# Is there any ironclad way for the lead character in "Awake" to determine which is the dream? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 7, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-ironclad-way-for-the-lead-character-in-awake-to-determine-which-is-the-dream/615036 "2012-03-07T15:20:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-ironclad-way-for-the-lead-character-in-awake-to-determine-which-is-the-dream/615036/61 "2012-03-10T23:52:18Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > If the story is consistent, that seems to be a clincher. Whichever he experienced first is the real world. The thing about the change being before the accident isn’t relevant–it just means that his dream world includes elements which _ostensibly_ (i.e., in the story according to the dream) occured before the accident. There’s no logical problem with that. (I’ve had dreams before in which I was never married. Dreaming that history is different than what it really is presents no logical or metaphysical conundrum–the dream isn’t real of course!) > > What will ruin the whole premise is if in later episodes the same method determines the _other_ world to be real. We will then know that the writers are just fucking with us. Didn’t they discuss this in the pilot episode itself? In this episode, he gets the case of the murdered doctor, and then notices a victim in the other reality of the same name. That seems to imply that the murdered doctor is in the correct reality. But it could be that he had seen the homeless victim’s name in passing, and so his subconscious supplied that as the doctor’s name in his dream. So the doctor could be in the dream reality after all. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-ironclad-way-for-the-lead-character-in-awake-to-determine-which-is-the-dream/615036/62 "2012-03-11T19:05:19Z")
**Bouv** , I agree that they’ve put out several clues that seem to point toward his wife really being alive and his son really being dead. But that naturally makes me suspicious that these are red herrings and it’s really the other way 'round! LOL ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-ironclad-way-for-the-lead-character-in-awake-to-determine-which-is-the-dream/615036/63 "2012-03-11T19:24:35Z")
Unless the show’s bible has a pre-written definite conclusion, they’ll just keep going until the writers have given us several contradictory clues. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-ironclad-way-for-the-lead-character-in-awake-to-determine-which-is-the-dream/615036/64 "2012-03-11T19:42:08Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Unless the show’s bible has a pre-written definite conclusion, they’ll just keep going until the writers have given us several contradictory clues. The actor who plays the main character says that he and the two showrunners already know which reality is real, but that they are the only three people on the planet (he believes) who do know. He said he doesn’t think they have even told their wives, and he knows he hasn’t told his. ---
**Author:** ![Puzzled\_youbet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df788c/32.png) [@Puzzled\_youbet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Puzzled_youbet)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-ironclad-way-for-the-lead-character-in-awake-to-determine-which-is-the-dream/615036/65 "2012-03-19T22:37:46Z")
New to forum and new to this thread, so pardon if this has been raised. Onservation #1: If one is a dream state and the other is reality, why can the audience see events/scenes Britten is not in, such as when his son is in the shed with the escaped convict and when he’s alone in the shed (green), or when his wife goes to visit Rex’s friend (red) with the parts from the bike. Britten would be able to see other peoples’ actions in a dream but not in real life. Or is the story being told by a third person about what happened in the past? Second observation: The Captain said to the guy in the park on the bench “you should have listened instead of taking out his whole family” - whole family? If this is not just a writer’s sloppy writing, it implies to me that there might be another person(s) who died in the crash. And maybe yet another reality to be introduced? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-ironclad-way-for-the-lead-character-in-awake-to-determine-which-is-the-dream/615036.md?page=3)