I’m going to go out on a limb here right now, and say that the Green World, where Rex is alive, has got to be the real one; surely no parent would go to the trouble of creating a complete fantasy world, only to have their dead child act like a shit and treat them like the worst thing ever, right?  I’m just sayin.’

RED WORLD:

On the job:  Michael and Vega arrive at a marina, where a fancy yacht party resulted in a DOA.  A woman, named either Annie or Dani (I couldn’t tell which, so we’re going with Dani) reportedly jumped from a state room balcony and into the water, where she drowned before the crewmen could pull her out.  Michael notes that the handle to the balcony door-latch looks awfully clean, like someone wiped it down.  The boat’s owners, Cameron Fuller and Darren Knox, volunteer that Cameron — whose engagement to a celebrity was being celebrated at this yacht party — was having sex with Dani.  Cameron reports that he had broken it off with Dani when he got engaged, but she apparently didn’t take it well.  She got drunk at the party, and the last Cameron knew she was sleeping it off.

Ordering a toxicology report on the vic, Michael runs into one of the party guests and recognizes her as Kate, Rex’s former babysitter.  Kate is now an investment banker in New York, and her bank financed Cameron and Darren’s company.  Kate is sporting a wine stain on her dress from stepping out of the ladies’ room and running into Darren, who was running to find out what happened with someone falling overboard.  Vega is very interested in “interrogating” Kate a little further, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.  Despite his pleas, Michael does not make introductions between the young detective and the former babysitter.

Dani’s tox screen turns up a buttload of benzodiazepam and alcohol in her system, which more than accounts for her being groggy enough to fall off of the balcony.  NOT turning up?  Any evidence whatsoever that Cameron and Dani were having an affair.  A search of Dani’s phone contacts, apartment, emails, and texts shows nothing but a professional relationship with her boss.  Vega thinks they may have finally hit on something when Michael seemingly inexplicably finds a man’s shaving cream can that looks like one at the crime scene in the other reality, at which point my husband and I have the following conversation:

Hubby:  That can doesn’t mean anything; she probably just uses it to shave her legs.

Me:  Nuh-uh.  If she’s a woman living on her own, she buys women’s shaving cream.  She wouldn’t buy that stuff.

Hubby:  You use men’s shaving cream.

Me:  Because mine ran out, and yours has not.  This chick did not buy that shaving cream.  If she had, it would have flowers on the can.  Or maybe berries.  It would not look like a ’50′s barber shop pole.  Trust me.

Anyway, turns out the can contains not shaving cream, but a safety deposit box key.  So.

In that safety deposit box are some materials research papers, which show that the cheap silicon chips being manufactured by the company don’t in fact work.  Michael and Vega bring Cameron and Darren back in.  Once it’s revealed that the stain on Kate’s dress showed traces of the same benzodiazepam that was in Dani’s system, Michael leans on Darren for a confession.

At home:  Michael mentions to Hannah that he ran into Kate on an investigation.  Hannah remembers Kate as the “Rex Whisperer,” because apparently Kate made these super paper airplanes that stayed aloft for five minutes.  (Hubby:  Riiiiight.  Sure they did.)  Hannah says there should still be one in Rex’s scrapbook. Hannah goes on to say that she’s glad Kate got her life back together after she had such a hard time following her sister’s death.  Michael is all “the whose in the what, now?” because he’s a MAN and they never fucking listen when you tell them anything, unless it maybe has something to do with cars or sports.  Or boobies.

On the sofa:  Dr. Lee sees the fact that Michael is “dreaming” of Kate in his other reality as a sign that Michael’s dreamworld is unraveling.  ”Would you dream of someone you haven’t seen in years, then run into her the next day?  Isn’t it far more likely that you saw her in reality and then dreamt about her?”  Michael maintains that the two realities are different but are equally plausible.

GREEN WORLD:  

On the job:  Freeman and Michael investigate the apparent execution of “professional partier” Charlie Simmons in his home.  The motive seems clear:  Charlie’s safe has been opened and emptied.  It looks like the perpetrators first tried to hammer it open, then resorted to removing a couple of Charlie’s fingers to use on the keypad before shooting him in the head.  Home invaders = RUDE.

