapist, an untrustworthy partner, cases that he can't solve. With the alternate Kate Porter, as Dr. Evans pointed out, the Red World was showing Britten how high the stakes were with his son's depression. The dream Kate Porter was Britten's subconscious telling him that he couldn't afford to give up on Rex, with, ironically, the real Kate Porter as the worst-case scenario for what might happen if he did. Britten heeds the warning from his subconscious, and is able to help Rex out of his downward spiral.
On the other hand . . .
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Fish in a barrel
So, Dick Cheney got a heart transplant yesterday.
The jokes pretty much write themselves.
The jokes pretty much write themselves.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Leave me never
It's time for another embedded music video here at the Johnny Pez blog. Today we go back . . . back . . . back to the very dawn of time. Appearing live on the ABC variety show Shindig! on January 20, 1965, it's the Kinks with "All Day and All of the Night".
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Origins of the partisan divide
Paul Krugman recently blogged about the latest Republican lies about the Affordable Care Act, pointing out:
And this is the reason why American politics has become steadily more polarized for the last 60 years: because there's a large segment of the American voting public that has remained stuck in the past. The further ahead the rest of the country moves from the Resegregated, the deeper the partisan divide between conservatives and everyone else becomes.
The Sensible Centrists like Thomas Friedman and the late, not-so-great David Broder, who have made careers out of decrying political polarization and partisanship, insist that the way to deal with it is to pretend that there's no "there" there, that it just sort of happened for some inexplicable reason, and that it can be done away with by an act of will -- all we have to do is all hold hands and sing "Kumbaya", and the nasty partisanship will go away.
In a more "practical" vein, the Sensible Centrists try to reduce partisanship by compromising with conservatives, which in effect means giving conservatives what they want and hoping they won't demand more. However, all this does is validate the conservatives' belief in their alternate reality, and make them even more determined to stay in their bubble; hence, compromising with conservatives actually worsens the partisan divide.
The only way to make the partisan divide go away is to pop the conservative bubble, force them to give up their Jim Crow fantasia, and make them live with the rest of us in the 21st century, where white people are no better than anyone else, women control their own bodies, homosexuality is normal, and global warming and evolution are real. Because if we don't force them to live in our reality, they'll never give up trying to make us live in theirs. And if you're not white, male, rich, straight, cis, and Christian, you won't like living in their reality.
This is the reality of modern American politics: a large and cohesive bloc ofOnly, it's actually worse than Krugman makes it out to be. As I've noted before, the birth of this alternate conservative reality can be traced back to the end of segregated schools in the South, when white bigots withdrew their children from newly-desegregated public schools and sent them to whites-only "segregation academies". While the rest of America moved forward to the point of electing a black president, the Resegregated and their descendants have remained stuck in 1954. When William F. Buckley was standing athwart history yelling "Stop!", that's what he wanted to stop: the oncoming arrival of racial equality.
voters lives in an alternative reality, fed fake facts by Fox and Rush — whom
they listen to out of tribal affiliation — and completely unaware that it’s all
fiction.
It’s also, by the way, why attempts at outreach by Obama will
fail. Even if he gives the GOP 95 percent of what it wants, these voters will
never hear about it; they will still know, just know, that he’s a radical bent
on destroying America.
And this is the reason why American politics has become steadily more polarized for the last 60 years: because there's a large segment of the American voting public that has remained stuck in the past. The further ahead the rest of the country moves from the Resegregated, the deeper the partisan divide between conservatives and everyone else becomes.
The Sensible Centrists like Thomas Friedman and the late, not-so-great David Broder, who have made careers out of decrying political polarization and partisanship, insist that the way to deal with it is to pretend that there's no "there" there, that it just sort of happened for some inexplicable reason, and that it can be done away with by an act of will -- all we have to do is all hold hands and sing "Kumbaya", and the nasty partisanship will go away.
In a more "practical" vein, the Sensible Centrists try to reduce partisanship by compromising with conservatives, which in effect means giving conservatives what they want and hoping they won't demand more. However, all this does is validate the conservatives' belief in their alternate reality, and make them even more determined to stay in their bubble; hence, compromising with conservatives actually worsens the partisan divide.
