Out Of The Dome And Into Some Kind Of Conspiracy Apparently?

Cards Against Humanity

Alert Type: Miracle Drug Alert.

Issue: After a night's sleep, Lyle has started repeating a new phrase -- "It's in the cards" -- and Pauline is desperate for Sam to help her figure out what it means, since she assumes it will offer her a road map toward getting Junior out of the Dome.

Complicating Factors: Lyle is crazy and thus not much help; now that Sam's out of Chester's Mill, he's looking to start a whole new life without looking back (given that in his old life of two days ago he had killed someone and tried to kill others, though he doesn't mention that part to Pauline).

Resolution: Conveniently, Pauline knows of a new experimental anti-crazy drug they're currently testing at this particular mental hospital, though when she tried to get Lyle included in the study, she was told he was not a good candidate, which is a pretty disrespectful way for the doctors in this place to treat their on-staff art therapist. Anyway, since Sam is an EMT, if they can get their hands on the drug, he can administer it to Lyle. So Pauline creates a fake emergency for the nurse stationed outside the drug lockup, and this nurse takes off leaving her "Key Card" on her desk as if such a thing wouldn't be ID she had to have on her person at all times, and by the way did I say "drug lockup"? Other than the barely secured door, anyone can get into these kitchen cabinets, so I don't even know why Sam bothered with the subterfuge of a lab coat.

(I know you can see locks in that image, but I promise there's no evidence that Sam has a key or that they are actually locked.) Anyway, they shoot up Lyle, who passes out, and then comes to completely lucid. Anyway, at first it's news to Lyle that he's out of the Dome, but then he remembers everything, and after just one dose of this drug! Suck a dick, L-DOPA!

Spoiler: This all has to do with Pauline's "art," because everything does.

You Wouldn't Hit A Guy With Glasses, Would You?

No One Has Talked About Email This Much Since You've Got Mail, I Mean Look Into Texting For Christ's Sake

Who called the meeting? Julia.

What's it about? She's got suspicions about the email Barbie sent, since it doesn't contain any information that proves it's actually from him, and she's lashing out at Joe for not being able to get a wifi signal back, like JULIA HAVE YOU NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION FOR THE PAST EIGHTEEN DAYS, IT'S KIND OF NOT JUST A MATTER OF HIM TURNING THE ROUTER OFF AND ON.

How'd it go? Fine, whatever. They're going to drop their version of a message in a bottle off the cliff and challenge Barbie to answer, because why not complicate the twice-in-almost-three-weeks feat of getting email into the Dome by demanding a follow-up? Shut up, Julia.

Sure, Why Not

You're Both Hacks

Situation: Nerd has told Barbie that Don changed the message Barbie wrote out for him to send Julia, adding a line telling her to bring the Egg with her to Zenith (in fairness to Don, maybe he just couldn't read Barbie's childlike scrawl), and in order to gain Barbie's trust, he will prove it.

What Makes It Awkward? Nerd does find his way to Don's incriminating outgoing mail -- which now has line breaks in it, btw...

...but that requires Barbie to break into Don's computer with a magical jump drive, and of course Don comes into his office and catches Barbie in the middle of this operation.

How is order restored? While Nerd, out in his car, copies the entire contents of Don's remarkably crackable computer (I guess he uses the same security consultant as Zenith Crazy House LLC), Barbie the alleged military genius can come up with no better distraction than starting a conversation about a photo of his mom. Don, you are bad at evil schemes.

People Who Might Hate Big Jim, The Newly Self-Appointed Chester's Mill Sheriff Because He Thinks The Dome Has Plans For Him, Enough To Wreck His Windmill And Set A Car Fire Under His Car Dealership Billboard

• Roger
• Tom
• Phil, who's apparently been alive this whole time even though this is the first we've heard of him since he got shot
• Terry
• Al
• Al Qaeda
• Walter White
• Tara Ariano
• The Rosenbergs
• Jeff Gillooly

The Nerds Are Not What They Seem

Don has decided to bring Barbie into the cone of silence with regard to Aktaion's connection to the Dome. Sure, why not. The message DID go to Julia, but not through Don's military connections. Aktaion got a government contract to monitor radiation levels around the Dome (sure, why not), and in the process found "a way" to make wifi work. "A way"? No further questions. Anyway, Aktaion let the military in on it, but kept a probably illegal "back door" in for themselves. Don took a big risk letting Barbie send that message to Julia, and they're about to take another big risk by sending another one! Via this guy who works for Don! OH MY GOD, NERD IS AN INSIDE MAN!!! The only surprising information in this scene is that Nerd's name is Hunter. That's not a nerd name, it's a lacrosse name! Those glasses probably aren't even real!

Those Microsoft Phones Are Really Something!

