Under the Dome Episode 11 "Speak of the Devil"

The kids are all in the barn, examining the constellations and trying to figure out what's up.  They feel overwhelmed, but figure they can tell Julia everything that's going on, since the dome has "spoken" to her without apparent consequence.  Linda is grilling Big Jim, but as usual, he's turning her suspicions onto someone else, in this case Barbie.

Julia comes down to check on Barbie, who is in the doghouse and sleeping on the couch.  Since she's realized he's farrr superior to her loser husband, she thinks their relationship can move forward as long as she sees her husband's grave.  But she doesn't get very far, because Maxine rings the freakin' doorbell and shoots her right in the chest.  WTF this lady is insane.  Luckily Barbie has a walkie talkie and is able to contact Linda ASAP to rush over there.

Junior thinks that his involvement in the dome means that he and Angie should be together.  God, why does she keep involving herself with this nutbag?!  She says that they'll never be together, but somehow I don't think she's going to follow through on that.  Junior threatens to leave the whole mini-dome setup, because he'd rather die in the dome than be away from Angie.

Joe and Barbie have possibly the best exchange of the ep, and maybe the season:

Barbie: Joe!  Can you drive?

Joe: I have my learner's permit but the guy said I didn't check my mirrors.

A storm is brewing outside, and Maxine rushes over to the police station to pretend to care about Julia, and hit on Junior.  Big Jim refers to her as "the devil."  Joe drives very badly, and Scream King repeatedly asks why Joe doesn't cover the gunshot wound while Barbie drives instead.  Then he would have more time to worry about the dome being "angry with them."

Luckily Julia has a Prius, which they plug in before they can even get Julia into the hospital.  The nurse deserts Barbie and Julia to tend to someone else, but apparently Barbie is basically a doctor so we're all set.  Jim tries to fill Junior in on Maxine's evil, but Junior's probably pretty focused on her appearance. Jim fears Max will try to hurt Junior.  Since apparently this is how their family solves all problems, Big Jim locks Junior in the house to defend himself.

Dodee gets the radio working again, and hears some people talking about how they're looking for Barbie.  Angie goes rushing to Junior's to beg him to rejoin the group and stop the storm.  Apparently the dome really wants them to be together because it backs the fuck off.  Dr. Barbie saves the day, AS EXPECTED.  Joe waxes poetic about Barbie saving the whole town.  He thinks HE IS THE MONARCH.  Mind blown.

Maxine takes a quiet, post-attempted-murder stroll along the water, and of course, finds her dead mother conveniently washing ashore.  Barbie stands at Julia's bedside and literally gets hotter by the moment.  He entrusts her care to the stupid nurse that ran off earlier.  Major Prius product placement with all this plugging and unplugging.  If you own a Prius, you will be able to travel about if trapped in the dome.

Barbie and Jim argue about how to take care of Max.  Barbie uses the word throne!  Symbolism!  Joe just has such a man-crush on Barbie.  The quartet decides to travel to a specific point in the dome and touch it together.  They think this will provide answers.  Barbie starts hooking up electronics and explosives and Jim is definitely thinking he can't keep up.  Linda is starting to suspect Barbie in Linda's shooting....nooo.

Jim and Barbie try to sneak into the underground fight club/cement factory the back way, but get grabbed by Max right off the bat.  This chick just will not give up her romantic interest in Barbie. Apparently she shot Julia out of jealous rage!  Ew, find your own man, bitch.  Once again, Barbie saves the day McGuyver-style, while Linda continues her search for him.

OMG Big Jim is such a psycho.  Barbie needs to get away from him ASAP.  Of course, after shooting Max and her goon, and planning to shoot Barbie, he still finds a way to frame Barbie.  Linda shoots at Barbie, but he manages to make an escape.  Big Jim gets on the radio, accuses Barbie of all the murders and declares a state of emergency, and a dome-wide search for Barbie.

The four touch the dome at once and see an image of Big Jim bleeding from several stab wounds, and all the kids holding a bloody knife.  Creeeeppppyyyy.  They think that the dome will come down if Big Jim dies.  I wouldn't argue with that kind of logic!

Next week?  Big Jim hides the truth!  Norrie says he doesn't scare her!  Jim says the dome CAN'T come down!  2 more episodes left!  Yipeee!

