Under the Dome

Under the Dome

Episode 6: The Endless Thirst

By: Carlos Uribe

Under the Dome is a series about a small town that is trapped under a literal dome.

Spoilers Ahoy!

I have one thing to say to Under the Dome: I am sick and tired of the whole Angie plot. I got sick of her being stuck in the bomb shelter and I'm more tired of her having to run away from Junior. I just want her to be free. I want to be able to move on from this story. I feel so passionately about this that I almost stopped watching this show multiple times because of this. A television show should be eliciting strong emotions from it's viewers but none of them should ever be to turn them away from watching the show. I really hope that Angie just takes Big Jim's offer at the end of the episode. It's actually a pretty good one considering the world that their town is currently operating in. Her silence in exchange for Junior leaving her alone and anything her family needs to survive? The event might have traumatized her. It's understandable why she would be reluctant to take it. She would want Junior to be brought to justice. She would want the truth to be out there. At the same time, I don't care. I just want this plot to be behind the show so that it can move on. Angie being a constant victim has started to constantly drag the whole show down. I'm actually finding myself enjoying Under the Dome until Angie pops up on the screen. My enjoyment turns into rage because she's not safe. I don't even like the character that much-it's the plot that I despise. If this plot doesn't end soon then I very well might stop watching this show. Which is odd, really, that such a small part of the show makes me so angry but I think it's because we're spending so much time dealing with a character who can't be anything but a victim. She can try her best to fight back but she keeps losing. It's just frustrating to see a victim continually fail to get away.

I liked the rest of the Endless Thirst a lot better. The main crisis of the week comes when Alice suffers a diabetic attack because she ran out of insulin. She runs into the middle of the road and a truck has to swerve to the side in order to avoid hitting her. The bad news is that he goes straight into the water tower. The town might have had enough water to survive for a while but suddenly they are out. They have a water shortage crisis that threatens to tear them apart. The people start to panic as they realize that the dome isn't just going to go away. It survived a missile attack, their starting to run out of resources, and they are afraid of the future. They start to lose it to the point where they are soon looting and rioting. The police force finds itself struggling to keep the law due to outdated riot gear and a diminished force. Things only get worse when the characters try to solve the water crisis. The lake turns out to be so badly polluted that they can't drink from it. It's definably a bad sign when your water tower is out and all the fish in the lake are dead. The good news is that Big Jim knows of a water well that could supply the town for a while. The bad news is that it belongs to a farmer who isn't willing to give it away for free. I'm not entirely sure why Big Jim doesn't just kill the farmer or force his way to the water but he's willing to keep things peaceful for now. Big Jim gives the farmer some propane to allow the town access to water. Only he's too late because the town has already started to riot. A riot that only gets settled when it starts to rain. Suddenly, people realize their not going to run out of water. Their not going to die of thirst. They calm down as they start to work together to collect the purified rainwater before it runs out.

The water crisis threatened to tear the town apart but that wasn't the only one as Alice threatens to die this week. She's in diabetic shock and she needs medicine or she's going to die. Which wouldn't be a problem except the insulin that the clinic is out of insulin. The only way to get Alice medicine is to go to one of the diabetics in the town and steal their medicine. Norrie and Joe decide to do just this. Their first attempt ends as a bust when the owner catches them with a rifle. They are able to steal one of the insulin shots from a diabetic kid but they aren't able to steal his whole stash. This allows them to cure Alice but what are they going to do when she suffers another attack? There is only so much medicine in the dome and it's starting to run dangerously low. Of course, that's not the only conclusion. What about that kid? What's going to happen to him? The town is getting dangerously close to losing all twenty-nine of their diabetics. There is a suggestion at the end of the episode that the dome is able to provide the town with what it needs to survive. It rains when they run short on water, it protects the town from the missile, and it's being treated as a character by Julia. It's doubtful that the dome will be able to solve their insulin shortage crisis without falling into over-the-top ridiculousness. This basically means that Alice's days on the show have to be limited if it wants to be as realistic as a show trapped under a dome can be.

The final “crisis” is that the radios are out as they are all picking a high-pitched noise transmission. This is where Dodee becomes useful as she's able to use her engineering skills to use a contraption to track down the origin of the signal. Julia decides to follow along because a central character has to be involved in this plot. It takes them a while but their eventually able to discover that the source are the two teenagers: Norrie and Joe. The two are able to take it in surprising stride but I guess it's easy to accept when you've had seizures the times you've touched. The two kissed, messed up the radio transmission feeds, but their able to solve it when they touch the dome. It literally makes no sense and I'm wondering if the writers are actually going to be able to explain this. I guess it depends on what their connection to the dome is but it seems like their making up their rules with them as they see fit. They also seem to drop them when the characters have figured it out. Why were they having seizures until they kissed? Why did this cause a radio transmission problem? Why did this get solved when they touched the dome? Their big questions that I'm interested in answering. Oh, and Julia decides to wisely keep this a secret. I'm pretty sure that the rioting town would overreact in figuring out that the two teens are connected to the dome.

The Endless Thirst is a largely good episode of Under the Dome that continues the show's upward trajectory of quality. The crisis of the week was strong while providing a solid explanation for their water sources. A well and the rain purifies the polluted lake. The medicine crisis is temporarily solved but there's an impending sense of doom when it comes to diabetics. The noise transmission issue is starting to muddle up the mythology but I'm interested to know the answers to the questions it raises. The only thing I hated? Angie's continual victimization. Gah, let's just get that over with so I can enjoy the rest of the show.

Other Notes:

Under the Dome has been renewed for a second season.

Sadly Rose died.