Violet gives a recap of Episode 3 of CBS’s Under the Dome, entitled “Manhunt,” while Josh gives his commentary in blue font!
The episode starts off with the teenagers Ben and Joe hanging out at the skate park. Joe happened to catch the event from last episode on video with his phone where police officer Paul shot at the dome, and the bullet ricocheted and hit Officer Freddy Denton. We find out that at this point the dome has only been down a day and a half, and a couple of teenage girls are already suffering from not being able to text. Norrie shows up and acts like she was on her own passing through town when the dome came down. She asks if she can crash at Joe’s house and charge her phone there since he has a generator.
I am wondering why Norrie is ditching her family. Also, wouldn’t they be wondering where she is?
Meanwhile, Julia’s driving with Barbie over to the police station so she can question Deputy Linda as she brings Paul there in handcuffs. There’s a crowd gathered outside that starts to get unruly, but Big Jim steps in and gets the crowd to disperse. Linda puts Paul in a cell, and he acts like he’s choking so she opens up the cell to help him, but he overpowers her and locks her in.
Seems rather silly Linda would fall for such an easy ploy…
The next day, at Big Jim’s house, he asks Junior where he was yesterday, and chastises him for not being there to help put out the fire, because it reflects poorly on Big Jim that his own son wasn’t there. Big Jim notices that Junior’s face is bruised, and Junior tells Big Jim that a totally insane guy named Barbie did it. Big Jim is very hard on Junior, and we seem to get a glimpse of what it must have been like for Junior growing up, and why he is the way that he is. Junior goes down to the fallout shelter to bring Angie some food, and she gives him the idea of going through the tunnels beneath the town to find a way out from under the dome.
I was curious to know why she would care about him finding a way out. She says she wants to go with him though, so perhaps it would be her method of escape. He doesn’t allow it though, which is kind of scary when you think about it. If Junior ends up dying trying to get out of the dome, Angie is likely dead too, because no one knows she’s in that cellar.
Big Jim goes to visit the Reverend in the hospital and reminds him they have to trust each other, because they’re the only source of information about the propane cover up. Was that supposed to be a threat? He then tells the Reverend to get to the mortuary to take care of Freddy Denton’s body. I guess he’s not only a Reverend, but a mortician as well?
It almost seems like Big Jim is running some sort of mafia. What is with this propane though? Can we get some explanation?
Julia tries to get some info on Barbie, but he evades her questions. He heads to the diner, while she goes to broadcast some news on the radio. As she finishes up her broadcast, Julia notices Junior walking toward the edge of town with a backpack and a helmet. She asks him where he’s going, but he doesn’t tell her. Julia secretly follows Junior to the old cement factory and down through the tunnels below it.
Big Jim finds Linda locked in the cell and lets her out. She decides to go after Paul on her own, despite Big Jim’s protests.
I have no idea how Junior didn’t see Julia following him, it was almost kind of funny considering how not sneaky she was.
At the diner, one of Norrie’s mothers is looking for Norrie. A couple of the guys give her a hard time for being in a same-sex relationship. The diner owner talks to Barbie and alludes to the fact that everyone in the small town knows that Barbie is staying with Julia. Big Jim comes in and announces that Paul has escaped, and that he’s putting together a search party. The two guys who harassed Norrie’s mom, Roger and Ollie, volunteer, and Big Jim talks Barbie into joining
Jim seemed to be suspicious of Barbie. I am curious to know if they are related in some way in terms of their secrets.
DJ Phil broadcasts an announcement advising the townspeople to stay home until the conflict with Paul is resolved. Barbie is able to track which way Paul went through the woods. Deputy Linda arrives at the edge of the woods separately from the search party and begins looking for Paul on her own.
Norrie’s hanging out over at Joe’s place, and she and Joe seem to bond. Ben arrives with a couple of girls who want to use Joe’s generator to charge their phones.
As the search party walks through the woods, Big Jim and Barbie talk about Barbie’s military experience. They come across Paul, who shoots Roger in the leg, takes several more shots at the group, and runs off. Big Jim tells Ollie to take Roger back to town, while he and Barbie keep going after Paul.
Junior discovers that the dome extends even down to the tunnels, and Julia reveals herself, trying to warn him, as the electric shock of the dome shorts out the flashlight he was carrying. Junior freaks out and pounds on the dome. He realizes that it’ll be difficult to find their way out of the maze of tunnels in the dark. Julia happens to have some matches, which when lit, she and Junior can follow the direction of the flame toward the air flow to find their way out. We see a more vulnerable side of Junior, that he just wanted to do something good today, and the pressures upon him by his dad are evident. We also find out how Julia ended up in Chester’s Mill: she was covering the mayor’s race in Chicago, published some forged documents, was fired and disgraced. But she learned from her mistake.
Junior is clearly psychotic, and should seek counseling! I don’t think his finding his way out will make up for his kidnapping of Angie. As for Julia, I like her character, and am interested to see what she uncovers in this town, with the propane cover up especially.
