Big Jim must die. That is what audiences can take away from last week’s episode of “Under the Dome.” After Angie, Joe, Junior and Norrie see the mirage of Big Jim cut and bloody outside the dome and the knives in their hands, they conclude that they must kill him in order for the dome to come down.
The show also left Barbie as the prime suspect in the shootings of both Maxine and Julia; though everyone knows he had nothing to do with either. But with our favorite Chester’s Mill man under investigation, how will he be able to save the town from the dome?
This week’s episode, “Exigent Circumstances,” began with the glowing of the mini dome while Julia still remained unconscious and the search for Barbie (Mike Vogel) continues. Of course, Big Jim (Dean Norris) makes one of his infamous speeches that everyone stops and listens to immensely, as if he’s running for President of the United States. Luckily, he is not. If he was, Mother Teresa would probably be accused of murder.
While Joe (Colin Ford) still claims Barbie is the Monarch waiting to be crowned, Sheriff Linda (Natalie Martinez) recruits as many people as she can to search every house in town for Barbie, who is turning to Angie (Britt Robertson) for help in protecting an unconscious Julia (Rachelle Lefevre) from Big Jim. They enter the hospital through Angie’s candy striper card and distract Junior (Alexander Koch) long enough for Barbie to get Julia out on a gurney. Of course, it helps that Angie distracts him, once again, by batting her eyelashes. The boy will never learn. With the sheriff on her way to the hospital, though, he leaves Angie to take her to safety as he allowed himself to get arrested.
And another character bites the dust. After Dodee (Jolene Purdy) overhears the crimes Big Jim has committed, she begins to doubt his versions of the truth and pays the cost for it as she lies in her radio station shot and burning along with the building at the hands of Big Jim. Somehow, no one seems to notice that he tends to be the one and only witness to all these crimes.
Joe and Norrie (Mackenzie Lintz) sit in a jail cell after causing an “obstruction of justice” and not admitting to knowing anything about the mini dome. Big Jim plays jury and prosecutor when they won’t tell him anything and takes matters into his own hands, including threatening Barbie and everyone he cares about.
Barbie is brought before the town to plead before them on the charges that he has been wrongly accused of. In the final seconds, the mini dome decides to awaken and glow a brightorange, switching it up from its usual purple tint. Credits begin immediately after Barbie claims his plea and an unexpected visitor walks in on the dome.
The basis of this episode seemed to come from the power of Big Jim and the hour proved just how far his powers reached amidst the town. Audiences have slowly seen his stretch of power throughout the season but never before like this. The characters are finally starting to unravel to a pile of thread just as the end of the season draws near.
Since the season finale is just a week away, it’d be easy to forget that this show was originally a best seller by Stephen King. Looking at the similarities between the pages and the props, though, would be hard, seeing as the only similarity seems to be the names of the characters. The amount of transformations the storyline has produced makes it hard to even believe it’s adapted from the novel. Characters that should be dead by now are still living and vice versa. The biggest reveal will be how long the show can continue, seeing as they have already expanded the amount of time the dome is surrounding the town.
