Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow…
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
You mean to tell me that Barbie’s daughter, who’s already all grown up due to alien (and bad TV) shenanigans, is played by Kylie Bunbury? The same actress who played Eva? Except that because she’s supposed to also be Barbie’s daughter SHE’S GOT BLONDE HAIR? And blue contacts? That’s so terrible it actually makes me sort of giddy. So shoddy that I almost can’t be mad at it. The show is blatantly in self-parody mode here its penultimate series episode.
That’s right, folks. If you didn’t know, I’m sad to break the news that Under the Dome has been cancelled. Next week’s finale will be the last hurrah. Now, we at least know that the Dome’s coming down (which seems to promise one thing – gross Joe/Norrie sex). But there’s also likely to be more than a few cliffhangers considering how Christine dumped all that “there are worse aliens headed this way” info on Joe’s lap last week. So perfect closure it won’t be. Start your fretting now.
Man, I’m sorry. I still can’t believe they used the same actress to play the daughter. Couldn’t spring for a new girl? Afraid we’d get confused? What a crap-fest. This is Ed Wood-level quality.
Anyhow, “Incandescence” was pretty much all about people either trying to bring the Dome down quickly or people wanting to stop the Dome from coming down at all because – you know – alien plague. Casualties this week included Christine (who was supposed to die giving her life to the new Queen, but didn’t…until later when she died giving her life to the new Queen) along with Hector and Doctor Bloom. Two characters who came in just a few episodes ago to do nothing but fill up time and space. Now the only one who remains from that Aktion cast is Lily. Which makes sense because the show’s determined that Hunter wind up with a girlfriend. Recompense for taking his legs.
I’m not sure why Christine survived and reverted to being human for the small time that she did. Seemed rather pointless. She saved a bunch of kids from being drowned, but that was a dilemma set up out of nowhere, just so she could try to stop it. Even worse was the fact that Julia and Barbie seemed to forgive and forget with her rather quickly. Even worse still was the fact that Barbie, after everything, couldn’t believe that the adult who burst out of the cocoon was his daughter. Even though Eva was pregnant for all of two days and the baby was part alien.
The show never ever figured out how people should react to fantastical things. Barbie’s flabbergasted at his grown up mutant girl but no one gave a s*** when they found out the outside world hand’t been utterly wiped out.
Anyhow, there were other lame moments throughout. Norrie running back, in a panic and out of breath, to tell Hunter and Jim that people will run out of oxygen if they panic and overexert themselves. Barbie telling Julia that he never really knew the true Eva, even though last week he specifically tried to un-brainwash Eva and rescue her because he wanted to save the Eva he once knew. Also there’s Sam somehow still being the most caring and considerate of Christine’s brainwashed bunch. He basically gets to have a separate personality because he’s a season regular.
The actual smart play here, this week, was done by Hector. A guy willing to sacrifice himself and everyone in the Dome (apparently there are…two thousand people?) so that the world doesn’t fall to a demon virus from outer space. Unfortunately, Joe, Norrie, Jim, and the rest are so sick of being in the Dome that they’ll murder the planet to get out. Granted, things will probably time out perfectly on the show so that the Dome comes down while Earth remains safe. But our heroes don’t know that. They just want to get out. And they’re being s***wads about it.
