Under the Dome Review: Season One, Episode Three – “Manhunt”

First aired July 8th, 2013.

Crazy Cop from the previous episode is hauled into jail for killing his fellow officer. He is quick to blame the dome for what happened. Main cop Linda Esquivel locks him up but he pulls the oldest trick in the book: sick prisoner. Crazy Cop manages to outsmart Linda and he’s on the run.

The main plot of the episode is the efforts made to bring down Crazy Cop. The chase takes place mostly in the woods until Linda manages to put him down. Unfortunately there is nothing interesting or dramatic about his minor rampage through the forest. It’s obvious that without a way to escape town he will sooner or later be captured and/or killed and the entire chase feels like filler.

Somewhat more interesting is Junior’s decent into underground tunnels to try and find a way out from under the dome by going, well, under the dome (okay, we’re done). Julia puts her journalistic curiosity to use and follows him. While it is again obvious that they won’t find a way out, the discovery that the dome has gone this deep underground does pose an interesting question. Did the dome just happen to go that deep into the ground or did who/whatever put it there know about the tunnels and made sure they were blocked?

The two lose their lights and Julia uses matches to find a way out. While they stumble around in the dark Junior brings his usual crazy, pummeling and screaming at the dome and making up the story that “Barbie” attacked him “for no reason.” It must be nice to live in the fantasy world that is Junior’s mind.

Local teen Joe is at the center of the third storyline. Since he’s currently at home alone many of his classmates decide to use his house for a party. Joe uses this as an opportunity to get close to Norrie. She’s a troubled teen from Los Angeles who became trapped in Chester’s Mill with her two mothers while on her way to a boarding school. The usual house party clichés (uninvited guests, school bullies) ensue, including Joe rescuing Norrie from unwanted male attention.

Once the party ends and one of Norrie’s moms, Carolyn, busts them, the two teens say goodnight. However, when they briefly hold hands, Joe and Norrie both begin to have simultaneous seizures and start repeating the phrase “pink stars are falling in lines.” Since these two are the only ones who have had seizures so far it would seem they may be somehow connected to the dome.

That is the only thing of real significance that occurs throughout the entire episode. Overall, Manhunt is negligible and boring, definitely the least entertaining episode of the season so far. Instead of hosting a party, Joe could have been doing something useful like look for his missing sister, Angie. Hopefully, the next episode will have more interesting or valuable plots to follow.

Quotes/Thoughts

“My partner and I are a same-sex couple with a child. Welcome to the 21^st century.”

Looks like Joe’s hopes for hooking up with Norrie are shot.

Angie is still locked up with nowhere to go and, sadly, there’s no sign of that changing anytime soon.

“I miss texting.” “It’s been, like, a day and a half.”

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