Under the Dome: Caged Review

It's a love fest on the latest Under the Dome. Here's our review...

One of the problems Under the Dome continues to have is the conceit that the Chester’s Mill residents have only been, according to the show intro, trapped for three weeks. With so many characters declaring unrequited love higgledy piggledy, it would seem that the dome has been up much longer. Listen, I know the residents of Chester’s Mill has been going through a lot since the dome came down, but three weeks is not long enough for this kind of constant emotional angst.

For example, this week, Julia, under very tense circumstances, declared her love for Barbie. Of course, Barbie is in love with Eva, which actually does make sense because at least Barbie’s brain was telling him that he was with Eva for over a year when they were tapped in the Dome Matrix together. But as Julia intensely declared her love for Barbie, I wanted to be like, “Girl, you’ve known soldier boy for twenty-one days, save the drama.” So yeah, not really buying any of that noise.

But I’m about to contradict myself. Since the series ended the contrived relationship drama in regards to Joe and Norrie, the show has gotten so much better. These two adorable kids were just made for each other as proven this week as they both teamed up to not only kick a guards ass but Eva’s as well. Norrie was all MMA, throwing knees and elbows, smashing Eva’s head into a wall to save poor, paralyzed Hunter. Joe and Norrie are such fun to watch and I really find myself rooting for them to save the day. They are so in over their heads that they are constantly the perpetual underdogs and that’s the stuff good drama is made from.

It also helps that they are also both as cute as a button. Sadly, Norrie’s stepmom Carolyn is fully controlled by Christine and is part of the Dome collective literally making Joe the only person Norrie has left. This week, Norrie and Joe saved poor Hunter from Eva’s Kevorkian overture of assisted suicide. I did have a hard time sympathizing with Hunter’s plight as the creep factor his advances on Norrie gave me a few weeks back were off the yuck meter. 

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So how about the Borg Dome? Sometimes Under the Dome‘s scares fall flat, but not the hive mind Domers who now have a propensity to whistle while they work-and the tune they whistle sounded eerily similar to the X-Files theme. This Dome collective provided a palpable threat to our heroes, something that really didn’t exist last season.

And their leader was Christine Price- a great antagonistic manipulator that was trying to gain control over all of Chester’s Mill. She just about succeeded except for Julia, Jim, Norrie, and Joe. This week, Christine grew a little overconfident and failed twice. She failed to bring Jim under her control because he just wasn’t ready to cede control of Chester’s Mill to Christine (or anyone for that matter) and was able to escape, hide intact from those evil scientists that took Jim and Christine prisoner last week. Christine’s game was weak but Jim’s was strong as he used a piece of scrap metal to cut some throats and escape captivity.

Now, Jim was on the loose and hooked back up with Julia – but that was the least of Christine’s problems. Christine has spent the last few episodes trying to bring Sam under her control, even going so far as assisting his new love (three weeks!) Abby to commit suicide. At first it seemed this week that Sam was so broken up by Abby’s death that he fell to Christine’s machinations, but that was not to be. Christine was the one being manipulated for once and Sam shived her. Well, sober Sam should have buried his knife in her a few more times because Christine lived and summoned Junior to take her to the caves where she would presumably regenerate. I guess Sam’s victory will have to just be a moral one. 

As for Julia. Poor Julia was knocked out again this week (I think she is knocked unconscious in at least 85% of the episodes, I’ll have to make an infographic). She was also spurned by Barbie and was heartbroken because Barbie chose Eva (three weeks!). But she was not defeated and approached Jim at episode’s end to team up and bring down Christine. I guess Julia is willing to get into bed with the devil she knows to essentially take down a body snatcher. 

And, oh yeah, we learned the origin of the dome. Before the dome went up, Eva and Christine (before they were possessed), were sent to Chester’s Mill to retrieve the egg. When Christine touched the egg, she triggered the activation of the dome. So that revelation is pretty darn big and made Eva and Christine even more important. Let’ see if they remain so or are quickly forgotten like every character reintroduced in season two.

Things are getting pretty interesting in Chester’s Mill despite some forced melodrama so let’s call this week a win.

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Rating:

3 out of 5