In “Speak of the Devil” Big Jim makes his move against Max and Barbie; Barbie surrenders himself as Big Jim commits more murder in “Exigent Circumstances”; for whom will it be “Curtains” in the finale?
Once again, Under the Dome starts something which it isn’t willing to finish: Max is brought in as some sort of mastermind, but she’s got rid of in episode 11 almost as quickly as she appears out of nowhere. Meanwhile evidence apparently mounts against Barbie – who of course is responsible for at least one death – and Big Jim gets the chance to exercise the power he’s been after from the start, something which the book dealt with much earlier in proceedings than the TV version has. Linda, in particular, seems to turn very easily against Barbie!
The penultimate episode is better paced than most instalments of the series: there are a lot of things that need to be in place for the end of the season, and virtually every scene progresses the plot. There’s the inevitable Under the Dome continuity cock-up though: Big Jim declared a state of emergency at the end of the previous episode without any argument… when he does the same in this, it seems as if it’s the first time, and he gets backchat from Linda.
Unfortunately that pacing isn’t maintained in the final episode, which treads water a bit too much – one 90 minute episode would probably have sufficed to cover everything. Samantha Mathis makes a brief appearance representing the aliens that have created the dome but otherwise we really don’t get any more answers: loads more questions, but not enough answers.
Verdict: Everything feels stretched out more than it needs to be.
Ep 11: Speak of the Devil: 5/10
Ep 12: Exigent Circumstances: 6/10
Ep 13: Curtains: 5/10
Paul Simpson
Our review of the Under the Dome box set will be posted on Monday 18th November
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