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!So this tiny backwater town manages to have a rather large skate park, which of course has part of the dome running through it — so I guess it’s on the outskirts? I suspect the producers of the television show haven’t really mapped out the dome’s placement as meticulously as Stephen King did for the book, and this is more so Joe’s idiot friend Ben can skate up the wall and other idiot teenagers yell things like, “Ride that dome!” and “That dome ride was sick, bro!” during a late-night skateboard party.
Joe’s too busy watching and rewatching the video he shot of Paul Randolph firing at the dome and killing Fred Denton, and Barbie taking Paul down. He wonders if Barbie is “black ops” or something, and a couple of airheads wander over to gaze longingly at Joe’s phone and marvel that its battery still works — “I miss texting!” one moans, even though it’s been a day and a half. Then they speculate about what’s going to happen to Randolph, Ben saying that a killer cop cop-killer (not redundant) is as bad as it gets.
Elsewhere, Julia’s driving, Ben’s riding and she’s going too fast for his liking. “I don’t do caution,” explains Julia, and Barbie calls her a “run towards the fire” kinda girl. Julia: “I’m a journalist. I’ve got to find out all I can about this dome so me and you can get out as soon as possible.” That’s hilarious! She’s so funny — oh, hold on, she’s deadly serious. OK, Julia, top investigative reporter of Chester’s Mill. You get on that. Plus she’s got a husband out there she wants to get back to and Barbie’s face is all, “Yeah, he’s totally out there and not dead in here, that’s for sure.” She says she wants to get to the police station before they take Paul inside.
So they arrive at the jail, where Linda is leading a handcuffed Paul, and despite needing to get there before Paul is taken inside, apparently Julia wanted to question Linda, who isn’t under arrested and won’t be unavailable to her later. And Julia is such an awesome journalist that she works without a recorder or even a notebook when she asks questions like, “Can you handle this alone until we get out?” Linda largely ignores her and it’s Big Jim who steps out and says they’ll be fine as long as everybody looks out for each other. That is when the mini-lynch mob, which has been politely waiting for its cue, starts yelling “Murderer!” and throwing things at Paul, who yells that ’twas the Dome that killed Freddy, not him. Big Jim orders Linda to take Paul inside, and Julia is all, “Oh, so you’re in charge now?” because she’s an awesome journalist doing her journalist thing, also evidenced by the way she rolls her eyes and stomps away while Big Jim warns people about “frontier justice” and urges them to go home, join hands, and “pray for Freddy Denton’s soul.”
Back at the skatepark, Norrie has shown up, and so that hip, cracking dialogue the youngsters like to indulge in comes out as she asks, “Where can a girl charge up in this town?” and says she’s “Not usually a mooch, but without my music I can get a little super-bitchy.” Joe is still smitten by her utter dourness for some reason, and she asks if she can “refuel” with his generator and also crash at his place. She’ll only allow to being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and as for the two women Joe saw here with? She never saw them before, she claims. “Cool to crash?” Ben and Joe stare at her, mouths hanging open, both of them apparently turned on by the pseudo-goth.
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!Over in the cells, a frantic Paul is still blaming the Dome for Freddy’s death, and wants Linda to break the news to Rusty. Then he starts to have trouble breathing, and Linda doesn’t seem to recognize an obvious ruse, but rushes in to help him instead of maybe giving it a moment. Paul knocks her flat, steals her gun and locks her in the jail. “I warned you, Linda! I warned you what would happen!” he yells, railing about people going crazy under the dome, when the only person going crazy so far is him. He says the dome’s going to kill him if the town doesn’t kill him first. No, don’t worry. The mob quietly dispersed and they’re all praying now.
Time for an instructive scene over the Rennie household, where Big Jim wants to know where Junior was yesterday when the whole town was pulling together to fight a fire (you know, the one started by Big Jim’s own partner in crime?). Big Jim’s not asking out of concern for Junior or anything. “People are looking to me to lead, to stand up like a man does,” he says, and it reflects badly on Big Jim if his own son is such a puking little shit (paraphrased). Big Jim is also viewing this dome situation as an “opportunity,” which also lets him lay into Junior for squandering all the opportunities his father has provided for him, like being on the football team that Junior never wanted to be on.
