UNDER THE DOME
Season 3

based on the Stephen King novel

1. Move On
2. But I'm Not
3. Redux
4. The Kinship
5. Alaska
6. Caged
7. Ejecta
8. Breaking Point
9. Plan B
10. Legacy
11. Love Is A Battlefield
12. Incandescence
13. The Enemy Within

UNDER THE DOME has been available on DVD and Blu Ray and copies can still be found on some websites.

Move On

Following a tour of action in Yemen, Barbie returns to Chester's Mill to attend the first year anniversary memorial of the people lost under the dome, including Julia. He finds that the people have moved on, but there is also a very real sense that something's not right. Meanwhile, the not-dead Rachel struggles to escape from the tunnels with Junior.

A new season brings up a whole new situation and a whole new set of mysteries to be tackled. Julia, Jim and Junior are all still stuck in a Chester's Mill of the present, but everyone else seems to be a year further on. The mysteries, though, are undermined almost as soon as they are created by showing Melanie apparently controlling crystals containing the townsfolk. There is also a new character in town, a trauma specialist played by Marg Helgenberger, and it's fairly clear that she is has something significant to do with everything that is going on.

It's a total reset for the show, apparently seeing the dome break up as soon as the townsfolk escape, but clearly only those who were unable to escape are still in the real world and everyone else is in some sort of altered reality. This shows a certain lack of faith in the new storyline, showing it to be false right at the start. There is a desire to find out exactly where this new direction is taking us, but it's also frustrating. Perhaps future episodes will make this clearer and link back to the original concept of the dome. Whilst they're at it, perhaps they can also make it clearer why a man who was in a full on homicidal rage quite recently decides to let the son who betrayed and shot him and the woman who stabbed him in the foot just walk away.

Julia's discovery at the end of the episode adds some special effects to the supernatural happenings, pushing things in a more science fiction direction.

But I'm Not

Barbie continues to question the reality of his situation, even as it becomes ever more personal. Julia works with Melanie to bring the egg back to the Dome, but can't be sure that's a good thing.

Only one episode after an entire alternate reality was introduced, it is retired from the storyline.This episode is largely about how that comes about, with Big Jim and Julia carrying most of the forward momentum. And there is a lot of narrative momentum to get through, so much so that most of it is rushed through. No sooner has the need for the mystical egg been raised than it is provided by the outside conspirators and another murder has taken place. Previous plot strands seem to be disposed of in a mad rush to get us onto whatever the real plot of the season is going to be. Inside the dome, things move forward at a rapid pace, whilst in the alternate reality nothing much moves at all. That's pretty much in a holding pattern waiting for the moment it can jettisoned.

The contrast between the pace of the two strands undermines both and makes them both unsatisfying.

Redux

The townsfolk are back in Chester's Mill under the dome, trying to come to terms with the fact they were trapped in a false reality for what felt like years.

It's time to deal with the fallout from the transition from false reality to current situation, but the episode is very much about moving on from the past storylines to the show's new focus.

And that focus is going to be on Marg Helgenberger's character, it seems. Much of the background to her past, to her presence in the alternate reality and her relevance to the as yet unrevealed plot is hinted at. She is in league with whatever controls the dome, was working towards giving the 'life force' to the townsfolk in their cocoons to make them ready for some sort of colonisation, apparently turning them into moon-obsessed zombies. This harkens back to John Wyndham's Village of the Damned with the idea of an alien invasion by proxy, as well as the obvious situation of a town cut off from the rest of society. Sadly, it isn't as interesting as that makes it sound.

on top of that there are a couple of new uninteresting love triangles, one involving the teen cast members and the other involving Barbie, Julia and the newly arrived Eva. These add nothing and the sooner they are resolved the better. Maybe now that the leftover strands of plot have been dispensed with the show will get on with whatever new storyline it has for us.

Frankly, though, the relationship between Julia and Barbie is getting a bit repetitive. She loves him, she loves him not. Enough already. Pick one.

The Kinship

Newcomer Christine continues to increase her hold over the townsfolk, whilst Barbie and Julia are distracted by their failing relationship. Jim is kidnapped by masked soldiers who want to know where the egg is.

Subtlety is not the strong suit of this show and neither is it the strong suit of Marg Helgenberger's character. She is so brazenly and obviously manipulating everyone that it's almost painful to watch people fall for it. Still, if they didn't there would be no story, but it could be handled a little less clumsily.

Also clumsy is the triangle between Barbie, Julia and Eva. There is a one shocking moment of domestic threat that really hits hard, but otherwise this is a tedious set up that is just annoying. Not quite as annoying as the teen cast's own love triangle, but that seems to have resolved itself quite quickly. Abandoning plot threads in a hurry seems to be MO of this season. Big Jim's kidnapping doesn't seem to achieve anything at all since it leaves him right back where he started and the kidnappers learn nothing about the egg that was already destroyed.

