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It’s difficult to get a feel of how this series is going to go, since by necessity the bulk of the first episode is spent meeting the main characters in the town of Chester’s Mill, residents and otherwise, who are all trapped together when they’re suddenly sealed off from the outside world by an invisible barrier. Oddly, I would have thought much more of the time would have been spent on people freaking out and/or wondering what the hell is going on, but everyone seems to accept the existence of the invisible wall with grace and aplomb.
The characters are pointed only in broad strokes at this point, which is fine for now, given that I read the book when it came out nearly four years ago and only remember the broad strokes about the characters and the plot anyway. That might be a good thing in the sense that I won’t get hung up on the differences between television characters and novel characters -- like I don’t think Julia Shumway was the “new” editor of the local rag, and I’m also fairly certain she wasn’t married to someone being buried by drifter Barbie (Mike Vogel, late of Bates Motel), whose motives seem a little more grey than they did in the book. So the series is keeping the premise and some major characters -- like Big Jim Rennie is played by Dean Norris (you know, Hank from Breaking Bad!), the corrupt local politician and businessman who runs the town... although I think his creepy son is new, the one who has fallen in love all stalky with a waitress and is keeping her captive in a bomb shelter by the end of the episode. And Jeff Fahey is Chief Duke Perkins. In the book, he’s killed when his pacemaker explodes as he nears the invisible wall. Here, the pilot ends with that exploding pacemaker, Perkins lying on the ground while his deputy wails. How you gonna bring the Lawnmower Man into this and not keep him around for a while, right?
So: Not much plot. The dome itself is dropped on the town rather effectively, splitting homes and barns in two and separating people from their limbs. A cow is hilariously bisected, and a semi-trailer impressively flattens itself on the wall when it hits it head-on. Maybe “Pilot” isn’t just the traditional title of a series’ first episode but a reference to the plane that crashes on the inside. The loose story outline is: Hey, Chester’s Mill never used to have a dome encircling it. Now it does. And people have secrets! There’s a stockpiling of propane by Big Jim (with the knowledge of Chief Perkins) for some secret purpose, but we won’t find out just yet. “There’s a lot I’ve tried to protect you from, about this place,” Perkins tells his deputy, right before his pacemaker explodes. So: intriguing enough to continue. My main criterion for judging a show is to decide if I’d watch it even if I weren’t being paid to, and the answer to that one is yes. I have to confess to being intrigued by how they’ll keep this an open-ended show, since the story has -- quite literally -- limits.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. They’ve got beer under the dome, right? That seems important. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We slowly pan down on a darkened dome. Wow, they've already started! No, it's an egg, with a bird slowly hatching, and the mother bird flies to take us into the shot of a man -- Mike Vogel, recently on Bates Motel -- burying a body in a bedsheet. The body is loosely wrapped, the better for the sheet to fall open and reveal the face of the corpse as dramatically as possible.
Over to the local gaol, where a deputy awakens her boss, sleeping in an open cell, "testing the accommodations," as he puts it -- to tell him that Sam Virgil, even though he's apparently a drunk, heard a bang. The chief -- Jeff Fahey, always and only from Lawnmower Man -- less-than-enthusiastically wants to know if it was a backfire or if Tommy Henderson "finally" shot his wife. "You never know with this damn place," he says. Get ready for much dialogue that's about more than just one thing!
Now over to breakfast at the Sweetbriar Rose diner, where "Big Jim" Rennie (played by Dean Norris of Breaking Bad) is reading a book on Churchill and paying a hundred dollars for his breakfast because the diner is hurting ever since a Denny's opened in the town over. He's the small-town big shot, who ignores Rose's protests that he paid too much. "We're all in this together," he says.
up on the carousel of character introductions: A young couple having sex, him more into her (literally as well as figuratively, I suppose) than she is into him. Her name is Angie, his is Junior. "It's been a fun summer," is her response to his "I love you." She tells him he's going back to school, and he reveals that he dropped out, because college is "just another pyramid scheme." She gives him shit for giving up his free ride out of this town, and things get tense when she goes to leave for her shift at the diner. He grabs her wrist, she slaps his face, and they stare at each other for a moment. This would be Junior, Big Jim's son -- to correct what I said in the recaplet, he was in the book. I'm not sure if the changes -- some slight, others bigger -- are making me forget who was there and who wasn't.
Julia Shumway, the new editor of The Independent, is visiting a Mrs. Grinell on a Sunday morning on what she assumes is a subscription problem, at least until Mrs. Grinell sets her straight by sassily telling her she gets her news online like everyone else. Aw, and here were we all thinking she was just a dumb hick here in Varmint Gulch! She's actually got a news tip for Julia, and points out a propane truck delivering a load across a field, one of several the last couple of weeks. She's figuring it's a terrorism thing -- "If you see something, say something," and all that -- and Julia's skeptical, until Grinell says she asked the sheriff to look into it, and he told her it was just the city replenishing its emergency stock. But he was nervous when he told her, says Grinell, so that's why she thinks something's up, and that's what convinces Julia, who says she'll look into it. Grinell wants Julia to keep her name out of it, mistakenly thinking that "small-town busybody old lady who doesn't actually know anything" is such a valuable and rare source.
