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The military returns, bringing civilians with them, for Chester's Mill first visitor's day. But what the townspeople think is a nice gesture that bodes well for the future turns out to be a farewell party, what with the government's plan to bomb the dome into submission (and taking out every resident as well). Barbie uses his top-secret military connections to get wind of the plan, and the town's core group of guardians decide that the residents' best hope for survival is to gather in the abandoned cement factory, an evacuation that manages to happen with remarkably little concern over the fact that the government is dropping a huge bomb on them. The people in Chester's Mill do get over things pretty quickly. Meningitis, the fact your husband has disappeared shortly after a bookie's enforcer who you're flirting with comes to town to collect on a debt… You know, no big deal.
During visitor's day, Julia waits in vain to see her husband, but instead sees her sister-in-law, who has a Dear John letter from him that apologizes and says she deserves better. Linda sees her fiancé but has difficulty telling him about the death of his brother. Fortunately, Microsoft has a useful dome-proof tablet that helps them communicate, which is nice. Oh, and Linda and Rusty are already on the cover of People magazine somehow and there's already plans for a reality show about them, which is hilarious and somehow noticeably implausible in a show about an invisible, indestructible dome that suddenly cuts everyone off from the outside world.
Meanwhile, Lester's getting crazier and crazier, hearing voices in his head coming through his hearing aid — one of which is a military broadcast mentioning "Moab," which he mistakes for a biblical reference but is actually MOAB, or "mother of all bombs," which helps the Chester's Millers figure things out. While this is going on, Big Jim — who, as predicted, didn't release Angie immediately — is trying to figure out to deal with his psycho, now-deputized son. Distressingly, it involves not immediately asking him about the young woman he has chained up in the bomb shelter but giving him the authority to deputize more assholes, ostensibly to help prevent a riot during Visitor's Day at the dome. That's hilarious, considering what a docile bunch the people of Chester's Mill are. Just give 'em a stirring speech and they'll go right back to burning gas, food and batteries while they're cut off from any source of replenishment.
At any rate, he does free her, figuring everyone's going to die today anyway, but then he doesn't tell her about the impending doom and she winds up getting caught by Junior again, who now has a gun and a badge.
Thankfully, Joe is full on looking for his sister, with Norrie, who freaks out when she meets through the dome her biological father, and discovers her moms may not have been completely honest about his involvement, a development I'm sure will be riveting f-ZZZZZZZ. Joe and Norrie don't find Angie but share a kiss when the bomb goes off, the fact they didn't start seizing up making them then forget again that Angie has been missing for days.
Anyway, obviously the bomb doesn't have any effect on the dome and does not kill everyone inside, since that would make for a rather short series. It does turn the world around a charred hellscape, though, so I hope no one has big plans for the Linda-Rusty reality show. Lester takes credit for the town being spared, attributing it to his repentance. Big Jim, though, takes a dimmer view, and presses Lester's ear (with its hearing aid) against the dome until it explodes, killing him. Be honest: You all cheered a little bit at that too, right?
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He loves Julia's revolutionary journalism, the kind where she doesn't worry about citing her sources. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!So this episode opens unpromisingly with the Seizure Twins playing with walkie-talkies, and Norrie whining about getting up at the "ass crack of dawn." Joe has worked out a theory about the babbling they do when they have seizures — they're like receivers for transmissions from the dome, and they're fine on their own but when they get too close, it's like feedback. You know, like with the walkie-talkies that they fortunately have now despite them not leaving each other's sight at all. Norrie wants to know why the dome would only talk to them, which I hate to tell her is an awfully presumptuous assumption to make.
Joe wants to show her the wallpapering of Monarch butterflies along the dome, even though it's nowhere near their season, and the perpetually cynical Norrie starts blathering about how maybe the dome sent the butterflies to let them know that the dome is just like a cocoon and when it comes down they'll transform into something new, and she's not swayed by Joe pointing out that most caterpillars are eaten before they become butterflies. Cool effect on the butterfly wall, though!
And no, Big Jim did not set Angie free when he found her cowering in his bomb shelter that was filling with water. The water has at least stopped and seems to have drained by the morning, and a sleeping Angie wonders what took him so long, and asks why he hasn't gone to the police yet. He says first he wants to know what she's been doing down here. His voice tells us that he's got a pretty good goddamn idea what she's doing down here, but he needs her to say it, so she does: "He's been keeping me prisoner!" Big Jim makes her say it was Junior, and he wants to know why he would. "Because he's insane," says Big Jim. He doesn't argue the point, but honking outside gets his attention and he leaves a screaming Angie behind, locking her inside as he says he needs to think about it.
