Under the Dome is back, and us viewers are thrown right back into the middle of a hanging! People seem to think the dome might have other plans, as people begin passing out, and new characters are introduced. Josh provides this week’s episode recap of Under the Dome which is titled Heads Will Roll. So do heads roll? Let’s find out in this episode recap!
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To see Josh’s thoughts on episode 1 of Under the Dome, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of Under the Dome, Season 2 Episode 1: Heads Will Roll
This isn’t the Weather For a Hanging
The season premiere of Under the Dome begins with the hanging of Barbie, which is where the first season of the show ended. A newcomer to the show is also in a cabin, who comes outside and sees the weather changing in the clouded sky. Meanwhile, Julia is at the lake, and rescues a woman who is drowning.
Suddenly a magnetic field begins tearing the town apart, and people begin passing out. Barbie asks Jim to help the town, but Jim refuses and tells Junior to execute Barbie. Junior refuses, so Jim decides he will do it himself. Linda stops him however, and demands that they visit the dome.
Meanwhile, Julia, who rescued the woman, meets the newcomer from the cabin, who successfully resuscitates the drowning woman. Back at the man’s cabin, the woman is given a blanket and is resting. Julia and the man chat and the man patches her gunshot wound up. We learn the man was an EMT, but a drunk, so he lives secluded in the cabin. We also learned that his sister killed herself years ago. Meanwhile, the girl has awoken, and watches Julia and the man talk.
The Magnetic Field Kills and Pillages
The magnetic field gets stronger, and Barbie, still handcuffed is pulled magnetically to the dome. Linda tries to free him as other metal objects fly towards them. Barbie is able to get away, but sadly Linda is crushed by a car that was pulled to the dome’s wall. Jim wants to apprehend Barbie, but Junior refuses to help. Barbie tries to talk sense, but Jim gets handsy, and Barbie gives him a quick punch. Barbie also tells Junior that Jim killed Dodee.
Barbie attempts to “borrow” a car, but is stopped by a woman with a gun. Barbie disarms her, and convinces her he isn’t a bad guy. The woman, Rebecca Pine, hypothesizes that the magnetic waves are messing with people’s brain waves.
In the next scene, we see Norrie, Joe, and Angie try to save Carolyn, who has been knocked unconscious in her house. The house is being torn apart by the magnetic fields, and Joe, Angie and Norrie drag her out of it. Before they can get outside, their path is blocked by debris that has flown in the way. Barbie and Rebecca show up, and are able to help the three kids get free. The six flee the house just in time for it to be completely demolished.
Big Jim gets some Visits from the Beyond
Big Jim in the meantime feels the need for more guns, but is suddenly haunted by the ghost of Dodee. Jim tries to calm himself down.
The six who escaped Carolyn’s house try to figure out what is happening. Rebecca wants to try to make a very large magnet to counter the dome’s effect but Angie has other plans–to kill Big Jim to appease the dome. Barbie wants to try the magnet way first.
Back at the cabin, the drowning girl stirs, and the new mystery man comforts her. The man then asks Julia about her bullet wound, but Julia remains vague as to what happened. Julia heads out to see what happened, and the man, whose name is Sam, gives her a knife for protection. Sam then goes through a book, and we see he has strange drawings in the book. Sam then checks on the drowning girl, who has disappeared.
The girl winds up walking down the street in a catatonic state, and Angie finds her, but she remains unresponsive. We learn that Angie is trying to find a gun to kill Jim, to which she admits to Junior when he walks in. Junior offers to help get her a gun to help at the police station.
Barbie and Rebecca have begun work on their magnet, along with several other townsfolk. The magnet doesn’t seem to be working, but Rebecca is convinced–it eventually will. Angie and Junior head for the station, but a new wave knocks much more of the townspeople out–including Angie, Junior, Rebecca, and Joe.
Back in Big Jim’s cellar, he is working on a contraption, while arguing with Dodee’s ghost. Jim is able to break free from his cellar.
We then see Junior in a weird haze, walking through the town seemingly alone. A snowglobe turns red like blood in his hands. A blond woman walks by him, to which he follows. The woman turns out to be his mother. He pleads to know why she left him, and she goes in for a hug. We realize it is a dream however, and Big Jim begins moving Junior’s body, pleading for him to wake up. Julia also finds Barbie, who is trying to deal with all of the unconscious people around him. They share a tender moment despite all of the odd things happening around them.
Big Jim pleads with the dome, asking what he has to do, and is then greeted by the ghost of Linda. Jim asks her how to help, Linda tells him essentially that he is selfish, and tells him that sacrifice is what is needed to save his son. Jim then looks at the hangman’s noose that was meant for Barbie, and places it around his own neck.
It’s Not a Time for Killing…or Is It?