The only way to make the partisan divide go away is to pop the conservative bubble, force them to give up their Jim Crow fantasia, and make them live with the rest of us in the 21st century, where white people are no better than anyone else, women control their own bodies, homosexuality is normal, and global warming and evolution are real. Because if we don't force them to live in our reality, they'll never give up trying to make us live in theirs. And if you're not white, male, rich, straight, cis, and Christian, you won't like living in their reality.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Why the green world is the real one
WARNING: SPOILERS A-PLENTY
The most fascinating new show on NBC is "Awake," a show about a police detective named Michael Britten who wakes up from a traffic accident to find that his son Rex has been killed in the crash, then wakes up again to find that Rex is alive and it's his wife Hannah who was killed in the crash. Every time Britten goes to sleep in one world, he finds himself waking up in the other. To help himself keep things straight, Britten wears a red band on his wrist in the world where Hannah survived the crash, and a green one in the world where Rex did.
In each world, Britten's superiors make him go to a psychiatrist to deal with the trauma, and he tells both about his double life. Both psychiatrists insist that their own world is the real one, and the other one is a delusion that Britten has constructed. But there are actually four possible scenarios:
1. Both worlds are delusions. Britten is in a coma and is dreaming the whole thing.
2. Both worlds are real. The accident somehow allows Britten to experience two different possible outcomes.
3. Dr. Lee, the psychiatrist in the red world, is right. Rex really died in the crash, and the world where he survived is a delusion.
4. Dr. Evans, the psychiatrist in the green world, is right. Hannah really died in the crash, and the world where she survived is a delusion.
But four possible scenarios were too many for series creator Kyle Killen. In a recent interview, he stated that one of the worlds really is a dream, and one really is real. So, scenarios 1 and 2 are out, and viewers have a choice of 3 or 4.
So, which is the dream and which is reality? If you consider the psychology of the whole thing, it's obvious that Dr. Evans is right: Hannah died in the crash, and Britten is imagining the world where she survived.
The red world is clearly a cautionary tale, a way for Britten's subconscious to remind him how much worse his life could be. In the real world, Britten still has the support of his partner, "Bird" Freeman, whom he likes and trusts. In the dream world, Britten has been given a new partner, Efram Vega, who's job is to spy on him for his superiors. In the real world, Britten's therapist is kind and understanding. In the dream world, Britten's therapist is confrontational and unpleasant. In the real world, Rex deals with the trauma of his mother's death by taking up tennis under the tutelage of Hannah's pretty friend Tara. In the dream world, Hannah deals with the trauma of her son's death by turning Britten's world upside down, redecorating the house, and urging Britten to move to Oregon.
The second episode, "The Little Guy," makes the cautionary nature of the red world even more obvious. In real life, Britten investigates the murder of a well-known fertility doctor named Bernard Mackenzie. With subconscious hints provided by the dream world, Britten is able to solve Mackenzie's murder. In his dream world, Britten goes on a pointless quest to find the killer of a homeless drug addict, because the addict's name happens to be the same as Mackenzie's. He fails, and his co-workers fear that Britten's faltering grip on reality is impairing his work.
Still, even knowing which world is real and which is a dream, it's fascinating to watch the interplay between the two. In the most recent episode, "Guilty," a man named John Cooper breaks out of prison and kidnaps Rex. Britten had arrested Cooper ten years earlier for killing a drug dealer after Cooper's son died of a drug overdose, but Cooper has always insisted he was framed. Cooper contacts Britten and tells him that he has Rex imprisoned in the desert, and that Rex will die unless Britten finds proof that Cooper was innocent. Unfortunately, Britten's ex-partner Jim Mayhew kills Cooper before he can tell Britten who the real murderer was, thereby dooming Rex.
In his dream world, Britten visits Cooper in prison, and Cooper tells him that it was Mayhew who framed him. When Britten asks Cooper about the place in the desert where Rex is imprisoned, Cooper says he can tell Britten where it is, but refuses unless Britten finds proof that he's innocent. In desperation, Britten confronts Mayhew, and is able to get him to admit that he did in fact frame Cooper for the murder. In the real world, amazingly enough, the dream-Cooper's information leads Britten to an isolated shack in the desert where Rex is imprisoned, allowing him to save Rex.
Dr. Evans points out that Britten's subconscious is trying to relieve his guilt over Cooper's fate by letting him imagine a reality where he was able to free Cooper. But it was Mayhew, she reminds him, who framed Cooper, and who bears the guilt for Cooper's wrongful imprisonment and death.
On the other hand . . .
