TV PREP: Under the Dome – Season Two, Episode Three (“Force Majeure”)

First aired July 14th, 2014.

So far this season, every episode has unleashed a new threat on Chester’s Mill, courtesy of the dome. The latest horror show inside the dome is a downpour of blood rain that burns people’s skin on contact.

Rebecca (played by Karla Crome) believes the rain is just acidic and not blood and teams up with Big Jim (played by Dean Norris) to stop it. She ends up kidnapped by town barber Lyle (played by Dwight Yoakam) who believes the rain is an act of God to punish nonbelievers (like Rebecca). Lyle begins torturing Rebecca by pouring blood rain on her when Barbie (played by Mike Vogel) and Junior (played by Alexander Koch) burst in. Rebecca uses this distraction to break free and burn Lyle’s face with the rest of the water.

It’s starting to seem like the dome is creating all these disasters just for the hell of it. At least before there was always some reason behind it. The religious panic would have been more interesting if it affected more than just one character, especially one who was just introduced. However, if Lyle becomes some kind of manic reverend of a cult later on in the season, that would make his actions in this episode more relevant.

After stopping the rain by putting a solution she mixed into the lake water, Rebecca reveals that it destroyed more of their resources. She again brings up the idea of killing people to make them last longer, estimating that only ¾ of everyone left can be kept alive. She even has residents fill out a questionnaire to help decide who is more valuable alive and who’s expendable. Julia (played by Rachelle Lefevere) is horrified by the idea and enraged when Barbie considers using it as a backup plan.

That questionnaire shows that Rebecca is far more calculating than she first appeared to be. She’s the female equivalent of Big Jim. This looks like it will turn into a fun story arc for this season and I can’t wait to see how these two try to pull it off. I don’t see them dragging people off the street to murder them in secret so I’m betting they’ll use all the recent chaos to work people up into a frenzy. Though it would be logical for them to simply kill people who aren’t beneficial to the town’s survival, Big Jim is always known for getting rid of threats, so I’m thinking people like Barbie and Julia should be worried.

For some reason internet access was briefly restored and, while checking his email, Junior found a video message from his mother, Pauline (played by Sherry Stringfield). Pauline tells Junior she’s alive and to speak with Lyle (who’s also her ex-boyfriend) for answers before the internet cuts out again. Lyle has a decades-old secret with Pauline’s brother Sam (played by Eddie Cahill), who shows he has no problem with violence either. The mystery girl, aka Melanie (played by Grace Cox) continues to be mysterious when she opens the locker from the premiere by touching the bloody handprint. Joe (played by Colin Ford) finds a high school yearbook from 1988 with a picture of Melanie, adding more mystery to her backstory.

I think whatever Sam and Lyle’s secret is might tie into why Pauline faked her suicide. However, I’m much more interested in how she predicted the arrival of the dome and if she is somehow connected to it. Whether or not Melanie is a reincarnation of a high school girl from over 20 years ago cannot change the fact that she was hatched from the dome egg. Whoever created the dome used the deceased mother of Norrie (played by Mackenzie Lintz) to communicate with them, which would also be a plausible explanation for Melanie. Everything so far has pointed to this and, if her story goes in a different direction, I will be majorly disappointed.

Quotes & Thoughts

“I may not be on your team, hell, I may even hate your damn guts, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna let you die, at least not yet.”

Big Jim has a crush on Rebecca. They’d make a great couple killing people side by side.

“There’s a new God in Chester’s Mill, it surrounds and embraces us all. It’s gonna show no mercy to infidels.”

It’d be kind of cool if there was a lottery or Hunger Games style competition to determine who deserved to live.

If you enjoyed Manny’s review, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

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