It's Lester who's honking, and Big Jim, not unreasonably, points out, essentially, that it'd be nice if the reverend stayed away, what with them ostensibly breaking up. Lester came to warn Big Jim of the biblical judgment coming, that's whispering "Moab" to him, which was a wicked place in the Bible, but Big Jim's not buying it, and stomps into his house. Lester fiddles with his hearing aid, and we too hear the voice he's hearing, crackling into his ear, but really distorted. You'd just as easily convince me it's Al Pacino saying "Hoo-ah" from Scent of a Woman.
Barbie wakes up in his car to the sound of Norrie and Joe oohing and ahhing at the butterflies. Barbie puts his hand on the dome, causing all the butterflies to flitter away, revealing soldiers standing on the other side, with buses of civilians arriving. One of them is Frank, Joe's cousin who went to college before the dome came down (well, after the dome came down would have been a bit difficult. Barbie points out it's been nearly a week and the army hasn't let anyone near there, so why now? "Haven't you ever been to camp? They're finally giving us our own visitor's day," says Norrie. Barbie still looks worried.
Over at the radio station, Julia — doing that "I'm holding a headphone to my ear instead of wearing the pair because it looks cooler" thing — lets people know that at "10 AM this morning" people will be allowed to "meet" with relatives at the part of the dome that intersects with the Sixth Street bridge (I guess the army made the civilians walk from the farm where they unloaded them?).
At Big Jim's house, he looks at a picture of himself with a younger Junior in his football uniform. That's when Junior comes into the kitchen wearing his new uniform, and he tells his dad about visitor's day. Big Jim decides they'll need more officers for crowd control and just bestows upon Junior the authority to recruit other auxiliary officers. He suggests Carter, a fullback from his football team. Junior shiftily says he should get some supplies from the old shelter, but Big Jim icily asks what Junior's supposed to do when Big Jim tells him to do something, and Junior skips the shelter to go recruit new officers.
The good people of Chester's Mill stroll the Sixth Street bridge towards the dome. Joe asks Norrie if they shouldn't wait for her moms, but she snidely says it's not like any of their "phoney L.A. friends" are going to be showing up. Still, they never arrived at their destination, so won't someone out there miss them? Norrie's more excited to meet Joe's folks and see their reaction to his "shacking up with an underage girl and two lesbians." I believe their reaction would be, "Where's Angie?"
Linda pulls up in her car, and tells Barbie, hanging out on the bridge, that she needs his help keeping people back from the dome so their cellphones and cameras don't explode if they get too close. To that end, she gives him a roll of police tape, which he strings across several feet in front of the dome. Linda, you know what also might help keep people a safe distance? If they didn't see a police officer then duck under the tape so she can go right up to the dome and start pretend making out with her fiancé on the other side.
Over at the radio station, Phil and Julia discuss whether there's been "any chatter" on Dodee's "ET-phone-home" thing. There hasn't, Phil tells her, because the military broadcast dropped out last night and now it's just "random numbers and crap." She listens for a bit, and what they hear is "Zone 1 is painted, green for 1315." You, uh, don't exactly need to be a military buff to figure that one out.
But they're also getting transmissions from the media, which is allowed to get close to the dome for the first time, something I feel is absolutely ludicrous given what we know is going to happen in a few hours. But at least we get a little bit of exposition, that the military has been enforcing a ten-mile perimeter around the dome. As the crowd jostles to get near, a soldier with a megaphone warns them not to touch the dome if they have a tablet. Or a pacemaker, dude! Rusty has a tablet, with which he shows Linda the special edition of People magazine that has already been printed, with a picture of them on the cover with the headline "Dome-estic Disturbance." "They want to make a reality show out of us," says Rusty. It's weird how it's some of the little details on this show that feel ludicrous rather than the main plot.
Joe is still looking for Angie, because -- despite being a flake -- "she'd definitely come to this." But Norrie spots a guy holding a "Norrie Calvert" sign outside the dome. She goes over, and this guy has a sign that tells her he's her dad. Confused, Norrie says her moms told her he was an anonymous donor, and as if in response, he pulls out a photo album with pictures of him with a baby Norrie, and one of him with Alice. "That's your mom," says Joe, in case Norrie didn't recognize her.