The most fascinating new show on NBC is "Awake," a show about a police detective named Michael Britten who wakes up from a traffic accident to find that his son Rex has been killed in the crash, then wakes up again to find that Rex is alive and it's his wife Hannah who was killed in the crash. Every time Britten goes to sleep in one world, he finds himself waking up in the other. To help himself keep things straight, Britten wears a red band on his wrist in the world where Hannah survived the crash, and a green one in the world where Rex did.
In each world, Britten's superiors make him go to a psychiatrist to deal with the trauma, and he tells both about his double life. Both psychiatrists insist that their own world is the real one, and the other one is a delusion that Britten has constructed. But there are actually four possible scenarios:
1. Both worlds are delusions. Britten is in a coma and is dreaming the whole thing.
2. Both worlds are real. The accident somehow allows Britten to experience two different possible outcomes.
3. Dr. Lee, the psychiatrist in the red world, is right. Rex really died in the crash, and the world where he survived is a delusion.
4. Dr. Evans, the psychiatrist in the green world, is right. Hannah really died in the crash, and the world where she survived is a delusion.
But four possible scenarios were too many for series creator Kyle Killen. In a recent interview, he stated that one of the worlds really is a dream, and one really is real. So, scenarios 1 and 2 are out, and viewers have a choice of 3 or 4.
So, which is the dream and which is reality? If you consider the psychology of the whole thing, it's obvious that Dr. Evans is right: Hannah died in the crash, and Britten is imagining the world where she survived.
The red world is clearly a cautionary tale, a way for Britten's subconscious to remind him how much worse his life could be. In the real world, Britten still has the support of his partner, "Bird" Freeman, whom he likes and trusts. In the dream world, Britten has been given a new partner, Efram Vega, who's job is to spy on him for his superiors. In the real world, Britten's therapist is kind and understanding. In the dream world, Britten's therapist is confrontational and unpleasant. In the real world, Rex deals with the trauma of his mother's death by taking up tennis under the tutelage of Hannah's pretty friend Tara. In the dream world, Hannah deals with the trauma of her son's death by turning Britten's world upside down, redecorating the house, and urging Britten to move to Oregon.
The second episode, "The Little Guy," makes the cautionary nature of the red world even more obvious. In real life, Britten investigates the murder of a well-known fertility doctor named Bernard Mackenzie. With subconscious hints provided by the dream world, Britten is able to solve Mackenzie's murder. In his dream world, Britten goes on a pointless quest to find the killer of a homeless drug addict, because the addict's name happens to be the same as Mackenzie's. He fails, and his co-workers fear that Britten's faltering grip on reality is impairing his work.
Still, even knowing which world is real and which is a dream, it's fascinating to watch the interplay between the two. In the most recent episode, "Guilty," a man named John Cooper breaks out of prison and kidnaps Rex. Britten had arrested Cooper ten years earlier for killing a drug dealer after Cooper's son died of a drug overdose, but Cooper has always insisted he was framed. Cooper contacts Britten and tells him that he has Rex imprisoned in the desert, and that Rex will die unless Britten finds proof that Cooper was innocent. Unfortunately, Britten's ex-partner Jim Mayhew kills Cooper before he can tell Britten who the real murderer was, thereby dooming Rex.
In his dream world, Britten visits Cooper in prison, and Cooper tells him that it was Mayhew who framed him. When Britten asks Cooper about the place in the desert where Rex is imprisoned, Cooper says he can tell Britten where it is, but refuses unless Britten finds proof that he's innocent. In desperation, Britten confronts Mayhew, and is able to get him to admit that he did in fact frame Cooper for the murder. In the real world, amazingly enough, the dream-Cooper's information leads Britten to an isolated shack in the desert where Rex is imprisoned, allowing him to save Rex.
Dr. Evans points out that Britten's subconscious is trying to relieve his guilt over Cooper's fate by letting him imagine a reality where he was able to free Cooper. But it was Mayhew, she reminds him, who framed Cooper, and who bears the guilt for Cooper's wrongful imprisonment and death.
On the other hand . . .
Why the red world is the real one
WARNING: SPOILERS A-PLENTY
The most fascinating new show on NBC is "Awake," a show about a police detective named Michael Britten who wakes up from a traffic accident to find that his son Rex has been killed in the crash, then wakes up again to find that Rex is alive and it's his wife Hannah who was killed in the crash. Every time Britten goes to sleep in one world, he finds himself waking up in the other. To help himself keep things straight, Britten wears a red band on his wrist in the world where Hannah survived the crash, and a green one in the world where Rex did.