Under the Dome Episode 10 "Let the Games Begin"

The first rule of Dome Club is....tell everyone about Dome Club, hire some bouncers, and form an orderly queue?  Only 9 days into the dome, and Maxine has already created an underground fight club at the old cement mill.  There's booze and fights for gambling purposes, and also for Maxine to gather supplies for herself.  She blackmails Barbie into fighting, but he throws the fight, which doesn't matter because she bet against him anyway.  She tries to once again get in his pants but he's having none of it.  He's tired of her holding this Peter-death-thing over his head so he gives up and decides he doesn't care if Julia finds out.  Julia is surprisingly chill about it, as she discovers that Peter wanted to commit suicide due to his crippling debt, but the murder worked out and everything because she'll collect on a giant life insurance policy.  Also, Barbie is wayyy hotter anyway.

Meanwhile, Linda goes digging for some more background on the drug trade, specifically Duke's involvement.  She finds out that after Duke's son died from drugs, he was obsessed with keeping them out of Chester's Mill.  Therefore he made the deal with Maxine that they could store all the drug stuff here as long as it got sold outside the area.  The creepy Reverend was in charge of laundering the money.

Big Jim goes looking for where Maxine is staying and he runs across Agatha, who he thinks is the caretaker of this really nice house.  Nope, turns out it's Maxine's mom.  Agatha claims to know all of the town's secrets, including those of Jim and Barbie.  However I think they've both had enough of this blackmailing nonsense.  Agatha should know that Big Jim will off anyone at the drop of a hat, and he has no problem tying her up and giving her a little tap off the edge of the boat.  Problem solved.

Linda comes to Big Jim's house to confront him about the drugs, but she lets him off wayyy too easy, like it seems everyone on this show does.  She wants to chat now, but he suggests he'll just meet her in the morning at the police station and for some reason, she totally goes for it.

Back to the mini dome.  Joe, Norrie, and Angie are still trying to find the "fourth hand" but in the midst of their search, Dodee sneaks into the barn and touches the mini dome, causing her to pass out.  The kids rush her to the hospital, where Angie asks if they can remember anyone else ever having a seizure.  The nurse reminds her that Junior had a seizure during their tenth grade dance.  I guess it only makes sense at this point that Junior would be the "fourth hand."  When they all touch the dome together, pink stars go flying all over the barn.  But what does it all mean?!  Also there might be a butterfly living in the mini dome.  Until next week!

Under the Dome Episode 9: The Fourth Hand

I've come to the conclusion that Angie is really the dumbest person on this show, and possibly on any show I've seen in a while.  She continues to feed into Junior's psychotic behavior, and even agrees to traipse along to his house with him.  I mean, why not, right?  It's not like he locked you in a basement or anything!  Angie is opening the diner back up, claiming she will now be the owner.  She gives Big Jim kind of an evil look and says she wants the deed handed over.  Can you just demand that?  I'm not sure.  She falls into one of those "pink stars" seizures and takes off with Junior to see some painting that his mom created like nine years ago, featuring pink stars.  I guess this is all supposed to tie together?

Some crackhead breaks into a dude's house and he takes a shot at him, wounding an innocent bystander in the process.  The dude was looking for drugs, specifically "Rapture" which he claims the Reverend sold to him out of the funeral parlor.  Big Jim returns to his house to see a new character, Max (Natalie Zea).  Apparently they were partners in this whole drug operation, and she's been kinda hiding out in the dome for the last week or so.  But now she's ready to chat.  She convinces Big Jim to start a "guns-for-food" type of program, where people can "voluntarily" exchange their guns for food/water/propane.  It seems like a lot of people are participating.

Meanwhile, we realize that Barbie and Max know each other!  And they used to bang.  Awesome.  Julia takes Barbie to go look at the mini dome, but it's gone strangely missing.  Joe and Norrie spend most of the episode looking for it, only to find that Joe himself sleep-carried it into the barn.  Joe, Norrie, and Angie all put their hands on the dome, and a mystery hand shape lights up, showing that a fourth person is required.  Who is the fourth hand!?

Barbie finds drug paraphernalia in the funeral home (shocker) and Linda investigates the propane storage.  Apparently propane is the "secret ingredient" in the manufacturing of "Rapture" and that's why they're keeping it all stored up.  Max isn't going anywhere, especially now that she has Barbie wrapped around her little finger with the real story of Julia's husband's demise.  And Big Jim seems pretty whipped as well.  Until next week!

