Under the Dome - S1E3 - Manhunt

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Hi gang!  I’m back!  Thanks to ProFan Nina for covering my shift last week.  Now, let’s get back to Chester’s Mill, shall we?

Previously, on Under the Dome: “The Fire”

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POWER JUNKIES

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Joe’s relatively useless long-haired skater friend starts voluntelling Joe that everyone’s coming over to his house to mooch power.  Joe and Norrie make some kind of connection at the skate park and just like that, she’s invited over to his house to crash.  Teenagers, huh?  Not that I think Joe’s dangerous, but somebody should pull Angie out of that fallout shelter so she can tell Norrie something about just blithely going to boys’ houses.  Also, not too sure I like the angle that Norrie is deeply ashamed of her moms.  It’s a teenager thing, sure, but it’s also kinda uncool.

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THE FUGITIVE

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Paul pulls a pretty standard double-cross on Linda and manages to escape the jail.  The whole scene smacks of Mayberry naiveté on Linda’s part, and it makes me deeply afraid of what’s going to happen now that she’s the presumptive police chief.  I mean, anybody who lets a suspect pull that kind of con on her can’t possibly stand up to Big Jim Rennie, can she?  We already know Paul’s got some itchy trigger fingers.

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FATHER OF THE YEAR

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There are a few really choice interactions between Big Jim and Junior in this episode, and watching the man condescend to his only son and tell him things like “Toughen up, now, Junior” leaves little doubt as to why Junior ended up so crazy.  This constant emascularizing is the opposite of healthy.

Shortly after that, Junior decides to pay Angie a visit.  Probably has to do with his desire to assert his dominance over somebody after being so thoroughly dominated by dear-old-dad, but hey, at least he brought her a meal.  As far as Angie goes, she’s exhibiting a lot of Stockholm Syndrome behavior.  I wonder if it’s intentional or if she’s really decided to latch on to Junior.  Time will tell, I guess.  At any rate, the two of them start reminiscing about the tunnels under the cement factory, and Angie suggests it might be a way out under the dome.

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BIG JIM IN CHARGE

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Big Jim goes to visit the Reverend in the hospital and gives him a thorough dressing-down for being a dumbass.  Once he mentions that they’re now the only two people in town who know the full story about the propane and that they have to “trust each other,” I sensed a bull’s-eye appear between the Reverend’s eyes.

Next we see Big Jim letting Linda out from where Paul had trapped her in the jail cell.  Afterwards, she has the brass grapes to tell him “You do not control me.”  Oh, honey.  He does not control you . . .yet.

Big Jim then decides to stroll over to the diner and start up a search party.  He takes two homophobes and Barbie with him.  DJ Phil warns Chester’s Mill to stay home until the fugitive is caught, which, in most places, would be the signal to get everybody out of doors and poking through the woods.  Because people are, for the most part, stupid as hell.  It certainly seems that Linda isn’t going to resist the impulse; she heads out after Paul on her own.

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LET’S GO UNDERGROUND WITH CRAZY JR.

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Is there any way to get a reporter to follow you than to tell her “I don’t have to answer your questions.  It’s a free country.” ?  Probably not.  Julia decides to tail Junior as he makes his way under the cement factory and through the tunnels.  She watches as he discovers the dome goes clear underground and blocks off any escape that way.  She warns him off of his flashlight (which explodes from contact with the dome) and he goes all Crazy-Eyes and starts repeatedly punching the dome.  WTF.  A lot WTF.  He starts getting a bit claustrophobic and doom-and-gloomy before Julia teaches him something basic about fire: you can follow the direction of a flickering flame to find your way out.  She exhausts her supply of matches this way, but not before she shares with him her greatest professional failure.  In exchange for this confidence, he tells her that the dome is Barbie’s fault and Barbie beat him up.  It’s enough to get her thinking as she helps him find his way out then offers him a ride home.

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THE SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT

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Back at Joe’s house, the Power-Mooch Party is in full swing.  Some meathead has set up a toll for power, charging people to use the power strips.  Norrie tries to give him some basic anti-monopoly history schooling.  He doesn’t like that.  Joe goes surprisingly alpha-male and a fight nearly breaks out.  Fortunately (or unfortunately) all that power-mooching has shorted out the generator.  Party’s over.  Good job, assholes.

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GOTCHA!

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Barbie does a little Big Jim-prodding, which prompts Big Jim to relate a long-winded parable about football and what a dick he can be when somebody insults or disrespects him.  All the dick-waving leads them to forgetting they’re in the woods for a reason, and Paul, the damned fugitive they’re looking for, gets the drop on them.  Fortunately for them, Linda pulls the ultimate gotcha and takes him down with a bullet.  Good job, chica.

When they bring the body to the Reverend, Big Jim embarks on a long speech to Linda about how he’s sorry for questioning her and he promises her a bunch of deputies.  Linda, watch out.  She needs a time out, so she heads back to the police station, puts Duke’s hat on, and naps in a prison cell, just like he used to.

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ALL ABOUT BARBIE

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Julia brings Junior (oh, I’m sorry, Crazy would rather be called James) to Big Jim and exchanges him for Barbie.  Then she brings Barbie back to her place for some good ol’-fashioned suspicion and snooping.  Barbie, playing his part, lies to her.  Maybe he does this chronically.

Meanwhile, Junior pays Angie another visit and tells her about the tunnels-go-nowhere discovery from earlier.  He shows her his knuckles to . . .prove he loves her.  Because nothing says love like trying to beat up a magical dome.  She starts tending to his knuckles with a first-aid kit.  Because nothing says Stockholm Syndrome like trying to heal your crazy-ass abductor.

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PINK STARS

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Norrie and Joe flirt for a bit before one of Norrie’s moms shows up.  Just as things get super-awkward, the two kids touch each other then fall into violent seizures, muttering “Pink Stars are falling in lines.”