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Under the Dome - Revelation - Review: "Excessive Exposition"

Jul 22, 2014

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Previous Episode: 2.03 Force Majeure

2.04 "Revelation"
Directed by Holly Dale, written by Alexandra McNally
Rating: 5.5/10 (C-)

Next Episode: 2.05 Reconciliation



This week’s episode spends a big portion with the town’s dwindling food supply and it was rather unspectacular because in the end, nothing really happened. At all. It’s been only two weeks since the dome appeared and resources are apparently running so low that something has to be done about the current population. Barbie calls it extermination plan, Big Jim calls it reduction option but as already mentioned: It doesn't really matter because all the time spent building up this plot amounts to absolutely nothing.
If there really is as little food left as they want us to believe, then why is the diner filled with people perpetually drinking coffee? Why is the rest of town seemingly oblivious to this entire ordeal? Because magnetism. Jokes aside, it’s utterly perplexing how Rebecca and Big Jim are contemplating killing off part of the town and yet, nobody really seems to be affected by the limited supplies. I have no idea how this will be resolved but one thing I know for sure: The solution will take as much suspension of disbelief as the fact that it took the show this long to deal with this.

Rebecca has emerged as the worst character, if we can even call her that. From the moment she was introduced as the local science teacher, it was obvious that she will be overused as a plot device to solve the oh-so-many crises on this show. It is only fitting that she was introduced during one of the dome’s disasters because she herself has become one of them.
Over the course of last season, Barbie showed a vast skillset which seemed plausible due to his military service but Rebecca makes him almost look like an amateur: Apart from being a teacher, she’s also a veterinarian who is capable of telling a piglet is fatally ill after three seconds, an epidemiologist who can create a new disease by merging two strains within hours and her knowledge about Darwin is as broad as her expertise on magnetism.
Before infecting the town with the virus, the show throws some exposition at us to justify the actions Big Jim and Rebecca are about to commit which didn’t really work. That entire scene just felt out of place and did nothing it terms of humanizing Rebecca. After all is said and done, they couldn’t go through with it because their God complex isn’t big enough. Both are arrested by Phil (who by the way is doing extremely urgent work by going after some vandals) and will be put on trial but given how the last trial went, I doubt these will face any serious consequences.

The other development is Melanie’s quest to find out more about her identity. As it turns out, she is indeed Melanie Cross and through glimpses of flashbacks, we learn that Pauline, Lyle, Sam and her were the originals Four Hands. Melanie finds herself drawn to the egg and picks it up despite the others urging her not to. She is accidentally killed and the egg turns black. So this clears up how Pauline is connected to the dome and for how long the egg has been around. With Sam revealed as Angie’s murderer at the end of the episode, it is likely he is also responsible for Melanie’s death. I have to admit though, the way Melanie was pushed into the crater comes across more as comical than dramatic. That was some awful directing.
Speaking of awful, there is an awful lot of not-so-well done exposition, especially from Joe. The show has never executed exposition very well but in this episode, I found myself repeatedly yelling Joe to shut up already because we already know all that stuff. “The dome came out of nowhere and changed our lives forever.” Really? Really?!

With the help of Lyle, Junior finds out Pauline left town so the dome would follow her (What?!) and that this would spare him. She also has been sending Lyle postcards with her paintings, depicting every single event that has occurred under the dome and some that are still to come. The sketchbook we saw in 2.01 with Sam turns out to be Pauline’s journal and it has a drawing of the door which we have already seen in a previous episode. And Junior looks dumb when he falls for the oldest trick in the book, did he really think Lyle would just let him pick up the journal? Sigh.

Well, Sam made a move on Julia. Let the love triangle fiasco begin. The rift between Julia and Barbie has become so big that he isn’t invited in their her house anymore. I’m not looking forward to seeing Julia working with a murderer, mostly because she will get closer to Sam, find out the truth and we'll be treated to another “I thought I knew you” speech.

The second season of Under the Dome has been underwhelming and has gradually become worse with every episode. I was hoping the show would shift the focus to the mythology of the dome. While still mediocre, it is superior than the rest of what is currently going on. The dome needs to come down or something drastic needs to happen or characters need to show up that are actually worth rooting for.

Other thoughts:
- I still have trouble wrapping my head around the fact, that Dwight Yoakam’s Lyle is the same age is Sherry Stringfield’s Pauline & Eddie Cahill’s Sam.
- How awkward was it when Rebecca was by herself and randomly uttered “Everything happens for a reason.”?
- If this was Season 1, Big Jim would have thrown Rebecca out of the window and I wouldn’t have minded it one bit.
- Melanie and Barbie are from the same town. She keeps saying how familiar he looks but wouldn’t Barbie have been a little boy in 1988?
- I don’t know if it’s because of all the snark but I’ve been enjoying Norrie a lot lately. And Carolyn shows up next week. Yay!