[Sorry that these recaps continue to be SO late, but we still don't have CBS on TimeWarner here in NYC, so I have to wait 4 days to watch on Amazon Prime!  I hope this gets solved soon]

Under the Dome Episode 8 - Thicker than Water

This bullshit with TimeWarner and CBS is getting reallllyyy old.  I want to watch my freakin' Under the Dome on Monday after busting my ass at work all day.  NOT on Friday after the rest of world watched it like four days prior.  I love you Amazon Prime, but this whole thing is just not working for me.  Get this shit resolved, plsthxbye.

Once again, Julia and Barbie are the only ones on this show with their heads screwed on straight.  Alice is dead, and her wife is holed up in the room over her corpse, mourning.  Barbie feels like the best use of his time is to dig a grave, which he is (unsurprisingly?) good at.  First, Big Jim kicks Junior out of the house, and then visits Ollie, who just hates him SO MUCH.  Remember that agreement they made about the well water?  Well apparently that's all over, because Ollie has some other farmers backing him up, and they're just going to share all the water and food from his farm.  They're both still so stuck on having "control" of the town, and does that really matter right now?  Let's all work together, people.

Junior, now disowned by his dad, has decided to side with Ollie.  He even requests that he be the one to kill Big Jim when the time arises.  Why is Junior so angry, aside from the fact that Angie doesn't want his sorry ass?  Oh yeah, just that his dad lied about the cause of his mom's death.  It actually was a suicide.  Ooops!

Big Jim gets the idea that it would best to ambush the farm with a bunch of weapons.  Barbie has a more logical idea of diverting the water to these other dry wells, and a reservoir.  But Jimbo is just set on this coming in with guns blazing thing.  Barbie decides to take off before he can and try the whole blowing up the well and re-diverting the water thing.

Barbie and Big Jim's crew diverge on the farm at the same time, and a battle ensues.   Several people are shot, and Big Jim is dragged inside, presumably meeting his demise.  But as the well is blown up, Ollie's former supporters ditch him, since they were only hanging around for the well access.  Junior grills Big Jim about his mom's death, and he finally comes clean.  Since Junior's all jacked up to shoot someone, he decides to just off Ollie instead.  Looks like that little well problem is solved.

Finally, Joe stupidly spills the beans about the egg and the mini-dome, right in front of Julia.  Of course, Julia forces him to take her to it.  He conveniently leaves out of the part where he saw Alice when he touched it, and then she died.  Julia touches it, and sees a Joe-clone, who says "A monarch will be crowned." Norrie and Angie take her snow globe collection and chuck it at the dome, which assuages Norrie's guilt about her mom's death a little.  Julia is trying to figure out what the monarch nonsense means, when the camera zooms in on a butterfly tattoo on Angie's shoulder!  Symbolism!  Until next week.

Under the Dome Episode 7 "Imperfect Circles"

So, let's just say that both TimeWarner Cable and CBS are not my friends right now.  I'm not sure how many people this is affecting, but CBS is completely off the air in my area, due to some sort of fee dispute with TimeWarner.  Why do neither of these entities realize that I need my Under the Dome on Monday nights?!?!  Luckily (for me, I guess) I have Amazon Prime, which makes episodes of Under the Dome available after they air.  So, four days later, I'm able to finally see my beloved show, and I hope that TWC and CBS gets this shit resolved by next Monday, because seriously.  Also football season is coming up.

Before I start my recap for this week, can we have a quick sidebar on the fact that I did not know that Mike Vogel was in both Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Cloverfield?  Talk about a dude who has aged well.  I had to google to even remember who he was in either of these movies, and he has just gotten so attractive since then.  Not that he was hard to look at in either of those movies, but seriously he is the sexiest thing about Monday nights right now. 

Joe and Norrie are in bed together.  But it's sort of innocent because they're just planning a trip to the dome.  But she's flirting hardcore.  And, yes OMFG Barbie and Julia slept together.  More sexy reasons to watch.  Round 2 gets interrupted by a yogurt-seeking neighbor. Big Jim bitch-slaps Junior into staying away from Angie.

Meanwhile, Julia's cock-blocking neighbor, Harriet, is going into labor, due to the fact that she touched the dome.  Angie goes back to the diner to visit Rose's body even though, I don't know, there's probably other threats lurking within.  Joe and Norrie are making out on top of the dome, just to see if anything changes.  In one of the best segues/pick up lines ever, Joe suggests they have sex on the dome to switch it up.

