Under the Dome Recap: “Blue On Blue”

by Kelly M. Smith:

Under the Dome Recap: “Blue On Blue”
Original Air Date (CBS): Monday July 22, 2013
Season 1 Episode 5

“Maybe the Dome is just a cocoon and when it goes away we all get to be something new.”–Norrie Calvert-Hill

Teens Joe McAlister and Norrie Calvert-Hill find the mysterious Dome that encased the small town of Chester’s Mill covered with butterflies on one small portion at the beginning of episode five in the televised version of the 2009 novel Under The Dome by horror writer Stephen King. Seeing this phenomenon is what causes Norrie to say the quote I posted above.

Town Second Selectman James “Big Jim” Rennie found out his son, whom everyone calls Junior (but who really prefers to be called James) was keeping his girlfriend, Angie McAlister (the aforementioned Joe’s big sister) hostage in their storage shed and she cries, telling him that his psycho son locked her in there when he suspected that she was cheating on him with the town “outsider”, Dale “Barbie” Barbara (which she was not). Big Jim leaves her there, chained and soaking wet from a burst pipe, telling her he needed to think. Think about what, is what I wonder!
As he leaves the house, the Reverend Lester Coggins approaches him, reading a passage from the Bible and again telling Jim that he needs to repent if he wants to save the town instead of damn it. (For a full recap of their interactions, see my previous recaps from right here on DarkMedia!) In his hearing aid, the viewer can hear strange sounds in the Reverend’s ears.

Back at the Dome edge, Barbie sees Joe and Norrie by the butterflies, both afraid to touch the Dome since, the last time they did, they both had petit mal seizures. Barbie touches the Dome and the butterflies flee, leaving them with a view of the remaining camp of military officers setting up sawhorses and lights for Visiting Day at the Dome.
This is for the people from The Mill who were caught outside when the Dome fell to be able to see their entrapped loved ones…or so everyone is led to believe.

Democrat reporter and editor Julia Shumway, is using the town’s only radio station to broadcast news to the townspeople, and she does so about Visitor’s Day. When newly elected police officer Junior Rennie hears the news, he goes home to his still shell-shocked father, who tells him to go police the area where the visitors will be, to keep the town safe.

Barbie and newly elected Sheriff Linda Esquivel talk outside the Dome, where she is anxious to see her fiance, Rusty (Josh Carter from Drop Dead Diva). Linda trusts Barbie and asks him to help her keep the crowds calm, as she is sure emotions will be running sky-high. Linda can’t find it in her heart to tell Rusty that his brother, Freddie, a town police officer, was killed by insane cop Paul Randolph. In a touching moment, they kiss through the Dome and he shows her that they are considered a “hero” couple and will be featured on the cover of People Magazine.

Julia, as VD is beginning, tries the radio band, and receives chatter from the nearest military radios, talking about something that says, “Zone One is painted, Green for 1315.”, and she wonders what that could be a code for. She turns to talk to DJ Phil Bushey and asks him if he thinks her husband, Peter Shumway, will show up for visiting, though he was on the run from creditors and Barbie, who was a bookie’s enforcer. Phil doesn’t have the heart to tell her that Peter is dead…killed by Barbie as the Dome came down during a fight nearly right outside Phil’s trailer, in a cabin near the woods.

Joe goes looking for Angie at the Dome edge, and Norrie sees a man (Gary Weeks, from Burn Notice and various guest-starring roles on numerous TV shows) holding up a sign with her name, “Norrie Calvert”. No “Hill” at the end. She goes ans mimes to him, asking him who he is. He holds up a sign that says “I’M YOUR DAD”. Norrie was told that her father was an anonymous sperm donor, and that she was legally unable to go looking for him, by her mom Alice Calvert. All she has known her entire life is her mom and her other mom, Carolyn Hill. The man has baby photos and even a photo of Alice.

