Under the Dome Review: Season One, Episode Seven – “Imperfect Circles”

First aired August 5th, 2013.

With the season halfway done, this episode of Under the Dome sets up new storylines to carry through the last few episodes. The biggest one is the introduction of a second dome, since apparently one wasn’t enough.

This new mini dome is discovered by Joe and Norrie, who continue their quest to understand the big dome. Inside this mini dome is a large black egg which at this point could contain anything. When talking to it doesn’t work, they try lovingly caressing it to get answers. Norrie sees a vision of one of her mothers, Alice, and races home, fearing something is wrong.

The mini dome story could go either way, being really cool or altogether confusing and uninteresting. Since we are still trying to understand the big dome, having another one in the mix could distract from that. Although it does finally give some insight (sort of) into the whole “pink stars falling in lines” clue we’ve heard about endlessly. Several pink stars are falling inside the egg at the end of the episode.

Norrie’s instincts turn out to be correct, with Alice becoming terminally ill while helping Julia’s neighbor who went into labor. Her death had been hinted at for several episodes (her lack of insulin), so it wasn’t entirely shocking. However, Alice is the first “good” major character to die and watching her say goodbye to her family is very poignant. The implication that the mini dome either predicted her death or caused it is makes it more intriguing.

Junior is having a very bad day, being restricted from seeing Angie  by his father “Big Jim” and getting kicked out of the house. He takes out his frustrations by helping Linda track down the two local boys who killed Angie’s boss, Rose, last episode. When he learns that they nearly raped her, he violently guns one of them down while he begs for his life. Junior immediately breaks the restraining order and tells Angie what he did, but she can’t get away from him fast enough.

The second major storyline is the conflict brewing between Big Jim and farmer Ollie. While they initially seemed to be working together to supply propane and water to Chester’s Mill, Ollie bluntly informs Big Jim that he was in charge now. Ollie even installs an armed guard to ensure he has full control over the propane supply. Never being a man to back down, Big Jim sends his own message by blowing up the armed guard.

It’s about time the show provided an antagonist who could rival Big Jim. Since the beginning of the season he’s has been able to maneuver things to his advantage and easily stomp out anyone who could threaten him. It’ll be fun to see what he does now that he has someone just as ruthless as him to contend with.

Quotes/Thoughts

This may mean nothing, but those pink stars were technically floating upward, not “falling.”

“Joe, I’m not having sex with you for the first time against the dome.” “I didn’t mean that. Wait you wanna do that?”

I can’t believe Angie still hasn’t gone home to let Joe know she’s safe.

“You see, it’s my turn to have my sweaty hand wrapped around this town’s neck. So from now on, I say ‘jump,’ you say ‘how high.’”

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