Big Jim tries to access his propane, but gets met with opposition.  Barbie goes on undercover patrol.  Julia and Harriet get attacked en route to the hospital, by dudes jacking their gas.  Barbie OF COURSE comes to the rescue.  Angie buries Rose and tries to clean up the diner.  Big Jim comes by for a cocktail.  Joe and Norrie get spooked by the dog, but decide to soldier on.

OMG Barbie carries a pregnant woman and my ovaries are skipping a beat.  Joe and Norrie find a little mini dome, with a black egg inside.  Alice insists that Harriet push, because this baby is freakin' coming out.  Big Jim gets hammered, which is more my speed.  Wally is not taking any more of his shit, and decides that he will be the new head of the town.

Linda and Junior attempt to capture the murderers of Rose.  Really, no one should be arming Junior right now.  Joe and Norrie try to talk to the mini dome.  When Alice gets woozy, Barbie steps in to help deliver the baby!  Could this man get any more desirable?!?!  Obviously he delivers a totally healthy baby, even saving her from an umbilical cord debacle.

Junior apologizes to Angie, but come on.  Norrie comes to visit her mom.  Angie finally reunites with Joe.  Norrie begs for her mom to live.  That's sad but we're all easily distracted by both the new baby and budding romance between Barbie and Julia.  Oh, and also the car that Big Jim set on fire.  The egg within the mini dome is....maybe hatching?!  Until next week!

Under the Dome Episode 6 "The Endless Thirst"

So last week, the missile failed to destroy the dome and the people of Chester's Mill are feeling pretty down and out.  One of Norrie's moms, Alice, is out of insulin and she's starting to get a little loopy.  In her diabetic haze, she stumbles into the street, directly in the path of a delivery truck. (Scream King wonders who is getting appliances delivered at this time)  The truck swerves into the water tower, basically pouring out the town's entire water supply onto the ground.  Oooops.

The townspeople are trying to wait quietly and calmly in line at the grocery store, but things are getting tense since the owner is no longer accepting cash.  Only batteries and propane.  And as you can guess, both of these things are also running a bit low.  The residents storm the store and begin looting, while the very meager police force attempts to calm things down.  Also, although I'm finding the whole character extra sexy, Barbie seems to really enjoy beating on people.  More to come on that I guess.

Since the water source (some lake/reservoir) is totally polluted, Big Jim goes in search of an alternative plan.  He knows that Wally, a crotchety old resident, has a well on his property.  But he's not going to just give away that water for FREE.  He wants propane, and of course Big Jim has some extra.  Deal made.  Julia and Dodee are traipsing about with some sort of tracking contraption, trying to find the source of the high pitched noise/possible transmission.

Meanwhile, rocket scientist Angie finds safe haven in Sweetbriar Rose, the town diner.  However, another threat is looming.  Two guys break in with the intention of stealing the meat from the freezer.  They kill Rose and knock Angie unconscious.  Outside of the grocery store, everyone is going totally bananas...until it starts to rain.  This calms all the violence because everyone is like holy crap it rains in here.  It's quickly determined that the dome is becoming its own mini ecosystem.  However, Julia thinks it's communicating with them, since it "protected" them from the missile, and provided rain just when they were worrying about water.

Norrie steals medical records and goes running around town to steal insulin for her mom.  She finally steals just one dose from a child, hoping it will prolong her mom's life a bit.  Big Jim, frustrated with his son's asinine behavior, sits Angie down and promises to control Junior and take care of her and her brother.  Barbie and Julia finally kiss IN THE RAIN and ahhhhhhh I love these two together.  But mostly him because he's so sexy.  Until next week!

Under the Dome Episode 5 - "Blue on Blue"

Oh, the poor people of Chester's Mill.  They just can't seem to get a break.  They wake up to discover this huge swarm of monarch butterflies hanging on the dome.  That's weird, but doesn't really get explained. The residents are excited to see that, yay, it's visiting day.  Their family and friends have come to see them.  Officer Linda warns everyone NOT TO TOUCH the dome, then she herself goes running up to it and kisses it when she sees her fiance.  Hypocrite.

