Awake Episode 1.03 Guilty

In a hospital, a prisoner, John Cooper, is going through his weekly dialysis treatment. When the nurse comments that she'll she him next week, Cooper responds that maybe he'll get lucky and find a kidney. The guard reminds him on the way out that prisoners do not go on a donor wait-list. While boarding the police van for the ride back to prison, Cooper pulls out something from underneath his bandages from the treatment and uses it to disable a guard, swipe his gun and make his escape.

At Britten's residence, Rex and his tennis coach Tara are planning for his next match against an opponent ranked 15th in the state. Rex thinks he has no chance against such a good player and doesn't want his dad to be there. Britten receives a call that he's being put on a fugitive task force to catch John Cooper, a man who went to prison for shooting the drug dealer that gave bad drugs to his kid and caused him to OD. Britten reveals to Bird that he's the detective who initially arrested Cooper. At the police station, Britten sees his old partner Jim. Jim's been called in to help with the manhunt since he worked the Cooper case with Britten the first time.

Hannah talks to Britten about a youth center fundraiser. Rex used to volunteer there three times a week, and they're going to name a new crisis-counselor position in his honor. Britten asks Hannah if she's up for going to such a public event yet. She knows it's going to be hard, but it's the right thing to do since they're preparing an entire memorial program for Rex. In counseling, Dr. Lee asks Britten how he feels about the fundraiser, and Britten claims he just wants to protect Hannah from her pain. Lee challenges that Britten's real reservation toward the event is that it's honoring a life that Britton hasn't accepted is really gone yet.

During their drive to the tournament, Tara asks Rex about why he doesn't want his dad to see him play. Rex admits that his dad has been doing nothing but trying to be nice to him, yet all Rex can think about is how he wishes it were his dad who died in the accident and not his mom. Rex feels terrible because of this and is afraid every time his dad looks at him he's going to see that Rex wouldn't have chosen him; he would've chosen her. While Tara tries to comfort him, their car gets rear-ended at a stop, and John Cooper gets out of the driver's seat. He uses a rag of chloroform on Tara to render her unconscious. Rex desperately tries to dial for help on Tara's cell phone, but there isn't enough time, so he hides the phone in his sock before Cooper smashes the passenger side window with his gun.

After arriving at the scene of the crash, Britten repeatedly asks Tara for more details about the abduction even though she's teary-eyed and can't think of anything more that can help them. Jim tells Britten that they haven't found Tara's phone yet, so if Rex grabbed it, maybe they can use that to try and trace Cooper's whereabouts. Britten tells Jim he can't understand why Cooper would do this. If he wanted revenge, he should've just come after him or killed Rex on the spot, not kidnap him. Bird walks up with information that the nurse at the hospital failed her polygraph test, meaning she helped him escape. Britten realizes that if she was helping him there, she might know where he's keeping Rex.

Rex wakes up to find himself with his arms tied around a water pipe in an old desolate cabin. He tries to use Tara's phone but there is no service in the area. Cooper walks in after laying a long phone line across a field into the room. Rex hides the phone back in his sock. Cooper remains silent as Rex tries to plead for his release, explaining that his dad is a cop and a lot of people are going to be looking for him. When Cooper answers in silence, Rex begins to assess the seriousness of the situation and loses his composure and starts screaming for help, not realizing he's in a remote desert area miles from anywhere.

Britten interrogates the nurse who claims she wouldn't have helped Cooper if she knew this was going to happen. Britten tells her she's an accessory and kidnapping carries a 20-year minimum sentence. Prying to get whatever information he can from her, she continues to claim she doesn't know where they went. The nurse said he didn't have any other friends or connections. They spent three-hours a day twice a week together during dialysis, and he would ask her to pray with him. Cooper said he was innocent, and she wanted to help. The nurse tells Britten that she hopes one day he can forgive her and that she'll pray for his son.

Tara is waiting at Britten's desk. She tells him Cooper called her house and left a number for Britten to call. Britten asks for a reverse look-up on the number to try to locate the place where Cooper called from. The dispatch lets him know that it's for a public phone outside the police station. Britten rushes outside hoping to find Cooper. Instead, the pay phone rings as he approaches and Britten answers it to find Rex on the other end. Rex tells his dad he's in the desert somewhere before Cooper stuffs a rag in his mouth. Cooper tells Britten that if he ever wants to see his son again, he needs to meet him tonight and alone. Britten tells him he'll do whatever he wants and pleads with him not to hurt Rex. After Cooper hangs up, he tells Rex he's sorry and that no son should have to pay for the sins of his father.

