‘Awake’ Review: “Kate is Enough”

'Awake’ conjures up its fourth episode in “Kate is Enough” where Jason Isaacs’ Detective Britten encounters Rex's past babysitter at a crime scene, who seems to be involved in unrelated cases in both realities.  Still treading lightly on any of the mysteries behind Britten’s dual realities this week, but another solidly cerebral, and intriguing hour.

Now, you’ve seen the series and want to know how the show fares a fourth time around, whether the narrative device falls apart or works like a dream, no pun intended!  We’ve seen the latest, so what does “Kate is Enough” bring, bad octuplet puns, or will it be enough to jolt you out of your sleep?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about the third episode “Kate is Enough”!

We open on Rex inexplicably fighting his friend Cole, Tara taking an elbow to the face for trying to interfere.  Rex claims it has to do with Cole breaking his tennis racket, but refuses to open up about it to his father when Britten arrives.  Dr. Evans seems to think that Britten feels helpless to relate with his son given he still sees Hannah in the other reality, and thus is “in denial”

Arriving at a red reality case, Britten and Vega investigate the apparent drowning of a man’s assistant on a yacht party, where two partners Cameron and Darren reveal that the girl Annie had been sleeping with Cameron, and likely fell off the boat in a drunken rampage about her lover spurning her.  While there, Britten encounters Rex’s old babysitter Kate, now a successful investment banker, albeit one with a wine stain on her dress from Darren.  In the other reality, Rex works a case where a party boy seems to have been murdered for the contents of a safe, and the evidence points to a spurned stepbrother or his ex-girlfriend.  The housekeeper directs Britten to the ex, who turns out to be a junkie Kate under an actress’ name.

Kate tells the story of how she and Charlie met, and seemingly has a hospital alibi for the time of the murder, but Britten’s doctors conflict over their assessment of which Kate is real, and which may have been created by Britten’s subconscious as a response to the other.  Britten's wife Hannah reminds him that In either case Kate lost her sister to a freak surfing accident, which may provide some clue.  Britten and Bird then go visit the playboy’s step-brother, who has probable cause of having his fight training support cut off in the wake of their father’s death, but no one around the neighborhood can place the stepbrother or his car at the scene.  Confiscating security records of a reclusive neighbor, they do however discover Kate’s car around the time of the murder.

In the red reality, Vega alerts Britten to the presence of certain drugs in the drowned girl’s system, further suggesting her suicide, but Britten finds no evidence of Annie’s supposed affair with Cameron in her phone, e-mails, or apartment.  What he does find on a hunch however, are the hidden keys to a safety deposit box containing a document that Cameron would have wanted to hide from his investors.  They bring both Cameron and Darren in for questioning, revealing that the wine stain on Kate’s dress from Darren contained traces of the same drug found in Annie’s system.  Cameron then confesses that Darren was the one to propose killing Annie over the documents, supplied her with the drugs, crafted the affair story, and ultimately pushed her overboard.

Meanwhile in the blue world, Kate ultimately confesses that her dealer Liam was the one to kill playboy Chris, Kate having supplied him with the security code to scare Chris into giving up money for a drug score.  While Britten’s therapists ruminate on how Britten crafted a woman who had two alternating life responses to a tragic loss, conversations with both Kates reveal that the presence of her mother’s influence in dealing with her sister’s death was ultimately what caused either fate.

Armed with this knowledge, Britten pushes harder to confront Rex about what happened with Cole earlier, and Rex reveals that the tennis racket belonged to Hannah, something he kept sentimentally.  Britten insists that he’ll be there to talk to his son, prodding if necessary, and Rex agrees to apologize to his friend.

“Kate is Enough” largely continues along the path of making 'Awake' a contemplative procedural rather than any enduring mystery, but I wouldn't mind getting into a little more of the supposed conspiracy behind Britten's accident.  After all, with Laura Innes returning next week, we may get some real answers!

What did you think?  Does ‘Awake’s’ still seem too slow and involved for you to get into?  You’ve heard our take, now let us know in the comments below if you’ve “awoken” to continuing this brilliant new series as well!