Under the Dome - Recap: One Alice Too Many

The matter at the heart of all this is the life-and-death contrast between the birth of Alice, the daughter of Julia's neighbor, Harriet, and the death of Alice (Samantha Mathis), Norrie's mother, who delivered the baby and served as its namesake. On one hand, there's a genuine issue in play over how this child is going to be safely delivered in a town that's short on medical supplies and technology; on the other hand, there's an emotional core being explored, as Norrie (Mackenzie Lintz) and Carolyn (Aisha Hinds) have to come to grips with the loss of a woman they loved beyond measure. This might actually count as the first genuinely emotionally impactful death of the series. Alice wasn't exactly a vital character or anything, or even anyone about whom we knew all that much. I also can't imagine any viewer formed much of an attachment to her. But when Norrie started to break down, it was hard not to wish, for her sake, at least, that Alice would magically pull through somehow. Yet that isn't the kind of show this is, and it's better for it. Say what you will about the plausibility of an entire town being inexplicably trapped under a giant dome, but the town of Chester's Mill is finally starting to react like a town that's inexplicably trapped under a giant dome. And it makes for some pretty decent TV, for the most part.

So it's the morning after, and Julia (Rachelle Lefevre) and Barbie (Mike Vogel) are awoken by Julia's pregnant neighbor, Harriet, who asks to borrow some yogurt, only to then go into labor once she touches the dome after it projects to her the image of her long-deployed sailor husband. Julia takes Harriet to Alice, and just like that, we've got ourselves another dramatic standard: the labor episode, complete with the umbilical cord getting wrapped around the baby's neck. Alice is still recovering following her close call due to her lack of insulin. She insists to Carolyn that she's fine, and the two even share a romantic dance to "Wait" by M83, which sort of becomes their theme in this episode. However, while Alice is good to go for the delivery of the child, with Barbie even rallying Harriet with some genuinely inspiring words about proving that she's ready to "show up" for this child, things quickly go sour once Alice starts suffering from her lack of insulin again. But she insists on completing the delivery, and successfully brings Harriet through labor with a safe, healthy baby girl. In her honor, Harriet names the girl "Alice," in one of the episode's most touching little moments (if only for Samantha Mathis's perfect reaction). Yet the sweetness pretty much ends then and there, as Alice has a heart attack from the toll the lack of insulin has taken on her body. And so begins the slow, grim march towards death.

Unfortunately, Norrie finds out about her mother's condition last, as she's been roaming town with Joe (Colin Ford), who's intent on finding the "nucleus" of the dome. Their search turns up a peculiar finding: a mini-dome at the center of the dome. This tiny dome houses what looks to be some sort of black egg, but their attempts to interact with it are as useless as their earlier attempts to get the dome to react to them again (attempts which include making out on the dome, because teenagers...). At a loss, they return to Joe's house, where he's finally reunited with Angie (Britt Robertson), yet with the good comes the bad, as Norrie learns about her mother, and only has enough time to share a last moment with her, promising to be brave for herself and for Carolyn. Alice passes away, and Norrie takes out her frustrations on the dome, demanding to know what it wants from her as she crumbles in tears. Little do they know, in the middle of the woods, the egg at the center of the tiny dome sparks to life, glowing at the top. What does it all mean? No idea, but for once, the town stuff manages to be as interesting as the mystery of the dome itself...

For one, there's Junior (Alexander Koch), who's upset after getting kicked out of the house by his father for what he did to Angie. To make matters more complicated, he's now on a singular mission to take down the Dundee Brothers. Not for murdering Rose last week, no. Linda (Natalie Martinez) lets slip that the brothers tried to rape Angie, which sets off Junior's murderous impulses. They successfully track down the brothers and corner them, and it seems that Junior is actually going to listen to Linda's earlier advice about doing things by the book. "We aren't vigilantes," she tells Junior after he expresses the desire to stomp the brothers' heads in. They are about to handcuff the brothers when they wriggle free. Junior gives chase, and it ends about as well for the Dundee brothers as you might expect it to, given that they're being chased by a madman with a high-powered assault rifle. Which is to say, it doesn't end well for them at all. Junior has now escalated to cold-blooded murder, and Linda has to deal with having inadvertently caused it by deputizing someone whose character she woefully misjudged (although who knows? Maybe Junior did have a good heart once, but the dome has made him crazy).

At the very least, Junior isn't the only member of the Rennie clan exacting vigilante justice. When Big Jim (Dean Norris) clashes with Ollie (Leon Rippy) after the farmer (who controls the town's water supply) takes over his propane reserves, the car salesman decides to fight back. It's a bit jarring to see Big Jim placed in a position of vulnerability and weakness, such as when Ollie's guard lays a beating on him and sends him scampering away in his truck. However, it's all a setup for the conclusion, where Big Jim gets good and drunk and fights back against the guard by firing at the truck full of propane tanks. To say the explosion is huge would be an understatement. Yet to say that, for once, the storylines of the respective Rennies finally delivered wouldn't be much of an understatement, in this case.

"Imperfect Circles" is uneven in places, dedicating too much time to storylines that feel like one-off additions, while devoting too little time to more important developments, such as the war between Big Jim and Ollie for control of the town. But the aspects of the episode that worked did so in a big way, enough for me to feel as though time was well-invested here. And that's encouraging.