Previous Episode: 2.05 Reconciliation
2.06 "In The Dark"
Directed by Jack Bender, written by Caitlin Parrish
Rating: 6/10 (C)
Next Episode: 2.07 Going Home
In my review for the season premiere I used the tagline “Embrace The Silliness” and while a big part of the audience is doing it to be able to enjoy Under the Dome, the show doesn’t seem fully committed (yet) to do it. Instead of reveling in its own ridiculousness, it takes itself too seriously for its own good and insists on crafting a rich and substantial mythology when it is messy at best, the characters are uninspiring with the newest additions landing at the bottom of the barrel and although Under the Dome has only reached the halfway point of its sophomore season, it already feels like the show has run out of ideas as "In The Dark" features some elements we have already seen and that didn’t leave much of an impression the first time around:
Crisis of the week? Check. Rebecca being used as a plot device to come up with a “scientific” solution? Check. Crisis is resolved and doesn’t have any real consequences? Check. Junior doing something dumb and being gullible idiot? Check. The townspeople being an amorphous unity that pledges its allegiance either to Big Jim or Julia, depending on whom they have last spoken to? Check.
But all hope is not lost (yet); The episode provided some answers, didn’t put too much emphasis on the dust storm, Melanie was promoted from a pretty zombie to Angie’s replacement as the fourth hand and two love triangles ended or were at least put on hold.
After discovering the opening behind the locker, Junior and Sam go down and discover that it is a basement that extends into a tunnel. They are soon joined by Barbie, only to be seperated again when Junior sees his mother’s journal on the ground. He trips a wire when he tries to pick it up and detonates a trap that was set up by Lyle. I’ve never really warmed up to Junior and making him more of an impulsive fool than he already was in Season 1 isn’t really doing him any favors.
The explosion imprisons Sam and Barbie in the tunnels and after accusing each other of being shady and keeping secrets, Sam eventually reveals the circumstances of Melanie’s death but the tension between them reaches an all-time high when Barbie notices to scratches on Sam and he tells him all about his grand plan to kill the Four Hands… and himself? What’s the point of killing four teenagers and possibly bringing down the dome if he doesn’t plan on having a life outside of Chester’s Mill?
Contemplating his situation, Sam realizes he won’t be able to do what he set out to do and lets himself fall into the bottomless pit. Dear Uncle Sam is crazier than I thought and I doubt this is the last we’ve seen of him, so I look forward to seeing him again and if he succeeds in killing the Four Hands.
On the other side of the tunnel, Julia and Rebecca do some much-needed bonding and build explosives to blow up the boulders blocking them from getting to Barbie. Rebecca is much more tolerable when she isn’t plotting to wipe out half of the town but when it comes to redeeming her character - if that is even possible - she still has a long way to go.
I hope she sticks with Julia and doesn’t flipflop between her and Big Jim like the rest of the town who surprisingly (not really) find themselves siding with Big Jim again, even though they were apprehensive about forgiving him less than 24 hours ago but they will probably all run back to Julia once she exposes Sam as Angie’s murderer. And after that, they will go back to Big Jim, so on and so on. I’ve tried to looked past this but this is just something I just can’t get on board with.
After the whole Angie/Junior debacle, I was really hoping that the show would stay far, far away from teenage drama but instead we are treated to an extremely overdramatized argument between Joe and Norrie that felt like I was watching a younger version of Barbie and Julia. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long until our star-crossed lovers make up and hopefully this love triangle can be put to rest. Forever. (I know love triangles are intangible but they all should be tied up, set on fire and pushed into the bottomless pit.) The Four Hands, led by a very determined Melanie, retrieve the egg from the lake and upon touching it, pink stars appear and align themselves to form the obelisk from Melanie’s hometown but other than that, nothing much of relevance takes place.
What I liked about In The Dark was that the focus wasn’t on the weekly crisis and that it was quickly resolved with a hybrid between a windmill and a giant shower. These small, almost irrelevant disasters are getting tedious to watch because a) there are usually no real consequences whatsoever and b) they are executed poorly. This aspect could enhance the show if done correctly. It’s so random and arbitrary, it literally feels like they are pulling these disasters out of a hat after writing all of the catatrophies they could think of on little pieces of paper. Up next: An earthquake, followed by a volcano eruption. Yep, that bottomless pit is actually a dormant volcano. Alternative: The bottomless pit is connected to the ocean and CBS is planning on buying the rights to Sharknado. You can draw your own conclusions.
Other thoughts:
- The last two people who owned the diner are dead now. Can Big Jim become the next owner?
- “Why am I even here? Because I’m connected to some egg?”
- The day when Rebecca doesn’t have a “scientific” is when she learns that Hell exists and that is has frozen over.
- “The dust has cleared up.” Thank you, Exposition Joe.
