The Dome Is Good At Breeding Caterpillars, Bad At Directing Cops Toward Murderers

Angie McAlister, 1993ish-2013 I GUESS???

Big Jim goes to the jail -- in which Junior has taken the principled stance of sleeping rather than spend a second under his father's roof -- and sends Junior to investigate something or other at the school, and Junior goes because I guess his principles only extend so far and/or he has nothing else to do since he's trapped under a Dome. When he gets there, he is greeted by a butterfly that happens to graze his cheek and leave blood on it, and he soon sees why: dead Angie is covered in butterflies, which are mostly but not entirely concealing the blood she is also covered in. I guess that wasn't a misdirect at the end of the last episode? Although lots of people have come back from the dead to deliver final messages so who knows if this is it for Angie? Whatever: goodbye for now, Angie. You're continuing to work at a diner past the point where it makes any sense at all to do so with the angels now.

Jimsus Christ Superstar

Speaking of the somehow-still-operational diner, Big Jim is manning the counter because Angie never showed up (seems like he could just...not, but maybe he's bored too), pouring coffee for some broad (even though like four scenes ago a post-coital Julia was purring to Barbie about how much she's going to miss coffee when it runs out, which it seemed was going to be pretty soon) who starts kissing his ass for his having "ended all that magnetism business." Big Jim magnanimously credits "the good Lord," but this lady's like, NO, YOU. At this point, Big Jim seems weirded out to be treated as the messiah of Chester's Mill -- given that, you know, he's killed a lot of people -- but that won't last.

The Very Hungry Caterpillars

Remember the shitload of butterflies that was licking all the blood off Angie's corpse or something? And that Drownsie knocked off a tree when she was running through the woods in the cold open? And that were coating Julia's window when she took a break from Barbie-fucking? That I didn't mention until now? Well, they didn't come from nowhere. Rebecca has also spotted caterpillars infesting her vegetable garden and she's pretty sure they're going to decimate whatever crops there are under the Dome -- and yes, this is the wrong time of year for them to breed and yes, caterpillars normally just eat milkweed, but she will soon offer an explanation for that: "I think the magnetism must have altered their eating patterns." FUCKING DUH, DOUBTERS!!! Anyway, she doesn't have much time to share her concerns with Big Jim before Junior shows up to report that Angie's dead, so if Rebecca's going to solve this one, it's going to have to be on her own. I'm sure she won't do anything too crazy!

I'm Not Sure I Agree With You 100% On Your Police Work, There, LITERALLY EVERYBODY

Alert Type: Failed Investigation Alert.

Issue: Angie's been murdered.

Complicating Factors: EVERYONE TRYING TO SOLVE HER MURDER IS A GODDAMNED MORON. Guys, I'm going to shorthand this the best I can because it is, for real, SO STUPID. Junior brings Big Jim, Barbie, and Phil back to the school to assess the situation. Barbie notices Angie's bloody handprint on the locker she was looking into right before she was killed, but then tries the lock and, when it doesn't open, is basically like, OH WELL, PROBABLY WASN'T IMPORTANT ANYWAY. Instead, everyone focuses on one bloody footprint, which somehow everyone agrees definitely belongs to the shoe of a young girl. So when Norrie and Joe happen upon Drownsie in the woods (the kids are kissing/being showered by dead butterflies falling out of a tree) and bring her back to town and THEN hear about Angie's murder, it takes basically no time for Norrie to start throwing suspicion at Drownsie because she heard (from whom? We never find out) about the footprint. So while the Rennies are busy suspecting one another -- Jr.'s theory being that Big Jim killed Angie before she could kill him; Big Jim's that Junior does have a history of violence toward Angie (we will also soon learn that Junior got drunk and blacked out the night before, I guess to blot out bad memories of his mother from that fantasy/dimensional meetup they had?, so he doesn't know WHAT he was doing at the time Angie was killed) -- the rest of the town basically forms a posse to accuse Drownsie, pretty much solely (heh) on the basis of the footprint. Phil the fucking idiot apparently even drives her to the police station to lock her up as though making sure this ninety-pound girl is put in a holding cell is a good use of THE TINY AMOUNT OF FUEL THAT MUST BE REMAINING AT THIS POINT.