In each world, Britten's superiors make him go to a psychiatrist to deal with the trauma, and he tells both about his double life. Both psychiatrists insist that their own world is the real one, and the other one is a delusion that Britten has constructed. But there are actually four possible scenarios:
1. Both worlds are delusions. Britten is in a coma and is dreaming the whole thing.
2. Both worlds are real. The accident somehow allows Britten to experience two different possible outcomes.
3. Dr. Lee, the psychiatrist in the red world, is right. Rex really died in the crash, and the world where he survived is a delusion.
4. Dr. Evans, the psychiatrist in the green world, is right. Hannah really died in the crash, and the world where she survived is a delusion.
But four possible scenarios were too many for series creator Kyle Killen. In a recent interview, he stated that one of the worlds really is a dream, and one really is real. So, scenarios 1 and 2 are out, and viewers have a choice of 3 or 4.
So, which is the dream and which is reality? If you consider the psychology of the whole thing, it's obvious that Dr. Lee is right: Rex died in the crash, and Britten is imagining the world where he survived.
The green world is clearly a wish-fulfillment fantasy. In the real world, Britten has been given a new partner, Efram Vega, who's job is to spy on him for his superiors. In the dream world, Britten is still working with his old partner, "Bird" Freeman, whom he likes and trusts. In the real world, Britten's therapist is confrontational and unpleasant. In the dream world, Britten's therapist is kind and understanding. In the real world, Hannah deals with the trauma of her son's death by turning Britten's world upside down, redecorating the house, and urging Britten to move to Oregon. In the dream world, Rex deals with the trauma of his mother's death by taking up tennis under the tutelage of Hannah's pretty friend Tara.
The second episode, "The Little Guy," makes the wish-fulfillment nature of the green world even more obvious. In real life, Britten finds himself trying to find out who killed a homeless drug addict named Bernard Mackenzie. A loopy possible witness says he saw "a little guy" near Mackenzie after his death, and Britten spends the next couple of days in an ultimately futile effort to locate the little guy. In his dream world, Bernard Mackenzie is the name of a well-known fertility doctor, whose murder Britten is able to solve thanks to his obsession with how tall the various potential suspects are.
Still, even knowing which world is real and which is a dream, it's fascinating to watch the interplay between the two. In the most recent episode, "Guilty," Britten's anxiety about an upcoming memorial being held for Rex starts his subconscious reconsidering a murder case he solved ten years before. A man named John Cooper was convicted of the murder of a drug dealer after his son died of a drug overdose, but Cooper has always insisted he was framed. In the dream world, Cooper breaks out of prison and kidnaps Rex. Cooper contacts Britten and tells him that he has Rex imprisoned in the desert, and that Rex will die unless Britten finds proof that Cooper was innocent. Unfortunately, Britten's ex-partner Jim Mayhew kills Cooper before he can tell Britten who the real murderer was, thereby dooming Rex.
Since Britten himself refuses to believe that his dream world isn't real, he is convinced that Rex is really in danger of dying, and he sets out on a quixotic quest to "save" him. He visits the real Cooper in prison, who tells him that it was Mayhew who framed him. When Britten asks Cooper about the place in the desert where the dream-Rex is imprisoned, Cooper says he can tell Britten where it is, but refuses unless Britten finds proof that he's innocent. In desperation, Britten confronts Mayhew, and is able to get him to admit that he did in fact frame Cooper for the murder. In the dream world, Britten is able to find Rex in time to save him.
Dr. Lee reminds Britten that Cooper's failure to make parole coincided with Rex's death, and that Britten's subconscious used the threat to the dream-Rex's life to force Britten to act in reality to right the wrong he had done to Cooper.
On the other hand . . .
The most fascinating new show on NBC is "Awake," a show about a police detective named Michael Britten who wakes up from a traffic accident to find that his son Rex has been killed in the crash, then wakes up again to find that Rex is alive and it's his wife Hannah who was killed in the crash. Every time Britten goes to sleep in one world, he finds himself waking up in the other. To help himself keep things straight, Britten wears a red band on his wrist in the world where Hannah survived the crash, and a green one in the world where Rex did.
In each world, Britten's superiors make him go to a psychiatrist to deal with the trauma, and he tells both about his double life. Both psychiatrists insist that their own world is the real one, and the other one is a delusion that Britten has constructed. But there are actually four possible scenarios:
1. Both worlds are delusions. Britten is in a coma and is dreaming the whole thing.
2. Both worlds are real. The accident somehow allows Britten to experience two different possible outcomes.
3. Dr. Lee, the psychiatrist in the red world, is right. Rex really died in the crash, and the world where he survived is a delusion.
