Under the Dome: Acid Trip

Or: Lyle and the Bible

Posted by Leah Singerman

So, here we go with the recap for last night's episode of Under the Dome.

Big Jim and Rebecca are making all citizens register, and they're not saying why. Seems, though, like Big Jim might have a little crush on Rebecca. Um...how much older is he? He talks about his crush with his barber Lyle, who apparently used to have a relationship with Big Jim's wife before she died but is totally fine with all that now. It's in the past, right?

Rebecca sends Joe, Norrie, and the new girl to the school to get some electricity-generating stuff, and while they're there, holy crap- they get WiFi! Junior meets them there after he confesses to Sam that he blacked out the night Angie was killed, and Sam totally bypasses the fact that Junior was drinking, and instead decides it's probably the same thing that used to happen to his mom. She would black out, and then when she was back at the spot where something happened, it would come back to her in flashes. So Junior heads over to the school, where he eventually runs into the other kids. They're getting emails and Twitter on their tablet, and a bunch of them are from someone called HoundsOfDiana. Junior opens an email from them, and sees... his mom! She's totally alive, and Lyle has the answers. How convenient. The WiFi goes out, and the kids run around school, trying to figure out where the signal came from. It leads them to the locker where Angie was killed, and, creepily, new girl knows the combination. Nothing inside, though. 

Meanwhile, it starts to rain. Yippee! Rebecca is all ready to collect the precipitation... except, wait. It's blood. And it burns. So it's acid blood rain. That's some biblical shit right there- at least that's what Lyle thinks. This is just one of the ten plagues raining down (ha) on Chester's Mill before the end of days. Rebecca, on the other hand, says it's just acid rain and she knows what to do. She and Jim head out, but Lyle stops them. He kidnaps Rebecca and leaves Big Jim in the acid rain, where Julia and Barbie eventually find and save him. Lyle ties Rebecca up and douses her with acid rain until she admits that she believes this is religious and the Dome is testing them. Lyle doesn't want the rain to stop, because it's washing away all the nonbelievers. Just as Rebecca is starting to [fake] confess her belief, Julia, Barbie, and Junior arrive to save her. Once they get out Rebecca casually pours some stuff in the lake and all of the rain magically stops, because science. 

Rebecca tells Julia that, "It may be come necessary...selectively...to thin the herd." Rebecca knows that the population needs controlling, and she tells Big Jim that it needs to happen now. And we have no idea if she's being logical or crazy.

Lyle is in jail, singing "Who'll Stop the Rain," because he's actually Dwight Yoakam. And the song is now on iTunes. Hooray for marketing! Anyway, he has a little chat with Sam, who basically says, hey, we have a huge secret from 1988 and you need to not tell anybody about it. But once Junior arrives looking for answers, Lyle is like, sure! Let me tell you! Just get me out of jail. 

At school, Joe, Norrie, and new girl are looking through old records (which they just happen to know how to locate) on who has had the mystery locker every year for the last 50 years. One name, Melanie Cross, stands out to new girl... and the year is 1988. Check the yearbook and, yep, it's her. 

We can't decide how to feel about Under the Dome after last night's episode. On one hand, the premise is just so damn creative. And, thank goodness, this season is finally starting to be about more than people debating whether the Dome is about religion or science. (Although when that question is answered- if it's answered- it will definitely be interesting.) On the other hand, we are very much over relationship jealousy, which is quite possibly the most overdone storyline on television. Really, is there any point in Norrie being jealous of the new girl? No. Just suck it up. And we like all this stuff about sustainability and population control- hey, it's valid- but not if it just means Rebecca sounding like a broken record player every episode. Something needs to happen with it. But last night sewed the seeds for some interesting mystery stuff to go down, so we'll stay with the program.

What do you guys think of Under the Dome? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @DweebCast

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ora Media, LLC, its affiliates, or its employees.

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