Meanwhile, the dude burying the body is finishing up, putting the shovel in the trunk and peeling out comically and irresponsibly fast through the woods. Fast and Furious Hicks! And in town the sheriff and the deputy watch a fleet of fire trucks -- she's engaged to one named Rusty -- head out of town for parade day. Considering she could be married to someone in any profession, expect the lack of fire trucks to be a major plot point to come.
They cross paths on the outskirts, with Body Buryer on the phone, angrily telling someone that his guy Smith showed up, didn't have the money, and wanted to renegotiate, aggressively. He spots the oncoming cop car, and opens the glove compartment, making sure his gun is nice and handy. Chief Duke Perkins notes the lack of front plates, and his eagle-eyed deputy gets the numbers from the back plate as he goes whizzing by, and calls it in to check on it.
Body Buryer is so preoccupied with watching his rearview mirror until the police are out of sight that he manages to miss that there are cows suddenly all over the road, forcing him to swerve. He goes careering through a fence and into a pasture filled with many more cows and not enough cowshit, given how many of them there are. His front driver's side wheel is flat, and he doesn't have a spare.
And that's when the rumbling starts. And the birds scattering. In town, the cars in Big Jim's used-car lot start going off. Angie's walking by the church, bells ringing out her shame. In the cop car, Duke starts clutching his chest.
And at the farm, a spray of dirt shoots up as a line ruptures in the earth, and -- amazingly -- a cow is cleaved directly down the middle, falling in to perfect bloody halves. Oh, it's one of those newfangled boneless cows! Interesting! Wait, I can sort of make out a bit of a backbone. Body Buryer -- oh, hell, let's just call him Barbie, because that's who he turns out to be -- approaches with caution. Well, actual caution would mean staying well clear, I should think. He reaches out -- and is zapped by the wall that he knows his there, and he slips, his hand landing in the gore, all the better to leave a bloody handprint hanging in the air when he touches it again.
After the nondescript opening credits, some teenager comes running out, telling Barbie that he saw his car spin out, and asks if he's OK. You know, it kinda took you a long time to get here, and now there's really more pressing matters, don't you think? Like the invisible barrier that has cut a line through the barn? And the EARTH?
Duke seems to have recovered, blaming his pacemaker. They get a call of a downed power line by the clinic, and then they see a plane fly by, so you know what's going to happen there.
At the farm, birds start dropping, necks snapped. "This thing must be crazy high," says the teenager, and then they watch as the plane overhead explodes after hitting it in mid-air. Barbie has to rescue the kid, tackling him out from under the wrecked tail section of the plane, spinning fatally down towards him. Oh, and there's someone's leg! In town, Big Jim leaves rubber in the parking lot after seeing the plane crash.
At the farm, Barbie and the kid find the ID of "Mrs. Sanders from the bank," and then they see a fire truck zipping along the road. Barbie runs frantically out into the middle of the road, waving his arms to get them to stop. They come to a stop -- the kid noting they can't hear the sirens -- just in time, and an angry firefighter comes running out, yelling (not that we can hear him), towards Barbie, and him hitting the wall is some seriously funny shit. Barbie hastily scribbles a not that says, "Call FAA," and the firefighter who seems to have immediately grasped what's happened (his bloodied face providing all the empirical evidence he needs). The kid suggests that maybe calling "the feds" -- like he's some kind of hardened militia man -- isn't a great idea, because what if they built it? Barbie doubts it was them. "Because it works." Haw haw, guvmint, amirite?
Over now to WYBS, one of those independent alternative-rock stations that always flourish in small towns, you know? The ... station manager? ... tells the DJ -- they've just had to fire up the generator to get back on the air -- that they're the only things on the air, and the DJ is basically, "all riiiiight."
Duke and Deputy Linda arrive at the scene of the plane crash, where they're filled in by Barbie and the kid (Barbie getting to pass off his murderin' injuries as dome-droppin' and plane-crashin' injuries). Linda and Rusty make like one of them is in jail, and they press their hands up on the dome, and then Duke is somewhat chagrined to see Big Jim pull up, asking about what was once Chuck Thompson's plane. Then the police radio crackles with a couple of accidents, and the gang quickly jumps to the conclusion that the whole town has been cut off. Hey, we're barely a third of the way in! Not wasting much time, are we?
