Awake recap – 1×10: ‘Slack Water’

This week we get a big development on the baby front as Michael (Jason Isaacs) and Hannah (Laura Allen) consider adoption.

Let’s bitch it out…

As mentioned last week, these recaps won’t be addressing the case of the week unless they’re specifically related to the larger mythology of the show. So that means that Green life is a complete write-off, right off the top.

The Red life, however, is plenty juicy. In the wake of last week’s realization that Emma (Daniela Bobadilla) is pregnant, Hannah and Michael meet with the girl to discuss options for the future. Although Emma’s parents are convinced that the best thing for her is to give up the child, Hannah isn’t certain. The outcome is fairly predictable: as we speculated last week she and Michael decide to stay in Los Angeles. So they’ll become grandparents to the baby and look after Emma (now that her parents have thrown her out). I did end up enjoying this storyline more than I thought I would, mostly it gives Laura Allen some good material to work with. I thought she was particularly good in her breakdown after meeting Emma at the bookstore. While I think most of us knew that Hannah is on the right track thinking that Emma is secretly uncertain about the adoption, Allen plays Hannah’s mixture of confusion and frustration convincingly (Side Note: While we’ve seen Michael struggle with recognizing the emotions of others, it seems strange that he’s so clueless about Emma’s discomfort with her parents. He’s supposed to be a detective and her body language is super obvious!)

Other Observations:

• Captain Harper’s (Laura Innes) “oh shit” meets “I’m so happy for you” expression at Michael’s news that they’re not moving is pretty priceless.
• The final scene, with Emma nestled between Michael and Hannah, watching The X-Files marathon is both cute…and mildly uncomfortable. They literally do not know anything about this girl, so while I can buy them cautiously allowing the girl to stay with them temporarily, it’s weird that everything is so familial so quickly.
• If anything, ‘Slack Water’ makes it clear just how much these cases of the week  are not working. Even as I continue to feel “meh” about the pregnancy storyline, everything with Hannah is emotionally on par with what I want from the show. But this highlights how unimportant and uninteresting the case with Bird (Steve Harris) is. How much more interesting would it have been to see Michael try to counsel Rex (an unseen Dylan Minnette) through the fact that he was almost a father? Or even to see them working to repair Rex’s damaged relationship with Emma in the Green Life instead? Answer: a lot
• Finally, does it mean anything that Milo (Paul McCarthy-Boyington), the perp on the Green side is a heroin addict, and we learn from the conspiracy plotline that Carl (Mark Harelik) is sitting on a large stash of heroin? Alternatively, how disappointing is it that the conspiracy concerns something as mundane as a big drug deal? Booooring

Awake airs Thursdays at 10pm EST on NBC.