Under the Dome 1.2: Adrenalin and Seepage

Here's what we learn in Under the Dome 1.2:

• A little water can seep into the dome, as through a sieve - this will no doubt play some lifesaving or life-threatening role as the series continues.
• The radio station inside the dome can sometimes pick up what's being said about the dome on the outside.  This tells the people in the dome that they're indeed in a dome - and, as journalist Julia realizes, that the military are not responsible for the dome.  Well, at least not the military right outside the dome, anyway.
• Dale not only buried Julia's husband but killed him.  But we still don't know why.

Otherwise, everything continues to ratchet up, as a good story should.  Julia wisecracks to Dale, when he suggests that she strip naked to attract the attention of people outside the dome, that that's just what she did an hour before, to no avail.   He looks regretful not only that it didn't work, but that he wasn't there to see the attempt - assuming Julia wasn't joking.

Dale's motives for being in town continue to be unclear.  But he's with Julia as one of the most effective dome denizens in saving lives, rallying the people, and the like.  Big Jim also is an ethically complex character.  He runs away from a burning house with the reverend inside - I thought because he wanted the reverend to perish to keep secrets safe - but he comes back with a bulldozer to save the day.  This moral ambiguity of the two major male characters makes for a tense and provocative story.

The action is also continuing at a breakneck pace - literally breakneck, as in death of important characters - which also keeps us on the edge of our seats.   The sheriff, played by Jeff Fahey - who managed to outwit death so long as the irascible pilot on Lost - dies at the beginning of this episode.   As does one of his deputies at the end.   This kind of character deletion is adrenaline for story telling, because it tells us no one is safe.

Lots of other good subplots under the dome, and we still don't much about outside the dome, though I know I'll be watching from that vantage point next week.

See also Under the Dome: Superior Summer Science Fiction

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