Note: Do not read on if you have not seen Season 1, Episode 8 of CBS' "Under the Dome," titled "Thicker Than Water."
Some fathers and sons have problems getting along. And some fathers and sons threaten to kill each other during a huge shootout over the last water well in town. Or maybe that's just Junior and Big Jim.
This week's episode opens with Rennie grabbing his bedside gun in the middle of the night after he hears an intruder in his house. Fortunately, it's only Junior. Unfortunately, Big Jim no longer considers Junior his kin and tells him he has to get out of the house immediately. But before Junior leaves, Big Jim makes sure to throw in some painful references to Junior's dead mom ("You sound just like your mother did in the end!"), and piss off his wacko son even more.
Meanwhile, Norrie is still trying to cope with the loss of her mother. Like most teenagers (and women, according to Julia), Norrie says things she doesn't mean out of anger and tells Joe her mom's death is his fault. He wanted to go find that weird black egg, remember? Since they saw the hologram of Alice while they were in the center of the forest, Norrie assumes it had something to do with it.
Scorned by his mourning girlfriend, Joe ends up accidentally telling Julia about the black egg under the mini dome that he and Norrie stumbled upon. No surprise, Julia forces Joe to take her to their discovery. When they arrive, the egg is no longer black but "pink" (personally, I think it looks more purple but tomato, tomato). When Julia touches the dome that surrounds the glittery egg, she sees a Joe clone who tells her, "The monarch will be crowned." Spooked, Julia and Joe head back, determined to figure out why the dome keeps pulling a Will.i.am circa the 2008 presidential elections.
While the crew at Joe's house is dealing with dead mothers, pink stars falling and monarchs apparently being crowned, Big Jim has a pretty big mess on his hands. Even though the dome can produce rain, apparently it was only a novelty, because the water supply is dwindling and the only well belongs to Ollie. As we already found out, Ollie was not taught how to share when he was a tot, so despite Big Jim's efforts, the water is on lockdown. After a not-so-nice chat between Linda, Barbie, Big Jim, Junior and Ollie, Junior pulls a Benedict Arnold and ditches "the good side" for Ollie.
In order to get the water back from Ollie, we are given two possible solutions. First, Big Jim suggests that he get the townspeople together, hand them guns (when did giving very hungry and scared people free guns become a good idea?) and head to Ollie's property for a good old-fashioned shootout. On the other side, we have Barbie's much more thought out plan. He figures out that if they were to blow up Ollie's well, it would force the water to return to the town's other wells and no one would die. Guess which one happens?
I haven't been keeping a death count the whole season, but Chester's Mill lost five more residents this episode. Ollie is equipped with a whole brigade of helpers that shoot at Big Jim's team when they arrive. Bullets fly, townspeople go down and Barbie still manages to whip out his high school chemistry and concoct an explosive that wrecks Ollie's well.
Afterward, Big Jim is inside Ollie's house and Junior has a gun to his head. Here's where things get really intense. Junior accuses his dad of lying (true), Big Jim says he lied to protect his son (maybe true) and dad sheds some tears and proclaims his love for Junior (probably not true). After a heart-to-heart in which Big Jim admits that Junior's mom committed suicide, Ollie storms in and ruins the Hallmark moment. Instead of shooting his weeping, seemingly apologetic father, Junior turns the gun and shoots Ollie dead. Problem solved.
Everyone loves a good Western-style gun war, but Barbie tells Big Jim it wasn't necessary -- his plan worked, and the water was forced back after the explosion. Rennie doesn't care though, because now that there's no gun to his head, he's back to siphoning as much power as he can.
By the end of the episode, Norrie hugs it out with Joe and apologizes for being mean to him. She also decides it's finally time to remove her mom's body from Joe's house and bury her in the expertly dug grave that Barbie has ready.
As the night comes to an end, Julia recalls the pink egg/monarch discovery for Barbie as we are shown a close up of a butterfly tattoo on a woman's back. As the camera pans to show Angie's smirking face, we are left with the notion that Angie may be the "monarch" that will be "crowned."
Extra Notes
- Angie told Norrie that she frequented the reform camp that Norrie never made it to. We're learning that Angie was a pretty messed up teen.
"Under the Dome" airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.
