Under the Dome Review: Season One, Episode Two – The Fire

First aired July 1, 2013.

Day two under the dome and the town of Chester’s Mill is brimming with activity. The military has set up camp outside the dome to run experiments and generally ignore the people trapped inside. The real action, of course, takes place in town and in the middle of everything is the villainous Rennie family.

It turns out Junior (played by Alexander Koch) doesn’t want to torture or murder Angie (played by Britt Robertson). He wants to “help” her. He believes the dome made Angie break up with him and plans to keep her locked away until it’s gone and she loves him again. His obsession with her is so strong that he assaults “Barbie” (played by Mike Vogel) because he assumed he and Angie were flirting with each other in the Pilot. However this leads to a very satisfying scene where Junior is soundly beaten by Barbie.

“Big Jim” is revealed to be manufacturing an unnamed drug in Chester’s Mill. Town preacher Lester Coggins (played by Ned Bellamy) is not only a partner with Big Jim, but also a frequent user of the drug. It’s always the small towns where things like this seem to happen. The two of them conspire to look for incriminating papers in the deceased sheriff’s house and accidently burn it down, which is where the episode’s title comes from.

The house burning down proves to be a strong plot point for the episode and the series as a whole. It brings up the issue that being cut off from the world means being disconnected from any and all outside resources. This house fire could have burned down the entire town due to the lack of water on hand to combat the flames, serving as a reminder that, sooner or later, the limited quantity of supplies possessed will be depleted.

 

The episode ends with one of the deputies succumbing to dome fever and ranting that it will kill them all. Crazy Cop decides to take on the dome with his service pistol. In the end he only ends up taking out another deputy, leaving the town with almost no law enforcement.

The Fire is a strong follow up to its predecessor and really moves the plot of the show forward. However, Angie’s story arc of being locked in a bunker has already started to become boring. Hopefully, this won’t be a season long plot line and she’ll be able to leave that room and have actual character development.

Quotes/Thoughts

Junior is probably going to blame all of his problems on the dome from now on.

“This thing comes down and you tell me to take a hike. I think it scrambled your brain.” “One of us has a scrambled brain all right.”

It looks like Julia’s husband actually wanted Barbie to kill him. That could be interesting.

Small amounts of water can seep in through the dome. Maybe a giant rainstorm can melt it away.

“The dog’s the poor fella? I kind of feel sorrier for the cut-in-half dude.”

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