 " Say Hello to My Little Friend " continued and introduced key thematic elements to the series that were originally introduced in " The Little Guy " . Key themes in this installment included when Michael was unable to see Rex and realized that Hawkins was trying to kill him in the car crash . It was described as a " show about grief " when it first started airing and that the " cause of the car crash didn 't really matter " at that time . Now , however , The A.V. Club noted that Awake is " dabbling in crooked cops and God only knows what else " . He observed that Michael could be having another defense to keep the fantasy world alive because of his thoughts with Hawkins . 
