Episode Report Card Daniel: C+ | 27 USERS: D+ YOU GRADE IT Angie, You Can't Say I Never Tried
By Daniel | Season 1 | Episode 3 | Aired on 07.08.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.“This is a small town,” characters are told repeatedly in the third episode of Under the Dome, generally in the revelation that someone knows someone else's secret. Everybody in Chester's Mill has them, with some of them darker than others, and the darker ones, by and large, haven't bubbled up to the surface yet.
The town deals with the aftermath of the accidental shooting of Policeman Freddy, and the lynch mob that surrounds the town jail is the most excitable the residents have been since the dome came down. It's Big Jim who calms them down and urges them to let the law do its job. Not too well, presumably, given the headaches that would likely cause for him. And the residents get back to normal, which is being largely unconcerned about being trapped inside an invisible dome.
Paul seems to be remorseful about accidentally shooting Fred, but then tricks Linda by faking some sort of asthma attack or panic attack, and when she enters his cell to help, he jumps her and locks her in before stealing a rifle and fleeing, leading to the "Manhunt" title. Big Jim enlists some of the menfolk, urging them to take a break from being homophobic towards Carolyn so they can smoke Paul out of the woods. Barbie comes along too, although Big Jim and Julia are becoming increasingly suspicious of him; Junior has told both of them that Barbie beat him up for no reason, but Junior always kinda looks like he serves a punch in the face, so neither Big Jim nor Julia ask Barbie about it. Julia, becoming increasingly convinced that Barbie was in Chester's Mill for a reason, snoops in his stuff before finding a map of the area with a location on it. Big Jim, meanwhile, is becoming more concerned with being in charge, and — more important — being seen to be in charge. He's boring Barbie to death with football stories from his school when Randolph manages to get the drop on him, only to be felled by Linda, that hardest working cop under the dome or outside it. Randolph may have been helped by the fact that somehow Phil Bushey is narrating the manhunt over the radio in real-time somehow, despite phones not working under the dome. Good job giving away where the search party was over the radio, Phil!
Meanwhile, Norrie has snuck out to Joe's house, because she heard he has a generator, and she's hoping to avail herself of it, because without her tunes she's apparently not the ray of sunshine we've already come to know and love. She neglects to tell her moms where she's going, though, which seems pretty shitty of her. But Carolyn does arrive in time to see Norrie and Joe engage in some synchronized seizuring.
Elsewhere, Angie plays up to Junior and encourages him to check the cement factory where they used to have sex for a way out. Julia — puffing herself up mightily as the one, as a journalist, with the responsibility of finding answers about the dome — follows him, and then they get lost on their way out, giving Julia the chance to explain why she, clearly an awesome journalist, is in a backwater like Chester's Mill. The reason does not make her more sympathetic — in her zeal to take down a politician, she published damning documents that were fake, which she suspected they were. And she doesn't appear to have learned enough as a reporter to use a notebook or some kind of recorder when interviewing someone. Oh, and her news reports on the radio include such great muck-raking dirt as, "Presumably, [the authorities] will keep at it until they get some answers." Nothing makes for good journalism like making assumptions and placing unmitigated faith in authorities! Or maybe she was talking about the audience?
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. It's not that hard to portray journalists accurately on television. Not that Aaron Sorkin has figured it out either. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!They’re so busy yapping that they don’t notice the guy in the bright blue shirt with the rifle walking up. He’s got his rifle trained on them, and orders Barbie to drop his own. He’s going to kill Big Jim. “An eye for an eye, right?” like Big Jim said. The standoff doesn’t last long, because Randolph is dropped with one shot by Linda, and thank GOD someone is taking this seriously.
Night has fallen by the time Linda, Big Jim and Barbie — who carries Randolph’s corpse — show up at the mortuary, so Lester can complain about more work when he’s not finished with Denton yet. “You clean?” Big Jim asks him quietly, and Lester assures him he is, that he just looks high because he’s overworked, I guess. After Barbie has dropped off the body, Big Jim pulls Linda aside to apologize for questioning her dedication or insinuating she wasn’t capable of filling Duke’s shoes. “He’d be proud of you,” says Big Jim, who paints a picture of Duke “up there with the big guy,” eating roast beef and mashed potatoes. Oh, Linda and Big Jim will do great things, according to Big Jim, but they’ve got to get her some deputies first. “There’s a new sheriff in town, and her name is Linda Esquivel,” says Big Jim. Linda looks appropriately wary.
Julia drives Junior home, and he says he wants to keep what happened between them. “We all have secrets, Junior,” she says, and Junior says she can call him “James,” as he never did like “Junior.” Oh, nobody likes Junior.
Right about now, Barbie and Big Jim are walking up to the Rennie place, with Big Jim assuming, correctly, Barbie is a Scotch guy. “Straight up, of course.” But then Julia pulls up with Junior, who gets in a mini-staredown with Barbie, who suggests they do the Scotch another time. “It’s a small town, son. We all support the team,” says Big Jim, quoting the amazing James McMurtry. Julia asks Barbie what that’s all about, and he tells her it’s a long story.
Meanwhile, Linda is sadly pulling all the name tags of her dead former colleagues off their lockers, and then pulling Duke’s hat off the rack and going to sleep in the jail cell where we met him.