Norrie and Joe (now living together) test their weird
apparently Dome-received messages and they find an entire wall of the Dome
covered in monarch butterflies. Barbie
staggers out of his car (since
Julia won’t let him stay at her house due to him being a violent debt collector
out to break her husband’s legs) and joins them staring at the butterflies.
Past them they see a soldier – who actually acknowledges their existence rather
than ignoring them like the past soldiers. And buses loaded with relatives of
people stuck under the Dome.
Julia passes the news across the radio that the military
will let them visit their loved ones at a designated time at the edge of the
Dome (apparently the general public showing up anywhere around the Dome is
still forbidden).
At the shelter, it looks like Jim left Angie in all
night. She asks him to let her go but he’s having trouble absorbing that his
son captured her and has been keeping her there. He decides to leave her down
there so he can “think about things”. Uh-huh, and there he goes down the moral
precipice of no return. And when he leaves the house he runs into the Rev.
Coggins, like some kind of karmic punishment who tells Jim god has spoken to
him and said “Moab”.
God could do to be a bit more talkative and informative.
I reckon Coggins was doing a crossword and got to “place in Jordan, beginning
with M” and the dome got frustrated.
Anyway, Moab, Coggins explains waving his bible, was a wicked, naughty place just like Chester’s Mill! Chester’s Mill’s in the middle of nowhere Maine – after 4 episodes I think it’s far far too dull to be all that wicked and naughty. Jim isn’t impressed and Coggins continues to get the word of god in his hearing aid.
Jim goes back inside and starts agonising over a picture
of young Junior, before his kidnapping days, when Junior himself comes in, in
police uniform to tell him about the visiting. Rather than address the
kidnapped Angie in the shelter, Jim instantly thinks about crowd control and
how Linda can’t handle it – and in a complete migraine moment, authorises
Junior to recruit more officers. He’s so desperate to undercut Linda and seize
power that he’s going to increase the power of his kidnapper son? Whatever
guilt he feels about it is dealt with by yelling at Junior for not rushing off
to increase his power base faster.
At the Dome people start arriving and Linda recruits Barbie to help crowd control (2 recruits – 1 obsessive stalker who has kidnapped and imprisoned Angie, the other a bookie’s enforcer who murdered your local doctor. Whatever your talents Linda, you are an AWFUL judge of character). She warns everyone to stay back since it blows up batteries – then she touches the dome and even kisses her husband through the Dome.
At the radio station, Julia and Phil hear random numbers
from the military but no idea what they mean – and he asks Phil if maybe her
husband will come to see her, even if he has run from Barbie and his gambling
debts. Phil dodges around it and thinks it’s possible (nope,
he’s dead and buried). They hear over the radio that the news is being
allowed to report on the families visiting
At the Dome, Linda’s fiance holds up a tablet (do
batteries only break on the inside of the Dome?) and apparently a network wants
to do a reality show of them. Joe looks for Angie and is confused that she
hasn’t shown up with the rest of Chester’s Mill. And Norrie sees someone
claiming to be her dad, despite her mum saying she had an anonymous donor.
Coggins shows up to tell everyone they’re sinners, as you do. Jim tries to silence him and they argue – Coggins wants to confess, he blames them for letting drug dealers use Chester’s Mill to make drugs even though they didn’t sell it there. Coggins demands that Jim confess his sins – or he’s going to expose him
Well, Coggins may as well have carved his own gravestone.
At the Dome, Linda tells her fiancé
that his brother is dead and he walks away without saying goodbye. Alice
and Carolyn arrive to see Norrie talking to her father; Norrie is furious at
them for lying and telling her her records were sealed and Alice is blazing at
Mike, the man, for never caring about his daughter until the cameras entered
the picture. Julia hasn’t seen her husband and has a little reconciliation with
Barbie since she doesn’t blame him for her husband’s decisions – and she sees
her sister-in-law. It seems her hubby sent his sister a letter telling Julia
sorry and move on. Wow, the man was going to run out on her and sent his Dear
John letter to his sister to deliver? Ms. Manners must disapprove of that.
Barbie stops a woman touching the Dome who is overwhelmed
by her estranged son coming back to see her. Of course, Junior takes the
opportunity of his uniform to order Barbie away. Joe catches up with Norrie who
angrily denies Mike is her dad – just a creep who wants to be on TV. They’re
joined by Ben who learned from some of the strangers that US and China nearly
went to war over the Dome, China assuming the US had built a super weapon.
