Under The Dome review – 1×07: ‘Imperfect Circles’

The Dome initiates a pregnancy and then, to balance the scales, effectively murders someone else as we cross the halfway point of the first season

Let’s bitch it out…

As usual we’re breaking down the good, the bad and the meh of ‘Imperfect Circles.’

The Good

• Mini-Dome: They may not be the most exciting of characters, but Joe (Colin Ford) and Norrie (Mackenzie Lintz) certainly have an iron grip on the mythology portion of the show. This week they tackle communication with the Dome, back-tracking through the woods to find its center. There they find a mini-Dome with some kind of magical rock centre (nougat?). It doesn’t make much sense right now, but the pink lights at the end of the hour suggests fun stuff is coming our way
• Alice’s (Samantha Mathis) death: We knew it was coming, and yet Alice’s final gasps still carry a surprising amount of emotion. The swell of melodramatic music certainly helps, but it’s Mathis who manages to wring the drama out of what has ultimately been an underwhelming role. We’ll have to wait to see if this makes Carolyn (Aisha Hinds) more three-dimensional
• Resource competition: Last week everyone freaked out about water and Big Jim (Dean Norris) cut a deal with the local blowhard, Ollie (Leon Rippy): water for propane. This week Ollie makes a power play, prompting Big Jim to take matters into his own hands and commit another murder. It’s a slow progression, but watching Norris plot and scheme and murder his way into power is its own reward

The Meh

• New diner: Now that Angie (Britt Robertson) is out of danger, she jumps into the action by…re-opening the diner? She and Ben (John Elvis) make an unusual pair and while I’m all for mixing characters who don’t traditionally interact, watching these two rediscover the joys of small town capitalism isn’t exactly “must see TV”
• Junior’s (Alexander Koch) predictable nature: Under The Dome has never displayed any subtlety with this character, but the writers could aim to do a little less telegraphing. The minute that Linda (Natalie Martinez) mentions that Angie was nearly raped by the Dundee brothers, there was never a question as to whether or not Junior would kill them. Unfortunately it’s not particularly interesting to see it play out as exactly as we expect

The Bad

• Miracle baby: A character that we’ve never met gets zapped into labour by the Dome and delivers a baby. Oh and Barbie (Mike Vogel) totally saves the day by reassuring her that good shit still happens and holding her hand. Meanwhile Julia (Rachelle Lefevre) makes moon eyes at him. Yup, this happened. Yup, it was boring
• Wedding ring: As beautifully shot as the opening scene of Barbie ad Julia in bed is, it a) feels like a perfume commercial and b) smacks of omniscient disapproval because of the prominent focus on Julia’s wedding ring in the shot. We get it: Barbie murdered her husband and Julia thinks she’s committing adultery. So why bother with the sun streaming in and the birds chirping and the general Disney-esque vibe? Oh, right, to remind us that they are right for each other, but (ironically) this sunny moment will pass the moment that the truth will inevitably come out. Le sigh. I could write this sh*t…and that’s not a good thing

Dome info for the week:

• This week’s Dome factoids:
  • The Dome has a mini-Dome that appears ready to open
  • When on the inside, audio from outside of the mini-Dome sounds like an echo chamber
  • The Dome can make people who aren’t there appear
• Number of deaths/injuries: 4 – Alice, in bed, due to Dome complications; the Dundee brothers, in the barn, with guns; security guard, at the propane yard, in a truck explosion
• This week’s drinking game: Drink everytime someone says the name ‘Alice’

What’s your take on episode seven: what’s up with the mini-Dome? Can anything make Junior less predictable? How long will Julia and Barbie’s bliss last? Will we ever see preggers neighbour again? (Answer: hopefully not). 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