Eventually, Big Jim notices the cuts and bruises on Junior’s face and wants to know who did it, and Junior tells him Barbie did it, unprovoked. If Big Jim doesn’t buy this, he doesn’t challenge it, but contemptuously says Junior’s still hiding behind his mother’s skirts, nine years after she died. “Best toughen up now, Junior. Don’t let me down,” he says. Well, it’s no wonder Junior has kidnapped a woman and is holding her hostage underground!
Speaking of which, Angie has found a radio in the bomb shelter that gets amazing reception, and she must be devastated to find out that the only available station is WYBS, currently featuring Phil Bushey giving “shout-outs” to the volunteer bucket brigade and “big ups” to Linda Esquivel for keeping Lester Coggins from getting all crispy. She stashes the radio as she hears Junior come in with some eggs for her, and then there’s a little rehash of their conversation, where Junior insists, “It’s the dome that’s making you act like this,” and Angie countering with the suggestion that she’s acting like this because he’s kept her locked up for two days. He says things will be different when they’re out from under the dome, and Angie asks if anyone has tried going under it. Sure, with shovels, he says, but she’s talking about the old abandoned cement factory that was closed after it flooded and killed some kids or some damn thing — you know how stupid dead kids ruin the fun for everyone else in small towns — but they used to visit all the time, cross over into the town and hitchhike back. She turns on the sugar as she suggests that maybe things would be different if they could get out. “Maybe we could start over,” she purrs, and Junior smiles and says he’ll be back later.
Speaking of rehashed scenes, Big Jim has gone over to the hospital so he and Lester Coggins can tell each other things they already both know about how Lester was burning the evidence of propane sales. Now the only evidence is in their heads, so they both have to be able to trust it’s secure, says Big Jim menacingly, and he tosses Lester his clothes and tells him to get over to the mortuary and take care of Freddy Denton’s corpse. So I guess the mortuary will be burning down within minutes.
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!Barbie and Julia are strolling down the street, asking and evading each other’s questions: Julia wants to know what the odds are that Barbie would just happen to be in town when this earth-shattering account happened, and I hate to tell her that unless there’s a reason why it’s weird for him specifically to be there, it’s not especially long odds for someone to be in town. It’s not an especially invasive question, so Barbie just seems more suspicious when he complains she asks more questions than anyone he’s ever met. She points out he’s pretty good at evading them, and self-importantly says asking questions is her job, like if I were to run around grilling my friends about everything all the time SHOOT ME if I get all “asking questions IS MY JOB” about it, and he says she asks questions to avoid answering her own, and wants to know how someone as “ambitious as you” (I’m not clear on what he’s basing that on, so I assume he just means he thinks she’s hot) wound up in this shitwater town, and she says her husband grew up here, and then vaguely says “circumstances shifted” and it made sense to come here and start over.
After that conversational dead-end, Julia spouts Phil Bushey, who is outside the radio station, and she asks if Barbie wants to meet him. Barbie demurs, saying he’s going over to the diner for a bite to it. I don’t see anything to suggest there’s some weird reason Barbie doesn’t want to meet Phil specifically; given Barbie pulls a face every time Julia mentions her husband, it’s fair to say this show isn’t big on subtlety.
Big Jim discovers Linda locked in the cell and lets her out, following it up by starting to lecture her on how he’d hoped she was ready for the responsibility of running the department. That seems a little much, considering she’s what, the only cop left now? She’s in no mood for lectures and tells him so, because she’s heading out to track Paul down. Big Jim says he’s going to organize a search party. Knock yourself out, Linda tells him, but she ain’t waiting — especially when she discovers Paul took a rifle. “Jim, I know you like to control things, but you don’t control me,” she says and leaves, with the look on Big Jim’s face letting us all know just how he feels about that.
