Under the Dome – S1E2 – The Fire

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Howdy, ProFans. Nina here, stepping in for MJ. She’ll return next week, but for now you’ll have to settle for a recap where I forgot most of the characters’ names. Sorry about that. Let’s get started. 

Previously on Under The Dome “Pilot” 

How It All Went Down

Dale is dreaming about his encounter with Julia Shumway’s husband. And by encounter I mean, that time he killed Julia’s husband. Dale was roughing him up in a cabin, telling him that his boss isn’t happy with Mr. Shumway’s nonpayment and that he had one more day to pay up. As he turned to leave, Mr. Shumway pulled a gun on him, a scuffle ensued, and the gun accidentally went off. This makes us feel a tad bit better about old Dale, right?

Duke’s Dead

Sheriff Duke is dead. Super dead. Pacemaker blew his chest cavity all kinds of open after he touched the dome. Deputy Linda holds his head in her lap and cries as Deputies Paul and Freddy, the latter being her future brother-in-law, show up. She tells them what happened and that they’ll all need to step up.

Trig Test Cancelled!

Remember the teenage boy who had a seizure last week and started mumbling something about stars falling? Well, this week he’s teamed up with a friend and the two decide to go exploring. They come across other kids digging a tunnel trying to determine how far down the dome goes. I guess they think they’re gonna underground railroad themselves outta there. The boys find a plus side to all the madness: Tomorrow’s trig test is totally cancelled. Negative side: They could be stuck in there forever and will have already met all the girls they’ll ever meet. Priorities, boys. It’s good to have ’em.

We’re Under a Dome, Dodee!

The two people who work in the radio station, Phil and Dodee, have rigged some kind of scanner to listen in on the military chatter regarding their situation. They are sure the government is referring to it as “a dome.” They decide not to mention what they know on the air. Without answers, they’ll just increase panic, they reckon.

Look At Me When I’m Talking To You

Julia is tossing a tennis ball at the dome outside of her house, trying to get the attention of the military soldiers on the other side. They don’t acknowledge her and she’s furious. Dale reasons that they’re under orders not to talk to them. Julia realizes that they’re talking on radios and heads to the radio station.

Captive Audience

Lil Jim Rennie is still holding Angie hostage in his cellar. He starts making crazy talk about seeing her with Dale, an encounter she doesn’t even remember.

Duke’s Will

Deputy Linda walks in on Big Jim looking through a filing cabinet in Duke’s office. He covers the real reason he’s there with pulling out Duke’s will, which just happens to be chilling in a filing cabinet at his job.

 

Outside, Big Jim gets into his car where the Reverend is waiting. They decide that whatever evidence Duke had on their shady dealings must be in Duke’s house. Later, the Reverend bumps into Linda and lifts some keys from her pocket.

Under The Dome

Julia arrives at the radio station and discovers that the two people there are listening in on the government chatter. She realizes that if the government doesn’t know what it is, then they didn’t cause it. She commandeers the airwaves and tells the entire town that they’re fucked.

Deputy Stupid

Deputy Paul has got a whole lotta automatic weapons and tells Linda and Freddy that the town is about to go all Thunderdome and they’ll need to be ready. You can just tell he’s been waiting his whole life for shit to jump off, just so he can get all his crazy out.

 

The Cabin

Dale realizes he can’t find his dog tags and after asking Julia if she’s seen them around her house, remembers that they came off in the struggle with Julia’s husband. So, he heads to The Cabin – really, there’s a sign on the door that reads ‘The Cabin.’ – to find them. He does, but then crazy-ass Lil Jim shows up and accuses him of sleeping with Angie. Dale is all, “Who?” And Lil Jim is all, “I’m crazy so I’m not required to make sense!” They fight and Lil Jim gets his ass all.the.way.kicked. Dale leaves.

Thug Reverend

The Reverend lets himself into Duke’s house and completely trashes his office. He finds an envelope taped under a desk drawer. It’s what he’s looking for so he burns the papers inside and tosses them in a trashcan. THEN he walks by the trashcan full of fire and bumps it into the curtains. Then we have curtains of fire. Walls of fire. And we’re about to have Reverend of fire.

Big Jim arrives just before most of the whole damn town, hears the Reverend screaming for help inside, but doesn’t do anything. He lies to Linda saying he got there so quickly because he was listening to the police scanner. Linda, Dale, and the other deputies rally everyone to get buckets of water and hoses. They don’t want the fire to spread. Eventually, Linda hears the Reverend screaming inside – don’t ask me how he’s still alive considering EVERYTHING is on fire and he was at ground zero – and rushes in to save him.

The fire is finally put out after a propane tank behind the house explodes. Before the Reverend is taken away in the ambulance, Jim confronts him for being so reckless. Because, basically, what the Reverend did is the equivalent to that internet meme where someone burns down their house to kill a spider.

 

Julia notices that Dale got his dog tags back. He says they were on the mirror in her bathroom. She finds this odd since it’s the first place she looked.

I Took Care of Your Boyfriend

Angie is scared and wants to go home, but apparently not too scared to tell Lil Jim she doesn’t believe him when he returns, claiming to have killed her “boyfriend.”  “I’ve known you since the third grade. You couldn’t have done that.” Um, hello? Look around. You don’t know his crazy ass!

Big Jim Steps Up

Everyone is relieved that the fire is out. The town throws up three cheers for Linda for saving the Reverend and another for Big Jim who showed up with a bulldozer to tear the house down. Jim pretends he doesn’t like the attention and says the whole town pulled together like only Chester’s Mill could.

While everyone is in the middle of a mega Kumbaya moment, Deputy Stupid pipes in with his, “You’re all going to die horrible fucking deaths of death!” He pulls out a gun and fires it at the dome. The bullet ricochets into Deputy Freddy and he dies in Julia’s arms as Dale wrestles Deputy Stupid to the ground.

Shit just got real, y’all.