TV Review: Under the Dome Season 2 Premiere “Heads Will Roll”

So here we are again. A new season of Under the Dome has begun with a surprisingly refreshing amount of attention grabbers. By that, I mean deaths (none committed by Big Jim), new people and a sort-of-touching act of sacrifice. If you need a recap of what happened in the last episode before the last season ended, you can read it here. Anyways, let’s begin.

The first episode for Season 2 opens with a man in a cabin who is looking extremely familiar (Take note of this part; it’s very significant later in the show). The scene then changes back to Big Jim who is urging Junior to pull the lever that will send Barbie to his death. However, they’re interrupted when pink stars rise and surround the dome in almost blinding light. The light turns out to actually be a magnet that draws whatever metal is closest to its edges. It also makes people faint when it occasionally makes eerie noises. This still doesn’t hinder Big Jim as he continues to urge his son to kill Barbie. Linda FINALLY comes to her senses and demands that Big Jim releases Barbie from the noose so that they can all put their heads together and figure out what’s happening now.

Meanwhile, Julia just reached back to the shore after dumping the dome “egg” into the lake and hears a scream coming from the area where she dumped the egg. She looks out at the lake and sees this young girl drowning. Like a true savior, she dives into the water and performs a heroic rescue despite having a bullet wound. But when she reaches back to shore, the girl isn’t breathing and all her efforts seem like they’re going to be wasted. Then out of nowhere, Cabin Man (who the show started out with) comes to the rescue, performs CPR on her and then invites Julia back to his cabin.

On the other side of town, Barbie, Linda, Junior and Big Jim drive to one side of the dome to investigate. But things go south and the dome starts pulling every metal object towards it, including Barbie’s handcuffs. Linda tries to help him become unattached from the dome but the keys also give in to the giant magnet. And on top of that, the van they drove in is also being drawn towards the dome. Unfortunately, just as Linda gets Barbie loose, she pushes him away and gets squashed by the vehicle. At this point, I’m like…whaaaattt? Did they just kill Linda five minutes into the show? I thought she was a main character! I mean, she was ridiculously stupid at times but that didn’t mean I wanted her dead!

Anyways, back at the cabin, Cabin Man – who later introduces himself as Sam Verdreaux – treats Julia’s re-opened wound while he tells her that he was once an EMT and an alcoholic. While they chat, Lake Girl eventually wakes up and spies on them talking. By now I’m pretty sure that the dome “egg” probably manifested itself in the form of a teenage girl or something.

The scene then switches back to Barbie, Big Jim and Junior as Barbie places a yellow covering over Linda’s body and Junior rightfully accuses his father of being Dodee’s real murderer. Then Barbie runs off to go find Julia but instead meets up on a high school science teacher named Rebecca, who’s been studying the dome since it landed and declares that anyone who lives close to the dome would be in serious danger. Barbie remembers Joe and rushes to his house.

However, the Pink Stars group is already in Joe’s house and trying to save Norrie’s mother who got knocked out by a magnetized frying pan. Unfortunately, they have a hard time dodging flying appliances and get trapped by a steel table that’s blocking the doorway. It was sort of funny because shit doesn’t get much more serious than appliances that are trying to kill you. Anyways, Barbie and Rebecca come just in time and help the kids pull Norrie’s mother out of the dilapidating house.

Meanwhile, Big Jim starts hallucinating about Dodee when he gets locked in the bomb shelter where Junior held Angie captive in the first season. The specter of Dodee constantly taunts Big Jim as he tries to find some way to escape.

Rebecca suggests that they (the Pink Stars group and Barbie) get everybody to the high school in an attempt to stay out of the magnet’s way and build a sort of mega magnet to counteract the dome’s magnetic force. Amidst all the planning, Angie looks for blood as she pulls Barbie aside and tells him that maybe the dome is behaving this way because they hadn’t killed Big Jim (like the dome told them to, of course). And, at first, Barbie actually looks like he’s considering it but suggests that they should try Rebecca’s way first. Soooooooo they build the mega magnet that is sure to counteract the dome’s new magnetic power but………how did they build it so fast? Is it because a day passed or something and I didn’t notice because the dome blocked out the natural darkness? Even so…they built it
super-fast. And at this point I’m like screw it! I’ll just watch the show for the sake of seeing where it goes.

Despite their efforts, everyone gets knocked out by the next eerie sound or “contraction” (as Rebecca calls it) except for Barbie, Julia and Big Jim who has now escaped from the bomb shelter. The dome also knocks Junior out and he starts having dreams about seeing his mother. When Big Jim finds his son unconscious, then (only then) does he realize that the dome might just want him to kill himself so that his son can live.

Right as Big Jim’s putting his head around the same noose he was going to kill Barbie with in the beginning, Barbie and Julia find him but he can’t seem to reach the lever and asks them if they want to “do the honors”. Julia is quick to agree and when she’s just about to pull the lever, she hesitates and says that she can’t do what Big Jim does. So Big Jim (hell bent on killing himself) stomps on the wooden floor beneath him till it pops opens and he falls through. Julia acts quickly and cuts the noose from around Jim’s neck. Then, in true Horatio style, she says that the dome doesn’t want them to kill Big Jim but to end all the killing. And just like that, the magnetic wall falls and everybody starts to wake up.

Meanwhile, Dome Girl visits the side of the dome where Linda got killed and, for a second there, I actually believe that she’s going to bring Linda back but instead she only apologizes for what happened.

So Chester’s Mill returns to what it formerly was before the whole magnet-trying-to-kill-everyone incident. Big Jim offers Phil (the town’s radio guy) Linda’s badge and Angie’s still vengeful towards Big Jim as she confronts him and says that she would’ve not only just pulled the lever if she was up on the gallows with him but danced while she watched him die (totally not sadistic).

Oh! Remember the Cabin Man in the beginning? Well, surprise surprise! Sam is Junior’s uncle (should’ve guessed when he said that his sister killed herself and it is a small town after all). He comes into the coffee shop and before he even hugs his nephew or anything, he asks about the Dome Egg girl – not the best family reunion. Still I’ll give whoever chose out the cast their props, though, Junior and Sam look super related…

After Big Jim’s near death experience, he’s apparently Mr. Nice Guy now. He extends his home to the Pink Stars group and Norrie’s mother after the magnet destroyed it, he claims he’s going to clear Barbie’s name and he’s also apologizing to Junior. Still Jim seems to downplay Junior’s dream about seeing his mother and the fact that she might just be alive. Junior declares that his name is ‘James’ and not ‘Junior’ like it doesn’t make him less crazy.

Funny enough, Junior isn’t as crazy as he appears. In the second to last scene we see Junior’s mother painting a picture of what looks like a door and places red paint on top of it which can’t be a good sign. Also, she seems to be living outside the dome.

Then in the last few minutes of the show, Angie is seen throwing out the garbage from the café that she now runs when she sees Dome Egg girl walking in the opposite direction. The first thing Angie decides to do is follow the girl after she doesn’t respond when Angie calls out to her. Ok, so, I agree with what Angie did up to that point because I’m also a curious person. But when this strange girl leads you to an abandoned school and disappears down the hall when you call out to her again…I think that’s an indication to vacate the premises. Not investigate. Hasn’t Angie watched horror movies before? She should’ve so seen the axe coming. Yup, that’s right. She gets hit with the axe by some “unknown” assailant after she looks at something she obviously wasn’t supposed to see. I couldn’t bother to be shocked by this sudden death since it means one less stupid person in the show.

Odd enough, I’m actually looking forward to the next episode. I just hope that by the end of this summer, the secret behind the dome will finally be answered.

Rating: 6/10