"The Little Guy" is the second episode of the American television police procedural fantasy drama Awake, which originally aired on NBC on March 8, 2012.

The show centers on Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs), a detective living in two separate realities after a car accident.

Meanwhile, Hannah and Rex try to deal with each other's death in their respective realities, while Captain Tricia Harper (Laura Innes) is increasingly concerned about Britten's behavior.

The titular "little guy" in this episode is later revealed to be Detective Ed Hawkins (Kevin Weisman), who made his debut in "Say Hello to My Little Friend".

Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) remembers seeing his wife Hannah (Laura Allen) use fabric softener in the laundry, and realizes what he is doing differently.

Soon after, Britten is called to work; Dr. Banks (Chris McGarry) tells him and his partner, Bird (Steve Harris), that Dr. Bernard MacKenzie (who was a fertility specialist) was brought in dead from a heart attack.

Shortly after transferring into "red reality", Britten discovers that Rex was having his mail delivered to his friend Cole (Logan Miller)'s house and asks Hannah if she knew anything about it.

In the "red reality" he tells his partner, Efrem Vega (Wilmer Valderrama), to get the file (although the case was closed due to the lack of leads).

Police tech Nat (Jay Seals) confirms that someone hacked the clinic computer system and deleted a number of patient records.

At the station, Vega tells Britten that they have a new case; however, he insists on sticking with the MacKenzie shooting and checks photos of short criminals.

[4] The titular "little guy" is mentioned several times in this episode; this character is later revealed to be Detective Ed Hawkins (Kevin Weisman), who made his debut in "Say Hello to My Little Friend".

[2][3] "The Little Guy" was noted for beginning to unravel the mystery of what really happened in Britten's accident, with Kessel and Harper discussing their involvement at the end of the episode.

[1] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix observed that Harper and Kessel's knowledge involving the accident was "in the red world — and was not something Britten was present for".

[2] He also noted that "Killen has an absolutely brilliant plan for what's going on, why the Britten family was attacked, [and] why Mike is suddenly shifting from one reality to the other".

[7] In the United Kingdom, the episode was first broadcast on Sky Atlantic on May 11, 2012, and had 300,000 viewers, making it the third most-watched program for the channel behind Game of Thrones and Blue Bloods.

In her "B+" review, she claimed that the episode "isn't great TV like the pilot, but it's a very enjoyable murder mystery for much of its running time".

[9] TV Fanatic's round table team (including Carissa Pavlica, Lindey Kempton, Carla Day and Nick McHatton) were pleased with the episode.

[10] Kempton though that "Rex's motorcycle was a nice touch, personal and not unrealistic, and it helped start developing his character a little bit".

[11] Caroline Preece from Den of Geek called it "promising", "interesting" and "fortunate", claiming that "the genre elements of Awake have received much more attention than the generic cop show trappings they're wrapped in".