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!Meanwhile, Junior has made his way to the cement factory, where he pulls some boards off the closed door and heads inside, idiot journalist Julia skulking around behind him, and following him down the stairs into the dark.
Elsewhere, Linda wanders around the woods, and Randolph runs.
Over at Joe’s house, Norrie praises the food Joe made, which is better than the shit her moms buy at Whole Foods. Joe is all “Your ‘moms’?” and Norrie plays it off as the way the kids say “my moms” and “my pops” and Joe doesn’t point out that her subject-verb agreement is totally whack, then. They trade family stories. Joe explains his dad drives a rig and is away a lot and his mom was in the next town over. He does not appear to remember that he has a sister WHO HAS BEEN MISSING FOR TWO FUCKING DAYS. Norrie says she was on her way to visit her musician dad when the dome came down. “Guess we’re both unsupervised, huh?”
That’s when Joe’s imbecile friend Ben shows up with a couple of twentysomethings pretending to be teenagers who want to use Joe’s generator because their families don’t have “a genny” and there is NO WAY teenagers have slang terms for generators for Christ’s sake. Joe’s pissed at Ben, and asks if he told anyone else about the generator. Ben says he did, and Joe why they’re even here, what with the advisory to stay inside. “Dude, it’s the apocalypse! Advisories don’t apply!” crows Ben, who then spots Norrie and wants to know if Joe “hit that.” Joe walks away in disgust, and Ben is annoyed that Joe left his high-five hangin’. If Ben isn’t killed in the next few episodes, I’m not positive I can last a whole season.
Over at the cement factory, we get to watch a whole lotta darkness and flashlight waving, and then it’s back to the woods, where Barbie and Big Jim get to know each other, Barbie, unsurprisingly, is being cagey about his military background, admitting only to being a grunt. Then they spot Randolph, and everyone takes cover. Randolph still manages to wing Roger, yells that he’ll “aim higher” next time, and crashes off into the woods again. Big Jim orders Ollie to take Roger back to town, and that means it’s just Big Jim and Barbie to chase down Randolph. Barbie’s unsure whether Big Jim wants to bring him in or take him out, and Big Jim wonders whether that makes a difference to a guy like Barbie. “A guy like me?” asks Barbie, and Big Jim is all, “We’re losing the light,” and they get back to the pursuit.