Jim is unable to reach the lever to pull, when Barbie and Julia walk up. He asks one of them to pull it, and Julia volunteers. She backs out in the end, and Jim tries to force the hanging himself. Julia cuts the rope however, and she tells Jim that the killing has to stop.
The skies begin to clear, and people awaken. Jim, looking a little looney-tunes, seems happy that the crisis is over. Meanwhile, the mystery, catatonic girl apologizes to Linda for her death. Big Jim tears down his hangman’s noose, and Barbie seems to be set free now. Rebecca walks up, and seems convinced the magnet did the trick. Julia is not buying it though.
Big Jim and Phil have a chat, and Jim seems to be turning over a new leaf. Jim wants to announce Barbie’s innocence, and asks Phil to be the sheriff. He gladly accepts. Big Jim greets Joe, Norrie, Carolyn and Angie. He offers them a place to stay.
Rebecca confronts Big Jim, and she wants to survey the land, but Jim wants to take the night off, and talk about it over breakfast the next day. Angie bumps into Jim as well, and lets him know she would have pulled the gallows if she was there. Then Sam, the mystery man pays a visit. Turns out he is Junior’s uncle. He seems none too happy to see Big Jim, but he is asking about the catatonic mystery girl. Angie tells her she spotted her, and he continues his search. Sam then meets up with Julia and Barbie.
Junior then tells Jim about the dream he had. Jim tries to convince that it was just a dream, but Junior isn’t having it. He also demands to be called James. We then see his mom working on a painting, in her room we have seen before. She has a TV on, and news of the dome is on the TV.
Angie runs into the mystery girl again, and begins to follow her. The girl has gone into the school, but makes a run for it when Angie spots her. Angie takes a look at a locker that the girl seemed to be looking at when suddenly an axe swinging, seemingly killing Angie, as we see her scream and then blood splatter onto the lockers.
Josh’s Thoughts: Under the Dome, Season 2 Episode 1: Heads Will Roll
This was an interesting episode of Under the Dome. I guess the biggest question is who is the mystery girl that is wandering about town. She seems to have supernatural powers, and kind of appeared out of nowhere. If I were to make a guess, it would be that she potentially is a physical embodiment of the dome. The next big question I have, is who killed Angie? Was this the mystery girl? Was Angie killed because she wished death upon Jim? Or is this a more human-caused death, and there is a mystery murderer in the town?
The second big deal this episode is Junior’s mother being involved in the show. Junior, or James has he prefers to be called now, swears that he really met his mother. We then see that she is working in the studio–and that it is the present time, since the dome is showing on the news. How could this be? My theory is that perhaps there is two different realities in play. That could make the show very complicated, but it seems to be the only explanation that I can come up with so far. Hopefully this is fleshed out in the future.
Big Jim seems to be turning over a new leaf, for the moment at least. I am curious to see how long this newfound generosity will last. I have a feeling it will be short-lived thing.
Overall I was pretty happy with the episode. I felt the first season was fairly lackluster, so I am hoping that the show is able to make some better decisions story-wise, so my interest remains. I guess we shall see where the season goes from here!
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 1 of Under the Dome: Heads Will Roll
This episode seemed a little cheesy to me, the way things were randomly flying at the magnetized dome. In most instances it just felt really silly, because things that probably should have already started being attracted to the dome randomly decided perfect timing on doing it – perfect timing to hurt and kill people. I guess you could argue that the dome purposely did that, and that the dome was sending out the magnetism in waves. But it just all felt really dumb and uneven. Plus it felt like Linda’s death could have easily been avoided. I hate how in movies and TV shows when someone pushes someone else out of the way and doesn’t even try to get out of the way themselves. She just stood there and watched the car come at her. It looked like she had plenty of time to at least attempt to move, but nope. I kept expecting her to end up still being alive somehow, but I guess not. That was just really random that they decided to kill her off.
It also felt weird how certain people are popping up out of nowhere. It’s a small town, you’d think we would have run into everyone by now. Especially Rebecca. If she’s all into the science of the dome, you’d think she would have stepped forward long ago to try to help things. And Junior’s uncle, the brother to his mom. Why did no one know he was out at a cabin by himself?
And where did this random girl come from? She just popped up in the middle of the lake. At first I thought she was the lady that Big Jim had killed last season, but this girl is much younger. Then we also see that Junior’s mom had drawn pictures of the girl, and that Junior’s uncle has his mom’s sketchbook with those pictures. Wonder what her involvement is…
Finally, where is Junior’s mom? It looked like she was in New York or some other big city, watching the dome on TV. But how could that be if she is dead?
Lots of big mysteries set up this season. I suppose I’ll stick around to see where these all go.
Scenes from Under the Dome, Season 2 Episode 2 titled: Infestation:
Click here to watch the scenes from Infestation