Then Reverend Lester starts screaming about "sinners" and how the good lord has been whispering the word "Moab" in his ear, gathering at least a little bit of attention until Big Jim comes along to insincerely ask everyone to thank the reverend for his inspirational words and then -- as soon as everyone turns their backs -- give Lester shit about ruining this day for everyone. Lester says he no longer fears Big Jim, but just the wrath of God: "No one's going to follow you anywhere when they hear just what you are." Big Jim's defense is that they just made the stuff for drug dealers, but didn't allow them to sell it in Chester's Mill, which seems fairly feeble. Lester gives Big Jim one day to come clean, or Lester's going to do it for him.
More family reunions! Phil spots his sister. Julia's staring in vain for Pete. Linda asks after him, but seems a little sad when Julia asks if she found Rusty. She did. "I just couldn't bring myself to tell him," says Linda, and super-newswoman Julia wonders what news Linda could possibly have that she might want to tell Rusty. Oh, just that his brother is dead. Julia points out that it was an accident, which doesn't much comfort Linda, since it happened on her watch and all. "I have to tell him, she says, and Julia is all unhelpful, "Yeah, you do." I mean, she's not wrong about it, but still.
Norrie is still standing in front of her dad when her moms show up, Alice all, "ohhhhh shit. Mike?" confirming for Mike's story. She yells at her moms about how they said the birth records were sealed so there was no way to track him down, and then Alice starts yelling at Mike (not like he can hear her) about how he was never involved with Norrie, but now that the cameras have shown up, he remembers he has a daughter? Norrie screams that she hates all of them, and runs off.
Nearby, Julia calls Barbie over, to ask if he's seen Pete. She asks him a yes or no question and he responds with a lot of blah-blah about how nothing he can say will make up for not telling her the truth immediately. Fortunately, she's putting the blame for Pete's problems on Pete (those problems she knows of, of which "currently providing food for worms" is not one of them), and says if Barbie wants to make it up for her, he should keep an out for Pete. He agrees, but of course he knows what an easy job that will be.
Then Julia spots her sister-in-law, Mary, in the crowd, and Mary holds up a folded, typed letter that we can't read but it makes Julia cry and walk away. Barbie asks her what it was, and Julia says it was from her husband: "I know this is confusing, but all I can say is sorry. Tell Julia she deserves better." You're thinking, "That's cold" just as Julia points out that Pete didn't even have the balls to send his own Dear John letter.
Elsewhere, some woman we haven't met yet gets all emotional about seeing her son and ducks under the barrier, forcing Barbie to pull her back, at least until Junior strolls up and say for Barbie to let her be. The amusement on Barbie's face when he sees Junior's uniform made me smile. "Somebody made you a cop?" says Barbie, and Junior says they'll take it from there. Barbie walks off like a blackjack dealer at the end of his shift.
And now here's Linda again ducking under the tape in full view of everyone for another chat with Rusty, only this time she manages to tell Rusty that his brother is dead. We don't even see a reaction shot from Rusty, which is kinda weird.
Back in town, Joe has caught up with an angry Norrie under a bridge, where she angrily denounces her dad as just someone who showed up so he could be on television. Softening up a little, she admits to wanting to meet someone from her past, but this wasn't how she envisioned it going down.
Fortunately the soap opera plot is interrupted by the arrival of Joe's idiot friend Ben (and the dog they rescued). He's been talking to random strangers, since everyone he likes is on the inside of the dome, and he discovered that China was going to attack, since they were convinced the dome was some U.S. illegal super-weapon, and the president had to "talk them off the ledge," which is what you do to people contemplating suicide, Ben, you idiot. "Great. Sounds like the grownups have it all under control," says Norrie, her sarcasm not quite enough to prevent me from wondering who Norrie's age ever uses the word "grownups."
Back at the bridge, visitor's day is petering out as he notices Dodee is conversing with an older woman using sign language. He asks her if she can read lips too, which she can, so he asks her to come with him, and he pulls out a medallion with a military unit's insignia on it, that he starts waving until he gets the attention of a soldier on the other side. The soldier comes over, gets a closer look at his 13th Speccom (The Lucky Thirteenth) medallion, and immediately salutes. "My old unit's kind of famous," he explains to Dodee, who tells him the soldier says it's an honor to "meet one of the jackrabbits." No product-placed tablet for Barbie, who uses pen and paper to ask "What's happening out there?" which is a little vague. The soldier seems unsure about telling him, but says "something big is going down," and they've been told -- all of them -- to pull out after this, and to not plan on coming back. Barbie asks when they got their new orders: "Last night, after the butterflies showed up." Barbie tells a confused Dodee about the butterflies, and she says a lot of insects use magnetic fields to navigate, and if the dome's altering that, "…there's no way in hell the government would stand for that," concludes Barbie, which seems a little hasty to me, but Barbie's suddenly looking very fearful. "They're not about to let this thing mess with the outside field," says Barbie, who realizes that the Moab Lester was ranting about was actually MOAB, or "Mother Of All Bombs," the largest non-nuclear weapon in the army's arsenal. Dodee asks if he thinks it would work. "Yeah," says Barbie, and Dodee wants to know, then, why he doesn't look happy. Because it would kill everyone inside, he says: "Visitor's day was not about saying hello to your families. It was about saying goodbye."