Over at the Sweetbriar Rose, we learn why no one in Chester’s Mill is particularly worried, if the two old-timers at the counter are any indication. Ollie figures they’ve got government scientists working their ass off on the problem. Roger, meanwhile, just wants them to figure out how to get more bacon inside. Honestly, I’m a little tired of small-town America’s complete faith in and reverence for the federal government and science in general, not to mention government scientists specifically.
Meanwhile Carolyn is fretting about Norrie being missing, worried she’s had a seizure somewhere, and she asks the old-timers if they’ve seen her. Ollie is one of those pro-government anti-gays characters, though, and asks, “Your daughter? How’s that work?” after looking at the family picture on Carolyn’s phone. Carolyn schools Ollie a little on how the 21st century works, and explains they were taking her to a nearby private school, and Ollie is all, oh, the reformatory! “Think they can pray the gay out of her?” Rose steps in to keep things from getting uglier. Barbie takes it all in.
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!Over at the radio station, Julia is displaying her killer journalistic chops by delivering another report about how nobody knows anything, including the answers, and caps it with the utterly laughable, “Presumably they’ll keep at it until we get some answers.” Then she has the nerve to wax poetic about the importance of a well-informed society, before looking out the window and wondering where Junior is going in such a hurry. Phil points out that Junior is a councilman’s kid, so “if anyone’s got the inside scoop, it’s him.” That’s debatable, but Julia hustles outside to flag him down and ask where he’s going. Junior says he’s going on a hike, and Julia asks about why he’s got a helmet. “I don’t have to answer your questions. It’s a free country,” he says, and walks away. Jesus, Julia — you’re tougher on the kid than you were on Big Jim himself last night.
At the diner, Rose sits down to Barbie, tired because she’s down an employee, what with Angie not having been seen since “Dome Day.” Doesn’t appear all that concerned about Angie, really. She asks if Barbie’s comfortable over at Julia’s place, and Barbie looks silently surprised. “Small town, kiddo,” says Rose. “Only gonna get smaller.”
Big Jim comes in to let everyone — i.e. all the people at the dome — about the escaped Paul Randolph, and wants everyone to stay in their homes until further notice. Plus he’s rustling up a search party, looking for able-bodied men to help out. Roger and Ollie volunteer, and Big Jim quietly fills them in on how he’s stolen some provisions and a rifle, so he wants them to get their firearms.
Then Big Jim strolls over to Barbie and formally introduces himself. Barbie does likewise. “Funny name for a fella with your particular expertise,” says Big Jim, and Barbie says nothing. Big Jim asks if he’s a bounty hunter and again, Barbie doesn’t respond. Big Jim does take note of Barbie’s bloody knuckles. Then he fills Barbie in Randolph’s background — former marine, served in Iraq. You mean, someone who shouldn’t have instantly gone batshit? “So, Barbie, you in or out?”
We see Randolph running through the woods, while Phil Bushey is somehow able to tell everyone in Chester’s Mill — and potentially Randolph himself — exactly where Paul’s car was spotted, just as the search party (consisting of just Big Jim, Roger, Ollie and Barbie) pulls up at the clearing in the woods where Randolph left it. Big Jim finds a trail, but Barbie’s located the real one, declaring Big Jim’s find a “dummy trail,” one that someone with Randolph’s military background would never leave. “See, I knew you’d be useful,” says Big Jim, and the four of them head off into the woods.
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 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 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” 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.
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!Over in the cement factory, Junior thinks he’s found a way out — he actually says “I’ve found a way out” — before running smack into the wall. His battery-operated flashlight starts vibrating, and he drops it. It continues vibrating, near the wall and he reaches for it. Julia can’t help herself. “Don’t!” she says, and he stops, right before it explodes. “You shouldn’t have followed me,” he says, menacingly.
