I never thought I’d say this about a CBS show, but Under the Dome was asking some pretty heady questions in “Revelation.” Too bad it insisted on bogging itself down with an uninteresting subplot.
I’m speaking of course about Pauline Rennie, and I am completely over this, despite what I said last week. I admire UTD for stepping out of its comfort zone and expanding its narrative with the Pauline and Melanie Cross story arcs, but I worry that the show is creating a mythology it can’t hope to sustain. For one thing, I really don’t like the idea of the dome being foretold or prophesied or some shit like that. Lyle and his Hot Topic watch show Junior a bunch of postcards that Pauline drew, with illustrations of the egg, the red rain, and various other notable dome happenings drawn as though Pauline was illustrating an Under the Dome children’s book. Lyle – who got over his burns really fast – and Junior go to Sam’s cabin to find Pauline’s journal, where she’s drawn Angie’s locker. I guess Lyle killed Angie? I don’t care. I DON’T CARE ABOUT PAULINE RENNIE. Junior pulls a gun on Lyle, but Lyle still manages to get the drop on him because cops in Chester’s Mill are fucking worthless. How does he do this? He drops the journal, and Junior is distracted by the sound, long enough for Lyle to brain him with a lamp or some fucking thing. Oh, and speaking of Chester’s Mill cops, later in the episode Phil Bushey is held off by Julia, who is a small woman with 100% less guns than Phil has.
Pauline being alive? Sure, whatever, although it does raise some questions vis a vis the logistics of faking your suicide, and the little ethical quandary of letting your son and husband think you’re dead, and also you know the dome is coming and you don’t tell anyone. Under the Dome is going to have to work really hard to justify all that, and for all the goodwill it’s earned this season, I have my doubts that the show can pull it off.
Okay, I had to get that out of the way, I’m sorry. It was just so stupid! I swear, the rest of “Revelation” was better.
See? Look! There’s Rebecca and Jim in a subplot that’s actually good! Rebecca has harvested some swine flu from dead pigs, and convinces Jim to use it on the town. I’m liking Rebecca as a villain, even if she is saddled with dialogue like “I turned to science,” which is not a thing that anyone says, ever. I like her as a villain because it’s hard to even call her a villain; sure, she plans to wipe out a certain chunk of the town’s population, but ultimately she’s making a hard choice that other people refuse to face. When she and Jim are arrested (with weirdly little fuss or resistance), Jim asks Sam what his plan is to keep the people alive when the food runs out, and Sam doesn’t have an answer. Quite frankly, I don’t have one either.
Joe, Norrie, and Melanie continue playing Junior Detectives, and rope Barbie into it too because they need adult supervision. They deduce that Melanie is indeed Melanie Cross from 1988, who discovered another dome egg with Pauline, Sam, and Lyle. Pick the amount of Pauline subplots you want to have, Under the Dome. Right now there’s two that involve a character who’s been seen on screen twice.
Anyway, Melanie was killed, presumably by Lyle, but Sam has some very suspicious-looking scars on his shoulder. Also, side note: why is this show trying to shoehorn in a romance between Melanie and Joe? Melanie is a ghost or a dome zombie or some fucking thing, but for the sake of argument she’s 17 and Joe is 13 or at the most 14. Can you imagine that with the genders switched? It’d be the creepiest shit ever.
“Revelation” was a slight step back from last week’s “Force Majeure,” because this show is shoving unnecessary subplots down our throat. Get rid of Pauline, stick with Melanie and Rebecca, because those are actually interesting and sustainable. All told, though, this season is surprisingly strong.
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