Heads Will Roll – Recap (Spoiler Warning!)
For all the first season of Under the Dome was very successful indeed, one couldn’t help feeling it was perhaps a one-hit wonder that only fluked its way into peoples’ hearts. The idea of a town trapped under a dome is certainly worth examining, but the very thing that makes Stephen King’s novels so brilliant to read, doesn’t always translate quite so well to the screen. With over a dozen still in production, King has had 55 movies and 32 TV shows created from his works so far, which I’m sure is some kind of record. (The full list can be found here.) Season 1 covered King’s novel with season 2 being created from new material. Will it stand up to the first season or will season 2 be the last?
Directed by Jack Bender (Lost, The Sopranos) and penned by Stephen King, the opening episode for the second season of Under the Dome begins exactly where it left off. Big Jim is trying to persuade a reluctant Junior into throwing the lever controlling the trap-door below Barbie’s feet. This is Big Jim’s way of stopping Barbie from telling the not-so-good Chester’s Mill townies the truth about his recent shenanigans.
- Under The Dome
- Created for Television by
Brian K. Vaughan - Cast
Mike Vogel, Rachelle Lefevre, Alexander Koch, Dean Norris - Episode Air Date
30 June 2014 - Ed’s Grade: C+
As Big Jim is shouting at Junior to drop the hatch, the dome begins to get very bright. Junior is convinced the dome is trying to tell him something but Jim isn’t interested and tries to throw the lever himself. Linda steps in and points the gun at Jim to make him stop, but then the large bell from the church comes crashing out and flies through the air, hitting the side of the dome. It turns out the dome has just become a magnet and because everything made of metal is flying through the air whenever the dome pulses, people’s lives are in danger. Buildings are collapsing and being ripped apart and people are being crushed by cars or being skewered.
There’s a reason for the dome behaving like that and it has to do with Big Jim being a bad guy. Apparently the dome wants Jim to be a nice guy and demonstrate that he’s prepared to sacrifice something. Linda is crushed to death by a car as she tries to save Barbie who’s handcuffed wrists have become stuck to the magnetized dome. While the others are trying to help the Chester’s Mill residents, Big Jim gets himself trapped in his bunker. This would be the same bunker where Junior imprisoned Angie. While Jim is trying to escape, he finds he isn’t alone, because keeping him company is Dodee Weaver, who tries to give him some advice. Not only is Dodee haunting Jim, but Linda’s ghost is also trying to get him to understand why the dome is misbehaving.
As well as a couple of show regulars being bumped off (although, the jury is still out on Angie), we’re introduced to three new faces. One of them suddenly appears in the middle of a lake and is saved from drowning by a passing Julia. Another newbie turns out to be Junior’s uncle, who was hiding away all this time, because… just because, okay!? The final new person is a teacher who hooks up with Barbie to try and stop the dome from killing more people. What the new faces will bring to the show, we’ll have to wait and see, but so far it looks pretty interesting.
I don’t know how long we’ll have to suffer the new version of Big Jim 2.0, but it appears as though his new name might be Saint Big Jim. Jim finally got what the ghosts were trying to tell him, and after he tried to hang himself with Julia cutting the rope in the nick of time (making it two lives saved by Julia in one episode!), Jim is now a new repentant man, but still just as creepy. Angie isn’t buying into Saint Big Jim and I’m not so sure I should either.
Was it a good episode? It wasn’t too bad actually, but it’s too early in the season to tell how things will go.
