Written by Megan LaBruna
Waiting a year for a series to return seems like a long time. However, for the residents of Chester Mill, I’m sure it seems like an eternity. CBS’ summer sci-fi drama, Under the Dome, returned to television this week for its second season. The series, based off the book of the same name by Stephen King started up where it left off, with the potential of Dale “Barbie” Barbera (Mike Vogel) being hung in the town square. Luckily for him, the dome decided to render many of the trapped town members unconscious at that moment allowing Barbie to be freed by Junior (Alexander Koch) surprisingly. A new addition to this season, Rebecca Pine (Karla Crome), the high school science teacher believes this response may be a result of pulses being sent by the dome.
Another new face this season is Eddie Cahill as Junior’s uncle, Sam. I’m not sure how he went this long without running into anyone from the town, but apparently he’s quite the hermit. We are introduced to him when Julia Shumway (Rachelle Lefevre) saves a random girl from drowning in the lake after dropping the egg in from last season. He just so happens to live nearby and also happens to recognize the girl from drawings left by his departed sister aka Junior’s mom.
The dome, now magnetized, creates major havoc in the town; however Rebecca suggests creating a large magnet to counteract the dome’s pulses. Much like last season, some people believe the dome is talking to them, whereas others believe in logical or scientific explanations to the experiences from the dome. Sure enough, just as Julia stops “Big Jim” Rennie (Dean Norris) from sacrifice himself to save his son stating “The dome wants us to stop the killing”, the dome stops the pulses and those members of the town who were unconscious now awaken. The audience is left to ponder whether this resolution was due to Julia’s revelation or due to the homemade magnet constructed by Rebecca.
The season opener, written by Stephen King, left us with more questions than answers. And unfortunately for those of have read the book, it seems they no longer have an advantage either, since the show has deviated from the book’s storyline. strong>SPOILER ALERT: The most surprising thing about this season premiere wasn’t that Junior’s mom is still alive and living somewhere outside the dome, and somehow made contact with Junior while he was unconscious from the pulses; it was the abrupt deaths of two main characters, the sheriff Linda (Natalie Martinez) and Angie (Britt Robertson), one of the “four hands”.
Who killed Angie? Who is this random girl that came out of the lake? How is Junior’s mom alive and making contact with him? And, what is she painting? These are just a few of the questions I have after watching this season’s premiere of Under the Dome, and I’m sure many viewers have several more to add. Hopefully fans will get some answers this summer by tuning in Monday nights at 10pm on CBS.
