page_title: Nightswimming (Awake)
section_title: Themes
hierarchical_section_title: Nightswimming (Awake) / Themes
caption_attribution_description: English: Jason Isaacs at the 2011 Comic Con in San Diego
context_page_description: "Nightswimming" is the eighth episode of the American television police procedural fantasy drama Awake, which originally aired on NBC on April 19, 2012. Written by Leonard Chang and co-executive producer Davey Holmes, "Nightswimming" was watched by 2.8 million viewers, including 0.9 percent of those aged between 18 and 49 in Nielsen ratings, upon its initial broadcast in the United States. Directed by executive producer Jeffrey Reiner, this episode received generally mixed reviews.
  Awake centers on Michael Britten, a detective living in two separate realities after a car crash. In one reality, in which he wears a red wristband, his wife Hannah survived the crash, and in another reality, in which he wears a green wristband, his son Rex survived. In this episode, Michael helps Accountant Marcus Ananyev and his wife Alina start a new life in the Witness Protection Program after a gang member attempts to kill Marcus in the "green reality". In the "red reality", Michael and Hannah prepare for a new life in Oregon after deciding to move there. They go swimming at a college pool to celebrate their love.
context_section_description: Although it did not directly impact the ongoing storyline of Awake, "Nightswimming" introduced and continued key thematic elements of the series. It was described as a "long, roundabout" episode that is "bent on making [Michael] fully commit to moving to Oregon with Hannah" by Matt Fowler from IGN. Fowler thought that, since Rex was not in the episode, the "green reality" seemed more like a dream. In a review of the following episode, "Game Day", he admitted that he thought Alina was behind Marcus' car bomb, since he thought that this story would have an arrest by the end. Writing for HitFix, Alan Sepinwall opined that Michael is "coming to grips with Hannah's desire to move because he loves her that much". However, the Brittens later decided not to move in "Slack Water", the series' tenth episode, owing to personal concerns.
  Sepinwall noted that he could see "the obvious parallels to Michael's personal situation" in this installment, while The A.V. Club editor Zack Handlen said that Awake "continues to connect routine procedural storylines and find new ways to give them deeper meaning". Screen Rant writer Kevin Yeoman said that this episode was about "bringing two people who have drifted apart back together" and that "Nightswimming" has "balanced the series' larger mystery with grief and a twinge of optimism" on a "smaller scale" compared to other entries of the program. He claimed that the installment was designed to "introduce us to what makes Hannah and Michael so special", adding that "For most of the series, there hasn't been much chemistry between the two".
  In his real reality check, a prediction on which reality is real by the end of the particular episode, Nick McHatton, a TV Fanatic writer, chose the "red reality", because it was "nice to see why Hannah and Michael love each other", while Handlen claimed that "the show has done a fine job at largely standalone episodes", but each episode "feels like its own separate story". He assumed that "there's little feel of rising intensity or greater danger", "given the hints of conspiracy and the ever intensifying threat of Oregon". Caroline Preece of Den of Geek initially assumed "this random nakedness will tie in to the show's central mythology", though she later found out Michael was just swimming nude with Hannah. Preece thought that Hannah and Michael "reconnected" in the episode, as did McHatton. Due to Rex's absence, she thought that this episode allowed viewers to get to know Hannah.
caption: Jason Isaacs' role in the episode's themes have been critically discussed.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 50D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2011:07:25 20:31:12", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "248", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "972", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1086", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2586", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:07:21 14:51:18", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:07:21 14:51:18", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "300", "EXIF SubSecTime": "98", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "98", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "98", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2106", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2862", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "792000/149", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1056000/199", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}