Alaska

Christine's grip over some of the townsfolk is starting to waver, forcing her to resort to every more deadly actions. The teen love triangle takes a bit of a tumble and Barbie gets between Junior and a rival. Julia and Big Jim take on the armed kidnappers to find out more about Christine's backstory, and that of the Dome and its eggs.

Marg Helgenberger has taken over the centre stage in this season and she is playing the femme fatale for all she is worth. Her actions are transparent to the audience, but her mind control oxytocin is enough to explain that away. Her actions in terms of a potential suicide are both laughable and horrible at the same time.

Meanwhile, the other stories don't make any sense either. Julia and Big Jim's incursion into the land of corporate goons is all a bit silly, but at least furnishes some answers as to why the evil corporation wants the alien egg so badly. Big Jim's attachment to the stray dog, leaving him open to coercion, is quite ridiculous considering that he was willing to shoot his own son only recently. The tiresome teen triangle leads to a bit of a cliffhanger, but remains ultimately unsatisfying, and Barbie's flip-flopping over Eva is just plain annoying. Pick a lane, guy.

Caged

Jim is tasked with getting the truth out of fellow prisoner Christine or be infected with alien blood. Eva suggests drastic action in the case of injured Hunter and Sa. learns the truth about why his girlfriend committed suicide.

There continues to be a lot of incident in UNDER THE DOME, but very little of it makes any sense or adds up to compelling storytelling. Sam falling for a fellow drunk is a plotline that only came into being to allow her to be killed by Christine and him to take his revenge. There's even a built-in escape clause to make sure that revenge doesn't stop her.

The transfer of the power at the house of the armed guards from outside continues to ping pong between various factions, once again making their presence only a support to the various individuals' plotlines. The scientific genius and his elite guards are continually taken down by smaller numbers of less well-trained and less well-armed people.

At least the full picture of the alien invasion plan is finally spilled by Christine, though it again comes after a complete turnaround in the character and as an infodump that ought to be have been delivered better. The infected townsfolk are the vanguard of the new order, basically the pod people from INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS. Well, nobody ever said the show was original.

Ejecta

Pink meteors fall from the sky, causing secondary explosions called 'ejecta'. As the world outside dies, those inside the Dome are protected, but shattered by this catastrophe.

Holy Hellfire! Just when we were happy to give up on the idea of ever being impressed by UNDER THE DOME it pulls out an episode like this. Most of the main plotlines are on hold because Christine is locked up in her cocoon, repairing herself. Jim and Julia are holed up on their island getaway. Barbie and Eva are up in a tower and the teen triangle are hiding in the diner. The show just comes to a grinding stop.

And that's just fine becuase what's going on outside the Dome is the main point of this episode. The end days have arrived, there is a wall of fire racing towards the town and there's no guarantee the Dome will be able to withstand it. Humanity is being wiped out and all that will shortly remain are the infected townsfolk and a few resisting humans. The immensity of this and what it means is given a full episode to be felt. Jim and Julia do nothing but look at the devastation and reassess their whole existence whilst getting drunk. After all, what else is there to do?

The effects are low-key, but all the more effective for that. There are some shots of falling meteors and secondary explosions, but the impact is delivered by the lighting and by the actors. This is the closest to subtlety that the show has come and it chose to do it over something as unsubtle as the end of the world. Even so, the scene where Barbie reaches the limit of the Dome and is forced to watch desperate family members get wiped out on the other side of the barrier is exceptional. Until it's ruined by yet another swift change of allegiance. The character's inconsistency has been one of the low points of this season. That though, is nothing compared to the flip-flopping of the wheelchair-bound teen who goes from brainwashed to free to brainwashed to free with such rapidity that it gets a bit silly.

The end of the world is never something to be taken lightly and it has provided one of the best episodes of the show there has been, if not the best.

Breaking Point

Christine sets the townsfolk to excavating the mines. The small band of resistance fighters decide to go on the attack for once. Christine carries out her plan for her attacker.

The apocalypse that made the last episode so compelling turns out to be simply a mirage projected onto the Dome by Christine from inside her pod whilst she was healing. This completely devalues everything that happened and cheapens just about the best episode the show hasd produced. Instead, we are given this completely bog standard episode in which there is a lot of storm and fury signifying nothing, as the bard might have said.

Considering how important the crystals in the cave appear to be to the success of Christine's plans, the ease with which they are compromised is downright ridiculous. That said, it's not as ridiculous as the sudden appearance of assistance from outside the Dome just when it's needed and when the supplies arrive nobody asks about getting the hell out of the place by the same route? That there is a safe route in and out of the Dome has been mentioned so many times and yet nobody has really made great efforts to find and use it.

The focus on the crystals at least tightens up the episode. Sure, Christine is distracted by reconverting Sam and the teens are sent off on a make-work mission that puts them in the line of fire, but this is all about the crystals in the cave and, for once, the humans seem to be on the ascendant.

