Last week, Under the Dome taught us that it's easy to solve your problems as long as you have a gun. Really though, the only person who seemed to be wielding a gun and killing people off was Junior. Of course, he's one of the few people who's allowed to still carry one under Big Jim's New World Order, in which guns are all voluntarily confiscated. Normally, that kind of idea wouldn't work, but luckily the citizens of Chester's Mill are all lemmings. Those who don't submit are threatened with guns. See? Hit the jump for why you're probably not going to be a member of Seizure Club.
Something almost made sense on Under the Dome in "The Fourth Hand," so I want to focus on it carefully. After Angie joined Seizure Club (the first rule of Seizure Club is don't talk about Seizure Club), Junior essentially said "toldja" in the most nonchalant of ways. When Angie pressed him, he showed her his mother's room full of paintings (further comments on that below). Apparently, before his mother's suicide, she did a lot of that sort of thing, and happened to produce a work that was nine years ahead of its time: pink stars were falling on Junior.
It almost made sense that Junior, traumatized by his mother's death, would fear that Angie acting differently (which only he could tell) meant she was "sick," which would lead to her death. Except, Junior didn't know his mother's death was a suicide until just a few days ago. Also, he didn't bother explaining this at all while he had Angie chained up in the bunker.
So, fine, it doesn't actually make any sense. But it almost does, and that has to count for something.
That's where we are with Under the Dome, a show that has zero focus on the realities of a life cut off from resources like food and water, but introduces a character this week who wants to peddle drugs. For what, exactly? Is Max trying to just put herself in a powerful enough position to be the last woman standing? She could have done that just by sticking close to Big Jim and Barbie, who are currently (and likely to remain) the most powerful folks in town. Instead, next week we get cage fighting. Because of course.
Things did pick up a little bit with the dome mythology side of things. Julia has been frozen out of Seizure Club, but there is another person (probably not an adult, if the pattern holds) whose hand is needed to unlock the mini-dome or activate the egg, or both. Joe seemed fairly nonchalant (a defining characteristic among those in Chester's Mill) about the fact that he sleepwalks and moves mini-domes around in the night, occasionally appearing as an oracle and premonition. But hey, let's just go find Truman's bowl!
The dome mythology holds the show together in a very loose way that's somehow enough to make us believe, week after week, that something interesting is about to happen. Yes, it will be interesting to see who the fourth hand is and what happens when they all touch the mini-dome. But is it interesting enough to sit through Linda acting as Sherlock, Jr? Pink stars are falling …
Episode Rating: C-
Musings and Miscellanea:
-- Only in Chester's Mill would a bootleg drug operation be kept in plain view of anyone who opened up a casket at a funeral home. Not to mention the fact thatthe recipe was right there with it. Drug Making 101 kit I guess. Watching Under the Dome after Breaking Bad is so depressing.
-- Either the zoom-in to Angie's butterfly tattoo was a red herring, or the egg simply can't distinguish between one kind of butterfly from another.
-- Junior's mom's art was definitely … folk art. Look, I'm no Picasso, but …
-- At last, some mention of bartering for veggies from local farmers. Not that it is explained in any way, because that's not important when there's cage fighting ahead!
-- "One stop body and soul shop" - Coggins
-- Has there been anything more boring than Linda investigating the propane? Good thing those security logs still existed and weren't erased or taped over ...
-- Grenade! Who the hell keeps a stockpile of grenades? Chester's Mill is a really militarized place for a sleepy town.