4. Dr. Evans, the psychiatrist in the green world, is right. Hannah really died in the crash, and the world where she survived is a delusion.
But four possible scenarios were too many for series creator Kyle Killen. In a recent interview, he stated that one of the worlds really is a dream, and one really is real. So, scenarios 1 and 2 are out, and viewers have a choice of 3 or 4.
So, which is the dream and which is reality? If you consider the psychology of the whole thing, it's obvious that Dr. Lee is right: Rex died in the crash, and Britten is imagining the world where he survived.
The green world is clearly a wish-fulfillment fantasy. In the real world, Britten has been given a new partner, Efram Vega, who's job is to spy on him for his superiors. In the dream world, Britten is still working with his old partner, "Bird" Freeman, whom he likes and trusts. In the real world, Britten's therapist is confrontational and unpleasant. In the dream world, Britten's therapist is kind and understanding. In the real world, Hannah deals with the trauma of her son's death by turning Britten's world upside down, redecorating the house, and urging Britten to move to Oregon. In the dream world, Rex deals with the trauma of his mother's death by taking up tennis under the tutelage of Hannah's pretty friend Tara.
The second episode, "The Little Guy," makes the wish-fulfillment nature of the green world even more obvious. In real life, Britten finds himself trying to find out who killed a homeless drug addict named Bernard Mackenzie. A loopy possible witness says he saw "a little guy" near Mackenzie after his death, and Britten spends the next couple of days in an ultimately futile effort to locate the little guy. In his dream world, Bernard Mackenzie is the name of a well-known fertility doctor, whose murder Britten is able to solve thanks to his obsession with how tall the various potential suspects are.
Still, even knowing which world is real and which is a dream, it's fascinating to watch the interplay between the two. In the most recent episode, "Guilty," Britten's anxiety about an upcoming memorial being held for Rex starts his subconscious reconsidering a murder case he solved ten years before. A man named John Cooper was convicted of the murder of a drug dealer after his son died of a drug overdose, but Cooper has always insisted he was framed. In the dream world, Cooper breaks out of prison and kidnaps Rex. Cooper contacts Britten and tells him that he has Rex imprisoned in the desert, and that Rex will die unless Britten finds proof that Cooper was innocent. Unfortunately, Britten's ex-partner Jim Mayhew kills Cooper before he can tell Britten who the real murderer was, thereby dooming Rex.
Since Britten himself refuses to believe that his dream world isn't real, he is convinced that Rex is really in danger of dying, and he sets out on a quixotic quest to "save" him. He visits the real Cooper in prison, who tells him that it was Mayhew who framed him. When Britten asks Cooper about the place in the desert where the dream-Rex is imprisoned, Cooper says he can tell Britten where it is, but refuses unless Britten finds proof that he's innocent. In desperation, Britten confronts Mayhew, and is able to get him to admit that he did in fact frame Cooper for the murder. In the dream world, Britten is able to find Rex in time to save him.
Dr. Lee reminds Britten that Cooper's failure to make parole coincided with Rex's death, and that Britten's subconscious used the threat to the dream-Rex's life to force Britten to act in reality to right the wrong he had done to Cooper.
On the other hand . . .
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Dog walk: 3/14/12
Yesterday saw temps in the low 80s and a cloudless blue sky. It looks like we've leapfrogged spring and gone straight into summer. And yet, technically, it's still winter. By the time the dogs and I were finished an hour-long walk through the streets of McKees Rocks, both of them were panting from the heat. One of the things that made walking the dogs in Newport so enjoyable was that some of the shops would set out bowls of water for passing dogs, and the basenjis had a couple of favorite spots where they liked to stop for a drink. Sadly, this enlightened custom has not made its way to the land of McKees Rocks.
The highlight of today's walk occurred on Holmes Street, when the dogs and I met a woman on her way to work. After she asked The Question and was informed that the dogs were basenjis, she revealed that she worked in a kiosk at the Robinson Mall where she sold dog treats. Sadly, she had no samples with her, but she invited me to stop in and say hello if I ever found myself at the mall.
The highlight of today's walk occurred on Holmes Street, when the dogs and I met a woman on her way to work. After she asked The Question and was informed that the dogs were basenjis, she revealed that she worked in a kiosk at the Robinson Mall where she sold dog treats. Sadly, she had no samples with her, but she invited me to stop in and say hello if I ever found myself at the mall.
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