Resolution: Sam and Julia -- the latter of whom has a vested interest in Drownsie's safety since Sam showed her Pauline's twenty-year-old sketch of Drownsie -- examine Angie's body and find a bruise on her arm that's suggestive of her having been grabbed by a man with man-sized hands, and race to the police station just in time to stop Joe from shooting Drownsie.

Spoiler: Big Jim is maaaaaaaybe on to something.

Fire, Bugs

Barbie and Big Jim roll up at a field Rebecca's just finished torching with a flamethrower or something to kill all the caterpillars (what put out the fire before it could spread further than she wanted? MOVING ON), but as much fun as she apparently had UNILATERALLY committing this ARSON, if her calculations are correct it's not going to be enough to combat the infestation. There's GOT to be a BETTER WAY!

Barbie Is Icarus, The Dome Is The Sun, This Is Silly

Alert Type: Flying Ace Alert.

Issue: Someone needs to drop pesticide on the caterpillar-infested fields.

Complicating Factors: Big Jim and Barbie are having a penis contest over who gets to do it; the plane Big Jim brings them to hasn't been used in a while (judging by the very party-store "cobwebs" the prop master draped on it); the fields are under a Dome.

Resolution: Barbie enlists Rebecca to lobby Big Jim and convince him to let Barbie fly the plane, and then surprises both of them by just waiting for them to look away and taking off himself. Then, against the advice of those on the ground directing him via walkie-talkie because even though the Dome fried all the generators in town (speaking of which then what made the coffee at the diner?) the walkies are totally fine, Barbie pushes too far, almost runs out of fuel, and grazes a wing against the Dome. Fortunately, Big Jim actually did know what he was talking about planewise (thanks, long-ago drug runs!) and safely guides Barbie back to earth.

Spoiler: Bugs were a good start, but Rebecca's not done thinning herds.

In the aftermath of...stuff, Julia and Barbie establish that Barbie is already jealous of the time Julia's been spending with Sam! And they are starting to differ on the matter of the Dome and What It Means! Even though both are wary of Rebecca's mythmaking in support of Big Jim, Barbie trusts her because she knows sciencey stuff! But Julia's preeeeeeeeetty sure they should be looking to more mystical explanations as to what the Dome is/wants! "It does not care what happens to us down here," says Barbie! "I don't understand anything that's happening," says Julia in what should be THE TAGLINE FOR THIS WHOLE FUCKING SHOW!

Outside Angie's funeral, Rebecca takes a moment with Big Jim to be shitty about Angie's truancy and then, in front of Julia's inappropriately high dress slit, urge Big Jim to be a great leader to the town!

Directed by Norrie to find Joe, Barbie tracks him down at the diner! Joe is looking for a certain bracelet Angie would have wanted but that wasn't on her corpse! CHECK WITH THE BUTTERFLIES, BRO! Barbie gives him some wah-wah speech about regretting not having taken the chance to say goodbye, at some earlier point in his life, to someone or other! MOVING! They have a manly hug!

A despondent/drunk Junior kicks over a liquor bottle in his cell of self-recrimination and for some reason feels under his cot to find...THAT SELFSAME BRACELET!

Big Jim performs Angie's funeral, because who better than THE MAN SHE HAD VOWED TO MURDER! He blah blahs about pulling together in the face of tests from a power bigger than themselves: "What I want to know is, what do you have faith in?" "IT'S YOU, JIM," reply a bunch of townspeople in creepy unison! UH OH!

After the service, Rebecca stops Big Jim to say that Angie's death was "bittersweet" because it means she was "spared what's to come"! See, Rebecca's done some math and figured out that their resources can't stretch to support the entire remaining population of the town! "We can't all survive!" UH OH but on the other hand FUCKING DUH!

Sam is awoken in the middle of the night by a knock at his door! It's Junior! And he's got something to say! "I think I did it! I THINK I KILLED ANGIE!" I mean, OCCAM'S ABUSIVE, MISOGYNISTIC RAZOR, RIIIIIIIGHT?