Say Hello to My Little Friend (Awake)

"Say Hello to My Little Friend" is the eleventh episode of the American television police procedural fantasy drama Awake, which originally aired on NBC on May 10, 2012.

Written by Leonard Chang and series creator Kyle Killen, "Say Hello to My Little Friend" earned a Nielsen rating of 0.9, being watched by 2.51 million viewers upon its initial broadcast in the United States.

Awake centers on Michael Britten (Isaacs), a detective living in two separate realities after a car crash.

He is unable to switch realities, consistently hallucinates and realizes that Ed Hawkins (Kevin Weisman), a detective who is working with Michael's former partner Bird (Steve Harris), was attempting to kill him in the crash.

As a result, Michael Britten, a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detective, begins to live in two separate realities.

Michael passes out and remembers events shortly before and after the crash; Hannah and Rex are singing the Queen song, "Bohemian Rhapsody".

When a police artist (Chad Cleven) draws an image of the man, his real name is revealed to be Ed Hawkins (Kevin Weisman), another detective who took over Michael's spot at the police department after the crash, now working with Bird (Steve Harris), Michael's former partner in the "red reality" and his current one in the "green reality".

[3] The entry was directed by Laura Innes, who guest stars in the recurring role of Captain Tricia Harper in the series.

[12] Isaacs found "Say Hello to My Little Friend" the "most difficult [episode] to shoot" as one of the character's realities was fabricated and had to disappear by the end.

Key themes in this installment included when Michael was unable to see Rex and realized that Hawkins was trying to kill him in the car crash.

[8] It was described as a "show about grief" when it first started airing and that the "cause of the car crash didn't really matter" at that time.

[2] Maggie Furlong from The Huffington Post thought that "Say Hello to My Little Friend" "surfaces some serious issues for Britten" that has only been "cryptically referenced" previously.

[13] "Say Hello to My Little Friend" originally aired on NBC on May 10, 2012,[14] and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sky Atlantic on July 13, 2012.

[13] In the United Kingdom, the episode obtained 275,000 viewers, making it the third most-viewed program for the channel behind Alan Partridges: Mid Morning Matters and The Newsroom.

[15] Shortly after this episode was broadcast, NBC announced their decision to cancel Awake, due to declining ratings.

Club claimed that "Say Hello to My Little Friend" would be "very cool" because Michael will "face a crisis when he stops waking up in [the green reality]".

[8][20][21] IGN's Matt Fowler described Isaacs' performance as "suspense"-worthy,[8] while Paste writer Ross Bonaime thought that his acting deserved an Emmy nomination "at the very least".

[2] Sepinwall praised how the episode "kept mirroring moments in the pilot",[2] while Screen Rant writer Kevin Yeoman called the installment itself "powerful" and "compelling".