After a break, he asks why she came down here, and she says she was just hoping he’d find a way out. Well, he’s sorry he let her down. “I hate this thing,” he says, putting his hand on the dome, and then he starts punching and kicking at it until he tires himself out and sits down. Julia asks if he’s OK. He’s actually freaking out, because the tunnels are dangerous, even more so with the dome cutting into it. Julia calmly talks about a story she wrote one time about trapped coal miners, and she lights a match, saying you follow the way the flame flickers to find your way out.
Linda is still traipsing around the woods. Something rustles some branches, and she points her gun, only for it to turn out to be a pig running around. Well, they’re not completely out of bacon yet.
Over at Joe’s house, a small contingent of hip teens are spouting lingo and charging up their various product-placed devices. Ben tells Joe that some guys have The Simpsons Movie “going on a loop” whatever THAT’s supposed to mean. “They totally saw the dome coming!” OK, ha ha. Joe just wants to know when he can ask people to leave, and that’s when a douche named Carter shows up, with buddies and beer, saying he used to go out with Joe’s sister as if Joe wouldn’t know this. Then again, he seems to have forgotten that he has a sister. Then Carter makes a joke about how he and Angie apparently used to have sex more often than actually go out, and hands Joe a beer and makes himself at home (announcing, “We’ll just make ourselves at home”).
Ben is quite excited about all this: “You have a house to yourself. You’ve become the most popular guy in town! You even got a girl out of it!” Ben’s one piece of advice — again illustrating that you should never, ever take advice from Ben — is that Joe not tell Norrie about the “funky seizure” he had, lest she think he’s a spaz.
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!Under the cement factory, Julia doesn’t have a lot of matches left. Junior is ready to give up, not seeing a lot of difference between being trapped outside or down there. He just wanted to do something good: “A man stands up. A man doesn’t screw up,” he says. Julia says everyone screws up, and offers her own personal example: She was covering the mayoral race in Chicago, and the leader was a real “machine politician,” whatever that is, and she wanted to take him down. One of her sources gave her leaked documents showing bribery. She suspected they were faked, but ran with the story anyway. “The truth about my little lie surfaced, the guy got reelected. I was fired, and disgraced, and now I’m here.” So she knows about screw-ups. Uh, in journalism a screw-up is when you write “pubic” when you should have written “public.” Shit, you SUSPECTED the documents were fake and you went ahead anyway? Goddamn, Julia. But she will never make that mistake again, she says, and lights another match. “We just keep moving forward.”
Over at Joe’s, Carter has already taken up residence by the power bars plugged into the generator, and is charging some “freshie” five bucks for five minutes. Joe wonders if he should say something, and Ben advises against it, unless Joe wants his “face ‘Picassoed’ by a guy who’s got twenty-five pounds on you.” Joe’s about to step in anyway, but is beaten to it by Norrie, who ludicrously attempts to subdue Carter by pointing out that he must not know about the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, because then he’d know that monopolies are illegal. Carter’s surprisingly not shamed by that sick burn and points out monopolies aren’t illegal, since he’s got the board game at his house. Norrie suggests he go home then and play by himself. “Rather play with you, Red,” says Carter, and grabs at her and now Joe steps in and tells Carter to leave. Carter figures he’ll just go up to Angie’s room, since she won’t mind, what with all the time he’s already spent there.
But then the power bar shorts out and the power goes out, and the place clears out like the goddamn school bell went off. I mean, the teenagers aren’t even collecting their phones and tablets. Oh no! The Simpsons Movie is no longer playing “on a loop”!
Junior. Julia. Down to the last match. No one cares. Junior says this all happened when Barbie showed up and shows Julia his bruises, saying Barbie did it, unprovoked. Julia’s not buying it. “People think he’s this hero, but he’s a psychopath,” says Junior. Barbie’s got to answer some questions, man: What’s he doing here? Has he been here before? Then the match goes out. What do we do now? Well, we notice the light coming in from the door at the top of the stairs, and make our way outside. Julia offers Junior a lift home. What, she followed him in her car and he didn’t notice he was being followed by a car in the middle of nowhere?