Plan B

Following the events at the cave, Christine takes off the gloves and sends the townsfolk to kill the resisting humans. Julia sets about a plan to free Barbie from the control of the kinship and Christine sets in motion a plan for Eva and her newly-conceived child.

Much of this episode focuses on the plan to bring Barbie back from the land of the brainwashed. This at least shines a spotlight on the characters and their relationship rather than some plot nonsense. Rachelle LeFevre gets to shine again in this, only a couple of episodes after showing what she could do in the much better Ejecta. This isn't rushed through to some quick and unsatisfying resolution, making it at least hard on the characters. The final resolution, though, is a bit sappy and unconvincing.

Once again, the teens are sent away on some make-work mission that gets them out of the way and then puts them in danger. The writers really don't seem to know what to do with these characters much of the team. Meanwhile, Big Jim gets to carry out some random violence before building a bit of a relationship with one of the teens.

The most (or only, in fact) development is the imminent arrival of Eva's baby, a replacement queen for the failing Christine. There are some hints about trippy ROSEMARY'S BABY type stuff going on as well, taking the whole cult storyline off in some THE WICKER MAN directions.

Legacy

The Dome is calcifiying, which means everyone will suffocate unless a way can be found to bring it down, now that Christine's plan is useless without the destroyed amethysts. Meanwhile, Julia is determined to find out what is going on in the barn with all the young women townsfolk.

The nine month gestation period of a human child is clearly too long for the fast-moving narrative of UNDER THE DOME. In fact, the opening monologue reminds us each time that the timescale for the three seasons is a paltry three weeks. Constant apocalypse dodging will warp your sense of time, apparently. Anyway, the whole storyline around the barn and the disposable women is simply a way of avoiding that whole nine month pregnancy thing. The fate of the women ought to be shocking, but really isn't. Also the teenager asking about guns and what it feels like to kill a person is an obvious and clumsy way to introduce a plot point later on. This is not particularly good writing.

There are already so many characters involved in the captive scenario, but the show keeps on adding new ones. The arrival of the Aktion team to save the day (or steal something - it remains unclear) adds some backstory that the show just doesn't need. Even Big Jim says "So what?" after one flashback to a time and a place and storyline that we were all unaware of very recently and could seriously do without. It's certainly getting crowded in Chester's Mill.

Love Is A Battlefield

Barbie isn't about to give up on his baby. Eva finds out exactly how important she is to Christine and the community. Joe agrees to stay with the Kinship to find a way to bring down the Dome. The Aktion leader's secrets come tumbling out.

How much plot can you stuff into one episode without it feeling rushed and stuffed? Well, the answer is less than this. Forget characterisation, we just need to get through the plot turns as quickly as possible because the end of the season is nigh and there are so many loose ends to try and tie up. That means a breakneck pace, no depth and a lot of movement signifying very little.

And add to all of that a hint of the real reason the Kinship is invading Earth, introducing a whole new big bad as an enticement for renewal of the show.

Incandescence

Christine cocoons the baby, accelerating the calcifying of the Dome in the process. Wtih air quickly running out, drastic actions must be taken to keep the Kinship alive until Joe can create the device to bring down the barrier. Drastic actions are also on the mind of the Aktion leader, actions that will kill everyone.

It's the penultimate episode, which is usually one long set up for the big finale, but there are so many plotlines going on here that the pace is about rattling through those rather than setting up anything. Once again, events hinge on people coming back from their infection and switching sides. This alien influence has been just about the least consistent bout of mind control ever filmed. Alliances shift all over the place and some of the characters meet their final fates. There is some satisfaction in that, at least.

The Enemy Within

A new queen is in power over the Kinship and she has a plan to destroy the resistance, take down the Dome and escape the military camped outside.

The race to the end is on in this final episode, with the need for an extended coda in the hope of getting a new season meaning there isn't even a full running time available. The ease with which the new queen takes out the entire resistance is a symptom of this. If it was really this easy to capture everyone then why wasn't Christine able to manage the feat in the entire season running up to this finale? It beggars belief, but there isn't time available to come up with anything more believable.

The decreased runtime also means that there are a number of confrontations and outcomes that have to be dealt with, most of which are therefore disappointing, to say the least. Only the final moments between Big Jim and Junior hold any real consequence of interest, though there is a certain satisfaction to Sam's fate. As for Barbie and his daughter's final confrontation, well that is a huge let down, but the reason why is obvious and held up in the coda's (and show's) final sequence. There is an unfortunate moment when Big Jim says he's seen enough bad movies to know that no body means not dead. Bringing up bad movies in a script is almost never a good move.

The show tries hard to set up justification for a continuation, but the situation was always going to be time-limited and ran out some time before the end finally came. In the canon of Stephen King adaptations, this can only be considered as one of the more minor.