Barbie and Sam form the most unlikely of spelunking teams, as they journey under Chester’s Mill while a dust storm terrorizes the town up above.
On the Wrong Side
Junior and Sam go adventuring into the creepy basement tunnel behind the bloody handprint locker. Junior is chasing after Lyle, with the intent to kill him for killing Angie, when the man who actually killed Angie, good ol’ Uncle Sam, is right behind him, trying to talk him out of killing Lyle.
Julia finds Poor Sad Melanie sitting alone at the Sweetbriar, and she confesses that she stupidly kissed Joe, and now he and Norrie are mad at her, even though she was just trying to be normal. Julia tells her she dropped the egg Melanie might be tied to in the lake right before she found her, and that she thinks the dome brought her back for a reason. Meanwhile, Joe and Norrie are still fighting about the kiss, and when he tells her again that he loves her, she says too bad. Joe is upset and storms off, saying he’s not going to stay there anymore.
Big Jim tries to intimidate Julia into letting him back in charge, but she stands her ground, and says she’s going to let the town start voting again. Jim thinks that’s a stupid idea, saying the town needs to be led. Jim tries to talk Barbie into talking her out of it, but Barbie tells him that every time he’s given Jim the benefit of the doubt, it’s bitten him in the ass. Then Rebecca calls Barbie to tell him Junior and Sam have gone below the school, and he drives off.
He catches up to Sam and Junior, who are both incredibly jumpy and almost shoot him. Barbie tells Sam it’s been a while since he’s seen him, but Sam claims he’s been busy. Just then, Junior sees his mom’s journal standing innocently against a pole and goes to grab for it, hitting a trip wire, which sets off a bomb that makes part of the tunnel collapse. Barbie shoves Junior out of the way, but it looks like he’s going to get crushed until Sam dives at him, shoving him out of the way. Unfortunately, they’re now both stuck together on the wrong side of the collapse.
Taking Action
Both men are okay, thanks to Sam, though Barbie’s head is bleeding. They can’t get back the way the came, so they head off down the tunnel, discussing whether or not Lyle’s a killer. Sam claims he hasn’t seen him in years, but given his recent behavior, he just might have killed. He’s getting sick of Barbie’s interrogation, so he decides they should split up.
The wacky weather has now fried the topsoil, creating a dust storm. Eventually, the dust will clog the walls of the dome, until no air can get in and everyone suffocates. Big Jim’s ready to take action, but Julia’s worried about Barbie and Sam. She asks Rebecca to find maps of the underground tunnels from the town’s cement factory, to see if they might have ended up there.
Junior realizes that Lyle might have made it out of the tunnel, and is still after the Four Hands. He and Melanie head out to check on Joe and Norrie. On the way, Melanie creepily tells Junior he looks so much like Sam did when he was younger. When they make it to the house, she tells him what his mother was like when she was young, and they share a moment in which Junior is about to tell her Pauline is still alive, but Norrie interrupts, asking if she hits on literally everyone. She’s upset that Joe has left, and when Junior tells her he might be in danger, they all head out to look for him.
Big Jim tries to talk the town into taking action to stop the storm, but they would rather wait and see what Julia wants to do. But when an asthmatic dude comes back into the diner choking and almost dying from the dust, they decide to follow big Jim and build a windmill.
Even though they went separate ways, Sam comes up behind Barbie and almost attacks him. They’re both very jumpy and suspicious. Barbie asks him where he was the night Angie dies, and Sam claims he was looking for Melanie. Barbie is questioning him about knowing who Melanie was when he suddenly falls off a sudden cliff, only to be pulled back up by Sam. They see a lantern and pack they assume is Lyle’s, but if he went over the cliff, he’s likely gone forever.
The Only Way Out
The other Three Hands find Joe reminiscing about Angie, saying she’s out now, and the only way any of them are going to escape the dome is death. Melanie believes the dome chose them all for something, and now they have to figure it out, which is what Angie would have wanted them to do. They decide to start their search at the lake.
Barbie throws a rock to see how far down the tunnel goes, and it never hits anything. Sam suggests that maybe the dome doesn’t go down this far, but Barbie still doesn’t trust him. They both think the other knows more than he’s saying. Sam claims the dome only brings pain, and that he thought he was crazy when he first saw Melanie. Barbie asks him what happened that night years ago, and he claims Pauline convinced him to help cover for Lyle, and he left the love of his life in a hole like garbage, and now she’s back.
The maps show there’s no cement factory tunnels anywhere near the school, so the only way to rescue Barbie and Sam is to blow up the blockage. Julia still doesn’t trust Rebecca and doesn’t like this plan. When Julia and Rebecca are preparing explosives to blow up the blockage, they bond over ending up in Chester’s Mill, in spite of having bigger and better plans originally. Julia calls one more time to tell the guys to get out of the way of the blast, tells Rebecca she trusts her, and they light the fuse.
Big Jim leads the town in hoisting up a windmill and misting water to ground the soil, which works. When Andrea congratulates him on a job well done, he makes sure to remind everyone that Julia did nothing to help, because she was only concerned with her puppy love.
The New Four Hands are on a boat in the middle of the lake, and Melanie can sense that the egg is waiting for them. They decide to touch hands, and the egg rises up to the surface, bathing them in pink light.
A Leap of Faith
Sam is bemoaning all the misery that the dome has brought him, and Barbie tells him to focus on the good things that make life worth living: for him, Julia. Sam claims if he could change one thing in his life, it would be to save Melanie, because he’s still haunted by her death. Barbie can relate, because he’s killed a bunch of people. They’re both haunted by the ghosts of their pasts, and just when they finally seem to be getting along, Barbie catches a glimpse of the fingernail scratches on Sam’s shoulder.
Barbie realizes Sam killed Angie, and while he initially tries to defend himself, he eventually explains that the dome made him do it. His plan is to kill all Four Hands, even Junior, so the dome will come down and everyone will be saved. After that, he says he’ll kill himself, or Barbie can kill him, and he promises he won’t haunt him. However, Barbie find it more appropriate if Junior gets to punish him for killing his love.
The Four Hands are safely locked up at home with the egg. Norrie and Joe make up, and Norrie tells him she loves him. They place the egg on a pillow, and when they all touch it, the pink stars shoot out and form the obelisk Junior saw in his Mom dream. Melanie says she recognizes it from her old town of Zenith.
Sam is backing up toward the edge of the cliff, and hands Barbie the journal, telling him he needs to finish his work. He says once Barbie has to watch Julia die, he’ll kill those kids himself, before he falls back into the abyss. Julia runs in and hugs Barbie, who tells him Sam is gone.
Under The Dome season 2, episode 7, “Going Home,” airs Monday, Aug 11 at 10 p.m. on CBS.
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