TV REVIEW: Big Jim Breaks Bad in Under the Dome’s “Awakening”

The Dome has been offering up more answers than questions in the past few weeks, a pleasant turn from the previous torrent of Biblical challenges the people of Chester’s Mill have had to face.

That trend slows down tonight with “Awakening” where more questions arise about Barbie’s dad, Big Jim’s motivation, and how emails can possibly get through that Dome.

Last week we saw Barbie fall to his… hometown, Julia fall apart for a nanosecond before getting it together for the good of the town, Big Jim get that “I’m breaking bad again” look in his eyes, and Sam turn up alive (proving there is a God under that Dome).

In “Awakening” we see that life outside the Dome isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, with more questions and characters added.

There’s a New, Old Sheriff in Town

This week’s installment opens with a close up of the Dome, no, not that dome, Big Jim’s freshly shaved dome. He’s strapping all his super cop gear on including the arrogant, smug look that Big Bad Big Jim used to wear. He’s back. He’s reclaiming his sheriff role and perhaps his top villain position as well.

He apologizes to Rebecca about the whole breaking and entering thing last week. He acts sincere, commenting on how he’s going to do what the Dome wants from now on. She seems to fall for it. These two go from flirty super couple mode, to hating each other quicker than that egg gets tossed around. Now, they’re back to being friends?

Junior confronts his dad about taking the sheriff’s job, saying it seems like a demotion. Jim says he’s just trying to do what the Dome wants.

“So now you think the Dome speaks to people?” asks Junior. Big Jim apologizes to his son. Wow, two sorries in less than ten minutes? This is a new record for Jimbo.

They’re called to the latest in a string of vandalisms hitting their town including a car on fire right under a Big Jim billboard.  Jim makes it all about him as usual.  He thinks he’s the target and vows to find out who’s trying to take him down with graffiti. He rattles off a long list of people who hate him with Junior saying, “That can’t be all.”

Later, Big Jim pulls over Julia saying he’s just checking in, wanted to see how she’s doing. He hands her a radio “for safety purposes” but gives her the major stink eye when she drives off.

He heads back to his office while Junior and Rebecca check out the hordes of Jim haters. Former D.J./cop Phil knocks him out with the butt of a rifle. I thought he was dead? Wait, we’re in the Dome where death is relative. Can I get a Linda shout out right now?

Phil’s mad at the Big Jim betrayal and ties him to the bars of a cell because actually putting him in the cell would be too easy. Junior and Rebecca come to the rescue with a huge fight ensuing, Big Jim comes out on top and Phil ends up behind bars, crying about never getting out of the Dome. “We all got problems,” says Jim.

Image © CBS

Barbie’s Dad Pulls a Big Jim

Barbie’s dad is up to something, looking as shady as Big Jim. He seems pleasant enough, offering to shoot a quick email to Julia. He’s pretty powerful, even bypassing that Dome firewall.  Barbie composes the email telling her to take a leap of faith.

Dad revises the email, adding a “don’t forget to bring the egg” line. Hmmm, dad is definitely up to something. What could he want with that egg? No answers tonight.

Joe gets the email from Barbie while he and Norrie shoot a music video (or vlog) and rushes off to show semi-distraught Julia. She turns suddenly skeptical that Barbie’s alive with Norrie questioning her lack of excitement. She’s on board with Melanie being a child of the 80’s, the Dome speaking to people, but she won’t accept the love of her life might not be dead?

The teens want Julia to leap off the cliff, but she’s not going for it. Instead, she decides to send a “message in a bottle” with a question that Barbie would only know how to answer. Julia throws the message and at the same time another email comes in with a cryptic code about meeting up. She finally believes that Barbie’s alive.

Image © CBS

Did I Mention that Sam’s Alive?

Lyle is still catatonic, messing around with a wheelchair and mumbling “it’s in the cards” over and over. Sam decides he’s leaving. This is his second chance at life and he doesn’t want to waste one more minute. Pauline says not so fast; we’ve got to get Junior out of that Dome.

She thinks getting Lyle back to normal will help in some way so she tasks Sam with stealing and administering a drug that could “wake up” the town barber. Lyle passes out after getting the drug but wakes up later still kind of out of it. Sam’s ready to leave again, a la my work here is done.

Instead, they decide to check out the postcards of all the artwork Pauline drew for clues. She says the last one is missing although she can’t remember what it was. They’re going to look for it. In a haystack?

Image © CBS

More Questions Arise

A mystery nerd in a dark room is watching a ton of monitors, looking at video feeds from the park and all over the city. He spots Barbie. “Gotcha,” he says with a big smile on his face.

Video nerd follows Barbie and gets spotted in a couple of minutes. Our hero demands to know why he’s following him. Former Blockbuster employee rats out the doctoring of the email by dear old dad, not really answering the question.

Barbie gets into dad’s computer and with the help of super nerd, sees the revised email. “What does my dad want with the egg?” Barbie’s dad walks in but his son stalls so he won’t see the tampered with computer. Dad takes him to his office and introduces him to his tech guru… the same nerd “helping” Barbie!

Our hero is more confused; he grabs Hunter, the tech nerd, as he’s leaving work and tells him he needs to help him get back to the Dome. He dons a pair of Clark Kent glasses and heads to the checkpoint for getting to the Dome wall. No one recognizes him (remember, the glasses) and he gets through (whew).  He ninja rolls under a military vehicle heading to the Dome wall, hitching a ride from down under.

Julia’s at the coded meet point talking aloud to the Dome about it tricking her because no Barbie’s in sight. Later that night he shows up, dry erase markering a message on the Dome wall to his lady love. “Not safe out here. Don’t j…” He’s taken away by some military men before he can finish the word jump.

Right when there seems to be hope that the Dome may be giving us a resolution, it speaks to us again saying “not so fast.” There were additional plot elements added tonight, giving rise to more questions. Life outside the Dome is definitely not all rainbows and unicorns. What do you think about Barbie’s dad? Did you like that Big Jim broke bad? And why, oh why would those crazy kids choose now to make a video blog? Hopefully, those questions and more will be answered before this second season of Dome dims the lights for the summer.

Under the Dome airs Mondays on CBS at 10 p.m.