Under the Dome Episode 113
“Curtains”
Written By: Brian K. Vaughn and Scott Gold
Directed By: Jack Bender
Original Airdate: 16 September 2013
In This Episode...
The monarch butterfly in the mini dome hatches. It flutters around, leaving black splotches on the mini dome until the entire thing turns opaque black. Then the same thing happens to the big dome, sealing Chester’s Mill into moonless night. (Don’t worry - the production team still lights the scenes as if in moonlight.) Linda gets all pushy and insists no one but her is allowed to touch it. She does, and she gets zapped. The kids bundle up the mini dome and leave with it.
Julia is adamant about saving Barbie, so she and Angie bust him out of jail, then meet up with Joe, Norrie and Junior in Joe and Angie’s childhood hiding spot. Red handprints glow on the black mini dome, so the kids join in. The mini dome glows white then explodes into a pile of dirt. The butterfly is revived by a gentle touch from Norrie, and the egg glows and causes an earthquake. The kids think they are in trouble, but Julia is drawn to the egg and cradles it. The shaking and glowing stops. She is the monarch - not Barbie. Junior believes the egg should go to Jim, and he brandishes his gun in order to force the situation. Julia pretends to hand it over to Junior, but instead tosses it to Angie and directs the kids to run. Barbie fights Junior while everyone - Julia included - escape. They head into the forest to figure out their next move. Finally, Norrie just asks it what it wants. Alice shows up - but it’s not Alice. “We are just learning how to speak to you,” Alice explains, “so we chose a familiar appearance to breach the divide.” According to “Alice,” the dome is not a punishment, but was sent to protect them. They must earn the light back by protecting the egg. If they fail, then it is all over.
Meanwhile, the town has gathered at the church, believing that the end is nigh. Jim tries to allay the town’s fears, but even he doesn’t believe it anymore. Junior had gotten the upper hand in his fight with Barbie, and brings him back to the jail. Jim decides that people need to be scared into compliance, so he asks Phil to enlist in the help of several townspeople - to build a gallows. It goes up in town square in record time, just a couple of hours. Jim offers a deal to Julia: turn over the egg in exchange for a “reduced sentence” for Barbie. She has one hour to make up her mind. So if she turns over the egg, Barbie gets to live but the dome will probably kill them; if she keeps it safe, Barbie dies but the town survives (for now). As she is trying to decide, Jim drags Barbie out to face the crowd - and his death.
Julia knows what she must do. She takes the egg out to the middle of the lake and drops it in, saying goodbye to Barbie in a way. Barbie has a noose placed over his head. But after the egg goes into the lake, a bright, hot pink light leaps out and projects itself up onto the black dome. Visible from everywhere in the dome, hot pink “stars” are falling. In lines. Jim tries to use this as god’s way of telling him that he approves of Barbie’s murder. Junior is starting to have second thoughts. The stars converge into an explosion of light, and the black seeps away. The dome is now engulfed in white - but opaque - light.
And that’s it.
Dig It or Bury It?
Well that was shit-tastic. There were no fucking answers! Now they are stuck in an opaque white dome instead of an opaque black dome? What is in the egg? Why is Julia suddenly in charge of it? Who are these aliens (or whatever) that placed the dome? What is Chester’s Mill being protected from? What’s the deal with the pink stars? I don’t even care about whether or not Barbie was hanged.
I know that Under the Dome was picked up for a second season so presumably, some of these questions will be answered next season. But this was originally intended to be a 13 episode miniseries. Did they reshoot the last episode so there was more of a cliffhanger? See, in order to get audiences back for the next season, you have to ANSWER some of those questions, then pose new questions that the audience wants to learn more about.
I may have to wash my hands of this show.