Later, Julia asks how it went with Rusty, and she says it went about as well as she could have hoped for, even if Rusty left without saying goodbye. Then they notice Dodee running past towards Big Jim. "We're dead, it's coming down," she's yelling and Big Jim tells her to calm down, and Barbie arrives to say that he just got the word from a soldier that they're going to fire a thermobaric missile at them. Well, that's not what happened. But then the "Zone 1 is painted, green for 1315" makes a lot more sense, although I find it ludicrous that Linda, a law-enforcement officer, would be the one to ask what "1315" means when it's clearly military time. I mean, as long as we're jumping to conclusions.
Linda suggests they get everyone to shelter, and Julia suggests the old cement factory. And then Linda is all, "What, we just relocate the entire town? What about the sick, the elderly?" Hey, getting everyone to shelter was your idea, Linda! Anyway, they're going to rustle up some trucks and a good ol' fashioned evacuatin' posse or whatever.
Over at the diner, Joe's asking Rose about Angie (uh, were Joe's parents not at the dome? And if not, why not?) when Julia solemnly presses a headphone to one ear and comes over the radio to announce, "I know this news might be difficult for many of you to accept, but I give you my word that it is the truth. At 1:15 p.m. today, the military plans to launch a powerful missile at our town in the hopes of destroying the dome."
So let's see: Gives her word that the story is true, instead of citing sources. But that would mean citing "The drifter enforcer who supposedly came to this conclusion after getting someone else to read the lips of a soldier who didn't actually know everything and his rationale is that as soon as butterflies couldn't get through, it was time to start firing the cruise missiles."
I mean, at least in the book, if I'm remembering right, didn't the army WARN them they were going to do that, precisely so they could get to safety? Wouldn't that make miles more sense? Anyway, Kickass Journalist Julia tells everyone to get to the cement works.
Big Jim shows up in the bomb shelter with a huge pair of bolt cutters and he cuts Angie free. "I can't apologize enough for what Junior did to you," says Big Jim, who says Junior was a good boy, and he doesn't know where he lost him. Angie asks why he's doing this. "If we're all going to die today, you might as well die a free woman," he says. Rather than ask what he means by that, Angie bolts up and outside in her bare feet. I guess it's not that implausible to think she was scared by what Big Jim just said, and didn't want to wait around to see where Junior learned his psychopathy from.
We see Julia grab what appears to be a bottle of wine from her house, and leaving behind a picture of her and Pete.
Residents gather in the cement works, where they manage to get the lights on with a generator, and Julia asks Barbie about how he got the soldier to talk. Barbie hesitates, and Julia assures him that it's not "on the record" or anything, which is something journalists in movies and television are constantly telling their friends and family even though that's not something they need to do in real life.
And then Barbie explains that on a deployment in Iraq, his unit helped rescue a soldier from insurgents after the rest of her company was killed by small-arms fire. The thing was, the company wasn't killed by insurgents but by Barbie's unit in the fog of war. "Maybe this is how I deserve to go. More friendly fire," says Barbie, looking up. So let me get this straight: Barbie's unit is famous and well-respected over the rescue of one soldier and it never came out about the friendly fire, even among the military?
Junior strides purposefully through the yard to the shelter, until he's stopped by his dad, who tells him he found Angie and let her go. "What the hell were you thinking?" Big Jim asks, but Junior races for his sheriff's car and peels out, despite Big Jim trying to tell him it's OK.
Over at the radio station, Dodee's getting anxious to leave while Phil wants to make sure the last song he plays is a good one. They've got thirteen minutes.
Angie has arrived home, screaming and yelling through her house for Joe. But the house is empty — save for her bedroom, where Junior is waiting with a gun. "I knew you'd come here. We're not finished yet," he says. He knew she'd come to her house? He's some kind of genius.
