Ricky's Tacos

:This article is about the episode, for the location see: Ricky's Tacos (location)
Ricky's Tacos is the seventh episode of Awake. The teleplay was written by Howard Gordon & Evan Katz from a story by Kyle Killen. It was directed by Adam Davidson. It first aired on April 12, 2012.
==Plot==
Michael continues with his red reality plans for moving to Portland with his wife. A realtor works with them on the house and bemoans its falling property value.
For lunch, he drives through at a Ricky's Tacos (location) ordering a chicken burrito (sans sour cream) and a large iced tea. Momentarily dallying, the voice through the speaker dully urges him not to follow through with his planned move.
"If you go to Portland," warns the voice. "you'll never know the truth. The Westfield case; it all starts with Westfield." Michael drives forward and asks the server for clarification, but the young employee doesn't seem to know what he's talking about.
Michael follows up with casual inquiries about Westfield (a four-month-old case) but these initial efforts are thwarted in either reality when a corpse demands his attention.
In the Green Reality, it's the suicide case of 17-year-old Sabrina Ferriss. Witness Tim explains that he was her former lab partner and had just been unexpectedly propositioned by Sabrina. Following sex, Tim claims that Sabrina became frantic and apologetically fled to the roof. He found her their and urged her not to jump. Sabrina disregarded, Tim says.
Dr. Banks soon does an autopsy and definitively confirms signs of rape. Confronted with this new evidence, the nerve-wracked Tim confesses. The consensus among police is on how remarkably soon the case became "open and shut."
In the red reality, the deceased is excavated by Banks from concrete and tentatively identified as a missing person, Pablo "El Diablo" Cabrerra. With Vega, Michael seeks out the dead man's brother Jose to break the sad news. Grief-stricken, the brother listens to the homicide evidence but offers no leads.
A tattoo of a tiger's head on Mr. Cabrerro's back sparks Michael's memory of the Tioga College mascot printed on a parking permit on Sabrina's car. Back in the Green Reality, Michael makes the long drive to the San Diego campus to question Sabrina's ex. This youth tells a story similar to Tim's about being propositioned frantically by Sabrina. He has no further information but suggests that Michael find and read Sabrina's diary.
Upon searching the Ferriss residence, Britten doesn't find the diary but guesses based on evidence at hand that Sabrina lived in fear of her father, John. He and Bird haul John back to the station along with his younger daughter, Ally, for her care. When John hides behind his lawyer, the Captain consents to a kindly, girl-to-girl talk with Ally. Thusly coaxed, Ally finally confides about her father's sexual misbehavior following her mother's death. John is in handcuffs before long and Tim is set free.
Occasionally amid all this action, Britten notices food bags with the Ricky's Tacos logo. Once, Bird is shown having bought their food and once, it was apparently left behind by the departed tenants of the Westfield warehouse, which Britten ultimately makes it out to in both realities. (Coincidentally, the Realtor there also complains of the place's devaluation.)
His red reality visit to Westfield is observed by a surveillance man (probably the yet-to-be-revealed Hawkins) wearing a conspicuous ring on his left forefinger. The man phones Carl who, in turn, puts in a "courtesy call" to Tricia saying Michael must be dealt with.
Meanwhile, both of Michael's therapists are on the same page, for once; he's getting cold feet about the move so his subconscious mind invented the Westfield loose end as a reason to stay. Dr. Lee likens the mental rewriting of case facts to Petimento and educates him on the art term.
"Petimento?" quips Michael. "Does that go on a sandwich?" But, upon comprehending, his mind shifts back to the tiger tattoo which, he imagines, might be the painted-over face of a Devil.
He and Vega return to the Cabrerro residence, this time to arrest the man they spoke to. He flees but they pursue and nab him. They hit him with their theory that he is not Jose but Pablo himself. Pablo tearfully confesses to the drunken manslaughter of Jose and to burying him in concrete, then to misappropriating his identity and green card.
In the conclusion, Michael of the Red Reality finds no further leads at Westfield or Ricky's Tacos. Out of excuses not to move, he submits his resignation. Tricia, ever opposed to violence against the Britten family, phones Carl about having the assassination efforts stopped.
==Production==