Dome is done.
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow…
Well, that was it. The show’s over. The dome came down, the troops rushed in, and then things picked up one year later (this time for real).
Barbie and Julia had an actual year to be in an actual relationship, Jim weaseled his way into congress (as if there’s another way to do it), Norrie joined the army, Joe got turned into a mush-brained alien, and Dawn survived – to “dome it up” some more if the show had been picked up for a Season 4.
But it wasn’t. So this is where we leave things. With a horrid episode filled with utter nonsense and awful dialogue. Like we were watching a parody of an action/adventure series from SNL or some other late night comedy show. And in the all ridiculous bluster this episode had to offer, brainwashed Sam and Junior both fell. Yes, Sam, who was probably the worst character on the show, and Junior, who’d been a giant pain in the ass since the very first episode. Both of them somehow being able to be mind-controlled drones while still possessing enough annoying personality to be jealous of one another as it pertained to the Queen’s affections.
Oh, and the Queen? Dawn? Who apparently named herself Dawn? And got herself clothes? Horrible. The whole concept of having the same actress play Eva and Dawn is one of the dumbest things this show’s ever pulled. Okay, I get that she’s an alien baby and that means she can quickly grow into an adult (making sure to stop at a young, attractive age of course), but the fact that we’re supposed to buy that Barbie has any paternal feelings for her whatsoever is astoundingly moronic. As in, she can play coy and say “Dad?” and he’ll pause because for some reason that resonates with him. Even though his “daughter” is a grown ass woman who looks exactly like the woman he just had sex with two days earlier. And who he previously spent a virtual year having sex with. Preposterous. He should feel nothing for this creature. Of course, I’ve said that about Barbie and Julia numerous times too.
But that’s it. This final episode is all we have to put up with. One final bow involving a bunch of bulls*** about Norrie and Joe being the “8th Note” or some garbage. None of it made sense, but it got the damn dome down. It freed everyone. And without that dome coming down this season, in this particular finale, I’m not so sure CBS would have pulled the plug. I mean, declining ratings were enough of a reason, sure, but I also suspect the absence of an actual dome heading into a possible fourth season gave them the “out” they were perhaps looking for. Because even though there may have been more story to tell, the claim can be made that the dome came down and Chester’s Mill was saved by the end of the run. The main story is over and done with.
And at least “The Enemy Within” didn’t leave us high and dry in the dopiness department. Like how the episode opened with Barbie wasting a TON of oxygen and energy by burying Dr. Bloom (I’m sorry, what? Her?), Jim and Julia wasting a bunch of time trying to get past some alien guard character who we’d never heard speak before, Joe somehow knowing what to do once inside that circle of amethysts, and Dawn somehow being a manifestation of Barbie’s “darkness.” Just terrible stuff.
At least the dog lived.
Under the Dome had devolved so much over the past two seasons that it ceased being a show I craved closure on. This episode could have given us a dozen cliffhangers and I still would have been glad the show was over. As it stands though, the dome did come down and our heroes were set free. So fans of the show can at least cling to that. And the insulting preposterousness of the rest.