Whoever it was, they apparently used a guest code to shut off the alarm system, so they question the housekeeper.  She was at bingo with her niece, but she mentions Charlie’s girlfriend, Amber, saying the two were not good for each other.  When Freeman and Britten track down the girlfriend, “Amber” turns out to be none other than Kate.

Kate does not immediately recognize Michael, probably on account of all the drugs she used to do with Charlie until he kicked her out last month and went to rehab.  By way of an alibi, she reports that she passed out in some club and wound up at the ER on Saturday night, offering her discharge paperwork as proof.

Freeman and Britten…

Okay, I’m sick of typing this.  From now on, I’m borrowing a page from Christina’s Grimm recaps and referring to them as FreeBrit from now on.  Deal with it.

FreeBrit visits Charlie’s stepbrother Mark at the gym, where he trains to be a boxer.  Mark admits that he didn’t have a great relationship with Charlie after Charlie’s father Ben died and left him everything.  Mark tried to get Charlie to continue supporting his training, just as Ben had, but Charlie laughed him off and set about spending all of his father’s money on hookers and blow, cutting Mark off.  Unfortunately for Mark, he was training alone at the gym on Saturday.

FreeBrit canvasses Charlie’s neighborhood to see if anyone saw Mark or his truck in the area on Saturday.  They didn’t, but the neighbor across the street has a security camera that captured another car that didn’t belong there.  And that car belongs to Kate.

When pressed, Kate admits that she gave “Liam” the security code, but he was only supposed to scare Charlie a little and steal the money, because Kate was jonesing for a hit and was broke.

At home:  Rex gets into a fight with his best friend, Cole, over a racket that Cole borrowed and broke.  Rather than apologize, Rex makes a big scene and quits tennis.  He refuses to talk to Michael about it, or anything at all really, even when Michael shows Rex the paper airplane and mentions Kate.  Rex shrugs it off, saying he was only five and barely remembers her.  It’s not until Michael learns, through talking with both versions of Kate, that what made the difference in how she turned out was her mother pushing her to open up and get back into life.  Once Michael pushes Rex to communicate, Rex admits that the racket Cole broke was Hannah’s.  Rex never used it, just liked having it in his tennis bag to remind him of her, even though he is still angry about her dying.  Michael says it’s okay to be angry; it’s what he does with that anger that makes the difference.  Rex apologizes to Cole and rejoins the tennis team.

On the sofa:  Dr. Evans says that anger is a normal reaction for Rex to have following the loss of his mother, and suggests that Michael is finding it hard to help Rex because Rex is dealing with a loss that Michael has not yet been able to accept.  Michael can’t help Rex with the loss if he is in denial of it.

With respect to Kate, Dr. Evans thinks that Michael must have subconsciously noted something at Charlie’s house that made him think of Kate, which would explain her presence in his “dream.”  What she finds more relevant is why her life is so markedly different in the two realities.  What differed between the two worlds to cause such different outcomes.

POINTS OF CONNECTION:  Kate, though she has turned out differently in the two realities, shared the same back story.

CLUES:  Yes? No? Maybe?  The victim in the Red World died by drowning, the same way Kate’s sister died.  Since that back story doesn’t alter between the two realities, is that an indication that Michael is projecting this forgotten detail into his fantasy world where Hannah is alive?

On the other hand, the Green World is sort of super-saturated with that particular color that was Rex’s favorite and that Michael associates with Rex.  I’ve thought that some before, but it was really noticeable in the tennis court scenes.

IN CONCLUSION:  The directing and editing on this show is phenomenal.  The cuts between Michael’s interview with Kate in the two worlds, with the counseling session interwoven in there, was really, really well done.  The show runners continue to impress me with how they pull all of this together.  I do have some questions, though:  If Michael’s realities switch day to day as he sleeps and then wakes, how is he processing the missing days?  If he’s in the Red World on Tuesday, and then someone in the Green World refers to that day, how does he process that?  Does he just have two Tuesdays, then two Wednesdays, and so on?  What about bill paying?  Is he paying bills twice?  (Because, for realz, THAT would suck!!)  Will it maybe be these sorts of mundane details that eventually topple this elaborately crafted fantasy he has?