Under the Dome: In The Dark

August 5, 2014 7:11 AM - Season 2, Episode 6

A dust storm hits Chester's Mill; Barbie and Sam explore the tunnels; Julia and Rebecca co-operate.

Finally, a windmill. Improvised explosives. DomeKidz go boating. Wheeeeeeeeee bottomless pit!

posted by We had a deal, Kyle (15 comments total)

Getting pretty darned tired of the Crisis du Jour.

Did no one think to bring a compass? Next week: flashlight batteries fail. Also I will not be surprised when Barbie lands on a narrow ledge. Which leads to another tunnel. They can keep this up indefinitely.

I did lose track of Sam's confession. What did he admit exactly?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:19 AM on August 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

At least this episode had some good lines:

"Everyone who wants Big Jim to shut up, raise your hand..."

"Do you hit on literally EVERYONE?!?"

Kudos to the cameo by the dust.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:44 AM on August 5, 2014

(Also, I see GoT now in this show: make the bad man fly!)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:45 AM on August 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

What did he admit exactly?

He did kill Angie; he wants to kill all the Hands to lift the dome; then he'll kill himself because, um, he's tired. Hey never mind I'll just jump now.

Also: endless bickering over whether Sam turned left or right. GEE COULD THE TUNNELS BE A PORTAL OF SOME SORT? Did Sam just drop into John Malkovich's mind?

(And what the hell kind of cement factory is this anyway?)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:35 AM on August 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

The AV Club is still killing it on the hate-watching:

Big Jim once again sees the opportunity to win back the hearts and minds of Chester’s Mill. That’s not difficult because, as we’ve established, none of the townspeople can remember anything for more than 24 hours, and they always support whoever spoke to them last.

Also this is very true:

It’s a dumb, goofy throwback to the high-concept science fiction/fantasy shows of the ’70s and ’80s. For example, every show back then had the cave-in episode, where our hero and his enemy are trapped and forced to work together to survive, reluctantly coming to some understanding of each other in the process.

A lot of old-school-Doctor-Who polystyrene rocks in this episode.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:57 AM on August 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

Locked in a freezer is not limited to SciFi or the 70s.

They actually added suspense by having Barbie accuse Sam while standing right next to the cliff. I honestly didn't know who was going down the mystery hole to whatever crazy plot device meets them on the other side.
posted by Gary at 1:24 PM on August 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

As for the townspeople, I can't blame them on a show that is trying to make Junior a good guy, or even the science teacher who tried to kill 25% of the town. I think they are hamfistedly trying to put the characters in a moral grey area, but they swing back and forth from sympathetic good guy to mustache twirling villain way too often.

At this point it would be a lot easier if they treated this like pro wrestling and came out and insulted the local sports team so I knew who was bad this week.
posted by Gary at 1:32 PM on August 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh yeah, after the big debate over taking the right or left tunnel and did it join up again or did Sam double back, notice that Julia and Science Teacher skipped over that dilemma.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:36 PM on August 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh ho, crossover post!
posted by sammyo at 8:39 AM on August 6, 2014

The AVClub mentioned something that bothered me as well. Why the hell is Sam so tired? They've not been under the dome that long. He made it sound like some decades long battle. Anyway, he went too easily. I'm sure the dome or the egg or science teacher (she can do anything) will bring him back.

Shouldn't the townspeople do something more productive than sit around that stupid diner eating all the food and waiting for Jim or Julia to send them into another tailspin? Maybe go farm something, put on a play, read War and Peace, something.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 6:53 PM on August 6, 2014 [2 favorites]

Stephen King seems to have a real soft spot for community and community events, like town meetings in town halls, dining rooms, etc. I'm guessing all the sitting around that diner is about this theme of Under the Dome. The dome making the townsfolk paranoid, and turn on each other, etc.

I think we saw the same thing in "Needful Things" and "The Mist". (I'm not knocking it, I think it's a great dramatic motif.)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:03 PM on August 6, 2014

Also: the idea that there are people who act and lead, and can contribute, and then there are the other members of society who maybe don't contribute as much but are just as much part of the community as those that solve the problems.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:04 PM on August 6, 2014

No phones, no radio (is the radio station broken? or is that there's nobody left who knows how to operate it?) so folks congregate to get the news. I knew it was a mistake to kill off Rose in the first? second? episode. She was an actual, believable character.

Still, it would be nice to see the background characters actually doing something in the background.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:26 AM on August 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Not watching this series myself, but just wanted to note a sincere "UGH" at how badly this has flopped. I devoured the book and was so looking forward to this adaptation, but starting from the announcement that it would be open-ended rather than a miniseries it's just been one letdown after another. Almost as big a squandered opportunity as World War Z.

Well, at least it's bad enough to be hate-watchable.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:39 PM on August 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

Oh god. Oh god... oh god.
posted by Nelson at 9:11 PM on August 8, 2014 [1 favorite]