It’s growing dangerously cold in Chester’s Mill, and everyone’s fighting to stay alive as they deal with the aftermath of Big Jim’s betrayal and the egg’s sacrifice.
‘I’ll kill him’
Men in biohazard suits are in the Zenith playground, where the egg has landed. When one guy tries to pick it up with tongs, it freaks out and throws him backwards.
But the egg’s not the only one freaking out, as Melanie is screaming as Junior and Sam try to get her some help. Rebecca tells them to bring her to the high school, where they’re setting up a triage center after the earthquake.
Pauline is reprimanding Jim for dropping the egg, but he says he was just trying to help her, because she was upset. Julia and Barbie confront Jim, telling him that the passage to Zenith is now closed, and they’re all stuck there.
Rebecca’s all business, setting up a triage center in the school to attend to those wounded in the earthquake. She’s worried about the dropping temperatures, saying she’s not sure how many people might freeze to death overnight.
Joe, Norrie, and Hunter go to the edge of the dome to see if dropping the egg had any effect on it. Well it did, because it’s starting to freeze over, and once Joe starts to touch it, it begins to revolve. The bad news is, his hand is stuck, and is being pulled down to the ground. They manage to pull it off, a little bloody, before it’s too late (Joe’s poor hand has taken quite the beating this season!)
When they make it back to the clinic, they find Melanie unconscious, and Norrie blames herself for dropping the egg. But Barbie assures her it was Jim’s fault, and he’ll kill him if he goes near her again.
‘Finish what we started’
Things come to a head between Pauline and Jim. She blames his actions on narcissism, and he says Lyle was her lapdog. Pauline blames him for the fact that Lyle may never come back now, and the dome had a plan for him. But let’s not forget that the dome has a plan for Jim, too, because he won’t let anyone else forget it. Pauline came back to her rescue her son, but even that didn’t work, because Jim loves her too much. (Sorry?)
Pauline sits down to have a nice heart-to-heart with her once-dead friend Melanie, only to find that Melanie still sort-of blames her for sort-of leaving her for dead that one time. But they make up, and Pauline confesses that she’s back to finish what they started 25 years ago. Just then, Melanie has some sort of attack and passes out, with a barely any pulse.
Julia and Barbie set off in the ambulance to get food from the Sweetbriar, but the ambulance hits a patch of ice and flips over. Julia ends up stuck with a metal rod through her leg, and Barbie won’t leave her. Luckily, he knows how to make candles out of petroleum jelly, so they’ll be fine as long as they can keep the cold air out. Famous last words, as their cuddles are interrupted by the ambulance window shattering on them.
Hunter shows up at the school with a frostbitten hand, asking Norrie and Joe a lot of questions about the egg. Joe gets suspicious, and checks Hunter’s bag, finding texts and notes about the egg. The jig is up, Hunter. In the meantime, Hunter seems to be cozying up to a distraught Norrie for information.
‘The end is coming’
Barbie has the genius idea of letting Julia nearly die of hypothermia, just enough so that her heart stops pumping, so when he pulls the metal rod out of her leg, she won’t bleed to death if it’s hit an artery. So once she loses consciousness, he tightens the belt around her leg and pulls out the rod, before hero-carrying her to safety.
When they get to the Sweetbriar, he places her right in front of the open oven door and gives her CPR. When she’s slow to come around, he says, “I came back for you, now come back for me!” She does, and when he loosens the belt around her leg, there’s no blood spurt, which apparently means there’s no reason to be at all concerned about the giant gaping wound in her leg.
Jim goes out hunting for replacement fuel for the school’s generator, which has run out, and when he’s checking some boats by the lake, he finds a struggling Lyle in the water, calling for him. Jim hesitates for a moment, before throwing him a buoy and dragging him in. Lyle says he saw the whole world in flames, and Jim better start preparing for the end of times. Jim doesn’t have to prepare, he knows he wants to spend it with his family.
‘It’s starting’
Jim and Pauline reminisce about Jim’s football glory days, and he makes it clear that everything he’s ever done, he’s done for the family, and he will continue to do whatever he needs to do to keep his family safe.
The good news is, the temperature’s going up, the bad news is, so is the barometric pressure, which is getting higher than usual. Rebecca’s still concerned.
Just after they discover this, Joe and Norrie notice that Hunter’s gone, and when Joe reveals what he’s found, they decide to go after him. They find him on the edge of the dome, exchanging messages about the egg. When they confront him, he shows them that he’s told them to leave the egg alone.
Just then, the dome makes a terrible noise, and stops spinning. But the fun ain’t over yet, because as Melanie wakes in her cot, saying, “It’s starting,” the dome starts contracting. Uh oh.
Under The Dome season 2, episode 12, “Turn,” airs next Monday, September 15 at 8 p.m. on CBS.