Labor Day ushers in the end of summer, even in Chester’s Mill, which experienced a brush of chilly weather in the episode aptly titled, “The Fall.” Apparently, the dome accelerates the seasons (or just coincides with the season in which it airs). The better title would have been “Reunion” since that’s what the episode was about.
Reunited and it feels. . .okay
As the end of last week’s episode teased, everyone’s back in the dome, including Pauline, who appeared in Junior’s room and scared the crap out of Big Jim.
“You drove your car into a tree. I saw the wreck,” said Big Jim. Here, Lester, the reverend, had helped Pauline get out of Chester’s Mill by assisting in faking her death. Big Jim was none too pleased to learn this.
“Why would you want to come here?” said Big Jim.
“For Junior.” Someone needs to tell Pauline that he isn’t really worth saving.
Seeing the opportunity to get back some unpaid dues in marital sex, Big Jim pleaded to Pauline for them to be a family again. Then, while Big Jim showed Pauline photos of Junior through the years, their son walked in to discover his mother—alive. Although he didn’t look entirely shocked.
“Do you want me to get you something to eat?” said Pauline, as if she knew her way around the kitchen after a 15-year absence.
Junior got weirded out and left, just before the egg took on a life of its own, giving Pauline one of the most creative headaches of all time, causing her to paint—a lot.
One Way Out
Meanwhile, Julia and Barbie were reunited, with Julia clad in Ugg boots as she ran to embrace the man who killed her husband. Once Barbie explained to Julia and Rebecca everything that had happened, he tried to convince them to use the egg to get out of the dome. But Julia was not having it, especially since Lyle apparently didn’t make it back into the dome. They’d be leading the civilians of Chester’s Mill to their deaths, similar to “The Simpsons” escalator to nowhere.
“There’s finally a way out,” said Julia. “And I don’t know if we should take it.” Of course she would feel this way, as she is ever the devil’s advocate on the show (even though she lets strangers into her house willy-nilly).
Per last week’s flashback that revealed Barbie encountering Melanie when he was a child, Barbie told Melanie that he was the little boy who painted the red door and put a yellow hand print on it. We also learned their connection to Zenith: His father and her mother had a daughter together, that daughter being Melanie, who’s Barbie’s half-sister.
“You and I are supposed to lead people out of here into Zenith,” said Barbie.
Soon, Julia and Barbie were at the Sweetbriar Rose, trying to convince people to jump off a cliff to escape the dome.
In typical Chester’s Mill fashion, the civilians weren’t convinced.
“I’m not doing anything until I know where Big Jim stands on this,” said head chef (and wife of a deceased hoarder) Andrea, who apparently missed the whole “Big Jim is trying to kill us” episode.
Big Jim showed up at Sweetbriar, wanting in on the plan and to be the first to go off the cliff, since he’s the best at cutting deals as a used car salesman and the only elected official in town.
Julia was more concerned with her relationship status once she was out of the dome. Should she set her Facebook status as “In A Relationship. . .In the Dome” or “It’s Complicated. . .Out of the Dome”?
“We met because of the dome and we never really talked about you and me out in the world,” said Julia.
Introducing: Hunter
The Dome may be the ultimate cock block for Joe. Just as he was about to cuddle with Norrie on the couch, in an effort to keep each other warm in the cool fall weather, Norrie got up and discovered the egg was gone (just like Joe’s erection). Where was it?
With Junior and Melanie, of course, who had fallen asleep together in the same shelter where he’d kept Angie all those days ago. Worried that she’d be in trouble for not turning up at Julia’s last night, Melanie rushed back to Julia, but not before stealing a kiss from Junior.
“I’ll tell Julia you locked me up down here” said Melanie as a joke, not realizing the irony in the statement.
After Melanie left, Junior saw a vision. It was Angie, warning him: “Junior. Think about what you’re doing.”
On her way back to Julia, Melanie ran into a very-much-alive Sam, who pleaded for her forgiveness. Meanwhile, Norrie and Joe ran into new dome resident Hunter at the high school, who told them they were celebrities outside of the dome. Sidebar: Could Hunter be the Oliver of this season’s “Under the Dome”? (Oliver referencing when “The Brady Bunch” had run out of ideas and introduced a not-as-cute Brady cousin). Of course, Norrie and Joe immediately became friends with Hunter because that is what they do.
Hunter was a little too happy to be in the dome, super-psyched like he was at Comic Con. By coming up with some sort of device on the fly, he helped Norrie and Joe find the egg, even though the two teens turned him loose after getting the info they needed.
Worst. Migraine. Ever.
After the egg started glowing from Big Jim’s fallout shelter, Pauline started seeing visions and painting again, causing her head to throb in pain. After discovering her adverse reaction, Big Jim locked her in his garage and ventured to the fallout shelter where he discovered the egg, which had so much power that it threw back against the wall.
Using Hunter’s device to find the egg, Norrie and Joe were led to the fallout shelter, where they cradled the egg to “calm it down” (their words, not mine). Big Jim woke up from being knocked down just in time to threaten them with a gun, specifically Joe, who was in desperate need of being shot.
But like father, like son. Juxtaposed with Big Jim aiming a gun at Norrie and Joe was Junior breaking into Sam’s cabin, pointing a gun at his uncle.
“Bullet’s too quick,” said Junior. “You still have to suffer.” Wouldn’t it have just been easier to kill him, then and there? Then, he attempted to take a machete to his uncle, but Ghost Angie intervened, telling him not to do this and that their love was never real, which seemed like it might spur him to kill his uncle (not quite sure why she decided to talk about the state of their relationship then and there).
Meanwhile, Big Jim threatened Joe and Norrie with a gun, all the way to the high school, taking them and the egg to the cliff. Luckily, Hunter was still there and listened in on the conversation.
“You’ve always said you love everybody in Chester’s Mill,” said Joe to Jim, giving the sheriff yet another reason to shoot the teen.
In the end, Big Jim tossed the egg over the cliff, which caused the cave to break apart and an earthquake to ensue.
Earthquake!
Melanie took Julia and Barbie to the egg, believing it was still in the fallout shelter, but it had of course disappeared because Norrie and Joe had taken it.
Just as the egg being thrown over the cliff caused an earthquake, we got a glimpse of Phil, who was still stuck in the prison. But since the area was starting to shake, he escaped when one of the barriers of his prison cell came down.
From the intensity of the earthquake, Melanie collapsed, causing Julia and Barbie to take her to Sam—for some reason—since she wasn’t breathing.
“Don’t let anything happen to her,” said Barbie, to the man who killed Angie.
Back at the high school, Hunter saved Norrie as she was trying to climb through the locker door to escape. At the same time, Big Jim discovered that maybe throwing the egg over the cliff didn’t fix things. When he returned to his garage, he learned the earthquake had caused Pauline’s visions to cease.
But one good thing did come from all of this: Phil was dead. After learning about the entryway into Zenith, Phil decided to jump off the cliff, not knowing that the egg had somehow changed the rules. When Barbie and Julia arrived at the scene, they discovered that Phil had been impaled by rocks. Looks like no one will be escaping Chester’s Mill anytime soon.
What did you think of this week’s episode? What’s the purpose of Ghost Angie? And since Sandra Bullock’s character in Speed claimed that relationships that start out in disasters rarely last, what do you think Julia and Barbie’s chances are?