Over at the cement factory, Big Jim is anxiously looking around for Junior, but when Linda asks where Junior is, Big Jim only says he's tying up a few loose ends. Linda leaves to go tie up a few loose ends of her own. Phil, all of a sudden now at the dome, puts on some Beethoven to keep the folks "mellow." It works instantly on Barbie (who correctly IDs the composer), who gives him back his grandfather's watch, which he lost by betting on the Browns. The Browns? Shit, he deserved to lose it. Barbie says he may be getting out of his current line of work, and wishes Phil good luck.
Over at Angie's house, Junior stares at snow globe he gave her when they were in the same maternity ward or something, and instead of answering her, he flips on the radio and manages to time it perfectly to hear Julia's pre-recorded emergency broadcast announcement. "We're all gonna die," he says, adding that he's so sorry: "All I wanted to do was to help you get better." She stares at him, and then tilts her head and moves closer on the bed, so she can take his head in her hands, kiss him on the forehead and let him curl up in her lap." After several days she's been chained in his bomb shelter? Give me a fucking break. I waited for her to grab his gun or even the goddamn snowglobe. Waited in vain.
Over in the cement factory, Barbie strolls over to where she's getting plastered on wine that her editor gave her after her first byline and she's been waiting for a good time to drink it, even though as any good journalist knows a "good time" to drink is the "current time." But it's horrible, because her bosses always hated her. She asks Barbie where he thinks Pete is: "Some flophouse in Vegas?" and he's all, "Julia…" and she says she's made her piece with it. Awfully quick, no? She says she didn't understand Chester's Mill before the dome came down, but now, after everything she's been through, she's glad she was a part of it.
Barbie says there's something she needs to hear. Is he on the verge of confessing? Could be, but they're interrupted by Carolyn and Alice are freaking out because Norrie's still somewhere out there. They try to leave, but Junior Deputy's deputies won't let her. Julia tells Barbie that she and Junior found another way out when they were down here before, and they sneak off. I guess Julia will retrace all the steps she took IN THE DARK.
It's 1:11, and Joe and Norrie are running through the streets yelling "Angie!" and Joe says Norrie should go be with her moms, because they're his family. "But you're my friend," says Norrie, who appears confused and Joe doesn't say, "Right, but THEY'RE YOUR FAMILY," but "All right, come on," and they keep running.
In the cement works, Phil has cued up Skeeter Davis's "The End of the World," which surprises Dodee, and the two of them start slow dancing.
Outside, Linda is climbing to the top of some kind of observation tower, where she finds R.D.+L.E. 4EVER scratched into a railing, and she starts to cry. Meanwhile, Angie continues to comfort the man who had her chained in a dungeon up until, what, half an hour ago?
In the cement works, Dodee cuts the treacle by telling Phil she hates him. "Yeah? I hate you too," he says, and they nuzzle a little. There are more scenes of people comforting each other, including Big Jim putting his hand on Rose's knee.
And Julia and Barbie have ALREADY made it through the darkness and out and into a car and are now driving through town.
And it's 1:15. Joe and Norrie are all, "It's too late!" and Norrie asks what they should do, and thank god Joe didn't say, "I don't wanna die a virgin!" but they start making out while we see the missile hit and fill the sky with flame. Elsewhere, Linda covers her eyes. In the cement works, everyone feels the rumbling. And after like THREE SECONDS Big Jim says he's going out to get some answers.
In the park, Norrie and Joe break liplock amazed that they didn't die or have a seizure. They're not commenting on the fair amount of wind blowing Norrie's hair around, though.
Big Jim radios Linda to tell her everyone's OK there. She cries again, but laughs as well.
Barbie and Julia approach the dome on a back road. Barbie slowly raising his hand, and then feeling the dome still there. Then he makes a fist, but he doesn't appear too surprised, given the charred landscape that is all that remains outside.
Over on the Sixth Street bridge, Big Jim takes off his watch before he does his own dome test, and then Lester pops up to crow that he saved them. "The lord saved Chester's Mill because I repented, and now it's time for you to do the same," he says, adding that today is a new day. Big Jim couldn't agree more, but in his case, that means pressing Lester's head up against the wall until his hearing aid fries his ear, fatally. A single butterfly alights on the wall and flits off again, and Big Jim casually strolls away, leaving the reverend lying dead on the street. The entire audience struggles to feel a little bit of sympathy.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Sure, great idea for a reality show! Do a reality show about a subject you can't follow around with a camera. Genius! Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.