In all the interviews since the first episode was released, Killen has said that Awake isn't about a mystery, but about what a man would do in this circumstance.
You shouldn't have to read supplemental material--if I don't read the interview how am I suppose to know that from just watching the show.
In this case, all the interview tells you is that Killan didn't
have a plan for the show. I enjoyed what I saw, until the final few minutes of the last episode, and if the show was going to become idiotic babble after that point, then great! Because it will never exist. I got maximum value out of what did exist, and the whole thing went away before it started to annoy me. I wish all shows would be so considerate.
Killan is an interesting guy with daring ideas. When he comes up with something new, I'll be sure to pay attention.
I'm just saying that neither the show nor the supplementary materials hinted that there's a mystery (of why he's experiencing two realities) to be solved.
The show's very existence hinted that the mystery would be solved, because that's the usual expectations of people watching any show, or movie, or reading a book. And when you screw an audience over, they get mad.
Personally, I just watch shows on a day to day basis. Am I enjoying what I'm seeing
right now? If so, I continue. If not, sayonara. Other people have different expectations. It's perfectly reasonably to expect that a mystery that is posed will be solved, or at least given some form of resolution, even if it leaves some things open to interpretation.
Another interview. Wow, we really dodged a bullet. Next season would have delved into a lot of soapy nonsense.
A lot of the second season would have been spent exploring this idea that he gets romantically involved with the Tara character [Rex's tennis coach], who ultimately we weren't able to get to or use in the shortened 13-episode first season. But he begins a relationship in the Green World but still has his wife in the other world. Those were the things we were interested in, a man trying to do two things simultaneously, treating them both as if they were real but having them both be directly contradictory. You either still married or you're not. We needed to preserve the element that they were both equally valid as the real world for a lot of those stories to remain interesting.
I forgot the tennis coach even existed!
Also, Killen isn't a very good showrunner if he can't control the perceptions of the audience better than this:
The one thing I will say the finale absolutely positively is not—like not even open to interpretation—just is not, is any form of, "It was all a dream. Britten woke up, there was no accident, his wife and his son were fine. Nothing that you experienced throughout the season ever happened." That's just absolutely, fundamentally, factually incorrect. It's disappointing to see people react negatively to that interpretation when I feel like we really tried to safeguard [against it].
Well no, the final scene really did give the impression that it was the real world (if for no other reason than, the color scheme was finally "real"), which means the most likely explanation for the whole series is that Britten was just having a very complicated nightmare about his family and various co-workers, who are not murderous conspirators.
There was no drug conspiracy. There was no accident.
Just too much pizza the night before. If you leave things open to interpretation, the most likely interpretation is, whatever is simplest. Occam's Razor and all that.
If Killen wanted to give a different impression, he needed to write or film the scene differently. He did not succeed in his stated intent.
