Previous Episode: 2.06 In The Dark
2.07 "Going Home"
(Directed by David Barrett, written by Peter Calloway)
Rating: 6.5/10 (C+)
Next Episode: 2.08 Awakening
With an overwhelmingly underwhelming season so far, ”Going Home” easily stands out as a good episode. An annoying crisis-of-the-week is nowhere to be found and there’s progress made by the end of the installment. While it doesn’t mean ”Going Home” is free of mistakes, it is a big improvement and arguably better than the last several episodes combined.
The episode starts with Barbie telling Junior about what happened to Sam in the tunnels. Junior’s adamant refusal to believe anyone in his family is capable of doing something bad is hilarious, given how his father killed Dodee and a couple other people nobody ever talks about and his mother faked her own death. What makes him so sure his uncle is a saint? Then there’s him locking up Angie just a few weeks ago but I suppose the show is trying to make us forget about that by painting him as the knight in shining armor who stays up all night to keep his friends safe. Barbie decides to climb down the pit to retrieve Sam’s body as proof but the situation quickly escalates when the anchor comes loose and after cutting the rope to prevent Julia and Rebecca from going down with him, he finds himself at a playground in his hometown, Zenith.
Sam reunites with his sister who throws a huge chuck of exposition towards us about why she left Chester’s Mill, Sam learns Lyle has made it out as well but seems to suffer from psychosis, doing nothing but repeat “Melanie” over and over again. In the same scene, there’s a close-up of Sam’s hand trembling. Might he find himself in a similar state sometime soon? Is this the consequence for escaping the dome? So far, Pauline has been able to predict most of what’s happening but she seemed genuinely surprised when Sam mentions that Melanie is alive again.
Barbie returns to his apartment to get cleaned up and gets ambushed by some guys for whom we was supposed to do a job for that would have made them rich. He’s forced into helping, double-crosses them and reunites with his father, Don (portrayed by Brett Cullen). We finally learn why nobody has come near the dome ever since the military departed and when Barbie asks for a favor, it becomes clear that Barbie has a strenuous relationship with him but Don eventually gives in and as both of them walk through the yard, we get a glimpse of a red door; the subject of one of Pauline’s paintings.
Back in Chester’s Mill, Big Jim’s God complex/ego/something in between reaches an all time high. “Why do you always have to make everything about you?” asks Junior. You and me both, buddy. You and me both. Struggling to find Barbie and being deflected by Julia, he stakes out the school and confronts Rebecca when Barbie doesn’t come out and she tells him that he met his demise in the tunnels. The producers refer to this season as “the season of transformation” and with 7 of 13 episodes aired, there isn’t that much time left. This act of Big Jim about how the dome let him live because he is meant to be in power was never really strong to begin with and it is getting thinner by the episode and while I’m aware he is doing it solely for appearances, it is just odd seeing Big Jim hold a memorial for Barbie. I can’t wait for Big Jim to find out he wasn’t let out of the dome while others were. Better hide that ego before it gets hurt.
Joe, meanwhile, points out that the tunnels weren’t always there and that they must be part of the dome’s grand plan that everybody keeps talking about without having any actual idea what said plan actually is. He attaches a camera onto a drone and flies it down into the pit but loses control of it rather quickly. Fortunately, the last frames of the short video reveal that Zenith awaits at the other side and when the egg emits pink stars that align themselves to form Zenith, the group becomes even more hopeful that there is indeed a way out.
Overall, this was a good episode and while it doesn’t provide too many answers, it laid out the groundwork for the rest of the season quite nicely and of course, Rebecca not talking about science (except for that awful line about the compass) definitely made this episode a little less terrible.
Other thoughts:
- The sheriff of Chester’s Mill changes more often than people [insert random daily activity]. Barbie is gone, time to hire a new sheriff.
- Hmm… So someone has to die for Joe to mention the drone to see what’s down there? Okay.
- “Something’s not adding up.” Thank you, Exposition Joe.
Good review mark as always I enjoy them. I agree still not great but a much better episode.
ReplyDeleteI also agree, a much better episode than the past few we have been getting. Haha exposition Joe, that's so true. I find that hilarious. Writing for the show's characters has been a bit sloppy as they come out with some awful lines.
ReplyDeleteEither way, I still have to watch what happens next. I still like the show (to some extent) so I need to stick it out, praying it will get consistently better.
I hope they continue like this and stop with the crisis-of-the-week.
ReplyDeleteIt was funny at first but now it's gotten to the point where it's starting to get annoying. They need to step up the writing.
ReplyDeleteGreat review!This episode was better than the others. It will be interesting to see how Zenith is connected to the dome. And you're right,if Joe knew about the drone,he could have said it before. That guy isn't a genius.
ReplyDeleteIt's this kind of inconsistency that puts Under the Dome in the lower tier of television shows.
ReplyDeleteHoly mother of god an episode that actually explained itself to some degree! The apocalypse is coming!
ReplyDeleteBy that, I mean that when they showed the painting of the red door, they then showed the actual red door. I was really expecting the painting to be shown and then the show to expect us to know what the significance is. OK, we still don't have a clue what the door leads to or why it's there but at least we know it isn't just some random metaphorical image trapped in a mirage or something like that.
Anyone have a Revenge of the Sith flashback watching the pre-title sequence scene?
While I like that Joe and Norrie are back together, it does still bug me that two (three? I dunno) episodes ago he called her a bitch and she hated him and now they're sleeping (literally, not the other way) together (they're still waiting to have sex up against the dome).
Holy mother of god an episode that actually explained itself to some degree! The apocalypse is coming! I was surprised too! Hopefully they keep us showing the outside world instead of wasting screentime of the weekly crisis.
ReplyDeleteBy that, I mean that when they showed the painting of the red door, they
then showed the actual red door. I was really expecting the painting to
be shown and then the show to expect us to know what the significance
is. OK, we still don't have a clue what the door leads to or why it's
there but at least we know it isn't just some random metaphorical image
trapped in a mirage or something like that. I was wondering when the real red door would show up, I really didn't expect it to be connected to Barbie's father.
Anyone have a Revenge of the Sith flashback watching the pre-title sequence scene? I still haven't seen the Star Wars movies, so I can't say anything about that reference.
While I like that Joe and Norrie are back together, it does still bug me
that two (three? I dunno) episodes ago he called her a bitch and she
hated him and now they're sleeping (literally, not the other way)
together (they're still waiting to have sex up against the dome). Typical teenager behavior, I suppose.
Oh, and I don't think Sam's about to go crazy. I think he's possibly just freaking out. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it, I just found the time was odd like it's supposed to mean something.
Yeah, I mean I really like Under The Dome, but there are a few things that don't add up, it feels like they don't have a general plan for the season, as if they were writing each episode almost separately so some things appear all of a sudden and other disppear.,. Like in the first episode of season 2, Sam showed Julia a drawing of Melanie, and said that Pauline drew it years ago, but by then didn't he know that the drawing was of his old girlfriend? Even if he didn't believe that the girl in the lake was his girlfriend from highschool he should have realized that the drawing was in fact her, because of all the history. And Pauline, I mean, am I the only one bothered about how she talks abouit Melanie? It seems so cold, weren't they best friends? How could she ask Sam to help Lyle cover up her best friend's murder, at the scene? These characters are the ones I like the least, I could do under The Dome without that stoeyline..
ReplyDeleteThis is the first episode I've enjoyed since the show came back, lately I've been watching it as background noise on my TV while I do something else on my computer. I wish they'd forego the CoW format to focus on the mythology...
ReplyDelete