Courtesy of CBS
It’s the end of the world on Under The Dome as the residents of Chester’s Mill brace for a MOAD that threatens to blow them all to kingdom come. Can you guess what happens?
Let’s bitch it out…
At this point it’s clear that Under The Dome is never going to be great TV, but the question about whether it can be an enjoyable diversion is still on the table. Here is the good, the meh and the bad of ‘Blue On Blue’.
The Good
- Phil (Nicholas Strong) and Dodee (Jolene Purdy): If you’re all gonna die, you might as well get some things off your chest. And even if nothing revelatory comes out like Barbie (Mike Vogel) admitting he killed Julia’s (Rachelle Lefevre) husband, at least we still get Phil and Dodee playfully admitting that they hate each other while they dance in the old cement factory. So cute! These two are totally my new favourite
- Angie’s (Britt Robertson) free: For a moment there it looked like Big Jim (Dean Norris) might just leave the blonde prisoner locked up in the fallout shelter. And then it seemed like Jr (Alexander Koch) might just kill her when she ran home. But Angie made it to the end of the episode and she’s not only still alive, but above ground…so that’s gotta be progress, right? Of course for all we know she’ll be back in the shelter next week
- Lester’s (Ned Bellamy) dead: As soon as he threatened Big Jim, you knew that the Rev. wasn’t going to be intercepting Godly signals for long. And lo and behold, one malfunctioning hearing aid later and the good shepherd has gone to the flock in the sky. Good day to you, Mr. religious whackjob – you were annoying and hopefully just the start of the fatalities
The Meh
- The Missile: I read a few reviews last week that suggested Under The Dome has committed the sin of making every episode a “problem” episode. ‘Blue On Blue’ is going to be hard to top as the US military pulls the trigger on launching a giant missile to destroy the Dome. The problem, as is often the case with these mid-season episodes, is that we know that the Dome isn’t coming down so this is all completely suspense-free. I applaud the show for addressing how grave the situation is (their isolation is no longer a temporary affair), but it seems like we went from 0 to weapons of mass destruction pretty darn quick
- Seizure free: I’ve waffled on my interest in Joe (Colin Ford) and Norrie (Mackenzie Lutz) and their strange connection to the Dome. This week they spend most of the episode running around looking for Angie and talking about FEELINGS (see below), which means the screentime dedicated to the mysterious seizures is minimal and any kind of exploration goes unfulfilled. I’m still interested to know why they’re suddenly able to kiss now that the missile has struck, but the fire has gone out of this storyline again
- Barbie’s backstory: He killed a bunch of guys in friendly fire and now feels like he’s paying penance? This is the definition of “meh” – shrug your shoulders and move on
The Bad
- Norrie’s emotional freak-out: The whole “I hate my moms” thing is getting old. Like really old. Norrie’s freak-out after her father shows up outside of the Dome is just another in a long list of annoying traits that this character has been saddled with. How about instead of a disaffected child, she becomes more interesting? And STAT
- Anything Julia: I want to like Julia because I kind of like Lefevre, but Julia is SUCH a boring character. Anytime she’s on-screen, I basically just tune out. Like I literally spent every one of her scenes in ‘Blue On Blue’ wondering why she wore totally inappropriate shoes to the end of the world…because I couldn’t bring myself to care about her storyline
- Linda (Natalie Martinez): Much like Julia, I just don’t give a sh*t about Linda. What interest I once had is gone. This is partially because Martinez does nothing with the character (she’s a blank slate 90% of the time), but Linda, the character, is also really dumb. Her relationship with her firefighter fiancé is yawn-worthy. More frustratingly Linda is a hypocrite: she tells Barbie to stop people from touching the Dome, then immediately sucks face with the glass/Rusty. I realize that this is likely an unsubtle reminder that Linda isn’t mature enough for her Sheriff post, but that doesn’t make me like or respect her. Like why do all of the female characters on this show suck? Where are the cool ones?
Courtesy of CBS
Dome info for the week:
- Residents attributing (insane) behaviour to the Dome: 1 – Lester, misconstruing the signals from outside for the voice of God
- This week’s Dome factoids:
- Stoner Ben (John Elvis) says that China believes the US is testing weapons of mass destruction in the Dome
- The Dome is altering magnetic fields, hence the beautiful image of the Monarch butterflies coating its side
- Number of deaths/injuries: 1 – Lester, at the Dome, with the hearing aid
- This week’s drinking game: Drink everytime someone confesses something because they think they’re going to die
What’s your take on episode five: did you expect Angie to die? How has the missile affected Joe and Norrie? Is Big Jim on his way to Big Bad status now that he’s begun killing? Are Phil and Dodee your new favourite characters? Hit the comments with your thoughts below
Under The Dome airs Mondays at 10pm EST on CBS. *Remember: we’re discussing the show as its own entity, so please refrain from including spoilers from the book