Most of the time, Under the Dome is just boring and inane. Which sucks, don’t get me wrong, but for the most part UTD is smart enough not to try to be smart, which is why “Turn” is such a misstep. The residents of Chester’s Mill are getting up to their usual shenanigans, but the show unwisely tries to shoehorn in a faith vs. science debate.
Rebecca Pine has become this show’s embodiment of Science, as she immediately starts trying to figure out how the dome is contracting, while Julia, the show’s embodiment of Faith, is more concerned with why. These two are constantly being snippy with each other, and Julia rightly calls out Rebecca’s self-aggrandizing behavior (she’s positing herself as some sort of scientific genius, but to be fair, so is the show). But in an episode that aims to show some sort of debate, this behavior falls flat, because Julia vs. Rebecca ultimately boils down to passive-aggressive comments and snide remarks until one party admits that they’re wrong (Rebecca, in this case).
For an episode that features two character deaths, one disappearance, and the dome shrinking, “Turn” was actually pretty damn boring. The big scene at the halfway mark was literally a conversation between Barbie and his dad – but since it took part with them separated by the dome, it was robbed of any emotion or inflection that Mike Vogel and Brett Cullen might have brought to the scene. (I will say this: Cullen and Vogel look a lot alike, so good job, casting department.)
Melanie is sick with Dome Fever, and everyone seems really concerned even though with the exception of Sam, Pauline, and Lyle, they’ve only known Melanie for a little over a week. What the fuck is even happening here. Jim insists that Pauline paint something, saying that if she believes in herself her visions will come back. “Turn” is such a reductive portrait of Faith vs. Science, and would be better served if it devolved into some version of “Fuck you”/”No, fuck you!”
Anyway, Pauline paints (in her usual childish fashion) eight hands holding Melanie up. So get the hands from the past and present together and she’s saved, right? Wrong! She wakes up but promptly disappears, and there’s a new hole in town. So is Melanie dead, or is she definitely alive in Zenith? If you think it’s the former, then you and I are watching very different shows.
The big twist comes at the end, when Jim is kissing Pauline, and pulls away to find her bleeding from her mouth. She’s been stabbed by Lyle, and curiously didn’t react. My brother, who doesn’t watch this show, turned to me and asked “Who gets stabbed and doesn’t make a noise? Who directs this shit?” (That would be Peter Leto, longtime veteran of Law & Order: SVU.) Then Jim kills Lyle because Under the Dome ran out of Dwight Yoakam money, but they have just enough left for a coffee-shop version of “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” which is a song that sucks.
Maybe next week we’ll find out where Melanie is. And maybe the week after, I’ll start giving a shit.
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