About the Author - Mark A. Ondo/LittleDreamer
20 y/o Austrian. Music lover, avid TV watcher, cheesecake muncher and pseudo writer. His taste in television is as eclectic as it gets and he dedicates more time to ficitonal characters than he would like to admit. He currently reviews Under the Dome, writes about various shows in Mark's Remarks and creates Best-Scene Polls for Grey's Anatomy, Once upon a Time, Revenge and Scandal.
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15 comments:

  1. I can't stand Rebecca.. from the moment they introduced her I knew she was a useless character. And while the story is good with Melanie couldn't they have found a better actress to play her. Its really hard to watch scenes with her in them. And I knew it was Sam who killed Angie, from the second episode. He shows up is all weird when he's talking tp Jr. And then when he was examining the body with julia something didn't seem right. I hope Angie comes back and haunts his ass. I still can't believe they killed Angie off she was one of the better actors on the show.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great Review bud!


    I really do love this show, but I have always wondered why they are purposely acting like they just got the script the day before shooting. Does anyone else feel this way? I love the show and premise and it is one of the few shows that I want to watch within 24 hours of airing and was just wondering about why most of the actors did that.


    Also, why did they abandon the story line form the end of last season where the military was looking for Barbie?

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  3. Lol, I can't stand her either. It's like the writers just killed off Linda to replace her with a younger sister look-alike, Rebecca.

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  4. I can't believe I was only 4 episodes behind in this series, I just
    watched this season, seems like it has been years since I watched it
    before. The town is full of SIN, that is why they are in the dome, they
    are most rotten to the core, Big Jim and his rotten offspring and
    brother-in-law and Barber Lyle. All a bunch of degenerates, even that
    lousy Science teacher. Full of NUT JOBS. We all know Jim's son killed
    Angie and someone needs to put that kid down, not make him a cop. OMG
    this is exactly what is happening in America, we have made all our
    degenerates politicians and cops. What is wrong with us? You turn your
    head for a couple of decades to live and enjoy life and we have allowed
    the worst of our society to have the keys to the City. Time for change
    people, they are ruining America and We The people.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nah, Jim's crazy nut job thug cop killed Angie. The kid is off and needs to be put down badly.

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  6. I am sure it will surface again, just like the girl they killed as children has arrived on site. The sins of that town is what it's all about.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey Jeff what do you mean about "just like the girl they killed as children..."

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  8. I think it was Sam that killed Angie, right?

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  9. Some of the dialogue is clunky and can certainly be delivered better but I guess there's only so much they can do with a weak script.

    About the military: I guess with Dodee dead and the show not showing the outside world (except for Pauline), they don't know how to include. Maybe it has something to do with Barbie's dad showing up?

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  10. I really hope Melanie gets better once she has her memory back. Something about the way she speaks irks me.
    About Sam: I guess all that talk about killing the person you love adds up and I hope as well that Angie will show up again at some point.

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  11. The girl from 88, the year book. Her name escapes me right now.

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  12. Rebecca is the worst character I've ))ever seen!The story of Melanie is interesting. I wonder how this involves Barbie(because they are from the same town,that has to mean something). But love triangle is totally boring and predectible.

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  13. “The dome came out of nowhere and changed our lives forever.” -- I yelled at the TV when I heard this.
    I don't watch this show anymore, I turn the TV on in the background so I occasionally see what's going on. I wholly agree with your review. The whole writing is ludicrous. It has to be one of the worst written shows in television. I'm perplexed at the fact that Stephen King and Steven Spielberg have rubber-stamped such a bad show.

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  14. I think the show would be a lot better if we could somehow have Joe, Julia and Rebecca (or 'smart' Linda as I call her) all meet horrible horrible ends, they are the worst actors on the show and a seriously harming it.

    - Colin Ford has always been awful, from young Sam Winchester to now...just....awful...
    - I don't remember Rachel Lefevre being this awful last season but this season she's on a whole other level, never before have I seen such pointless overacting and exaggerated body movements for no reason (the determined turn and walk with Sam after they realised they needed to go look at some pigs was hilariously bad). I'm hoping Sam offs her.
    - Karla Crome is the worst of the lot. I hated Natalie Martinez's acting on the show and wanted Linda to die every week, she was my least liked thing about the show. I want Linda back. I would rather watch 1 hour of wall to wall Linda than suffer through Karla's 'acting' pouty face for the rest of the season.

    I know how the book ends, so I'm not exactly holding out hope for this to happen, but it's what's best for this version of Chesters Mill....

    ReplyDelete

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