The half-crazed Reverend starts to preach, telling the townsfolk about redemption and sinners and again mentions the acronym that is a town in the Bible: Moab. It isn’t. It is a Mother of all Bombs. Jim leads the reverend away (again Lester begs Jim to “confess”. Confess what?)

Julia goes to look for her husband, but her sister-in-law shows up instead, bearing a letter from Peter that says to tell her he’s sorry; she deserved better than him anyway. He wrote that apparently before planning to run off so the bookies wouldn’t get him. (A little too late, huh?) Julia is hurt to the core as she says, “He didn’t even have the balls to write his own Dear John letter.”

Norrie’s mothers see her talking to her dad, and she whales on them both, especially Alice, for apparently lying to her and telling her she didn’t know her father. Alice starts yelling at Michael, though he can’t hear her, that he was a gold-digger, that he made himself anonymous until he could make a buck from the camera crews at the Dome for Visiting Day. Norrie, hearing this, runs off.
Joe follows her, asking her about her father.

Barbie asks Dodee Weaver to help him use lip-reading and sign language to communicate with a military officer outside the Dome. After identifying his rank the man agrees to answer a couple of questions about why they were just leaving them there. He tells them: “Something big is going down, they told us to pull out after this, all of us. They said once we leave, don’t plan on coming back.” They had received their orders the night before, and not long after the butterflies came. Dodee knows that some animals use magnetic forces to gravitate and Barbie knows what “Moab” is, and he tells her and Julia.
Julia says she heard a broadcast about it, but didn’t understand what it meant until then. She remembers the time frame: 1:15 EDT. Three hours from then. Jim tells her to make a news announcement that everyone needs to take shelter in the old cement factory.

Jim goes back for Angie in the bomb shelter, and he lets her go, saying “We’re all gonna die today.” He wants her to be free for her last moments, in case the underground shelter doesn’t protect everyone as he thinks it might. She runs, glad to be away and now utterly terrified more than she was when she had been locked away like Rapunzel in her tower.

Julia puts away all the photos of Peter in her house before going to the shelter to share a bottle of wine her old boss in Chicago had given her when she published her first article. He tells her a story about friendly fire against one of his own soldiers when he was in Iraq, a depressing tale. She tells him she made peace with Peter leaving her, and he says there is something she needs to know, but, before he could tell her anything, Alice and Carolyn come in, shouting that Norrie is missing and the bomb is about to detonate. They both go and look for her.

Phil’s final song is Skeeter Davis, “The End of the World.” (He made a playlist for the event, being the local DJ. )He dances with Dodee and she laughs and says, “I hate you, you know,” obviously meaning the exact opposite. He returns the sentiments. I found that to be quite cute in the middle of such a tumultuous episode.

In the McAlister house, Angie doesn’t find her family. Instead, she finds Junior, who went there after Jim revealed to him that he had released his concubine. He cocks his gun, telling her that they have “unfinished business”.

Above ground, Joe and Norrie stop looking and see the bomb coming in; neither are in a rush to try and save themselves in the shelter.. They kiss as it explodes behind them, lighting up the already bright early-autumn sky. When they open their eyes, the realize two things: neither are dead, and they did not have a seizure as they touched this time. There’s a big blast mark on the Dome wall, but there’s no damage inside, though outside looks like something from a sci-fi film about Armageddon.

The Dome was not destroyed. It wasn’t even nicked.

Julia and Barbie clasp hands in a sweet moment; in self-preservation, mutual comforting devastation and…maybe a little more? We’ll have to keep watching to find THAT out!

At the Dome edge, Jim surveys the damage to the outside world with a grim expression. Coggins meets him there, telling him that the town was saved from destruction because he himself had repented, now Jim must do the same. “Today’s a new day,” he tells the Selectman before Jim easily grabs Coggins by the head and presses the ear with the metal hearing aid against the Dome wall, silencing him forever. He leaves him there to die as the episode fades out.