The police and Big Jim check out a map to identify all the roads leading in and out, just as Julia arrives, all brassy "it's not a plane crash it's news," and the police commandeer her vehicle so they can racing off full-tilt to check out the other roads instead of maybe taking it a little more slowly. So Julia and Barbie have time to get acquainted.
So let's get acquainted with the just-passing-through big-city interracial lesbian couple (one, played by Samantha Mathis, seems to have Type 1 diabetes) with the sullen daughter making fun of Chester's Mill. Actually, that just about covers it.
Barbie and Julia are strolling through the woods along the perimeter of the dome, somehow not having sex yet. I suppose it's because Julia's married, to a doctor. As far as she knows. (Spoiler!) He thinks they might be stuck in there for a while, and even if the dome disappears, the army will still quarantine the place, and we learn he's ex-Army, but not recently. Then it's time for them to go see about a nearby woman who has been apparently standing around for some time with a severed arm, waiting for someone to arrive so she can collapse. Barbie and Julia rush to her aid.
At the radio station, Big Jim bursts in to shut off the Jimmy Eat World or whatever the fuck television thinks the emo kids are listening to these days so he can make an emergency broadcast, while at home his son (at this point, we're presuming the Junior in the TV show is related like the Junior in the book, but it pans out) is practicing his butterfly-knife technique, as well as his staring psychotically into space technique. He's about to cut his wrists when he hears his dad come over the radio. Big Jim kinda hilariously has to assure them this isn't a car commercial, which might have been greeted with skepticism, especially since he precedes to tell everybody to get out of their cars.
And how are the Big City Interracial Lesbian Couple With The Sullen Daughter getting along? Well, Mom 1 (not diabetes mom) is snapping at the daughter for sending naked pictures of herself to random dudes, which she protests was an accident (which was, apparently, her excuse for punching some girl in the mouth, knocking out a tooth). They hear Rennie's emergency message, which the daughter, Norrie, dismisses as a "stupid viral marketing thing, which sounds plausible, given there are other vehicles on the road, like the oncoming semi-trailer. At least until that truck pancakes into nothing. The women all get out of their car, freaked out, and then Norrie collapses in a seizure, foaming at the mouth and muttering about pink stars falling.
The kid from the farm, Joe, hurries home to find his sister (Angie, the sex-havin' waitress), where they determine that their parents are outside the dome. "We're on our own," says Joe.
Barbie and Julia have brought the armless woman to the hospital, which is a total riot scene. The nurse hopes she brought "the doc" with her, and Julia's surprised to find out that her husband isn't already there, since instead of always working Sundays, he hasn't worked Sundays in months. She recovers and says he must have gone home, and Barbie looks appropriately awkward about the whole thing.
And here comes the army! Linda watches Humvees and people in Hazmat suits roll up with Geiger counters and the like, checking out the barrier from their side.
And now Angie has gone from the diner to her house to the hospital, where she's apparently also a candy striper? and she flirts with Barbie for a cigarette -- Junior in his truck watching, nearby -- and deliver a speech about the goldfish she used to have that ate one that got sick, and how they're stuck in a fishbowl. You get the idea. Junior gets annoyed when she touches Barbie's cheek and asks if he wants something for some sort of scratch. Junior's about to go off -- and honestly it appears that Angie was looking to get off -- when Norrie and her two moms screech up, Norrie unconscious in the back of the car. Angie rushes to help, Barbie makes himself scarce, Junior fingers his butterfly knife.
Duke Perkins shows up at the town hall, which is ... not packed with every single town employee to figure out what's going on and institute emergency plans? Just Big Jim? OK. Apparently other councilors are outside the dome? Big Jim's talking about authorizing additional police officers -- councilmen have the power to do that in an emergency, apparently -- and Duke thinks they don't need any amateurs with badges, so Big Jim ain't authorizing squat. Big Jim, not looking happy, accepts this. "What do we do when the people start asking about the propane?" Big Jim says as Duke makes to leave. Duke says he doesn't know what Big Jim's getting at, adding that he doesn't know what Big Jim needed it for. Big Jim says Duke was happy to turn a blind eye but he's not dumb and knows exactly what it's for. "I did what I had to do to keep this town from going broke, to keep it safe," snarls Duke, and Big Jim tells him what "the lay of the land is," and warns him to go easy on his bad ticker. "We're all in this together," he says. It's a little more sinister than the last time he said it.
Over at the radio station, station manager Dodee and DJ Phil pull in snippets of cellphones, music and radio transmissions, referring to a "dome over Chester's Mill" that's about 20,000 feet. "Did he just call it a dome?" asks Phil.
Back at the farm, Junior is now creepily getting up in Barbie's business, much to his consternation and confusion. He doesn't know why Barbie seems to be pissed but warns him he doesn't want to start anything. Junior's all "Maybe I do" before he saunters off upon the arrival of Julia, who still hasn't heard from her husband. She's checking all the roadblocks, and this was the last one.