Barbie and Big Jim are still tracking Paul, but with the sun going down Barbie wants to call it a day. Big Jim wants to keep going so Paul doesn’t get away, even though Paul is literally sealed in. Barbie wants to know if this is so he can “show the town what a big man Big Jim is,” unfortunately prompting a rambling story from Big Jim about how got that nickname: He played cornerback in high school, usually the province of bigger guys, and wide receiver used to make fun of him, until one day Big Jim “put the mother of all hits” on him, shattering his pelvis. “Guess what? Big Jim wasn’t a joke no more.” While the lesson Barbie takes from this is that being on Big Jim’s team can be hazardous to your health, Jim starts rhapsodizing about “an eye for an eye” and that sometimes an example needs to be made, to command respect.
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.
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!At the Rennie place, Big Jim is pouring Scotch for himself and milk for Junior, asking what kind of trouble he’s been getting himself into. Junior says he went down into the cement works to find a way out. Big Jim is unimpressed. “Failed, huh?” he says. Junior says the dome cuts straight through. “Of course it does. You didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you?” says Jim. Junior doesn’t answer, but wants to know what his dad was doing with Barbie. Big Jim tells him it’s none of his business: “Let the grown-ups do their job,” he says, telling his son to drink his milk, and he walks off. As much as I love this guy, this only makes me want Breaking Bad to hurry up and come back now. Junior angrily dumps the milk in the sink. No need to waste milk, James.
Over at the McAllister place, Joe is trying to fix the generator, even though, as Norrie points out, it “blew up like the Death Star.” Joe reminds her that the Empire rebuilt the Death Star, and Norrie is all, “I like nerds,” like Star Wars is still some kinda counterculture thing. Then Carolyn shows up, and Norrie can’t believe she found her. “Something goes ‘boom’ in a small town, parents tend to know,” says Carolyn. Then I guess the question is what took you so long? Joe wants to know who this woman is, and Norrie admits to Carolyn being just half of her total amount of moms, admitting that there were some things she didn’t want Joe to know (Carolyn clearly is not happy about that).
Norrie thanks Joe for almost getting beaten up for her: “That was, kinda chivalrous?” She takes his hand, and there’s an audible crackling and they both fall backwards, having the most romantic seizures together, saying, “Pink stars are falling” in unison, with Carolyn yelling at useless Ben to go get help.
Over in the Sex Fungeon, Junior wakes up a sleeping Angie, who wants to know if there’s a way out. There’s not, he says, putting a first aid kit on her bed. His hands are in even worse shape than before, and she asks what happened. “Stood up and beat on it until the lights went out, Angie, ’cause I love you,” he says. She almost looks like she’s touched, but as she opens the first aid kit to tend to his wounds, she manages to stash away a pair of surgical scissors under her pillow. Junior — sorry, James — is oblivious, probably because Angie, despite being locked up for two and a half days (where is she going to the bathroom?) — still looks great. Ah, youth.
Over at Julia’s house, Barbie’s getting ready for bed when Julia comes in to tell him that his comment about her running towards the fire is “aggravatingly hypocritical” in light of his joining Big Jim’s search party. “There’s a difference between me and you,” he says. “I take off after the fire’s out. At least when there’s somewhere to take off, too.” She notes that he bruised his knuckles. “Yeah. I bruised my knuckles,” he says. Julia — awesome journalist that she is — doesn’t ask directly about whether he beat up Junior, but asks Barbie if he really was just passing through, with no connection to anyone here in town. That’s right! “Goodnight, Julia,” he says, and heads off for the shower, whereupon Julia goes snooping in his bag, and finds a map with an X marking a spot where he’s notated 2428 and “PB.” Oh my god! But that means… well, we don’t know yet. Presumably we’ll find out week.
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!Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He likes bacon as much as anyone but thinks we as a society need to get over it a little. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Think you’ve got game? Prove it! Check out Games Without Pity, our new area featuring trivia, puzzle, card, strategy, action and word games — all free to play and guaranteed to help pass the time until your show starts.