Julia has decided to test whether the message really came from Barbie by writing a note asking some bullshit about Melanie that only the three of them know, and attaching it to some bullshit tchotchke Big Jim used to give out to everyone who bought a car from him. The latter is allegedly supposed to prove that the note really came from Chester's Mill as though no car or car owner from the town ever left it, I MEAN JOE JUST FUCKING MENTIONED HIS PARENTS. As Julia's already said, she's fully ready to jump into the chasm if Barbie -- THE REAL BARBIE -- tells her to, so it's SURE A GOOD THING that the DOME-CREATED TUNNEL FAR UNDERGROUND gets cell reception! Joe gets the new message Barbie dictated, and since all the details in it -- about their first kiss -- are the opposite of the true circumstances, Julia figures out that (a) it really is Barbie, and (b) he's being monitored. PHEW GOOD THING SHE DIDN'T JUMP, I GUESS? I mean, if she had, she'd be out. So I don't really know how Barbie did her a favour here. Sure, his dad is sketchy, but who cares? Why would he fuck with Julia if she got out? She's nobody! UGH THIS SHOW.

Not ANOTHER Nerd!

Don't Drive For No Reason?

Even if the Dome is covering a PRETTY BIG area, I have to think it's not so big that it couldn't fairly easily be navigable by, say, BICYCLE, particularly if Julia would wear sensible shoes EVER. I understand that she's in a Prius but they do still need gas. And you know who's not in a Prius? FUCKING BIG JIM IN HIS PROWLER. It's called conservation, idiots, or did you learn nothing from the food débacle?! (Whatever: Big Jim has stopped Julia supposedly because she's important enough to warrant a walkie-talkie but actually to keep tabs on her and whatever's going on with Barbie and to scope out whether she's the one who's been fucking with all his great works, as if she even knows the windmill happened.)

Pig-Headed

Who called the meeting? Rebecca and Junior.

What's it about? Even though they are both extremely suspicious of Big Jim, he basically shanghaied them into helping him find the culprit who's been sabotaging his projects and they...went along with it? So they're talking to Tom Tilden, Pig Guy, to see if he's mad enough at Big Jim to have wrecked the windmill that outlived its usefulness one second after it started spinning.

How'd it go? Uncomfortable: Tom's still not crazy about Rebecca for raising suspicions about his pigs. Even though the virus fear was defused in that episode, everyone in town is still wary of eating meat from Tom's farm, because I guess when Andrea revealed her food stocks everyone decided they could afford to be really picky? And also, things have gotten so bad for Tom that he's already dismantling his whole operation in order to "feed [his] family," like what ARE the economics inside the Dome? Isn't everything barter now? If not, why not? And also Tom's situation has really declined this much in like FOUR DAYS?! SURE. WHY NOT. Whatever: the consensus from Rebecca and Junior's interviews is that everyone hates Big Jim, the end.

Julia waits for Barbie by the Dome! To pass the time, she yells at it!

Phil -- who has made a miraculous recovery from his GUNSHOT WOUND considering there are no medical supplies or doctors or even an EMT in Chester's Mill anymore and is apparently strong enough to have CRAWLED UP A TOWER TO TAKE DOWN A WINDMILL AND DESTROY IT AND ALSO TRANSPORT IT TO ANOTHER LOCATION WITHOUT BEING DISCOVERED AND ALSO IS DRUNK -- blames Big Jim for having gotten him fired as sheriff! He's cuffed Big Jim to the cell bars! And that's where they are when Rebecca and Junior come in and decide to...free Big Jim for some reason? After a fight, Phil ends up in the cell under BIG JIM's control! Phil whines that they're never getting out of the Dome alive! "Yeah, we all got problems," says Big Jim, which I guess is supposed to be a cool line!

Pauline and Sam have apparently taken a still-lucid Lyle to Pauline's house! Somehow Lyle still has all the postcards he had on him when he jumped off the cliff! They arrange them in the order he got them, which is not the order in which the prophesied events actually happened! Not sure why that matters! But there's one more postcard that Pauline didn't have a chance to send before the Dome came down! THE RED DOOR! They need to find out what it is and what it means!!!

Big Jim leaves the town hall and sees a helicopter or plane or something, flying around with a searchlight!

Julia is still waiting after dark when she sees Barbie creeping toward her! He's brought something to write (backwards, which he is suspiciously good at) that it's "NOT SAFE OUT HERE"! But before they can catch up more than that, Barbie's getting apprehended by like half a dozen goons!

AND BIG JIM SAW THE WHOLE THING! HEY MONARCH JULIA, MAYBE TELL BIG JIM ABOUT HOW BARBIE GOT OUT, LET HIM GO, AND SOLVE ABOUT 88% OF THE TOWN'S PROBLEMS?!