Over at Joe’s house, a bunch of teenagers have showed up to use his generator. The show humorously acknowledges the Simpsons movie, in which the town of Springfield was trapped under a dome much like theirs. There’s one obnoxious kid that’s hogging up a power bar and trying to charge people to use it. He and Joe start to get into a confrontation, when the generator blows out, and everyone leaves.
Kind of a weird scene, to have some kid show up and try to take over the house. You would hope people would back up Joe, since he is the one letting everyone use his generator. The Simpsons reference was pretty funny, since really their reference is reversed.
Julia and Junior get down to their last match. Junior tells her that Barbie is a psychopath who attacked him for no reason, and puts doubts into Julia’s mind about him. They find their way out of the tunnels, and Julia gives Junior a ride home.
Should be interesting to see how Julia handles this untrue “revelation” about Barbie. Barbie clearly has his own issues, but he is not as messed up as Junior. Hopefully Julia will see this.
Big Jim and Barbie continue to search the woods for Paul. Big Jim tells Barbie a story about when he played football and another kid was taunting him, so he crushed his pelvis. Paul sneaks up behind Big Jim and pulls his gun on him, but Linda comes up behind Paul and shoots Paul before he is able to shoot Big Jim.
Big Jim’s stories don’t really do him any favors in terms of liking him more. Sounds like he might be just as bad as his son, and potentially the source of Junior’s problems.
Big Jim and Barbie bring Paul’s body in a body bag to the Reverend, who still hasn’t finished up with Freddy’s body yet. Big Jim then questions whether the Reverend is “clean,” to which he takes offense, and says any red in his eyes is because of work.
A drug addict Reverend? Hmm…this guy doesn’t seem very Christian.
Big Jim apologizes to Linda, and says that Duke would be proud of her. He says she’s going to do big things, but they have to get her some deputies first, and that there’s a new sheriff in town. So it looks like Big Jim’s going to get what he wanted in the first episode, which Duke refused: to appoint more police officers.
With Duke’s death, it looks like Big Jim may get a bit more wiggle room to get what he wants. I am curious to see why he wants more police. Is it for genuine public safety, or something else?
As Julia drives Junior home, he asks if she can keep what happened between them a secret. He also tells her to call him James, and that he never liked being called Junior. As Junior gets out of the car, he sees his dad talking to Barbie, and glares at Barbie angrily as he goes inside. As Barbie leaves, Big Jim tells him, “It’s a small town, son. And we all support the team.”
Back at the police station, Linda tearily removes Duke’s, Freddy’s, and Paul’s name tags from their lockers, then lays on jail cell bed with a hat over her face, just as we saw Duke laying in the first episode.
A rough few days for Linda, she has lost a lot of people that seemed close to her. I hope she can handle the stress, and she seems like a good character.
At Big Jim’s house, he asks Junior what kind of trouble he’s been getting into, and Junior tells him about how he tried to find a way out through the tunnels. Junior tries to ask about what his father was doing with Barbie, but he tells him not to worry about it, and let the grownups do their job. The animosity between the two is palpable.
Norrie is still hanging out with Joe at his house, when one of her moms shows up. Norrie thanks him for almost getting beat up for her, and as she touches his hand, both Norrie and Joe fall to the ground with a seizure, and repeat the words “Pink stars are falling” just like before.
Hmm what is this seizure thing about? I really would like to get more information! And why these two?
Junior visits Angie and delivers the news that there was no way out through the tunnels. His knuckles are bloody from beating on the dome. He has brought down a first aid kit for her to patch him up, and she sneakily takes and hides the scissors that were in the kit.
At Julia’s house, Julia is talking to Barbie and notices that his knuckles are bruised. She is suspicious and verifies with him that he was just passing through town, and doesn’t have connections to anyone. She waits until he goes to take a shower, and then pulls out a map of Chester’s Mill from his bag. She sees that there are some numbers and letters written on it, as well as an “X” on the map.
You would think Barbie would be a little more careful with his possessions considering he just killed someone.
Thoughts
The show is starting to get a little better as society is beginning to break down. However, it seems really weird that officer Paul would randomly go rogue like that, but I guess he’s been a bit unstable for awhile. Junior and Angie had discussed a theory that the dome was making people crazy, although it was more that Junior thought the dome was making Angie crazy, which we know is not the case, but that might be a possible side effect of the dome on a small percentage of the population nonetheless. In any case, I found it weird that Julia was so interested in what Junior was doing that she had to follow him, and then seemed to believe everything Junior said on top of that. Granted, we are getting to know Junior’s character a little better and see that the relationship between him and his father may have had some negative repercussions, to say the least, so that you almost feel sorry for Junior. On the other hand, that doesn’t give him carte blanche to kidnap a girl and lock her in a fallout shelter. Speaking of which, shouldn’t Joe be wondering where Angie is by now and why she hasn’t come home in awhile?
Overall this episode was “okay” to me. I am having a hard time getting invested in the show so far, but I tend to be this way. Hopefully as I become more invested in the show, I’ll get into it a little more. But I will keep watching, to see what happens next!
So, what’s to come on the next episode? I’m guessing that Julia goes out to where the “X” is on Barbie’s map, and finds the disheveled house where Barbie and her husband fought.