Britten finds Cooper waiting for him at the abandoned warehouse and grabs him by the neck asking for his son's location. Cooper replies that even if Britten kills him, his son will be dead from dehydration by the time he finds him. Britten releases his grip and asks Cooper what he wants. Cooper says he wants the same thing he's wanted for 10 years... justice. He says the drug dealer deserved to die, but he didn't kill him. Cooper wants Britten to find who set him up by planting the gun. Cooper says it took him 10 years to figure who killed the drug dealer, yet now he knows. Before he can say anything further, Cooper is shot twice in the chest by the task force who followed Britten to the warehouse. Cooper dies before he can tell Britten where his son is. Britten shouts to Bird and Jim as they walk up, "You just killed my son!"

After Britten has collected himself, Bird explains that they followed him based on the Captain's orders, thinking that Cooper might try to contact Britten directly. Britten returns home and takes some sleeping pills so he can wake-up where Hannah is still alive. He calls his partner Vega to search the prison database for John Cooper, who's still in Tehachapi Prison in this world. Britten tries to leave the house to visit Cooper when Hannah reminds him that the fundraiser is today. Britten apologizes and tells her he won't be able to make it because if this important case he's working on. Hannah pleads with him to be with her for this. There are always going to be bad things happening to other people, but I need you today. Britten is heartbroken and can't explain why it's so urgent that he sees Cooper now, but his insistence that he has to go only drives Hannah away.

Hannah walks up to the Metro Youth Center entrance shaky and unsure. During her speech, she recalls how Rex started working there due to a school requirement and he couldn't stop complaining about having to be there. Eventually, Rex stopped complaining and one night when he didn't come home on time, Hannah found him at the Center talking to a 14 year-old girl who was thinking about hurting herself. Rex stayed talking with her until she agreed that she would seek help. Hannah recalls that she was given a gift that night: being able to see who her son really was and the type of man he would've become. She thanks the Center for honoring her son and making him a part of this wonderful place.

Cooper is surprised to see Britten visit him in prison, saying he's the last person he expected to see... next to his ex-wife. Britten explains that after Cooper's last appeal was declined, an anonymous source called him with evidence that could clear Cooper. Britten says if he got it wrong with Cooper, he'd like to make it right. Britten asks him about a place in the desert, and Cooper is immediately suspicious that Britten only wants information and doesn't want to actually help him at all. Desperate to keep Cooper talking in hopes of having him reveal the location of Rex's cabin, Britten gets Cooper to unveil who he thinks set him up. Cooper knew it had to be a cop, someone who could control the evidence, and Britten now starts to think back to that time and who might have actually committed Cooper's crime.

Britten drops by the house of his old partner Jim and lays it on the table that's he's figured out Jim killed the drug dealer, took the dealer's money and planted the gun at Cooper's house. Jim asks where all of this is coming from. Britten claims he's not here to bust Jim and that he just wants what's his... his share of the money Jim stole. Little does Jim know, Vega and other police are listening to the conversation outside the house. Jim denies there being any money and plays on Britten's psyche that if Britten tells this ridiculous story to Internal Affairs, it'll just make Britten look worse than he already does. Vega is getting nervous now as well. Is this another erratic Britten episode that will lead to nowhere? Britten says if that's how he wants to play it, he'll leave right now and the first thing Internal Affairs will do is look at Jim's bank records. Just before Britten reaches the door, Jim says Britten can have all the money that's still left. Vega is relieved.

After the police come in to arrest Jim, Britten calls the prison warden to pass the news to John Cooper, so Cooper will tell him the location of his place in the desert. Back in his son's world, Britten races to the location with an ambulance and Bird. He has passed his knowledge of Cooper's murder charge on to Internal Affairs who are already arresting Jim. Bird continues to be bothered by the mysterious hunches and "anonymous" tips Britten seems to be getting about their cases, but he can't question the results. Britten and the paramedics reach Rex before his body has completely shut down, and now he is safe.

Both Dr. Lee and Dr. Evans try to make sense of Britten's story. Lee believes because of the guilt Britten feels for his son's death, his conscious couldn't handle the additional guilt of letting Cooper stay in prison. Evans feels like Britten was looking to relieve his guilt by freeing Cooper in the "other world" since he couldn't save him in the real one. Regardless, Britten still feels guilty for having wasted 10 years of another man's life. Justice didn't change that. Evans asks where Britten thinks this inability to forgive himself comes from. That question remains unanswered.

Britten is able to reconcile with Hannah after the fundraiser. She explains how it felt cathartic to be somewhere where it felt Rex was still alive, and she just wished he'd been there to know what that feels like. Meanwhile, Tara gives Britten a message Rex taped on her phone when he was captured. In it, Rex explains how it's been so hard to communicate with his dad because he's been so angry about losing his mother. Rex confesses that he doesn't blame his dad for the accident and implores his dad not to blame himself. Rex tells his dad that he loves him and that's what he's going to hold onto until they meet again.