TV Review: Under the Dome 2×03 “Force Majeure”

Among all the drama, action, betrayals and totally inane persons that presented themselves, what truly stuck out of this episode was the title “Force Majeure”. It intrigued me so much that I decided to do a little research on its meaning and I found that it had close relations to the phrase, “Act of God”. For those of you who don’t know (or not feeling up to Googling it), an Act of God is considered as anything or event that is outside of human control such as natural disasters. In the third episode of Under the Dome, the residents of Chester’s Mill experience a Force Majeure which came in the form of “blood rain” and had the entire town under downfall from a red acidic liquid.

So the usual drama ensues as Big Jim and the rest of the crew try to figure out how to stop the latest incident under the dome. Religion and Science come head to head when Rebecca, the science teacher, claims that the whole incident can be explained scientifically while Lyle the Barber believes that there is a greater being that is controlling the events or that maybe the dome is truly alive. From what I’ve seen so far, I fully agree with Lyle. Big Jim on the other hand, believes that the dome is testing him (like always he feels that everything is about him).

Things also get rocky for the couples in the town as Barbie and Julia find every little thing to argue about. First, I thought Barbie was just jealous that Julia was making friends with a guy who just seemed to materialize out of nowhere but then he started to pick at nearly everything she does. Julia takes in a girl who nearly drowned in the lake? An argument ensues about taking in strangers (still she was going through Barbie’s stuff in the beginning of the show). It doesn’t help that when the “blood rain” starts to affecting unaware people, the couple partner with Sam to save them.

Rebecca sends Joe and Norrie on an excursion to find a Windmill template to generate electricity for the town and Dome Girl tags along. Since Dome Girl has come to town, Norrie and Joe (more Norrie) have been at each other’s necks as Norrie gets jealous about Dome Girl supposed advances at Joe.

Meanwhile, Junior is worried that during his blackout he might have killed Angie and decides to visit his uncle for some advice. Sam tells him that when Junior’s mother used to have blackouts she’d go back to where she was before the blackout and would remember snippets of what happened. So Junior finds himself at the high school looking for his memories. He meets up on the Pink Stars Group who get stuck in the school in the school because of the “blood rain” and who suddenly realize that they have internet connection.

Thanks to this mysterious connection, Junior gets an email from a person named “hounds of diana” that leads to a site which has a recorded message from his mother. Unfortunately, it’s revealed that Lyle is Junior’s Mom’s ex boyfriend and also the one who might have information about Junior’s not-so-dead mother.

We meet Lyle who, at first, seems to be normal at first. Then he kidnaps Rebecca after hijacking Big Jim’s car and leaving him for dead in the acidic downpour. Apparently, Rebecca doesn’t believe that the events happening means that the dome is alive or that there are any unseen forces dictating their fate but that she can stop the events happening by using science. This doesn’t tickle Lyle’s fancy and he proceeds to torture Rebecca with the “blood rain”.

Fortunately, Julia, Barbie and Sam come to Big Jim’s rescue and they take him inside the ambulance and back to the safety of the café. However, right as Junior rejoins the adults, Julia and Barbie try to put the pieces together and find out where Rebecca is. When they do, they burst into the abandoned warehouse (why is it always an abandoned warehouse?) and try to get Lyle to lower his weapon. When Julia talks Lyle out of blowing off Rebecca’s head, Rebecca pays Lyle back by throwing the acidic liquid in Lyle’s face. Then crazy Lyle gets hauled off to jail.

With Rebecca free, the group is able to cleanse the lake of all the impurities and the “blood rain” immediately stops falling. Then Big Jim and Rebecca do a census of Chester’s Mill and later we find out that it’s because the two are planning to “reduce the population” since there isn’t enough resources left for the entire town. When they tell Julia and Barbie about the plan, Julia is livid and can’t believe that Rebecca plans to “thin the herd” so that quarter of the residents can live. Unfortunately, this is just another excuse for Barbie and Julia to have another fight as Barbie doesn’t agree with Julia.

Meanwhile, Junior monitors the jail’s security cam and watches as his uncle pays Lyle a visit and they have a strange discussion about some literally buried secret that should’ve stayed buried. Lyle answers that force majeure caused their “contract” to become null. Obviously, the two know way more about what’s going on than anybody in the town. Junior goes and talks to Lyle and Lyle offers him a deal he can’t really refuse.

The most interesting thing happens at the end of the episode. The internet cuts off and Joe, Norrie and Dome Girl go in search of what might be the problem. When the signal gets stronger as they near the locker where Joe’s sister was murdered Dome Girl tries to comfort Joe but only gets aggression from Norrie as she reinstates her position as Joe’s girlfriend. While Joe and Norrie are talking things out, Dome Girl goes over by the bloodied locker and puts it a combination that opens the locker. And I was like “Finally! Finally I will get to see what’s inside the locker! I’ll get to see what Angie saw that she wasn’t supposed to see”. Yet, when Joe approaches the locker and looks inside….he sees nothing. Yup. Absolutely nothing. The locker is completely empty. On top of that, the group loses their internet connection. Instead of taking it out on Dome Girl as Norrie would prefer, Joe goes through past year books to find the owner of the locker that Dome Girl opened. And they figure out that dome girl used to go to the same high school as Joe…in the 80’s.

Creepy much? Hell yeah! Still, if they continue the rest of the episodes like this, I just might stick around to watch them.

Rating: 7/10