Barbie notices Dodee talking to someone through the Dome
using sign language and asks her if she can read lips as well – she can (I
didn’t think Dodee was deaf… if she isn’t deaf why would knowing sign language
be linked to lip reading?). Barbie shows a medallion from his old unit to one
of the soldiers, apparently it’s very impressive. He learns that all the
soldiers are pulling out – and once they leave they won’t be coming back –
orders they got after the butterflies appearded. Hearing about the butterflies
Dodee thinks that the Dome could be altering electromagnetic fields that
insects use to navigate. Barbie thinks that’s worrying – because that means the
Dome is affecting things outside the Dome and the government isn’t going to put
up with that. He also remembers Rev. Coggin’s rantings. Apparently the
not-so-good reverend is managing to pick up signals with his hearing aids that
takes the radio station massive amounts of equipment to manage. That’s inefficient.
But Moab is actually Mother Of All Bombs – biggest non-nuclear bomb there is;
destroying the Dome and everything inside it as well.
Visiting time wasn’t about seeing families, it was about
saying goodbye to families.
Dodee rushes to tell Jim, Julia, Linda and Linda tells
them about the random numbers she heard – they have a time. 1:15pm. They plan
to evacuate the town to the old cement tunnels that Junior investigated
To the Diner! Where Joe is still looking for Angie and
Julia spreads the word over the radio for everyone to get to the cement works.
At the shelter, Jim goers down and frees Angie from her
chain. He talks despairingly about Junior, sounding sad, contrite and broken.
He tells Angie she can go. He’s motivated by the thought they could all die –
she may as well die free. Angie runs for freedom
Jim out and sees Junior – and tells him he freed Angie.
Jim tries to talk to him about it, and going to the tunnels – but Junior drives
off in his car to Joe’s house. It’s deserted and he’s there waiting when Angie
arrives, looking for Joe. He has a gun. He reveals the bomb is going to hit and
apologises, again saying he wants Angie to “get better”. She holds him, wary
eyes planning (there’s some good acting).
Julia has better priorities, she gets a bottle of booze
and puts a picture of her husband face down. She joins Barbie down in the
tunnels and Barbie tells them his war history in Iraq – including a moment of
friendly fire in Iraq.
Dodee and Phil stay way too late at the radio station to
prepare the last music anyone will hear – Phil doesn’t think the tunnels will
save them from weapons of mass destruction. When Phil gets down in the tunnels,
Barbie gives Phil back his grandfather’s watch which he apparently gave Barbie
to pay a gambling debt. Then he and Julia get to bond (with extra awkward
“where’s my husband do you think?” moments). In that moment of sharing before
death, he almost confesses to killing her husband, Pete. But Carolyn and Alice
run into the room, looking for Norrie who has disappeared along with Joe. They
try to leave and go look for her but Junior’s assistants stop them which Alice
and Carolyn have zero time for. While they argue, Julia and Barbie sneak out
the back.
Norrie and Joe are looking for Angie. Joe tries to get
Norrie to go back to the shelter with her family, but she won’t abandon her
friend. The music plays on. Dodee and Phil dance. Outside, Linda examines
graffiti of couples in love, presumably she and her fiancé are among them,
Angie holds Junior’s head in her lap. Everyone huddles together.
As the bomb drops, Norrie and Joe kiss.
The bomb hits the Dome… and it doesn’t break.
Julia and Barbie go to the edge of the Dome. It’s still
there – outside is a ruined wasteland. Jim goes to another section of the Dome
and finds the same thing – he’s joined by Coggins. He thinks god saved the town
because he repented. He’s a bit of an ego-maniac isn’t he? You’d think there’d
be a lot more explosions and wastelands if a little drug dealing caused the
wrath of god. He wants Jim to do the same – Jim pushes the reverend’s head
against the Dome, his hearing aid explodes in contact with it, killing him and
leaving a streak of blood on the Dome.
That was a pretty heavy issue with a lot of character
development. Jim still stands on a precipice – he’s now willing to kill to keep
his power and he was certainly considering leaving Angie in the shelter to
protect Junior – and his position. I think as the season progresses we’re going
to see Jim go further down the spiral – which leaves the question of what will
happen to Angie, Linda, Julia and Barbie – and even Junior – who are most
likely to threaten his sense of superiority.
I do like that, even when Norrie was furious with her
mums, she was equally affirming of her family; Mike’s appearance didn’t prompt
a sudden “oh daddy, at last my life is now complete!” response
I want to see more of Dodee and Phil, I like them
together.
I think a lot of this episode rested on the tension of
the MOAB which we knew wouldn’t work so it didn’t quite work for me. It’s
episode 5, we know the Dome isn’t coming down, so everyone running around “GET
TO THE SHELTER” didn’t create much tension. It didn’t help that everyone and
anyone decided to go walking around outside.