Lots of random people come out of the blue, including Norrie's dad, which she previously thought to be a random sperm donor.  Nope!  He had a relationship with your mom and has the pictures to prove it.  Julia's sister-in-law randomly has a letter from Julia's husband (who we all know to be dead and buried within Chester's Mill) that apologizes for being a screw up and basically gets Barbie off the hook for his murder.  Barbie finally plays the special ops military card in order to get some information from the dudes stationed outside.  They're all ooops, sorry but we're bombing this place in a hot minute so brace yourself.

Okay, so I have to admit that Angie is just kind of an idiot.  Big Jim lets her out of her basement prison, and she goes running for her house.  Which makes sense because she's looking for her brother.  But instead, she finds Junior.  Instead of just RUNNING THE FUCK OUT THE DOOR, she just sits down and chills with him.  This girl is the worst.  Meanwhile, Joe and Norrie are looking everywhere for Angie, as the entire town decides to take shelter underground in the old cement mill.

Big Jim has has absolutely e-freakin-nough of Reverend Crazypants and pushes his ear (complete with hearing aid) into the dome.  Boom, bleeding from the ear and dead.  Everyone is gathering in the mill, and Julia had the foresight to bring wine.  This is my kinda plan.  She also has the brilliant thought to share it with Barbie.  Bawm chicka bawm bawm. 

Everyone in this underground lair pretty much knows that the bomb is going to kill them all, shelter or no shelter, but they're trying to make the best of it.  Barbie gives DJ Phil back a watch that he must have used to pay his gambling debt.  DJ Phil dances with the girl from the radio station.  Meanwhile, everyone realizes a little too late that Joe and Norrie are still running around looking for Angie.  So everyone is underground except Joe and Norrie (sitting on a porch swing), Angie and Junior (snuggling in her bedroom), and Linda (reminiscing about Rusty at the radio station).  In one of the better shots of this show, the missile comes flying towards the dome as Norrie and Joe kiss.  We all knew the dome wasn't going to be destroyed right?  The residents of Chester's Mill live to fight another day!  But, you know, a little disconcerting that the strongest missile in the world can't destroy this dome.  Ooops. 

Under the Dome Episode 2 - "The Fire"

Recap time!  Last week the people of Chester's Mill got sealed in and Jeff Fahey, who was already my favorite person on the show, is probably dead.  Thanks, CBS.  Also, Barbie killed Julia's husband over a deal gone wrong.  But she is under the impression that he's on his way back at any moment.  If I had this sexy piece of man sleeping in my house, and my husband six feet under, I'd be thinking how I want to spend the end of the world ;)

Julia is chucking a tennis ball at the dome, but the army people are under strict orders to ignore everyone inside.  Meanwhile, poor Angie is trying to get out of her basement prison.  Junior is having none of that.  In some sort of weird strategy to irritate him, she claims to have slept with Barbie and loved it.  Ummm, weird way to try and get out of the basement.

OMG WHY JEFF FAHEY WHY.  Big Jim takes off with "The Reverend" to go clean up their mess.  Meanwhile, a couple of the teenagers have banded together to do some trig and try to find out the dimensions of the dome.  The chick over at the radio station has done some electrical engineering and now she can hear the radio transmissions from outside.  Oooops, these people are now just realizing that it's a dome, and..."we're all gonna die in here."  DRAMZ.

The military is testing if water will go through the dome, and it does...a little.  Of course they don't stay looking at the kids long enough to find that out.  The Reverend needs to get to Duke's house before Linda does, since she is the new owner of said residence.  Barbie returns to the cabin to get his dogtags, but Junior follows him to confront him about the sex that never actually happened.  In an attempt to grab the incriminating evidence from Duke's house, the Reverend manages to start a fire.  Of course, this poses a problem since all the fire trucks are on the other side of the dome.  Also a problem is the fact that the Reverend is screaming for help in a burning house that doesn't belong to him.

The townspeople are trying to put out the fire by using a couple hoses and passing a bunch of buckets.  It's not going very well.  Until Big Jim shows up with a bulldozer and knocks the house down.  Junior returns to Angie, weaving a tale about how he killed Barbie, which of course is not true.  Big Jim is still acting like the town leader, even though he's doing something sketchy behind the scenes.  Paul the cop starts to go a little postal, brandishing a gun and screaming how they're all going to die.  Oh, and also shooting another cop.

Next week: The threat from within is still the biggest problem!  Not the threat from above.  People are mad!  People are banging on the dome.  And Scream Queen is looking forward to it!