When she finds out Barbie was going to "rough it" -- all the motels in Chester's Mill implausibly being full -- she insists he come stay with her and Peter, since he saved Joe or whatever. Plus she's a fiery redhead who I will just presume doesn't like to sleep alone.
Meanwhile, Chester's rowdy teens are having a rowdy teen party on a bridge, with one rowdy teen Ben Drake spotting Joe McAlister and asking if it's true his parents are gone, and popping a boner at the raging party Joe is obviously going to plan. Joe's got other things on his mind, though, like looking for the power source for whatever put the dome in place, on the hunch it's somewhere inside. Then, just like Norrie, Joe collapses in a seizure and starts babbling about pink stars falling in lines, while Ben yells for help.
Angie arrives back at her place to find the power out -- and Junior waiting for her. He grabs her from behind while she lights a candle. She screams and tries to fight him off, but in the struggle she's knocked out. Well, that's going to make the makeup sex problematic. Or, well, maybe not, considering Junior from the book. Even TV Junior seems pretty messed up, after all.
Looks like the entire town has congregated at Sweetbriar Rose for some food and romantic candlelight. Duke Perkins strolls in with some hard news: Some people are still unaccounted for, but there are twelve dead already. Rose asks what's going on, and one of the Big City Interracial Lesbian Moms makes herself right at home by jumping up and saying, "Isn't it obvious? We're under attack." And then Diabetes Mom endears herself by announcing they need to get Norrie to a "real doctor" because even if they can't get through the barrier she can still be airlifted out, right? Well, that makes one big assumption, doesn't it?
Duke tells everyone to check on their neighbors when they get home, and if they need anything, they know where to find him.
Elsewhere, Angie is waking up in a bomb shelter. She screams when Junior enters, and he yells at her to stop. She does, and he tells her no one can hear her all the way down here. "You're safe now," he says, adding that in the long run she's going to thank him for this. "I'm the only person who really understands what's really going on around here. All I ask for is patience," he says. She rushes him, starts screaming, and he leaves the bunkroom, locking her in.
He's aboveground and locking the shelter when his dad arrives -- this is when the show lets us know that Junior is Big Jim's son. Junior seems a little surprised, and then recovers, saying he wants to help with whatever's going on, and father and son embrace.
Over at Julia's house, she and Barbie arrive -- a backup generator providing electricity. It's when she shows Barbie a picture of her and Peter that he recognizes Peter as the man he buried this morning. "You must think I'm an idiot," she says. He's stammers, "Wh-what do you mean?" He might as well add, "I didn't kill and bury your husband, if that's what you're getting at." But of course she just means she's a journalist who doesn't know what's going on under her own nose. "I'm sure the whole town's thinking it. My husband isn't here because he's having an affair," she says. But that's not what she thinks: "They don't know him like I do." She says she knows he'll turn up. Sure, when a hunter finds him.
Elsewhere, Duke and Linda are strolling along the road for some reason, Linda lamenting that she would have been with Rusty had she not been trying to pull overtime for their honeymoon.
Duke darkly mutters that maybe they're being punished. "You're good police, Linda. There's a lot I've tried to protect you from, about this place," he says. She asks what he means, and he touches the dome. "A little over a year ago, I was approached about..." he begins, and then he starts breathing heavily. "Is it your pacemaker?" Linda asks, right before it explodes right out of his chest. She screams for help and tries the radio, while on the other side of the dome, soldiers set up equipment, and we listen to cheesy news reports that all say the same thing: No one knows what the hell's going on.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. That cow had it coming. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Over at Julia's house, she and Barbie arrive -- a backup generator providing electricity. It's when she shows Barbie a picture of her and Peter that he recognizes Peter as the man he buried this morning. "You must think I'm an idiot," she says. He's stammers, "Wh-what do you mean?" He might as well add, "I didn't kill and bury your husband, if that's what you're getting at." But of course she just means she's a journalist who doesn't know what's going on under her own nose. "I'm sure the whole town's thinking it. My husband isn't here because he's having an affair," she says. But that's not what she thinks: "They don't know him like I do." She says she knows he'll turn up. Sure, when a hunter finds him.
Elsewhere, Duke and Linda are strolling along the road for some reason, Linda lamenting that she would have been with Rusty had she not been trying to pull overtime for their honeymoon.
Duke darkly mutters that maybe they're being punished. "You're good police, Linda. There's a lot I've tried to protect you from, about this place," he says. She asks what he means, and he touches the dome. "A little over a year ago, I was approached about..." he begins, and then he starts breathing heavily. "Is it your pacemaker?" Linda asks, right before it explodes right out of his chest. She screams for help and tries the radio, while on the other side of the dome, soldiers set up equipment, and we listen to cheesy news reports that all say the same thing: No one knows what the hell's going on.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. That cow had it coming. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.